more wires

Yeah, so, that great idea about using Kawasaki controls, because the brake light switches were so good? Well, the switch I had was bad so I had to buy one from ebay and it came with two.


I did a quick ohm check and this one works okay.


I installed it at the master cylinder to orange wires and it still worked okay. So that's a good sign.


The other nice thing about these connectors that I use is that they can be easily labeled.


Cut, strip, rosin.


Crimp and solder.


Shrink wrap and plug them in.


Now the engine cut off switch connections. These connections also allow me to bypass a bad switch on the side of the road.


The green wires go to the engine cut off switch.


All done up and connected.


One wire from the horn switch.


The horn button actually feeds a ground to the horn. So the other side of the horn button goes to the ground junction. Also, the ground for the voltmeter will connect there as well. I need a small gauge spade connector to finish voltmeter though.

Gooden Tight Crossbones Riser Bushings Install

I hate the wiggle in the stock rubber dampened bushings of this Crossbones springer, especially running 16 inch ape hangers. So I ordered this kit off of eBay. The Crossbones with the 16 inch front tire is the same as the FLS springers, right?


I will spare you the details of figuring everything out, but no, the risers on the Crossbones and FLS springers are not the same. Notice the difference in height between the bottom hex section of the stock on the left and the FLS kit on the right.


This results in a nice tight riser, but look at all this ugliness hanging out the base of the risers. UGH.


Shopping online is not much help either. I found two different pictures for sure, but the fitment listings didn't seem to match with the correct "file" photograph. So I finally ordered by fitment and hoped for the best. Even the Alloy Art website wasn't real helpful. Basically, I discover there are three kits. One for FXS, FLS, and Crossbones; part numbers GT-FXS, GT-FLS, and GT-CBS respectively.

The packaging for the new kit confirmed this nice cut-away of the risers shown. I am still a bit amazed by these differences on the risers for each of the front ends.


Top clamp off first, of course.


These nuts next.


The old spongy rubber bushings have to come out.


Studs off next.


From my previous trials with these things, I learned to only remove one at a time. The tapers aligned everything and the top tree will shift a bit with both of them removed. It's not impossible to get things back inline, but leaving one in is easier. Unlike the stock studs, a regular 1 inch socket can be used on these.


I wasn't sure on the torque, I think I did 30 ft*lb.


Both sides done.


Bottom hard bushings go on next.


Risers on. I blew the pictures on the next steps, but the top hard bushing and sleeved metal bushing go on. Then the bolts and torque them to the same as the tapered fitting underneath.


Even when tight the risers will move easily enough to align to fit the bars.


Caps and bolts. These are easy to strip so I went gently tight and I will have to verify the exact torque sequence later.

Headlight wiring

I am back at the wiring. Time to connect the headlight to the handlebar switch.


I use a little rosin on the wire, then light crimp, then solder. My alligator clip holder works here as well as doing straight connections.


A little shrink wrap on the connectors and some where the wires come out of the bars.


There's not enough room for my usual Dorman 85612 connectors so I will have to go with a male spade terminal on the headlight wires. And yes, I did solder on a foot of wire to these leads last time, just used like two inches of the new wire.


This is exactly why I use those covered double male connectors. Just look at all that metal showing.


Connect and cover the metal with electrical tape.


Hide everything with spiral wrap.


I am getting happier about how this is coming along.


Looking fairly clean.

Most of the Handlebar Wires to the Main Harness

Way back in April I got serious about wiring, then fizzed out when the rest of life got in the way.

Well here we get back to getting this thing together. I bought this spiral wrap off of eBay for this job and it's not quite big enough for everything. I'll need to figure out something else.


I did these connections for the headlight in April, but I don't like them now. So I ripped them apart again. So much for progress.


I don't like the wires I spliced to the headlight socket either. They were too heavy for my liking, so I need to redo those.


Fresh leads with smaller wires.


Some good news, the wrap will work nicely for the headlight bucket wires. The split wrap will help, because two wires will connect at the handlebars and the ground wire will go back to the ground block between the tanks.


Back to the main harness from the bars. Hiding the wires on a conventional hydraulic front end is pretty easy, just drill a hole or two in the top triple tree and route the wire down the neck and frame. Like this.


A springer is different. The top tree is tiny and routing the wires through it means they lay really close to the springs and risk a pinch for sure.

So my plan was adjusted to run the right side handlebar wires to the right of the neck and backbone and the left wires on the left. The exposed parts of the wiring I will cover with shrink wrap.


This is better. Hopefully a lot better with the tanks on. I'm only using re-useable zip ties at this point for sure.


Here's everything for the left side, to include the voltmeter from the middle of the bars. And yes, despite my efforts to have everything clearly color coded, I have big duplication of wire colors; black and black with white paired wire set for both the horn and the voltmeter.


Luckily the voltmeter wires are easily identified. A 9 volt battery will light it up, but won't hurt the horn button wires if you check them the same way.



Here's the left side cleaned up.


At this point I think I ran out of connectors again and then I tried to install solid riser bushings on the springer and that didn't work out because I had the wrong kit. Remember this?

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They have a lot of cool stuff you didn't know you needed. I actually won this Worst Case survival kit from Gearforlife's instagram account. All great pieces, all stuff you need to camp or motorcycle camp. It fits nicely in a saddlebag. Besides all the basic fire starting stuff, there are other things you will need: paracord is always good, zip ties and band aids of course, a back up mini flashlight, Uncle Bill's Silver Gripper tweezers(I carry those everyday already.), duct tape, and a P-38 opener to open a can of beans or a fancy beer that someone always brings, but forgets the opener.


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