Staff at MotorCycle Cruise Controls have monitored the promotion of fitting
car cruise controls to motorcycles on the internet over the past 4 years with
concern. Our personal experience after ten years in the business tells us that
it is only a matter of time before riders adapting these kits get seriosuly
injured or killed.
Click here to see relevant information on safety issues relating to fitting
off-the-shelf after-market car cruise controls to motorcycles.
Being riders ourselves, our policies and products have always put rider safety
first, so we find we can no longer stand by and not offer a product which can
reduce the risk to those installing these kits. Consequently, MCS has decided
to offer a complete range of cable interface unit kits to those riders determined
to fit automotive cruise controls to their bikes. This strategy can at least
eliminate one of the serious risks (mechanical throttle jams) involved in fitting
these cruise controls to motorcycles.
The other hazard riders should be aware of is the risk of the 'chip' in the
cruise control locking up when hit by a high voltage electrical spike. Motorcycles
are inherently electrically noisy and get worse with age. Most times if a spike
locks the chip it simply stops working and turning it off and then on again
resets it. However if the crusie is openign throttle when it 'locks', then it
will keep opening throttle until it reaches maximum throtlle and not respond
to any signals to turn off - brakes, clutch acceleration, speed! It takes about
2 seconds to wind on full throttle, so there is very little time to respond
by turning off the power to the cruise control. It is important to realise that
this 'sudden unexpected acceleration' - a search on Google will find many references
- can occur even when the cruise is NOT engaged. As long as there is power to
the chip, there is a small but real risk of this happening - so beware!
The MCS cruise control range has every electrical filter known to man built-in
to prevent spikes getting to the chip - including opto-couplers isolating all
inputs and outputs to the chip. Despite that, we also built in a final safeguard,
a physical device (not operated by the chip) which ensures that whenever the
brakes are on, the actuator loses power. This means that no matter what happens,
the rider retains control of the vehicle.
We are woking on another accessory which can make the installation of after-market
car cruise controls safer and will bring that to market as and when we can,
but in the meantime all we can do is caution riders fitting these devices, give
them the benefit of our own experience and make the CIU device we invented available
to reduce the risk now.
Model-specific Cable Interface Units (CIUs) designed to replace the 'bead-chain'
actuator-throttle connection used on many after-market automotive cruise controls
are now available. There are two types: 1. for motorcycles having both opening
and closing throttle cables (uses a dual spool CIU); and 2. for motorcycles
having an opening throttle cable with a spring return mechanism (uses a single
spool CIU).
MCS can supply model-pecific CIU kits for motorcycles we already make cruise
controls for: see our
site map for the complete range. We can also supply our universal CIU kit
for other bikes.
Cable Interface Unit kit for BMW R1200 series motorcycles (based on R1200GS). May fit other R1200 series bikes without modification. Will NOT fit the BMW R1200S
To order simply use this web site and make sure you provide the make, model,
year, ABS info and whether it has both opening and closing throttle cables for
your bike in the comments section of the order. In most cases this will be sufficient
for us to provide the correct product. If not, we will email you for more information.
