Acumen alarm removal West London?

[650]

I've had nothing but a bloody nightmare with my bike since I got it, and it's all down to the Alarm.

It's an Acumen cat1 alarm. It drains the battery in no time and is generally just a horrid, noisy, pointless piece of shi*e as I have oodles of security elsewhere.

Can anyone recommend a capable electrician/alarm specialist to help me get this hunk of junk off the bike? Or does anyone have good experience with Acumen alarms and can guide me through removing it?

Thanks muchly in advance :)

[Barty_b0y]

Can anyone recommend a capable electrician/alarm specialist to help me get this hunk of junk off the bike? Or does anyone have good experience with Acumen alarms and can guide me through removing it?


I could recommmend one.
Knowing where you are may help others in recommending one closer though :cool:

[dkid]

Still amazes me how many people have issues with alarms.
Never had one myself & doubt I ever will as I've read so many threads like this.
IMHO mechanical security is the way to go. Let's be honest, what do 99.9% of people do when they hear an alarm going off? Yep, absolutely nothing.

[650]

Sorry, West London...Acton/Shepherds Bush. I can travel around London though, If you're man is mates with little John, it might be a bit far for me haha

[kickingkh]

Yep my bike had an alarm when I bought it which was pants. Main box bit and speaker were broken so that when parked the alarm would be constantly going off, but only making a tiny little crackling noise. Which drained the battery really quickly.

Mine was a Datatool so i don't know how similar it will be to yours, but if whoever has fitted has done a methodical job then it should be relatively easy to remove.

Find the main alarm unit bit and follow each wire till it joins to your bikes loom. At the loom it will either be spliced onto a wire, in which case the alarm wire can simply be cut. Or your loom wire will have been cut, and one half attached to the alarm, and the other left doing nothing. In this case you will need to cut the alarm wire off, and reconnect the two original pieces of loom wire. (All the wires colour coded so easy to match up, although a wiring diagram may help here).

There will be lots of wires coming out of the alarm, and they will probably all be connected at different points of the loom so be prepared to take off fairings and seats etc and for it take an hour or so.

That all probably makes no sense at all but if you have some common sense and some bullet connectors and can see in colour it's not too bad lol. :p

[rictus01]

as one of the main points of instalation is to make removal difficult the wires are all black and can be connected up in different ways and locations (so there isn't a set pattern), the only way is to trace each circuit and re- join the loom where it's been cut (you'll need to bridge the joint if it was installed properly), it's a couple of hours work, but not hard really.

Cheers Mark.

[650]

Cheers Mark and KickingKH.

Mark, where abouts in London are you? I'm **** with areas so wouldn't know random names to rattle off! From posts of yours, I'm guessing you're really quite clued up about bikes?

[rictus01]

I know a thing or two, I'm in South Norwood (near Crystal place football ground), is the bike ridable? I've a couple of bikes to do over the weekend, but could probably fit in some time next week , but my rules are you do the work, I provide the knowledge and make sure you don't screw anything up, Oh and drink tea.

Cheers Mark.

[650]

haha, yeah it's fully rideable. I'm busy this weekend and next though unfortunately! I'm going to buy a voltmeter and make sure everything's as it should be, first. Then if I need some assistance I'll give you a shout, will be good to meet other bikers...I'm fairly new to this whole game :)

[rictus01]

, a simple one is a bad ground, can cause all sorts of problems, but yeah worth checking with a meter, there's always Soho every friday you want to meet the locals :smt102

[Sid Squid]

Still amazes me how many people have issues with alarms.
Never had one myself & doubt I ever will as I've read so many threads like this.
Very few people have a problems with alarms, it's the same as the regulator rectifier threads - only those with troubles post. The overwhelming majority of people who have a bike with an alarm never have any problems with it.

I've been asked to rectify a number of bikes where 'the alarm flattens the battery', the problem is usually something else, only ever in one case have I dealt with have I seen a dud alarm, and that just didn't function - the battery was fine.

[dkid]

Very few people have a problems with alarms, it's the same as the regulator rectifier threads

Fair point, I'm sure you've had far more experience with alarms than I have so I wont argue with you on that one Sid :)

Still maintain that most people who hear an alarm are inclined to do burger all about it, and alarms do nothing to stop a bike being loaded into the back of a van in seconds. It's sad but its the way things are nowadays unfortunately.

Not knocking alarms totally but maybe only effective as a deterent in conjunction with some mechanical security such as a good chain & ground anchor etc.

Anyway, Hope the OP sorts his problem...

[Sid Squid]

Still maintain that most people who hear an alarm are inclined to do burger all about it, and alarms do nothing to stop a bike being loaded into the back of a van in seconds.
Possibly, but not the question asked.

On the subject though physical security is only so effective, can you always lock your bike to something? And how determined are the thieves?* There's no such thing as theft proof, it's a question of making the theft beyond the lengths to which most thieves may go, whilst appreciating that there are thieves who will go to great lengths to steal your bike. Understanding this makes clear that every little helps, an alarm may not make legions of the concerned public come running to confront a thief, but it does put thieves off. Even an easily broken disc lock on your bike makes the theft of someone else's bike a more attractive prospect. As such the alarm on my bike will be staying fitted and used.

*I have a friend who briefly owned an SP1 Honda, which was firmly locked to two ground anchors, with high quality very heavy chains. At around 3:30 am a team of about 8 thieves reversed close up to the bike in a Luton van, they were equipped with a gas axe and scaffold poles, the gas was lit as they got out of the van, the chains cut and the poles put through the wheels by four of them and the bike lifted into the van, they drove away inside 90 seconds. The whole thing witnessed by my friends opposite neighbour, who hadn't even been connected to the police by the time they left.

No security measure I can think of is going to deter anyone so set on having your bike away - but every little helps.

[650]

Aye I'll come out some time soon, got stuff on this weekend and next but after that I'm free as a bird :) I'm dropping the bike off at chasbikes tomorrow for them to give it a good once over and look at removing the alarm, I'd rather give it to them now and get it out the way...so if it goes tits up...it's on their head and I can get a hire bike if they break mine haha

[suzukigt380paul]

Very few people have a problems with alarms, it's the same as the regulator rectifier threads - only those with troubles post. The overwhelming majority of people who have a bike with an alarm never have any problems with it.

I've been asked to rectify a number of bikes where 'the alarm flattens the battery', the problem is usually something else, only ever in one case have I dealt with have I seen a dud alarm, and that just didn't function - the battery was fine.i afraid i have to disagree with your statement,i have 3 bikes that have had alarms removed,2 by previous owner one by me about 1 week ago on my bandit 12,the alarm was at fault,FACT, and was not connecting the wire for the coil,although it all appeared to work to the untrained eye,and if you leave a alarm on a bike over winter more then a month it does drain the battery,and i would say that you are better of with out a alarm then with one,and the only sure thing you can say about a alarm is that one day it WILL let you down,and as to regulator rectifiers the ones built in to the alternators last well,some suzuki one dont last a life time,honda ones last about 20 to 30k if your lucky,my vfr has had 3 to my knowledge the last one boiled the battery and was not regulating the voltage when hot

[650]

You a mechanic Sid? Where abouts in North London are you?

[suzukigt380paul]

Aye I'll come out some time soon, got stuff on this weekend and next but after that I'm free as a bird :) I'm dropping the bike off at chasbikes tomorrow for them to give it a good once over and look at removing the alarm, I'd rather give it to them now and get it out the way...so if it goes tits up...it's on their head and I can get a hire bike if they break mine haha
it will take longer to get at the wireing for the alarm then take it off depending on where the alarm is hidden

[650]

Think it's hidden in the rear fairing, that's were the patronisingly loud alarm sound comes from anyway :D

[suzukigt380paul]

Think it's hidden in the rear fairing, that's were the patronisingly loud alarm sound comes from anyway :Dwell i had trouble sorting my bandit out,but after buying a spare wireing harness i sorted the electric's out in abot 5 minutes the spent a hour refitting the rearlight, seat surround and rack

[Sid Squid]

i afraid i have to disagree with your statement,How surprising.

I bet you a whole pound I see more bikes than you do, and even then my sample group isn't large enough to be able to say with any confidence what percentage of alarms fail. But I can say for certain that:
the only sure thing you can say about a alarm is that one day it WILL let you down
Is an extremely subjective and inaccurate statement. From your logic of 'the ones I know about went wrong", (and two of those you said were removed before you bought the bikes, so how you're confident that they weren't removed in error I don't know), to my own experience solely of the bikes I've owned personally, in that none have done anything other than work exactly as they should, and if I adopt your thought process, and don't trouble myself with objectivity I can confidently state they are 100% reliable.

Crashing back to reality I suspect the truth is somewhere in between those experiences. So I'm afraid I have to disagree with your statement.

[suzukigt380paul]

when the bandit 12 had no sparks and i was at a loss to get it running i went to my local bike shop and explained what was happening and in no uncertain terms was told it was the alarm and it almost always the alarm in these sort of problems,and it was indeed the alarm,it bleeped and flashed as it should and apeared to work but was not making the circuit for the coils,if these alarms are so good why dont they come as a factory fitment,youve only got to look at the factory fit alarms/central locking on cars to see how finicky they can be during the life of a car,ive had 3 keys loose its programing but still work as a key in the lock,but not as a remote,and at the garage the reprograming is left to a sub 30 year old who under stands it all,and working through the open window shuves the key in the lock turns it back and forward a few times flicks the indicator stalk or something and about 30 seconds later the remote works again,although i have to say they are far more reliable then the bike ones

[Sid Squid]

Paul, you had your say. You made your point. The alarm on your bike was judged U/S.

How you can extrapolate that to EVERY alarm I don't know, the logic of your argument is severely lacking.

Add to this that YOU didn't diagnose that the alarm had failed, you took it to a shop who removed it for you, and told you the coil supply had failed, which I find very hard to understand as the alarm immobiliser circuits would never be connected directly to the coils. And yes, I do know how they're fitted, where they are connected and most importantly why they are connected as they are. And on the bike in question - your Bandit - it would never be connected in the manner that you have been advised.

Now it's clear that you don't want an alarm on your bike, and that's just fine and dandy, your bike - your business, however you recommending every one 'rip out' their system is simply irresponsible, that's an invitation to unnecessary expense at least and damaged electrics at worst.

[orose]

Just to add to what Sid is saying, I've had 3 bikes with alarms now (all Datatool) and not a single issue - apart from when I parked too close to the TV transmitter at Holme Moss, and couldn't disarm it from the fob.

[suzukigt380paul]

Add to this that YOU didn't diagnose that the alarm had failed, you took it to a shop who removed it for you, and told you the coil supply had failed, which I find very hard to understand as the alarm immobiliser circuits would never be connected directly to the coils. it would never be connected in the manner that you have been advised.no no no,the bike shop said what they thought the problem was,and told me a certain wire in the ignition control unit should be live(orange and white) to get a spark,it wasnt live,i removed the alarm but didnt know about the link wire that cut the circuit from the ignition control unit(ecu!) i had traced one wire as live from the kill switch to the starter relay but was dead between the coils and ignition control unit all this tracing wires was not helped by the fact i had a k3 and the haynes only went up to a k1,and there are a few changes in colors on the harness and possibly more, but could not tell for sure, but as i said the wires from this unit which should be live go to the coils, engine starter switch, engine kill switch, side stand, and fuse box, i bought a second hand harness and used this to trace the wires rather then strip the hole bike for no reason and on looking at this harness noticed the link wire(previously conected to the alarm) and conected this up and had it running in 5 minutes

[650]

Woah woah woah woah...woooooooah woah...WOAH

That's English for stop a horse....no need for all the dramatics!

The alarm's off the bike now (thanks chasbikes!) and all is well. Just need a new battery now haha