Fernando’s Honda GL1200

Anyon who knows the GL1200 Aspencade will realise this bike has been very substantially slimmed down. The huge fairing, giant headlight, sound system and online suspension pump are all gone. Instead, owner Fernando wanted a stripped-down, functional bike: speedo, tacho, a few warning lights and the usual road stuff.

There were just a couple of personal touches: he wanted to be able to turn off the head and tail light. And even though the fan switch is automatic, he wanted a manual fan switch on the handlebar too.

Headlight, tail light and indicators are all aftermarket. An LED headlight is always useful on an old bike because it greatly reduces the current that flows through the (elderly) light switch. Sometimes it even allows you to eliminate a headlight relay.

The dash Fernando had managed to obtain was from a GL1100 – the previous model to his 1200. This used cable-driven clocks, whereas the 1200 used a digitally-driven tacho. Fernando was resigned to having a ‘decorative use only’ rev counter, but then we decided to look at the modern clocks on Digital Speedos. His favourite was a new one by a US firm called Intellitronix. It looked roughly the right size.

When it arrived it was almost perfect. My first idea was to get a housing made from black acetal by Steve Baker, our local engineering wizard. But Steve and his colleague Trevor soon realised he could fit the new tacho inside the old casing. All it needed was a machined carrier to sit inside.

Fernando agrees it looks really nice. And he got his wish with the headlight switch too. It’s the old hazard switch, repurposed.