Something a little random this time, for as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a cruiser to play with, to make my own so to speak. I’ve ridden for over 25 years now, but alas, since nearly dying in 2001 (thanks for not seeing me and pulling out on me Ford Fiesta) and then again breaking my wrist two years later as I caught an early frost white line on my way home from work (should have let go and not tried to save it … but 10kkkkkkkkkkk snap … couldn’t help myself LOL). Anyway, the third time is a charm as they say, so my kids were only just with us, well the first one at least, so I decided that then was not the time to take the chance (read: WIFE SAY NO!).
Anyway, fast forward 20 years and here I am with a not new project to work on and it is definitely an experience. I managed to get this middle of the road cruiser at a really good price that would allow me the budget to do with it what I wanted to make it my own. First things first though, I stripped it of the pillion seat, sissy bar and panniers, which is where I found out the rear indicators were broken. No biggy, 10 mins on eBay later, new indicators winging their way over from China. It is probably pertinent to note at this point, I do not know what I am doing; I just want to do it!
Indicators arrive, fit the rears, boom we have hyper flashing. That is where this story begins. Googling where the indicator relay was produce many many results, including various incorrect AI conclusions, at one point Google’s AI was giving me the details of the MT09, how that even remotely sounds like XVS950a I do not know. So that is the reason for this post, I had to do it myself, the 1100 vstar has the relay under the fuel tank, same with the 1300. The 650 has it behind the side cover. Nothing would tell me about the bloody bike that I had. It is actually under the seat latch on the near side (UK/Japan near side before any of you try and correct me), just in front of the tool kit.
I realised after putting everything back together that I took this picture without the toolkit there … so the left (of the picture) of the indicator relay location is the tool kit.
So you have to remove the seat catch to get at it, well, you undo the bolts and move it aside as it’s still attached to the key release on the side. Then you can get access to the indicator relay.
There is next to now play on the cable connecting to the relay and it is nigh on impossible to get to without dropping it down. However, there the cable is connected to the frame by a small clip, using a trim removal tool, it will pry out without incident. Once that is popped out it is easy to move the relay and cable down into the swing arm to remove the relay and attach a new one. The new Chinese relay was an L-shaped relay, so I had to cut the cable, install female spade connectors and then connect those to the relay. Brown is for Battery, labelled B on the relay and Brown/White is the load, labelled L on the relay.
In hindsight, my replacing the rear indicators only and then testing the first relay was a mistake, the relay resolved the hyper flashing temporarily, but then it gave up the ghost and I had to visit Amazon again, this time I ordered a different one. The new one however didn’t like operating a mix of indicators, when I first installed it the indicators just stayed on. As soon as I replaced the front indicators as well everything worked as expected. For some reason it feels like things always go the way of the pear instead of being really simple.
Excuse the rusty stuff, everything is on my todo list, some I can do without procrastinating, some I can’t—I am currently in the process of procrastinating about which bits to take apart and when so as to take them to a paint shop, but I do always want to try painting things, I have never done it, so I I feel like I really should give it a go. I am also popping to the garage to sort out rear wheel alignment, the garage I frequent (TS Auto’s) is awesome, I have known the owner, Aaron as man and boy, I call him the “Car whisperer”. Well Aaron is going to let me have a go at it, laugh at me (very loudly I suspect) when I undoubtedly do something wrong and then help me do it properly! Once I have mastered that, I can then see about putting a wider tyre on it without changing the swing arm. Apparently that is something that is doable. I also wanted to replace the floorboards with forward controls (and remove the engine crash bar), but I am told the ones available for the 650 and the 1100, do not fit the 950a Midnight and there are none for the 950a … see what I mean, simple things going pear shaped again.
Anyway, I hope this helps someone! I wish I had found something like this when I tried to find out what was what and where it actually was. I forgot to take a picture of looking under the tank, I did do that though.
If anyone wants more on the progress of my bike then let me know, I will document everything little thing I do just to entertain you all 🙂
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