1983 BMW R100RS Adding Electric Accessories and Farkles

The word “farkles” refers to add-ons and upgrades. I’m adding the following to the electrical system.

  • Eastern Beaver PC-8 Auxiliary Fuse Box And Circuits. I installed the Eastern Beaver PC-8 Auxiliary Fuse Box. This provides eight independent circuits, six fused and two non-fused direct to the battery. This eliminates a nest of wires, fuses and relays when I add the various electrical accessories. All the fuses are in one box and one relay switches power on to the six fused circuits.
Eastern Beaver Wiring Harness

Eastern Beaver Wiring Harness

Eastern Beaver PC-8 Auxiliary Fuse Box Components

Eastern Beaver PC-8 Auxiliary Fuse Box Components

  • Heated Grips With 1988+ Wiring. I have the pre-1988 heated grips. The switch for them is no longer available so I will install the later (1988+) two position switch and new wiring between the switch and the heated grip pigtails. The wiring sub-harness contains a resistor inside that provides LOW/HIGH heating in the grips.
    61 31 1 459 234  SWITCH, HEATED HANDLEBAR GRIPS L=700MM
    61 12 1 459 263  WIRING HEATED HANDLES (Sub-harness)

    The switch is smaller than the rectangular holes in the dashboard so I fabricated an adapter to hold the switch out of the plug used to fill the empty hole (part# 32 71 1 236 886).

    Dashboard Rectangular Blank Hole Plug

    Dashboard Rectangular Blank Hole Plug

    High-Off-Low Switch Installed In Dash

    High-Off-Low Switch Installed In Dash

  • Auxiliary LED Lights. To increase my visibility I add two spot bean 900 lumen LED auxiliary lights from Super Bright LEDs. I got the 10 degree beam for the left and the 30 degree beam for the right so at night it will help illuminate the side of the road. I mount them to the rear view mirror brackets and wire them into the headlight power so they are on with the low and high beam.
Super Bright LED Spot Beam (900 Lumens @ 10 Watts)

Super Bright LED Spot Beam (900 Lumens @ 10 Watts)

  • Garmin GPS Handlebar Mount With Power. I have a Garmin zūmo® 396 LMT-S GPS. I ordered a cradle, handlebar mount and electrical harness to power it from Garmin. I will use one of the two non-switch circuits to power the GPS so the it stays on when the engine is off. I like that option so I can select and change routes with the engine off.
GPS Is Getting Power

GPS Is Getting Power

  • SAE & USB Power Sockets. I add an SAE plug and a dual USB port so I can charge my cell phone, or power any other accessory. I put the SAE on the other non-switched, direct to battery circuit and the USB on a switched circuit of the Eastern Beaver PC-8 auxiliary fuse box.
USB Socket Water Proof Cover Is Secured To Socket

USB Socket Water Proof Cover Is Secured To Socket

You can read about how I install these accessories here.

4 thoughts on “1983 BMW R100RS Adding Electric Accessories and Farkles

  1. Brooks, this has been a fine restoration but why didn’t you extend it to putting a bit of black paint on the rims of the clock and the voltmeter!
    best regards, Martin King.

    • Hi Martin,

      Well, I did do that, but my touch up paint didn’t stick and came off. I plan to pull the instruments when I install the new ClearView Shield taller windscreen and will do a proper job of restoring the black paint on them.

      Best.
      Brook.

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