Introduction: Build Your Own Remote Seat Opener for Scooters

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About: I'm a Tinker, I love to upcycle and reuse stuff to make them usable. I believe in practical thinking and that there's always a better and easier way of doing stuff. Exsior!

If you've owned a scooter, you'd know that there is a compartment underneath the seat, usually called the utility box, where you can put your helmet, tools or other stuff.

Here in the Philippines, there is a huge surge of 125cc city commuter bikes called underbone motorbikes, so-called because their body frame doesn't have a top tube like normal bikes, its good for inner city quick trips and what have you. They are cheap to own, maintain and use. Mine gets about 35KM/L or about 82.43mi/gal.

And the underseat storage is nice because you have some space to store your stuff, the bad news is you need to open the seat with your key, meaning you'd have to turn off the engine before you can open it.

Thats the general idea behind building a remote seat opener :D

Anyways, below is a picture of my underbone, just so you guys know what I'm talking about

Step 1: What You Need...

Before we start, short disclaimer;

- you will be doing this at you're own risk
- any damage done to your bike will not and will never be my responsibility :D

Ok with that out of the way; here's what you need

1. First off you'll need an actuator, you can buy this is in auto supply shops, these are the actuators used for central locking systems for cars. I'd suggest you get the one used to open the trunk, its the one with two wires.

2. Cable housing, you can buy this at bike shops

3. Derailleur cable, this is the one with the flat stopper, used for derailleurs (duh!) :D

4. nut & bolt and a washer, to lock down the cable

5. drill, multimeter, soldering gun, some shrink tube

6. six-pack of beer and some chips (optional) :D

Step 2: Preparations

1. Before fiddling with electrical, its a good idea to remove the negative contact of your battery to prevent any short circuits.

2. Next would be to disassemble the lock mechanism that the seat employs, this is usually held down by a couple of screws.

3. You'd need to drill a small hole somewhere where it'll act as a stopper for the cable, I used the mounting of the keyhole for the seatlock

With all that in place, you're ready to put it together...

Step 3: Putting It All Together...

Before anything, test the actuator, also good to find out how far the travel of the actuator will be

1. Find a place to put the actuator, it'll be great if you can find an inconspicuous place so it won't be seen, good thing underbones have a lot of fairings so I hid it under one of them.

2. then thread the derailleur cable into the seat lock mechanism, thru the cable housing and thru the hole that'll act as a stopper

3. loop the cable around the pulling end of the actuator and tie it down with the nut & bolt & washer


Step 4: Wiring the Actuator for Power...

The actuator will come with two wires, positive and negative. Tap the positive to the ignition line of the bike (the reason behind this is when you're parked and the engine is turned off, the switch won't work). 

Next is to tap the other wire into the body frame, this completes the circuit so this is the line where we'll be putting the switch. Please don't put the switch on the positive line, you'll burn the switch :D

I believe its good practice to join wires, solder them and shrink-wrap them to prevent any short-circuits.

Step 5: And You're Done!

Just put everything back together and you'll be able to access your utility box or underseat storage without turning off your engine. Even better, since its connected to the ignition line, when you turn off your engine, the switch won't work.

Hope this helps someone!

Here's a link to the video of the Remote Seat Opener in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnLsKpmAJ1U