Cy’s Yamaha XS650 Bobber

You would think that rewiring a bike which only needs lights, indicators, ignition and a starter motor would be like falling off a log. Well in this case it was like falling off a branch. About 80ft above the forest floor.

Owner Cy brought it in needing a fair bit of metalwork: most of the electrics needed hiding in an old aluminium bottle under the seat. The frame builder had done a lovely job on the tubes, but forgotten to provide a single mounting point for all the stuff left over, which in this case meant the regulator rectifier, horn and ignition coil. Cue several days of making spacers and plates to install everything snugly.

The electrics bottle houses everything in the blue section on the wiring diagram. It was super tricky to get everything in, but once done the whole shebang could connect to the rest of the bike via two simple plugs. So in the end, quite a neat arrangement.

As is usually the way, once everything was mounted and made good, and all the sub-looms were done, the main loom build was pretty simple. Cy liked the ignition switch boss, which covered up a jagged hole in the side cover of the electrics bottle. Not possessing a TIG welder (or the skill to use one), I fixed the boss in place with epoxy.

Cy’s been riding for donkey’s years but this is his first custom project. He’s got a few jobs to finish over the winter before hitting 2022 in fine style.