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Here is my install of the Rostra Cruise control. I used the universal model 250-1223 and the waterproof control.
A guy told me that some guys have installed the Rostra on the F6B, and with a little searching I found most of my information needed on the wiring, and dip switch settings thanks to them.
Goldstar903 was also nice enough to send me the wiring diagram for the Valkyrie.
The dip switch setting for the module are:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
off off on off on on on off off on off off
I had bought a throttle body off a 2007 Goldwing, because they have the cruise control mechanism on the side. I was going to swap it with the one on my Valk, but then I decided to just use the cruise mechanism. You could just fashion up a lever on the side of the throttle, but the Goldwing cruise mechanism is made in such a way that it does not rotate when the throttle is being used. This is nice because you don’t have some loose cable hanging down that could get caught up on something.
The first thing I did was disassemble the Goldwing’s cruise mechanism.
To put the mechanism on the Valk’s throttle body you need to take a 1/4” ‘long’ nut, and tap it out with a M7x1.0 tap. The five corners need to be grounded down a little bit until it will fit into the plastic cylinder of the cruise mechanism. The length of the ‘nut’ needs to be .73” long with one end tapered similar to the spacer on the Goldwing mechanism.
Remove the nut, and lock washer holding on the Valk’s throttle. Put on the pan washer from the other throttle body, and then screw on the ‘long’ nut that you just made leaving the tapered end facing out. Use locktite, and do not over tighten. It is brass threads that you are screwing the nut onto. Reassemble the rest of the cruise mechanism using a M7x1.0x10mm bolt, with locktite, to hold everything in place.
To hook up the Rostra cruise, I welded a 5/16” nut on a small piece of metal which I then bolted onto the factory plate for the cruise. I used a 5/16” bolt, and drilled out a 1/8” hole in the center. I then drilled a 9/32” hole 3/4 of the way down, to hold the rostra cable sheath. I then cut a groove down the side of the bolt, so I could put the cable through. You might also be able to use one off a bicycle, same idea.
I had to make a ‘T’ cable out of a bicycle cable to make a connection from the Rostra cable to the cruise mechanism. The round part had the be sanded down for it to fit in the cruise mechanism.
I put the Rostra cruise module in the only place I could make it fit. The storage box under the seat. I tried the pods, but it wouldn’t fit. Having it in the storage box is actually a perfect place. Close to all the connections, and the cable runs perfect along the right side, around the throttle body, and in through the hole on the left front. This makes the Rostra cable line up perfectly with the throttle lines.
The wiring was not hard, but I took my time to make sure that I didn’t mess anything up. I disconnected the main ground on the battery, so that there was no power at all on the bike.
I didn’t bother hooking up the neutral safety switch. I had it hooked up on my other Valk, but I will not be shifting while the cruise is on anyways, and it is pretty much impossible to put the bike into neutral from fifth gear when cruising.
The Rostra dark blue wire (Tach), and all the ground wires were grounded to the battery, or the bolt beside the main ground block behind the engine. Really easy to find it with the seat off.
The Rostra brown accessory wire was connected to the accessory fuse panel using the supplied thin metal piece, and the supplied 10A inline fuse. It is a flat piece of metal on the brown wire. You take out the 10A accessory fuse from the fuse box, put the metal piece in, and then put the fuse back in.
The Rostra red/brown wire goes to the brown wire on the Rostra switch
The Rostra dark green wire goes to the dark green wire on the Rostra switch
The Rostra yellow wire goes to the yellow wire on the Rostra switch
The red wire from the Rostra switch has a 4A inline fuse, and it goes to the white/green wire located on the right side of the bike at the connector
The Rostra violet wire goes to the green/yellow wire, but because we have LED brake lights. A relay has to be used to increase the ground to disconnect the cruise control. To do this the 86 & 30 terminal are grounded. The 85 terminal goes to the green/yellow wire on bike. The 87A terminal goes to the violet Rostra wire. The 87 terminal is not used.
The Rostra grey wire (VSS) needs to be hooked up to a Rostra signal adapter (250-4379) This divider will divide the signal by 4. The guys on the F6B board figured out that the pulses per mile were about 88750. This is why we put the dip switch setting to 19300. They also determined that a 4.7K ohm resister (1/2 watt) needs to be used between the splitter and the VSS signal wire on the bike. To hook up the splitter, the red wire goes to 12V switched power source. The black wire goes to a ground. The yellow wire goes to the grey wire, and the green wire with the resister attached goes to the white/green VSS wire on the bike. I tapped into the wire right where it goes into the ECM. It is on the left side connector. I cut the sheathing off, and connected my wire to it.
If you get the back lit Rostra switch, you will also have a grey wire, and a black wire. Just connect the grey wire to a switched power source, and the black wire to a ground.
I put mine through the diagnostic, and everything came out fine.
Now, I just have to wait until spring to try it out. I would do it now, but I sent my seat out to Russell get redone. It is still fairly warm (+4C), but without a seat it would not be a comfy ride.
I hope this helps out to those who want to do this.
It took me a few days to figure out how to hook up the cruise mechanism to the rostra cable, and fashion the parts, and a couple of days to tear down the bike, hook up the Rostra cable, do the wiring, and put the bike back together. Also, a few trips to the hardware store. All wires were soldered when the diagnostic was good.
If anyone needs pictures of what I am talking about, I did take several photos, and I can send them to you.
UPDATE:
I have had my Rostra electronic cruise control on my bike for the last two seasons. The cruise control works great when it is engaged, but can be a pain in the butt sometimes to get it to engage quickly. It sometimes engaged after 5 seconds and other times almost right away. It got to be pretty annoying when riding with my wife, who has electronic cruise on her Spyder. My bike would drop almost 10 kph before it would engage, prompting my wife to disengage her cruise. It got to be such an annoyance that I stopped using it most of the time.
I figured that something was not right. Bill Havins had me try his settings, but I found that my bike was surging.
I put the settings back to what I had and left it.......That was until early November.
I took the bike apart to get to the throttle body. I took the throttle body off and checked out a few things.
To give you an overview, I used the cruise mechanism from a 2007 Goldwing. The mechanism stays put while the throttle is turned. When I engage the cruise control, the cruise mechanism turns to match the position of the throttle. It was the time it takes the cruise mechanism to match up with the throttle is why it took so long for the cruise to engage.
I decided to see what would happen if I had the cruise mechanism turn at the same time as the throttle. This would force the cruise cable back into the cruise module.
There is a nub that sticks out from the throttle mechanism that is used to stop the cruise mechanism. I drilled a hole directly across from it in the cruise mechanism and put in a pocket head bolt for the nub to sit in. I put a lock nut on the other side to fasten it. The cruise and throttle mechanism now turn as one.
The other issue I then had was that when I turned the throttle, the cruise cable wasn't being pushed back into the cruise module because of the round end on the end of the cruise cable. I then decided to take a piece of heavy aluminum wire and flattened it, so that it would fit in the grove where the cruise cable sits. I made it a little oversized, so that it fit real snug. I then drilled a couple of holes in the cruise mechanism to put tie straps to hold the wire, just in case. I am not worried about the tie straps melting. There wouldn't be enough heat to do so. I know this because my other tie straps I put there a couple of years ago are still intact.
I put everything back together and waited for a nice day to try it. I got my chance late November. I took off early from work, since it was Friday, it was sunny and decently warm for this time of year (8C).
The cruise worked perfect. It now engages right away and it only drops 2 kph before it reaccelerates back to my original speed. I tried it 6 times at various speeds from 60 kph (40 mph) up to 110 kph (70 mph) without fail.
A guy told me that some guys have installed the Rostra on the F6B, and with a little searching I found most of my information needed on the wiring, and dip switch settings thanks to them.
Goldstar903 was also nice enough to send me the wiring diagram for the Valkyrie.
The dip switch setting for the module are:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
off off on off on on on off off on off off
I had bought a throttle body off a 2007 Goldwing, because they have the cruise control mechanism on the side. I was going to swap it with the one on my Valk, but then I decided to just use the cruise mechanism. You could just fashion up a lever on the side of the throttle, but the Goldwing cruise mechanism is made in such a way that it does not rotate when the throttle is being used. This is nice because you don’t have some loose cable hanging down that could get caught up on something.
The first thing I did was disassemble the Goldwing’s cruise mechanism.
To put the mechanism on the Valk’s throttle body you need to take a 1/4” ‘long’ nut, and tap it out with a M7x1.0 tap. The five corners need to be grounded down a little bit until it will fit into the plastic cylinder of the cruise mechanism. The length of the ‘nut’ needs to be .73” long with one end tapered similar to the spacer on the Goldwing mechanism.
Remove the nut, and lock washer holding on the Valk’s throttle. Put on the pan washer from the other throttle body, and then screw on the ‘long’ nut that you just made leaving the tapered end facing out. Use locktite, and do not over tighten. It is brass threads that you are screwing the nut onto. Reassemble the rest of the cruise mechanism using a M7x1.0x10mm bolt, with locktite, to hold everything in place.
To hook up the Rostra cruise, I welded a 5/16” nut on a small piece of metal which I then bolted onto the factory plate for the cruise. I used a 5/16” bolt, and drilled out a 1/8” hole in the center. I then drilled a 9/32” hole 3/4 of the way down, to hold the rostra cable sheath. I then cut a groove down the side of the bolt, so I could put the cable through. You might also be able to use one off a bicycle, same idea.
I had to make a ‘T’ cable out of a bicycle cable to make a connection from the Rostra cable to the cruise mechanism. The round part had the be sanded down for it to fit in the cruise mechanism.
I put the Rostra cruise module in the only place I could make it fit. The storage box under the seat. I tried the pods, but it wouldn’t fit. Having it in the storage box is actually a perfect place. Close to all the connections, and the cable runs perfect along the right side, around the throttle body, and in through the hole on the left front. This makes the Rostra cable line up perfectly with the throttle lines.
The wiring was not hard, but I took my time to make sure that I didn’t mess anything up. I disconnected the main ground on the battery, so that there was no power at all on the bike.
I didn’t bother hooking up the neutral safety switch. I had it hooked up on my other Valk, but I will not be shifting while the cruise is on anyways, and it is pretty much impossible to put the bike into neutral from fifth gear when cruising.
The Rostra dark blue wire (Tach), and all the ground wires were grounded to the battery, or the bolt beside the main ground block behind the engine. Really easy to find it with the seat off.
The Rostra brown accessory wire was connected to the accessory fuse panel using the supplied thin metal piece, and the supplied 10A inline fuse. It is a flat piece of metal on the brown wire. You take out the 10A accessory fuse from the fuse box, put the metal piece in, and then put the fuse back in.
The Rostra red/brown wire goes to the brown wire on the Rostra switch
The Rostra dark green wire goes to the dark green wire on the Rostra switch
The Rostra yellow wire goes to the yellow wire on the Rostra switch
The red wire from the Rostra switch has a 4A inline fuse, and it goes to the white/green wire located on the right side of the bike at the connector
The Rostra violet wire goes to the green/yellow wire, but because we have LED brake lights. A relay has to be used to increase the ground to disconnect the cruise control. To do this the 86 & 30 terminal are grounded. The 85 terminal goes to the green/yellow wire on bike. The 87A terminal goes to the violet Rostra wire. The 87 terminal is not used.
The Rostra grey wire (VSS) needs to be hooked up to a Rostra signal adapter (250-4379) This divider will divide the signal by 4. The guys on the F6B board figured out that the pulses per mile were about 88750. This is why we put the dip switch setting to 19300. They also determined that a 4.7K ohm resister (1/2 watt) needs to be used between the splitter and the VSS signal wire on the bike. To hook up the splitter, the red wire goes to 12V switched power source. The black wire goes to a ground. The yellow wire goes to the grey wire, and the green wire with the resister attached goes to the white/green VSS wire on the bike. I tapped into the wire right where it goes into the ECM. It is on the left side connector. I cut the sheathing off, and connected my wire to it.
If you get the back lit Rostra switch, you will also have a grey wire, and a black wire. Just connect the grey wire to a switched power source, and the black wire to a ground.
I put mine through the diagnostic, and everything came out fine.
Now, I just have to wait until spring to try it out. I would do it now, but I sent my seat out to Russell get redone. It is still fairly warm (+4C), but without a seat it would not be a comfy ride.
I hope this helps out to those who want to do this.
It took me a few days to figure out how to hook up the cruise mechanism to the rostra cable, and fashion the parts, and a couple of days to tear down the bike, hook up the Rostra cable, do the wiring, and put the bike back together. Also, a few trips to the hardware store. All wires were soldered when the diagnostic was good.
If anyone needs pictures of what I am talking about, I did take several photos, and I can send them to you.
UPDATE:
I have had my Rostra electronic cruise control on my bike for the last two seasons. The cruise control works great when it is engaged, but can be a pain in the butt sometimes to get it to engage quickly. It sometimes engaged after 5 seconds and other times almost right away. It got to be pretty annoying when riding with my wife, who has electronic cruise on her Spyder. My bike would drop almost 10 kph before it would engage, prompting my wife to disengage her cruise. It got to be such an annoyance that I stopped using it most of the time.
I figured that something was not right. Bill Havins had me try his settings, but I found that my bike was surging.
I put the settings back to what I had and left it.......That was until early November.
I took the bike apart to get to the throttle body. I took the throttle body off and checked out a few things.
To give you an overview, I used the cruise mechanism from a 2007 Goldwing. The mechanism stays put while the throttle is turned. When I engage the cruise control, the cruise mechanism turns to match the position of the throttle. It was the time it takes the cruise mechanism to match up with the throttle is why it took so long for the cruise to engage.
I decided to see what would happen if I had the cruise mechanism turn at the same time as the throttle. This would force the cruise cable back into the cruise module.
There is a nub that sticks out from the throttle mechanism that is used to stop the cruise mechanism. I drilled a hole directly across from it in the cruise mechanism and put in a pocket head bolt for the nub to sit in. I put a lock nut on the other side to fasten it. The cruise and throttle mechanism now turn as one.
The other issue I then had was that when I turned the throttle, the cruise cable wasn't being pushed back into the cruise module because of the round end on the end of the cruise cable. I then decided to take a piece of heavy aluminum wire and flattened it, so that it would fit in the grove where the cruise cable sits. I made it a little oversized, so that it fit real snug. I then drilled a couple of holes in the cruise mechanism to put tie straps to hold the wire, just in case. I am not worried about the tie straps melting. There wouldn't be enough heat to do so. I know this because my other tie straps I put there a couple of years ago are still intact.
I put everything back together and waited for a nice day to try it. I got my chance late November. I took off early from work, since it was Friday, it was sunny and decently warm for this time of year (8C).
The cruise worked perfect. It now engages right away and it only drops 2 kph before it reaccelerates back to my original speed. I tried it 6 times at various speeds from 60 kph (40 mph) up to 110 kph (70 mph) without fail.
