Bike Preparation Part 2

Moving on to the electrical issues was a bit of a mixed bag:

The rear brake light switch was the easiest; it just started working again of its own accord! I suspect the fault was inadvertently fixed when I remounted the rear light, most probably the result of a loose connector.  

The horn was only slightly more difficult, a connector from the handlebar switch had come apart… simple!

The front brake light switch proved to be more difficult, the switch seemed to be working OK so I removed it from the loom via the connector mounted on the head stock. I then bridged the two wires in the connector and... nothing! So the switch was possibly OK but it looked like I might have a broken wire somewhere in the loom. I decided that it would not be to hard to fix for the MOT as I could just connect some new cables to those to the rear light switch and run them under the tank and connect to the front switch. A longer term solution would be required but it would almost certainly need some surgery on the wiring loom!

The speedo was also self explanatory with a number of severed wires. It looks as if they have been caught on the nav tower as the steering turns, so some thought will need to be applied there. This confused me as I seemed to have more wires coming out of the speedo than corresponding wires from the loom? A study of the wiring diagram shows this to be correct as four of the nine wires are there for the optional handlebar switch that turns the trip meter into a rally trip.  As I have no need for this facility, I can just ignore these wires. I'm also removing other redundant wiring such as the indicator wires to tidy up the rats nest that currently sits on the head stock. 

Another plan is to replace the two separate engine start and stop switches (see photo below) with a single switch block containing both switches. I just need to work out which wires need to go where as the new switch is from a Honda, so not a simple replacement and I need to work out which of the seven wires correspond to the four on the KTM. The switch incorporates the wiring to the (Honda) front brake light switch so there's a possibility I can incorporate that into the KTM's wiring too so neaten things up further on the bars.

You'll note the mirror mount in between the two switches. The EXC has no way of fitting mirrors as standard but whilst sorting through my box of CCM bits as I was selling some parts, I noticed the front brake is virtually identical (both are Brembo) and the CCM has provision to for a mirror on the clamp. Whilst I don't need a mirror when racing, it is very handy when out trail riding, so I was pleased to see the clamp was a perfect fit. This has allowed me to fit a Double Take folding mirror that uses a Ram Mount fitting.

That's a general problem with rally bikes, the need to fit road book and ICO switches to the left bar as well as lights, dip switch and horn makes things very crowded. The right hand bar is not so bad (unless running a back up ICO with the switches on that side) but still has to mount the brake reservoir/lever, start switch and kill switch. so the simpler it can be the better.

Also as I wont be using the mirror in racing, I can also use the Ram Mount to fit a video camera, as we are no longer allowed to wear helmet or body cameras under ACU rules.

To be continued...