W650 Cafe Racer - Front indicator replacement

So I purchased a set of Posh Faith polished alloy indicators from Deus ex Machina in Sydney for $99 a pair (sounds expensive but they are top quality).

The first step was removing the original indicators. I have started with the front pair and will do the rear ones at a later date as I need to remove the rack that came with this bike in order to fit them. This, unfortunately, requires unbolting the rear shocks and I don’t have theclamps required to hold the springs (will get this done when I get the bike serviced).

If you peer inside the headlight bracket you will find a rubber housing covering a single nut at the base of each indicator. Undo the nut and gently pull the attached wiring out from inside of the headlight unit.

There are 2 wires leading to each indicator, one is the earth and the other is live. You can usually tell the difference by the fact that the earth wire has a stripe on it but it’s always best to test it with the correct tools. Unplug the wires at the connectors and the original indicators can be pulled away from the bike. The Posh Faith indicators only come with one wire attached (1. live) so you need to earth each indicator by attaching the earth wires to the metal body of each indicator unit.

The best place for this is where the bolt attaches the indicator to the bike. Wrap an exposed section of the earth wire around the base of the indicator and hold it in place while you tighten the bolt (you may need to source some more wire to extend the earth wire to reach). Once you have tightened the nut make sure the supplied rubber housing is covering the nut and all the wiring then feed the excess wiring back into the headlight housing (it may be easier to do this if you remove the front of the headlight and pull them inside). Do a test and if everything is functioning properly you will end up with a much more attractive looking pair of indicators on the front of your bike. NOTE: I have mounted the indicators into the same holes that the original ones were using.

Only thing now is the headlight looks huge so it’s gonna have to go!

W650 Cafe Racer – On the road again

Today I started work on my Kawasaki W650 Cafe Racer project. One of the first parts I knew I wanted to replace on the bike were the lights, in particular, the indicators. The original indicators that come with the bike are oversized and just aren’t cool…