Help finding where to tie into brake light circuit ST1300

I've been talking to Jason over at Gearbrake about a plug and play kit for the ST1300's. They have a few for Honda's but he doesn't have access to our bike to see if what he has will work for us.

I haven't farkled my brake lights yet so this is new territory. I assumed that there was a disconnect in the harness, under the seat somewhere. Went looking today after work and it looks like a solid cable that branches out to the side and tail lights. I went through the seat and didn't pull the fender and go in that way. So, I couldn't see if there is a plug where it goes into the light assembly.

Here's what Jason is looking for:

Hi Dennis,

No problem at all. Yeah that is exactly right, no one in the office rides an ST so we don?t have easy access to a bike.

We don?t really even need a physical bike, if you can just get some pictures of the rear lighting connector on your bike and email them to me I can cross check them against what we have for the NC700. My guess is they are identical, however we have seen numerous times where we expect bikes to be identical but they aren?t.

Basically if you can take a couple pictures we need the following info.
-Picture of the rear lighting connector so we can visually verify what is used on your bike. An easy way to tell if you have the right one is to unplug it and see if your rear lights turn off.
-Picture of the rear of the connector showing the wire colors so we can verify the wiring diagrams we get from the manufacturer. Sometimes they are incorrect.
-Which connector leads from the bike and which one leads to the light.

If you can take a picture that has that info I can check the harness and verify. Even if they are different we can create a new harness based on that info.

Rode Weary said:

I've been talking to Jason over at Gearbrake about a plug and play kit for the ST1300's.

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I'm assuming this is to add some kind of additional lighting to the rear of the bike: brakes taillights and/or turnsignals? I'm interested to see a response to your question as I didn't see any connector near the rear of the bike except the light sockets themselves.

I wired an aux brake light and position lights to the sockets themselves as I couldn't find any other connectors anywhere near the back and didn't want to splice into any wires if it could be helped.

That's what it is, an add on brake light activator that comes on when your bike starts to slow down due to engine braking.

Rode Weary said:

I haven't farkled my brake lights yet so this is new territory. I assumed that there was a disconnect in the harness, under the seat somewhere.

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There are 3-pin connectors built into the lamp sockets where the harness plugs in. Both are wired to the same three lines in the harness, so the Gearbrake should only have to be put in line with one of them.

You can get a photo by removing the rear fender and pulling one of the bulbs.

The only other break in the wiring harness where you'll find those lines is at the 24-pin connector behind the left middle cowl, and that's probably not a good choice.

--Mark

Rode Weary said:

That's what it is, an add on brake light activator that comes on when your bike starts to slow down due to engine braking.

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Rode did you ever find this information? I'd like something like this too.

https://safer-turn.com/smart-brake-module/

https://gearbrake.com/collections/shop/products/gearbrake-smart-brake-light-module?variant=15412515971

I don't know about one that lights up from engine braking? Following someone with one of those through a curvy mountain road would drive me crazy.

I'm new to the bike and took the rear taillight off to see what the plug looks like, I have crimpers and can make one with the right housings but from what I can tell the turn signals and brake signals wire straight into the main harness, no plug. I'm not sure how Gear Brake makes a plug and play pigtail?

Take the lower rear fender/license plate holder off and go in from the bottom. Then just tap into the wires there.

I pulled the lower rear fender and plate holder but I cut the hots to the brake lights, added bullet connectors and routed the wires back up under the rear seat. Once the "brake" and the "load" lines were there, I installed an LED brake light flasher from Ebay as well as RED LEDs from Amazon. IF I ever sell the bike and the next guy doesn't want the flash, The bullet connectors in the Brake and load lines mate directly to each other so the flasher can be removed without issue.

Thanks a bunch. I didn't think there was a plug, I'll just splice into the signals already there.

jemo said:

Thanks a bunch. I didn't think there was a plug, I'll just splice into the signals already there.

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I used positap connectors to tap my hyperlites and a Whelen light bar into the brake/tail/turn signals. Haven't had a problem since I installed them 10 years ago.

The Gear Brake kit is nice because it's plug and play. It comes with a harness that connects between the tail/brake light and it's harness. And IIRC the guys will make a harness for your ride if there isn't one already available.