My Reader runs on a charge for weeks. The Chinese model I bought has the external stem mounted sensors. I need to crack them open to replace the batteries, as well.
LOL! A cigarette ligher port is not necessarily leaky. Mine was purchased at Wal-Mart; it has a rubber seal on the spring-loaded door; it is mounted on the top of the CC switch housing, with caulk-sealed wires running through the faux tank (no leaks in 3+ years, on any of it, and we have ridden through plenty of rain, and more than one downpour). I do not use the lighter port very often, but it is nice to have it on the bike, as an option!
I recommend a sub-fuse block, beneath the faux tank. I used silicone caulking to mount it on top of some OEM plastic -- I can remove it, if necessary, as I used minimal caulk to adhere it. I added the cigarette lighter port to it, along with a pair of hi/lo car horns, using the OEM horn switch circuit to power a relay -- the horns draw power directly from the battery, through the sub-fuse block. The sub-fuse block is a fantastic accessory to add to your Voyager, or any bike, really. Connect the sub-fuse block to a relay: the relay only turns the sub-fuse block on when the bike is running; this prevents toys from draining/killing the battery, when the bike is off.
I also strongly recommend adding a Voltmeter, of some sort, to your bike. Connect it directly to the battery, so you can monitor the health of both the battery, and the charging system. There are multiple threads on this forum, showing various designs. You can get small, LED rectangular Voltmeters, for very little money, off of e-Bay, but these are more challenging to mount. Make sure to run this through the sub-fuse block, so it goes off when the bike is turned off!
Use another relay: when the bike is running, the relay, in series with the Voltmeter's Positive lead, is connected; when the bike is turned off, the Voltmeter's Positive lead is opened. If you use an LCD (no light, usually a brown background, with black letters/numbers, cannot be read in darkness, without a separate light), instead of an LED (illuminated, typically Blue or Red, shines in the dark), you can skip the relay switch, as an LCD consumes micro-watts of power -- it would take months to drain the battery...
On my Honda, and my 440 LTD, I went with an automotive, round gauge. My Voyager has a smart Voltmeter, which is OOP, otherwise I would adamantly recommend it: it monitors the life of the battery, indicating how much starting power it has left in it -- warns me before the battery leaves us sitting somewhere.
LED lights conversion is also highly recommended: it frees up amperes and watts for the battery, and your accessories, as the charging system is anemic, on these bikes. Besides that, LED's have a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of 30,000-50,000 hours, where an incandescent bulb typically maxes out at a MTBF of 7,000 hours.
More than you paid for, in this post, but I hope you find some of it useful. Cheers!
