Jim's 1980 SG Miss September

[Grimly]

Time For The Voltmeter.
Picked up the peanut gauge voltmeter awhile back and decided it was time to mount it. Not sure I'm happy with it... we'll see after the other gauges are mounted.

I fitted two of these to different bikes a couple of years ago. On the GS, I had to fit a hood to shield the readout as the normal daylight washed out the contrast and the LED display just isn't bright enough. Even with the hood it's not great, and I'll be replacing it with a more conventional dial-type VM.
On the XJ, the gauge sits down inside the front left of the cockpit fairing and is much better, but only just acceptable.

 

[Jim]

...Follow The Yellow Brick Road....
Took a trip over to the land of Oz this afternoon to pick up a front and rear fender from Phil (@halfmile). The front fender is perfectly straight, with worn chrome. It's good enough that I could box it up and send it to the chromers as it sits.
The rear fender isn't 100% perfect... but it is 100% better than the one I have...

My Pixel II makes it look worse than it really is. A little polishing and it's good enough for now. I'll send the original out for new chrome. The rust on the inside wasn't bad either, but I went ahead and shot it with some truck bed paint...

Thanks Phil!! I owe ya one...

 

[MaxPete]

Looks very nice indeed Jim!

 

[Jim]

Thanks Pete.

 

[Mailman]

That was awfully nice of Phil! P.S. I like the truck bed spray liner idea!

 

[robinc]

Looking good Jim. Curious to hear what it will cost to rechrome. Haven't pursued that up here yet, but hear it's getting pretty pricey as there are less and less shops that do it anymore.

 

[Jim]

That was awfully nice of Phil!

It was wasn't it....

P.S. I like the truck bed spray liner idea!

It's good stuff Bob.

 

[Jim]

Looking good Jim. Curious to hear what it will cost to rechrome. Haven't pursued that up here yet, but hear it's getting pretty pricey as there are less and less shops that do it anymore.

Thanks Robin. I'll put the cost up here when I get it done. I haven't had anything chromed in over 20 yrs. I'm not lookin forward to findin' out the cost now...

 

[Meddy]

Nice fender Jim, I've never seen that truck bed spray used on motorbikes, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen truck bed spray here in Oz.
You won't be spraying that on the one you get re-chromed though will you Jim?

 

[Jim]

You won't be spraying that on the one you get re-chromed though will you Jim?

No I wont. Main reason for it is to stop the rust from getting worse. Won't be needed with new chrome.

 

[MaxPete]

....besides, Jim will have the INSIDE of the newly chromed fender polished to a mirror finish and woe-betide any dastardly Missouri dirt that dares to stick to it.

 

[Jim]

Rear Fender installed.
New LED bulbs in the plate holder with wires direct to the battery to test em...

.....and yet another $100 order from Mikes. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sprocket is an EMGO. I've had real good luck with their products.

 

[MaxPete]

Somehow, an order from MikesXS / XSDirect always seems to top $100.....

 

[Jim]

Somehow, an order from MikesXS / XSDirect always seems to top $100.....

Yeah.... main reason though is you get free shippin' when you hit a hundred bucks. So I always order in blocks of a hundred... which, as you intimated... is pretty easy to do.

 

[Mailman]

Tail light looks good Jim, maybe you've said this already but, are you using LEDs all the way around your bike?

 

[Jim]

are you using LEDs all the way around your bike?

Not sure yet Bob... I'd like to. Flashers are doable 'cause you can get a flasher for LED's. For head and tail lights, I need to figure out a way to "fool" the reserve lighting unit. That or bypass it... which I'd rather not do 'cause I'd like to keep everything "factory functional." I guess it's still an open question.

 

[5twins]

I don't see the need to go all LED. All I changed was the tail light bulb and that was to lessen the draw during starting because mine comes on with the key (I'm going to "fix" that eventually). Changing that tail light bulb triggered my light checker though. I guess it thought the tail light was burned out now, lol. I just took the bulb out of the dash "Brake" warning light.

 

[Jim]

Thanks Bob!! Your question jogged my memory. I knew that I'd need to access the Reserve Lighting Unit connector down the road because I do plan on experimenting with LED's. Unfortunately, the routing for the SG puts that connection at the aft side of the battery box... sandwiched between the tool box and the plastic "false fender." In other words, to access it you have to remove the rear fender and the false fender. I completely forgot that while I installed the fenders. Now that my memory's been refreshed... I took it all back apart.
The connector needs to move forward to the green arrow....

I soldered (yes Gary, I use solder) an extension to the gnd. wire....

Some heat shrink....

Taped the harness back together and re-routed......

Now the connector is easily accessable for whatever I need to get at it for. Now, time to reinstall the fenders....

 

[Jim]

All I changed was the tail light bulb and that was to lessen the draw during starting because mine comes on with the key (I'm going to "fix" that eventually).

If you want to lesson current draw during starting, you might want to consider this mod....

As soon as you turn the key on, the alternator field is energized. That's about a two and a half amp draw. Not only that but now the starter has to drag the magnetized rotor around the stator.... using up more starter power. This cutout relay will kill that field current during start. I plan on doing this on the SG. Once it's back together I'll be able to quantify the results... but I'd guess the gains from this would be a lot more than the current draw from the tail light. You could even use two relays... one to kill the alternator and one to kill the lights. The relays I bought for this mod only draw about 100Ma.

 

[5twins]

Yes, show us more if you try it. I don't really understand it from that simple drawing but electrics aren't really my thing.