You’re holding the mo.unit blue in your hand. The parts are on the workbench. You’re ready to go—until you realize you’ve never crimped a cable before. Or maybe you’ve done it before, but you’re not sure if you did it right. Connecting motorcycle cables looks easy, but it only is with the right techniques.
This is Part 3 of our comprehensive mo.unit blue installation series. In Part 1, we covered the complete motogadget shopping list and project overview. In Part 2, we prepared the wiring harness and created the wiring diagram. Before we really get started in Part 4 and begin making actual connections, we need to discuss the techniques that determine whether a clean installation will be a success or a failure.
This post is based on the second part of our motogadget installation series on YouTube:
What we'll cover in Part 3:
- How to Use Flat and Round Connectors
- How to Solder Wires
- How to Use Heat-Shrink Tubing
- How to Use Molex Mizu P25 Connectors (and Similar Ones!)
- How to Crimp Battery Cable Terminals and Ring Clamps
- How to Connect Cables to the mo.unit Using Wire End Sleeves
Crimping: The Technique You'll Use Most Often
Most connections in a mo.unit blue installation are crimp connections. Turn signals, switches, battery terminals—crimping is faster than soldering and, when done correctly, just as reliable.
Two things are crucial:
- Make sure the crimp connector matches the cable cross-section. If it's too large, the clamp won't be able to grip the cable properly. If it's too small, of course, it won't fit. As small as possible, as large as necessary.
- Use a proper crimping tool. A ratchet pliers costs €20–40 and ensures consistent crimp connections. Pliers—or worse yet, a screwdriver and hammer—are a no-go.
Soldering: For Permanent Joints
There’s a time and place for crimping, and there’s a time and place for soldering—connecting cables on the go, extending an original wiring harness, or anywhere you need a clean, durable connection without a ground—that’s when it’s time for solder.
Heat the wire, not the solder. When the wire is hot enough, the solder will flow in on its own. If it clumps, looks dull, or you can feel it shifting as it cools—that’s a cold solder joint. Cold solder joints will fail. Do it again.
Always seal it with heat-shrink tubing. Speaking of which...
Heat-shrink tubing: A must-have for connecting motorcycle wires
A heat-shrink tubing protects your work from moisture, vibration, and abrasion—but most importantly, it keeps the current flowing through the wire instead of through you or your bike. A bare wire is an open invitation for a short circuit in the system. Heat-shrink tubing is available in both self-adhesive and non-adhesive varieties. Tip: In the mo.unit Ultimate Builder Pack includes self-adhesive ones.
Working with heat-shrink tubing is simple, but the most common beginner’s mistake is forgetting to slide the heat-shrink tubing over the wire before crimping or soldering it. If you avoid that, all you need is a heat gun—and a little care to make sure nothing melts.
Wire End Sleeves: Specific to the mo.unit blue
The mo.unit blue uses plug-in terminals. You can plug bare wire ends directly into them. But there are better ways.
Bare wires fan out when inserted into a terminal, resulting in inconsistent contact that deteriorates over time. Wire end ferrules solve this problem—they are small metal sleeves that are crimped onto a stripped wire end and bundle the wires into a solid tip.
What you'll need:
- A wire ferrule crimping pliers (square profile; not the same as your terminal crimping pliers)
- A mixed set of wire end sleeves that matches your cable cross-sections
- About 30 seconds per cable
Installing the wire end ferrule feels very similar to crimping anything else. Just make sure you have bare wire all the way through the ferrule, but that it doesn't stick out at the end. You’ll know you’ve used a ferrule that’s too large if, after crimping, it looks like a frayed, brittle mess. If the ferrule has something to compress (your wire), it won’t “fray” as much.
Using a Multimeter on Motorcycle Wiring
You really only need to know two functions of a multimeter:
Continuity — Is this circuit closed? Use this to trace a wire, confirm that a switch is working, or check for a ground connection.
Voltage— what’s actually happening at this point in the circuit? Use this before and after your installation to confirm that everything is behaving as expected. Important for mo.unit outputs: The mo.unit’s outputs cannot be measured directly—without a connected load, the multimeter will not display any useful results. To test an output, connect a load (e.g., a light bulb) and then measure the voltage.
That's it. These two functions will handle 90% of the situations you'll encounter. Spend 15 minutes with a multimeter before you start, and you'll feel much more confident if something doesn't work the first time. And something won't work the first time.
Practice before you commit
Grab some scrap wire and a few terminals. Make five crimp connections. Try soldering a joint. Shrink some tubing. It sounds unnecessary until you're working on your real bike with your real wiring harness and your real confidence is on the line.
Golden Rule: The workbench is the place to make mistakes. Not the motorcycle.
What happens next
Part 4 is where the mo.unit blue is actually installed. We'll connect the cables, integrate the system into the remaining original components, and let the magic happen—using all the techniques mentioned above.
Until then—follow motogadget on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for quick tips and short clips between episodes.
- Jacob Baldry, for motogadget
