rasdes
Active Member
A big thank you up front to Curtis (WSW) for helping me with me issues. Like many others the bike would just shut off while cruising, I replaced the ING switch with a non-OEM, replaced the IGN module and crank sensor....all of the normal / routine checks were made (loose / rubbed or broken wires / pin connections / fuel flow etc...etc..) After all this, I still had the same problem. Curtis suggested that the EHC was intermittently losing the signal to the IGN module and possibly causing this. It is impossible to troubleshoot an intermittent problem like this so if the new RIP kit doesn't fix the problem I'll seek Curtis' advice and continue to replace parts through the process of elimination.
So the R.I.P. was received......Up front I had no problems with anything, the install was relatively easy and it is truly plug and play. Nothing had to be modified or corrected and after completion every single electrical component worked as it should; it seems very over-priced for what you get but that's the price we must pay. Several points of interest:
- Every wire color does not match wire for wire, for the most part they do but all connectors are all well labeled so there is NO problem figuring out where they connect.
- Instructions are very limited and not detailed so you must take your time, double check every connection, ensure all pins remain intact and connectors lock in place.
-When feeding the harness through the back bone, stagger the connectors along the harness and wrap tightly with electrical tape making the harness as skinny as possible.
- Feed a long stiff wire through the backbone front to rear, wrap the end of the wrap securely around the end of the harness and gently pull the harness through the back bone while doing a back and forth push - pull motion, it will go through with no problem, you do not need grease to do this.
- After all connectors were connected I could not find where the coil wiring harness connected, at first I thought they had forgotten that piece of the harness, come to find out after talking to Jason at KMW, the RIP does not include the little 3 wire harness for the coil so this little harness does not need to be removed from the back bone when you remove the EHC. When I removed the old EHC I had completely wrapped tape around both the main and this little harness, at that point I had rerouted the little harness for the coil wires back through the back bone and connected the coil wires.
- The harness for the Ridgeback is a little too long so you have a lot of extra wires that must be secured and tucked away.
- Additionally, my RB is a 2008, if you use the same EHC mounting holes in the battery box you CANNOT MOUNT THE SEAT, THE RIP SITS MUCH HIGHER THAN THE EHC. The amount of wires and the small space I had to work with I had no choice but to cut a 'slot' out of the seat bottom. This allowed the seat to sit flat on the frame and allowed space for the RIP. The cut-out did not hurt the integrity of the seat as you sit further back and are not close to this area.
-Total time to include seat modification is about 4-5 hours, a lot of time was consumed zip tying every wire to make everything nice and neat. I have not road tested the bike yet, I finished the install late last night, hopefully this fixes my problem.
- Jason at KMW was very help when I had the panic attack over the coil wires, he stayed on the phone until I located the harness that I removed and even gave me his cell number just in case I had additional questions.
- BTW.... I also had to replace both compression releases, the front was frozen in an open position; the rear was frozen closed. I truly believe this was caused by my dumb ass running the bike in the garage for a very long period of time and I overheated the motor. I was trying to get it to cut off so I could truly troubleshoot the problem, of course it never did. If you do this have a high speed fan blowing over the motor and watch the oil temp / pressure.
- Hope this helps someone if you're sitting on the fence deciding to purchase the kit, I am extremely satisfied with the kit. It's time consuming but easy to install. Glad to see the quality control issues I previously heard about have been rectified. I'll do a long run this afternoon and keep my fingers crossed.
So the R.I.P. was received......Up front I had no problems with anything, the install was relatively easy and it is truly plug and play. Nothing had to be modified or corrected and after completion every single electrical component worked as it should; it seems very over-priced for what you get but that's the price we must pay. Several points of interest:
- Every wire color does not match wire for wire, for the most part they do but all connectors are all well labeled so there is NO problem figuring out where they connect.
- Instructions are very limited and not detailed so you must take your time, double check every connection, ensure all pins remain intact and connectors lock in place.
-When feeding the harness through the back bone, stagger the connectors along the harness and wrap tightly with electrical tape making the harness as skinny as possible.
- Feed a long stiff wire through the backbone front to rear, wrap the end of the wrap securely around the end of the harness and gently pull the harness through the back bone while doing a back and forth push - pull motion, it will go through with no problem, you do not need grease to do this.
- After all connectors were connected I could not find where the coil wiring harness connected, at first I thought they had forgotten that piece of the harness, come to find out after talking to Jason at KMW, the RIP does not include the little 3 wire harness for the coil so this little harness does not need to be removed from the back bone when you remove the EHC. When I removed the old EHC I had completely wrapped tape around both the main and this little harness, at that point I had rerouted the little harness for the coil wires back through the back bone and connected the coil wires.
- The harness for the Ridgeback is a little too long so you have a lot of extra wires that must be secured and tucked away.
- Additionally, my RB is a 2008, if you use the same EHC mounting holes in the battery box you CANNOT MOUNT THE SEAT, THE RIP SITS MUCH HIGHER THAN THE EHC. The amount of wires and the small space I had to work with I had no choice but to cut a 'slot' out of the seat bottom. This allowed the seat to sit flat on the frame and allowed space for the RIP. The cut-out did not hurt the integrity of the seat as you sit further back and are not close to this area.
-Total time to include seat modification is about 4-5 hours, a lot of time was consumed zip tying every wire to make everything nice and neat. I have not road tested the bike yet, I finished the install late last night, hopefully this fixes my problem.
- Jason at KMW was very help when I had the panic attack over the coil wires, he stayed on the phone until I located the harness that I removed and even gave me his cell number just in case I had additional questions.
- BTW.... I also had to replace both compression releases, the front was frozen in an open position; the rear was frozen closed. I truly believe this was caused by my dumb ass running the bike in the garage for a very long period of time and I overheated the motor. I was trying to get it to cut off so I could truly troubleshoot the problem, of course it never did. If you do this have a high speed fan blowing over the motor and watch the oil temp / pressure.
- Hope this helps someone if you're sitting on the fence deciding to purchase the kit, I am extremely satisfied with the kit. It's time consuming but easy to install. Glad to see the quality control issues I previously heard about have been rectified. I'll do a long run this afternoon and keep my fingers crossed.
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