Ev's 11- the latest update. (I've seen the light!)

[Eveready1100]

Fred, this is sort of a temporary fix (been going on for about ten years now) just to get my instruments to work with the main  harness, which came out of my spares bike, a 78E that was past restoring. That main loom still remains completely unmolested. I've only added extra bits to it, which I can unplug once I source a complete Special harness for my bike (to be fitted sometime in the next ten odd years) to get it all back to original specs(+ some add ons)

Geoff, the flood victim should be a shoe-in, as fitting that standard harness to it and getting the Sport instruments to work off it will be nearly exactly the same as what I've just done to my bike, and you know what they say about practicing something, eh?

[steptoe]

Your definitely the the man for the flood bike rewiring project

I just don,t have that amount of jiggery pokery-ing in me

[Fred]

Mate,

if you ever sell the love of your life I like to be there when the new guy reaches for his wiring diagram to run some diagnostics for some electrical fault finding

[Eveready1100]

And another update.
Due to my XS11 police bike speedo snapping the needle off 2 weeks ago, then beginning the low pitched squeal of imminent death a few days later, I finally got around to a job I'd been meaning to do since I replaced the wiring harness yonks ago. Simply, I'd run out of Standard replacement speedos, so I decided to to hook my original Special's instruments up to the Standard wiring harness. Due to the different idiot light setup, I had to fab up a mini loom to get the connections matched up.


 ^ basically a patch cord to adapt from the 9, 6, 4, and 3 pin blocks connectors of the Standard guages to the 6, 2 x 4, and 2 x 3 pin connectors for the Special. Won't bore you with all the details but I thought the single indicator warning light on the Special was going to be a real problem, but surprisingly, after a bit of jiggery pokery, it all works!


 ^ Got the loom finished and after one last test off the bike, I set about mounting the guages (Yes, above the triple clamp will do for now till I get all the extra lengths of wiring to settle in place)
Here's a little tip. If you have problems getting the washers and nuts on the bottom of the guage cluster bracket ( I'm always dropping the damned things into the bowels of the bike), grab a magnetic pick up tool (everyone should have one of these!) and stick it to the head of the bolt. Now you can reach underneath with each washer on your fingertip and push it up onto the thread of the bolt and it will obediently stay there until you've fitted the nut up against the bolt end.



 ^ Just sittin there!
Hold your finger on the nut and remove the magnet and stick your socket on the bolt and tighten with your finger still holding the nut until it starts on the thread. Makes it sooooooooo easy!


 ^ I like the new profile when viewed from the front


 ^ Luckily, the odo reading is only 6,471 klms short of what its current mileage is ( + 300,000) so when I've got a spare week off, I'll hook up a drill to the speedo cable and run it till I get the numbers matched up ( stole that idea from Steptoe)


 ^ and how it looks lit up ( High beam light is also in the tacho. Forgot to flick that one on)

Hopefully, that'll be it for a while, unless this one carks it too!
Now it's a proper Special, sort of...................

[Eveready1100]

Removed the bottom light and blacked out my headlight support struts.


 ^ Much cleaner lines out front.

And as per my plan


 ^ Mounted it under my roof


 ^ the original 50 watt headlight


 ^ seriously doubt I'm going to outrun the light at 10kph 

[Christian Raith]

Great job Errol, older eyes need all the help they can get....talking about me of course

[Eveready1100]

Yeah, Paul. It's going to be friggin' awesome on my mower! Waste not, eh?

[Jonesy :-)]

Hey Ev
from your first set of photos the upper one seems to cover what the lower one does and more, so like you say maybe the lower one not required

[Eveready1100]

Some quick shots I took while warming the bike up last night


 ^ Low beam


 ^ High beam


 ^ + lower


 ^ + upper


 ^ + both


 ^ Showing light intensity from the side. Camera wouldn't work any further round to the front.

Maybe a touch too much reflective surface to show the difference between the upper and lower lights, but over the weekend I'll find a good spot in the yard ( with some trees in the distance) and set up my tripod.

The more time I'm on the bike, the more I'm leaning towards what Steptoe said, as the upper light seems to be able to do the job of both, so I might remove the sticky outee bottom one on the weekend to clean up the lines of the front end.

[XSNT999]

I agree mate

I'll be travelling from Pt Lincoln to Nyboida via Adelaide to pick up the others, so it could take three days travel or more each way.  Be interesting to see if we do any night riding.

Cheers

[Eveready1100]

That's the plan, Paul. I don't want to become another statistic.
Just want to still be around for a few more rallies yet.

[XSNT999]

Very impressive Ev

If it keeps you upright, safe & alive, it's a good set up!!!!

Cheers

[Eveready1100]

Street lights? There's about four of them in 50+ klms till I reach Bundaberg. None at my end.
Ooooooooh, the luxuries some people have!

[nozila]

looks awesome. i drove from adelaide to melb and back over the weekend. can definitely see the advantage of extra lighting in the dark especially in areas with no street lights.

[Eveready1100]

Here's some shots I took last night on the way to work
Can't seem to get the lens setting to show how bright the headlight is on its own, but it shows the differences in illumination ok.

 ^ Here's low beam - headlight only (50w HID)


 ^ High beam


 ^ Here's high beam w/ lower bar light on.


 ^ And high beam w/ the upper


 ^ and here it is with all lights ablaze
I need to tweak the adjustment of all the lights as even the headlight isn't quite right since I started messing around with its mounts.
Will try to maybe get a tripod so the camera stays in exactly the same position for all the pics plus find a different spot with some features up the road to highlight the brightness. Empty air doesn't reflect light very well.