[JimShortz]

I am so annoyed at Honda for their unilateral repositioning of the horn above turn signal switch... Why? I have more than one bike and want the switch positions to be the same on all, hence I plan to make this swap for switchgear with things in the "right" position!

I can see that the plugs on the harness end aren't the same so it is at the very least involve swapping plugs and pin positions, and quite possible a bit of wire tracing and soldering. Has anyone done this? I can find nothing on the internet - and that suprises me since it seems an obvious swap to do.

Can anyone help? Thank you

 

[kiwi rider]

Hey Jim, I've not done this mod but it should be pretty straight forward given the similarities of the two switch blocks. Hey you may even get lucky and find the wire colors are the same! I'd just be careful to trace each wire on the CBR300 loom first to work out what it's function is then label clearly before cutting. Also, cut the wires about 2" back from the connector block so if you have to reconnect for what ever reason then you have heaps of wire to work with.
I've got an auto electrician friend and he once told me to always solder my wire joins rather than use crimp connectors. Because it's his trade I took his advice. Before joining the wires I slip a short length of heat shrink over one wire first so it can be pulled into place once the connection has been made and shrunk down to form a good covering for the exposed joint.
Apologies if I've told you how to suck eggs with any of that but it may assist someone else. All the best with your mod.

 

[JimShortz]

Thanks Kiwi - that's pretty much what I had in mind, and yes, I solder in exactly the same way, with something like 1cm of "side by side" soldering and shrink tube - never fails! I was kind of hoping someone had done all of the tracing and figuring, but if not i may well document mine and share; I can imagine it being a popular mod.

That change of switch position by Honda is enough to make me never want to buy a new bike from them... and certainly one where I couldn't do a switchgear swap. I'm wondering if they are monitoring the sales of left-hand switchgear from older models? it must be a lot, lol.

 

[JimShortz]

Having more than one bike and not being a Honda only rider I find their new style (last 5 years?) swapping of indicator and horn switch positions super frustrating. It is different to all other manufacturers and is plain dangerous imho. I don't want to have to be thinking about what bike I'm on when I need the horn in an emergency; nor do I want to press the horn when trying to signal a turn. I want my muscle memory to just work!

So… On my "new to me" CB300F (2015) commuter I have now swapped the left hand switchgear for that designed for a CBR250R (2011-2014). Evil Mr Honda seems to have made it deliberately difficult with different plugs, different wires and even different positioning of the locating hole in the handlebars - despite the fact that the functionality is identical. I don't think they want us doing this…

The attached pics show the wiring. The left hand is the plug end from the CB300F and the right is from the CBR250R switchgear. There are some odd colour pairings and one shared "feed" - white/black to black/green + white, but if you copy this you'll find it all works perfectly - at least once you have drilled the new locating hole in the handlebar (left side of switchgear on CBR250R, right side on CB300F!). Enjoy the freedom from Honda tyrrany 😁

Thank you btw to my mates Gary and Ben, who figured the wiring out for me and made this possible. Electricals isn't my strongest suit, to say the least…

 

[mbjenkins]

I am so annoyed at Honda for their unilateral repositioning of the horn above turn signal switch... Why? I have more than one bike and want the switch positions to be the same on all, hence I plan to make this swap for switchgear with things in the "right" position!

I feel your pain. I have two bikes and have hit the horn on a turn more than once. The Honda has an oversized horn button too. Definitely annoying as heck.

(Imagine what it was like pre-1970s when each manufacturer placed their controls where they wished. British bikes had the brake pedal on the left, Japanese bikes on the right. (I believe it was driven by which side a sidecar was mounted.) There were enough crashes that the US Govt. mandated the current configuration and the US market was big enough that it stuck world-wide.)

 

[kiwi rider]

Nice work! It would have been too easy for you if all the matching wires were the same colour...

 

[JimShortz]

Nice work! It would have been too easy for you if all the matching wires were the same colour...

lol, yes, that would've been awful! hmm... It would've been nice if they had even had the same number of wires! Anyway, all good, and done now.