where to buy colored wire?

[emzdogz]

Advance Auto Parts, near my house, has the usual, red, green, black and some really thick blue.

Wondering what kind of place has a bigger assortment of wiring colors?

Have been trying to scavenge some from my old stock harness, but it is very old and pretty brittle.

McMaster-Carr has some colors....they sell 25 ft minimums. May go that route. But they don't have striped or 2 color wire.

Wondering if anyone knows if NAPA has wiring like that? or someplace else?

Radio Shack appears to be pretty limited, too. Seems they mostly carry speaker wire these days.

thx
Em

 

[XS650_Bobber]

I use ebay a lot, try there...

 

[weekendrider]

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7087

 

[xs650hacker]

My wife works at NAPA so I get the bulk of any wiring I need from them. They usually have black, pink, purple, blue, red, yellow, green, orange, brown etc. on hand in spools of 100 foot to 1000 foot I believe. Generally like .20 -.79 cents a foot, no minimum that I am aware of.

 

[emzdogz]

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7087

hey thanks - not sure why that didn't come up when I searched...

 

[emzdogz]

My wife works at NAPA so I get the bulk of any wiring I need from them. They usually have black, pink, purple, blue, red, yellow, green, orange, brown etc. on hand in spools of 100 foot to 1000 foot I believe. Generally like .20 -.79 cents a foot, no minimum that I am aware of.

wow, that would ROCK if they sold it by the foot or yard...I will call them.
thx!

 

[sreimer]

The best thing to do is get motorcycle quality (or auto) get a harness from a salvage yard. I've used others and had problems with the strands breaking. There are many bikes running around with original wiring that are 40+ years old. The haps know what's up

 

[emzdogz]

I went ahead and ordered a few lengths from McMasterCarr. There's one kind that they do sell in 10 foot lengths, so that was cheap. Then in order to get purple, I had to get a slightly different 16 gauge one and it had a minimum length of 25 feet. The one striped wire they offer is I think green and yellow. Didn't get any of that. Ordered some connectors, too.
XS harnesses don't use purple wire, so I'm simply going to substitute purple for red with tiny white stripe.

Will re-visit "wiring" of my bike this weekend, I need a break from it. Broke my damn headlight, too. It fell.

 

[section8joe]

I went to half dozen stores today. No one sells it by the foot. I even went to my local indy motorcycle dealer and they wouldn't sell me any. I know they have hugh rolls of wire in the back.

 

[projectxs650]

Idk if you checked it out, but most car-accessories places have a wide array of wire sizes and colors. The kind of places that do audio installation and what not.

 

[emzdogz]

found this place through someone on an audio forum I visit. They have LOTS of combos in 18 gauge.
Lots of the stock harness is 18 gauge anyway, right?
http://www.eficonnection.com/eficonnection/Wire.aspx

ps: and the cool thing - you can just buy short lengths!!!!

 

[retiredgentleman]

Yamaha did use #19 gauge as I measured its diameter (maybe its #18?). However, I had to do a repair on my friends 1980 headlight wiring due to melted insulation. 2 wires were shorted together.

I recommend you only use #16 gauge for most wiring................less chance of overheating, and less voltage drop.

From the battery positive to the rectifier and to the ignition switch I would use #14 gauge.

 

[AirsoftNY]

found this place through someone on an audio forum I visit. They have LOTS of combos in 18 gauge.
Lots of the stock harness is 18 gauge anyway, right?
http://www.eficonnection.com/eficonnection/Wire.aspx

ps: and the cool thing - you can just buy short lengths!!!!

Nice find Emzdog. I was hoping to find assorted color combos!

 

[littlebill31]

I like Waytek wire.

 

[emzdogz]

here's another really cool one.... LOTS of options. Got this from someone on another 650 list.

http://www.riwire.com/

 

[emzdogz]

Just wanted to add to this: Home Depot in my area, I noticed, has rolls of wire where you can buy it by the foot. Conveniently, blue, brown, red and orange are some of the colors they have in nice 16 or 14 g.

 

[C-Los SD]

Guys, if you want to save some money, go to a trailer supply shop and buy 7 strand trailer wire. Strip the insulation and now you have 7 different colored thick gauge wire (12-14 gauge). I bought 20ft for $10

 

[shotgunjoe]

Another great source is Dimecitycycle.com

Get that vintage look you want so bad, at a reasonable price.

 

[poorman9]

Also, check out West Marine, it's a boat shop, but they sell this really nice, flexible, corrosion resistant wire, for between 18 and 40 cents a foot. - Here's a link to their online store.