star950, cleaning up the license plate area, any suggestions?

k, so here's my ghetto fix. And before you follow any of my instructions I just want to state for the record that I am most definitely not a mechanic or anything of the sort. I guessed my way through this process. Not to mention i'm not the best instructor, just giving fair warning. Also this is for this particular license plate with turn signals that I purchased.

http://www.meancycles.com/Home.asp?PartID=213962&AccCategoryID=2345&AccCategoryTypeID=0&BikeModelID=0&ManufacturerID=0&BikeType=Cruiser&CompanyID=0

Disconnection:

1. I took off the housing for the rear lights, the bracket for the rear light electrical and the shitty plastic extension for the license plate.

2. I disconnected the rear turn signals from the black housing (put these away because you won't be needing them unless you want four turn signals).


Fabrication:

3. buy 2 straight metal 4" brackets from home depot.

4. Buy 2 6mm x 16 mm alan screws, thread should be 1 mm apart (these will replace the two screws that bolt the silver plastic housing to the black metal brackets. These are slightly longer than the stock ones because you will be inserting the two metal brackets between the housing and brackets.)

5. (figure 1) Mark off the width of the metal bracket at the bottom of the silver housing. Do this same step for the other side.

6.(figure 2) Take a dremel with a cut off wheel and cut the silver housing where you had marked off the width of the bracket. Do this same step for the other side.

7. (figure 3) Temporarily sandwich the new bracket between the silver housing and the black stock bracket. Take the license plate and butt it to the bottom of the silver housing and give it about 1 or 2 mm for a slight cushion. Then mark off where the screw hole of the license aligns with the new bracket. Do this same step for the other side.

8. (figure 4) Drill a hole the size of the screw that will be going into the back of the lisence plate frame. Do the same step for the other bracket.

9. (figure 5) This is how it should look at this point if you temporarily put it together.


Installation:

10. Take the license frame and insert your license plate into the frame. Attach the brackets to the top two screws of the license frame. I used red locktite to make sure the screws don't vibrate out, you can probably use the blue locktite but I kept loosing those fasteners on my plate so i'm a lil more paranoid about it and didn't want to take a chance.

11. (figure 6) Wire up the lights and the relay. I decided to put the relay and most of the wiring right behind the plate just because I'm a lazy bastard and didn't want to deal with making it nice and hiding it behind the fender. But you should place the wires how you feel is best.

a. I cut of the connectors from the stock turn signals as well as the brake light that sits on just ontop of the stock plate that is attached to the black extension piece. This way I could re-use them on the new lights and it would connect directly back to how it was originally (highlighted in yellow). Make sure you write down which color connecter is associated to what. The middle yellow is for the brake light and the grey and black connecters are for the turn signals.

b. Attach the relay to the new wires as directed. by the instructions on that came with the relay.

11. Now just put everything back on your bike.

12. Before you completely attach everything back together permanently, first just connect the wiring together and test that turn signal connectors match. Light the bike up and test the turn signals. (I did this and had the right turn signal blinking left and vice versa. luckily those stock connecters are interchangeable and I have my black to grey and grey to black. oh well, no one will see that anyway.)

13. Put the stuff back on to the bike:

a. Attach the black bracket back on to the fender and make sure you use red locktite on the screws.

b. slide the wires from the bike into the rubber housing on the black bracket. yellow goes in the middle.

c. connect the wires from the plate to the wires that should be on the black bracket. (I hope you remembered the color set up).

d. (figure 7) sandwich the new brackets from the license frame in between the bolts on the black bracket and the silver bracket and use the new screws you bought to compensate for the added width from the new brackets. Again make sure you use red locktite on these screws as well.




video of new plate

Ok, so I couldn't leave the wires exposed like that on the back of the plate so I picked up one of those aluminum tube piping from home depot. Something thin enough to bend by hand and strong enough to withstand the pebbles that will kick up to the back of the plate. With this I fabricated a custom housing for the wires and relay so they aren't exposed to the elements.

fig 1. I designed a simple housing compartment that anyone here can use and modify anyway they want. I did it to be simple and easy to fabricate. I'm lazy that way.

fig 2. I drew the plans on the metal tubing after I straightened it out as much as possible. Used a metal ruler and black sharpie for the solid lines and a blue sharpie for the dotted lines that will get bent.

fig 3. I bent and cut the aluminum to shape. What I should've done first is drilled the holes into the aluminum while it was still straight cause after was a bitch to do. So I suggest drilling before bending to shape. To get a nice square bend, just line up the bend line to the edge of the table and bend it over the edge.

fig 4. Just remember the top portion should be open so you u have space for the wires to come out from as well as keep it ventilated for the relay so it doesn't over heat. I don't know if it does over heat or what not but i did this just in case.

fig 5. on the bottom i drilled some holes for more ventilation as well as having a route for water to escape from if on a really rainy day the water get's into the housing. once again I should've drilled the holes before I bent it to shape.

fig 6. I folded in the little tab and riveted it to the other side for extra strength.

fig 7. Once it was drilled bent and everything I just gave it a coat of matt black spray paint. Had it lying around.

fig 8. install the housing on the back of the plate and use washers on top of this new housing because the aluminum is still pretty thin.

after this you are done and enjoy.

I hope this helps some of you.

Pretty cool, nice job. Good luck with it.

An unrelated question for you. Do you have a windshield on your bike? It looks like you have a shorty windshield but I'm not sure from the pic. If you do, can you answer a few questions for me?
1. Which one is it?
2. Do you like it?
3. What is the difference you noticed with the shorty windshield?
4. Do you experience any helmet lift-what kind of helmet do you wear?

Any other info you could provide would be appreciated. I'm debating adding a small windshield.

Thanks.

_tonyb_ said:

Pretty cool, nice job. Good luck with it.

An unrelated question for you. Do you have a windshield on your bike? It looks like you have a shorty windshield but I'm not sure from the pic. If you do, can you answer a few questions for me?
1. Which one is it?
2. Do you like it?
3. What is the difference you noticed with the shorty windshield?
4. Do you experience any helmet lift-what kind of helmet do you wear?

Any other info you could provide would be appreciated. I'm debating adding a small windshield.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

1. it's a boulvard windsheild: http://www.starmotorcycles.com/star...ail/5/516/2117/17206/all/1/7941/0/detail.aspx

2-3. it deflects some of the wind from the body but I still get most of it on the upper chest to head area. I didn't want to get the big honking ones so this was the next best thing. As far as how I like it, I think it's ok not great but ok. If you're looking for full wind protection forget this windsheild, like I said it helps a little but not a lot.

4. I wear nothing but full face helmets that fit nice and snug so I don't get the helmet lift. I tried wearing the brain bucket once or twice and I HATE it. The brain bucket felt like it was gonna fall off any second, the noise from the pipes mixed in with the noise of the wind was deafening, the harsh wind on your face was no picnic and forget about how drops of rain feel against your face when it rains and you're doing about 70-80mph. I really really don't put a brain bucket in mind since i was in an accident about two months ago, luckily I had the full face on because if I didn't my face would've been torn up. Sorry to go on and on about my dislike of brain buckets but I guess it's up to the individual as to what they like and this is just my opinion.

hope that answers your question. safe riding.