Hitchcocks Forum

Is this possible. I have just come back from a european tour on my jap bike which I will now sell and will only be running my 2007 350 and plan to tour on that later this year. Now i am getting a bit of an old duffer and can't glance at my tank bag map without stopping and putting on glasses I was wondering about the sat nav option to save the inevitable stop starting of touring abroad. My 25 year old yamaha was mercilessly thrashed for 1400 miles around the voges mountains and up through the black forest and never missed a beat and yet that is the one i sell to keep my bullet - not very rational this enfield lark is it

Now i'm no electrical expert so take my commentary with a pinch of salt.
I would think that sat nav would be OK, the current draw like a mobile phone would be relatively small so drawing straight from the battery while running shouldn't be a problem, I imagine difficulties would arise if you tried running heated clothing and grips and other accessories too.
I currently have a cigar lighter type socket wired to my Ducati, (not famed for their charging system), which I plug the phone charger into for satnav duties and that seems to do OK on a few trips of 100+ miles at a go, I wouldn't want to leave it draining the battery without the engine on for too long though.

For the record, I plan to fit a socket to my Kawa and the Bullet also as i've found the satnav very useful, (it's like a stress removal device for driving in populated areas) so am hoping the charging system is up to the job, my charger is (i think), 500mAh at 3.6v so not a big draw at all.

The bike satnavs have a decent internal battery life of about 6 hours, but you can also connect them up to your bikes electrics. I would imagine they draw no more than about half an amp...maybe much less. If you drive with the headlamp on then there is less power to spare on the bike, but as long as you have the half amp to spare it should be OK. Check by phoning the tech help for any chosen device. As far as I can see bike satnavs are much more expensive than car units presumably due to having to be water and vibration proof?

The alternators fitted to the Bullets are more than adequate to run extras, the worry about the charging is an old throwback to the poor generators and 6 volt stuff long gone

Special holders for motorcycles are available, just fit a cigarette lighter under the seat and away you go.

Should be no problem. A 2007 model will have the headlight powered direct from the alternator so it matters not whether it's on or off as far as available power at the battery goes. The tail light and side lights come on with the headlight of course, and they are powered from the battery, but given a decent battery you should be OK.

Thanks everyone - that is good to know, i had better get saving. Leon - that looks like a neat solution. I think it may be time for me to embrace some modern technology.

Just returned from a 1600 mile ride around France on my 1961 Constellation using a Tom Tom satnav fitted on the bars using a mounting kit supplied primarily for off road cycles. No problems at all apart from having to fit suppressed plug caps due to the original unsuppressed ones jamming the signal on a regular basis.I have converted to 12volt and also fitted electronic ignition hidden inside the magneto. Because my bike has an airflow fairing I was able to install a power socket easily.

As has been said, a 350 bullet of that year doesn't actually take much power from the battery anyway, to the extent that I don't really know why they bother with one.


I've got a cigarette lighter socket in the toolbox of mine to charge my mobile phone.


That said, it would be better to NOT use a lighter socket. While they are convenient, they are not waterproof. There are plenty of waterproof connectors out there. Purely aqs a convenient example, Maplins do an IP68 rated, bulkhead mount connector called a TeePlug. You could safely put 400V through one if these and throw it in a swimmng pool full of kids. If I were doing the job, I'd fit a three way one with a switched and an unswitched live and an earth on the "bike" end. I'd then wire the "accessory" end according to if I want to be able to leave it on when the ignition is off (risking flattening the battery). So I'd use the unswitched live to power something like a radio but I'd put the GPS on a switched live so it turns off with the key.


Don't forget to protect your expensive electronics with an appropriate fuse. Enfield voltage regulators have been known to fail in such a way as they run massively overvoltage and eventually burn out the alternator. Mine did.