Changing speedometer gauge bulbs & Lextek backbox.

Extra lighting update.

Things are coming along nicely with the extra lighting, however I've realised the set up needs another switch, kind of a main switch under the back seat so it can be switched off permanently regardless of the current switch and not left switched on draining the battery when parked up (or by fiddlers). I'm also finding time to permanently fix down the lights in place, as I use the bike for transport and it's likely they will be put in place with glue / epoxy (tacked in place) before being drilled and bolted. This will stop them moving about and all the awkwardness, however I also know it will stop them being adjusted left to right so I'm not quite sure. I also want to get them positioned and drilled / bolted in as much of a mirror image as possible. Trying to do that when you have to use the bike is a bugbear. But that's all for the next blog.

Changing speedometer gauge bulbs.

In the meantime however, trying to think of something useful to add to the blog for XTRS owners. I thought about the Speedometer bulbs since I had one to change. The bulbs in the gauges are T10 size the same as the riding light. And yes, you could try L.E.Ds in there, I briefly tried one it lasted longer than they did in the riding light but still ultimately blew. And about that, on dismantling the T10 L.E.Ds the 'resistors' had blew (breaking the circuit at the same time) not the L.E.D itself. When connecting the L.E.D electrodes to power it lit right up. How well they would fair without the resistor is anybodies guess? With some fuse wire and a soldering iron I may be able to get one or two functioning again without the resistor to test just out of curiosity. So a T10 bulb will do, yes the brighter or 'whiter' the light the better but, I really wouldn't go wasting Xenon T10 bulbs in there if you don't need to as long as it lights up at night and is visible, I wouldn't go too to town on the gauge, unless you can find a decent brand of L.E.Ds that last the distance.

Now, you don't need to take the gauge off completely as above. You can get away with removing the two little panels at the top on the sides and just undoing the one gauge locking nut for a bit of leverage, if you need to change any of the two main bulbs at each end (remember there are other bulbs, like neutral light etc). Remember though if you do, you need to disconnect / unscrew the speedo cable.

The bulbs are positioned where those brown and green wires go into the black rubber plugs. Just pull these plugs out and the blub will be on the end. They don't give you much to pull them out except grabbing by the wires, I would advise using a screw driver to lift them out however if you can. It looks as though one of mine is intermittent and one of the wires was pulled out the rubber slightly at some point or other, although I pushed it back in with a precision screwdriver and put a drop of cyno acrylate glue over the top to hold it in place, I don't feel right without a proper replacement. I ordered a replacement off eBay under 'T10 bulb holder' on the search bar. You will see the correct type as you look, you might also see the type for the front riding light with the twist lock, if you wish to get a spare now they're not expensive, if not you know where to find them. 

It would just require me to cut the old one off and solder / heat-shrink wrap the new one on. I've no doubt that over time I'll likely have to do this again due to the same problem occurring again on another plug anyway. Maybe a bit of lubrication on the plug would make it easier for the next time it needs to be pulled out?

Also, when I look at the above picture, I noticed two of the wires (the loose black one and the green) aren't connected. In fact the loop connector had snapped in two from it's screw down. Just how long this has been like this I don't know? I didn't notice anything untoward happening with it disconnected however?? Anyway, I have some loop connectors and stripped the wire back and put a new one on,put some fresh black heat-shrink wrap on and connected it back up (below). It's a better quality loop connector I've put on anyway, much thicker neck and shouldn't snap. 

I must say it's had me baffled, black is usually a negative polarity wire but so is green being used as a polarity wire into the bulbs and I'm guessing it's the negative, as brown / red are usually positive. Without a multimeter or wiring diagram I couldn't guess but it's back where it belongs anyway. It's behind the fuel gauge and the motor for the arm is working anyway. Is it a sensor wire from the fuel tank float? I'm not sure but I would've thought that it would register no fuel without the signal, which it wasn't. A mystery. The green one I had to find a temporary screw for, so what went on there I've got no idea? Someone pissing about with it while parked up? I don't know. With that and the bulb wire pulled out is like someone has put their hand underneath and pulled / yanked at the wires. It didn't look like that the last time I had it off, and it wasn't all that long ago for this blog. Strange.

Using T5 bulbs in a T10 slot.

I have 3 spare T10 bulbs, however I have two small boxes full to the brim of smaller T5 size bulbs. The bulbs are smaller but can be adjusted to fit the T10 socket as they are the same spec power wise. T5 bulbs are also used as speedo gauge bulbs and provide just as decent enough light for the task. The only thing is with their size they might not contain as much gas as a T10 bulb and would need changing / die out quicker.

Now I'm going to show you how to do this as people have been doing so with cars in emergencies for years, obviously if you're buying new then buy T10s but if it's an emergency or you have some to hand like me then it's fair enough.

First we need to thicken the tab on the end up a little. Carefully with your thumb nail or a small screwdriver bend back the wire legs out of the way as shown in the picture.

Then take a small strip of masking tape, cut the tape in half horizontally, and then cut that in the same way once more.

Then take one of these strips and wrap it around the tab to thicken it. Using the tip of the screwdriver bend the tips of the electrodes facing opposite directions as shown below. When it comes to putting the bulb into the holder you will have to adjust the electrodes a little more, the bulb should sit right in the middle and the electrodes make good contact with the plug contacts and they will light just fine. As long as the tab is thick enough and it's a good snug fit, there should be no vibration worries (vibrating out).

This one has gone into my main speed gauge on the left and lights up adequately well enough (below).

At night on this bike it's hard to see the smaller tiny MPH markings anyway however at a quick glance, you have to take a good look, you generally have to remember where about in MPH it is in KMH on the clock if you want to keep your eyes on the road. It would be better if the MPH had the priority on the clock, I guess this is an advantage with newer digital clocks being selectable between the two. It's still good to have it lit up though in case of any speed cameras and having to be as sure as you can how fast you're going. Just remember this is more of a bodge than anything but if done right it's fine. I just had a load of T5 bulbs lying around and needed to change a bulb and thought the extra knowledge might come in handy for anyone reading.

Lextek luggage back box and luggage rack. 

Now I bought the package deal with the two together but you can get them separately. The rack of course will also fit the Honda CBR 125 the bike is based on. And the rack on it's own can be used to carry different kinds of luggage with bungee straps or a bungee cargo net etc. But in this case it's going to accommodate the Lextek box. Now I've bought the smaller box itself, they do a larger 52 Litre box as well. The smaller box however is fine for most needs together with my large motorcycle rucksack you can get a decent bit of shopping between the two while getting the fuel saving of using the bike. You can fit your helmet & gloves in while in the shop etc which comes as a god send after a while. I can clip my helmet onto my rucksack but there comes a time when you don't need to go out with the rucksack and the box is just enough for what you need to pick up. Flat horizontally it can fit 2x 2 litre bottles with obvious room for more on top of them with room for a few other things in front & in the top area of the box so it will take things like pop and water bottles fine within reason of amount (I've took 4 bottles with other things so far). I've even fit horizontally a big multi-pack of toilet rolls on top of the bottles, just the corners of the plastic cover poked over the edge but it still shut and locked. It's a decent enough size coupled with the back pack for most things.

Anything bigger you will have to use just the rack and your ingenuity to get it on. With a full load you will notice the extra weight at times and as long as you don't go hammering it into corners or around roundabouts and take it easy on the bike you should be fine. I know you see people in the east on You Tube carrying cattle, and large bags of potatoes on the back of 125s !! So a bit of shopping shouldn't be that bad. You get all the fixing kit, bolts and brackets. The bolts are of the cheaper Chinese type (thinking maybe they'll rust) you might want to change them at a later date for steel of the same type but, they're fine for immediate use and hold well. The box itself is of very good quality.  

When it came to attaching my rack it was very tight and it wouldn't go on. In fact it wasn't just tight it was beyond the attach point, I had to take a file to each of the four mounting points and file a little off each one before it would fit, I would say it was well over it's tolerances in manufacture but that was probably just mine and I got the macaroni one. I couldn't be bothered to send it back so got the file and made it fit. The bolts again are of the Chinese cheaper type and have gone rusty on the outside so I will remove one, check it's sizes and buy stainless steel replacements.   

All in all they are a recommended buy for the bike regardless, even if you prefer to have the looks without the box on the practicality of one soon wins you over. I just wish the Chinese would stop putting shit screws / bolts on good decent products to cut corners, you only end up replacing them for better bolts anyway.

[edit in pictures later]

Extra Lighting Part 3.

Extra Lighting Part 3.

Right well, I've been quite busy recently so I haven't had much time to get on and get this extra lighting finished completely but, I have had time to get a little bit more done.

First I decided which terminals / connectors to use after cutting the strobe unit from the L.E.Ds. I choose to leave a little wire on the strobe unit just in case I decide to use it later on for something (you can use whichever type of connector you want / prefer). I used a pair of terminal crimpers but the L.E.D's wire is very thin & required me to crimp the majority of the length of the connector as well as removing enough plastic sheath to bend back and double up the wire, to thicken it slightly. You could solder it on but the plastic cover would have to be removed and you would most likely need to add some heat shrink wrap, to stop it shorting. 

I chose to use the female connectors on the L.E.Ds, as the battery has male connectors (for testing). The main wire loom I produce will have the male connectors as well. This just means that they can be removed by unplugging should the front headlight panel need removing or you need to remove a bracket in future etc. The smallest connectors all have a red plastic sheath, it's a key that's marked to the crimping tool. The red dot point on the crimping tool is the place red sheath connectors are crimped at, so it's crimped correctly. It's all pre thought out in a standards sense. I coloured the negative (-) connector with a marker just in case there's a mix up with the polarity fumbling around under the inside of the headlight panel. The connectors for a certain diameter are all red due to the standards, the only way around it is to remove the sheath & use the correct colour heatshrink tubing or use a marker like above. As long as you know which wire is which it doesn't really matter. The male ones are all blue in the same manner, so it doesn't relate to polarity.

Testing the two L.E.Ds on the battery without the strobe, also testing the new connectors are crimped correctly. It all works fine. As mentioned before, this battery is a rechargeable 12 volt alarm battery, model 'Power Sonic PS 1213' I think it says on the picture below?

Next we can get back to the brackets. Getting them back under the install point under the front headlight panel. They're still a bit too tall to fit comfortably, so I cut off 2cm off the length of the front facing part of the bracket (the part I chose to be the front, it's a 90 degree bracket after all). I'm concentrating on one bracket only (right hand side) and we will see why later on.

After checking once more the one corner is still impeding free movement so I mark it up and cut it off.

Using some masking tape and a bit of fiddling we tape the bracket to the bottom of the headlight panel and the L.E.D to the bracket itself to get our position correct. A slight slot can be cut in the bracket to bend the wire back later on, although it's not really necessary. Once in position we get our permanent marker pen (as fine as possible) or you might get away with a sharp pencil if it marks the bracket fine, and draw around the circumference of the L.E.D and mark if we can the hole points for orientation. It's better to mount diagonally here with the holes, also the wire is nearer to the bottom, just where we want it.

We can remove the excess material marked in black at the top, so it's just rounded off. All we will see when we look at it is the L.E.D and it will sit flush, I also plan on painting the bracket and L.E.D casing black with Hammerite so it won't really be visible when finished. 

You can remove it with a hacksaw as best as possible then file, that's what I did as I had the two tools right there in front of me. Or I could of turned the grinder on and ground it all off. Whichever suits you it doesn't have to be a perfect finish, it won't really be seen under there. Just watch for any sharp burr on the edges and file it away as necessary.

Right, now we have the one bracket done we can use this as a guide for our other one. Now the other side of the bike is a mirror image to the one we've just looked at. So we don't just need a copy of the bracket but a mirror image of it! The easy way to do this is to place both brackets facing each other on a flat surface, so they're both level. Then using either a clamp or simple tape, join them together and use one as a template, draw around it and cut and file it to match the other bracket.

Your left with a pair of matching brackets for either side, you will have to once again use masking tape and fiddle the same way on the left side to mark the L.E.D position properly.