Electrician

[johnq]

My b25 special build is coming together and now needs wiring, can anybody recommend a good sparky in Lancashire.

[A10 JWO]

An old boy I know in Essex got badly bitten by a guy that advertised in one of the bike rags. Took a day and half and the sparks sleep in his van overnight. Massive bill £££££, it was only a Francis Barnett, be careful; it only takes an hour or so if you a good loom and a circuit tester. Regards 

[iansoady]

How could anybody take a day and a half to wire a bike? Did the culprit go under the name of a rodent?

[Rex]

In the FB group called "motorcycle projects" there's a thread on this very subject; someone has said a "sparky" is doing it for him, and so far it's taken four Saturdays at eight hours a piece. When we all expressed our err....surprise, he said "ah but this guy's doing it properly"
32 hours and counting, just for a motorbike. No wonder some can't make a living at what they do...

[iansoady]

Depending on what said "sparky" is charging per hour, could be a very nice little earner.......

[mini-me]

My personal feeling is that if you can't join up ends of different coloured wire while following a picture, then its time you bought something else, but not another bike.
I just rewired my brothers TR6 with a bought harness in two hours, including tea and cake, biggest proble was getting the crap repalcement dipper to work on both positions.

I can make a wiring loom from scratch in a morning.

[A10 JWO]

I agree with the last post, not a hard job at all. IF you have confidence, some people don't. I did not want to deflate the poster of the thread.

[Rex]

Depending on what said "sparky" is charging per hour, could be a very nice little earner.......

I assumed it was some sort of mate's job. I can't imagine how dumb someone would be to be actually paying someone an hourly rate for a job stretched out like this, and then to go on-line and defend it by saying that it's being done properly.
I would say the OP's been done properly too...or words to that effect.

[TGR90B]

I think we've got some supersparks on here. The record being 2 hours to rewire a TR6. If presented with a bare frame, plus lights, switches & ignition to mount & wire, it's got to take 2-3 days; loom or not.

[mini-me]

Nonsense.
Not talking of a bare frame, no need to build a 1bike to fit a harness

how long does it take to  disconnect a battery,remove tank, [one bolt, two nuts], disconnect old wires, tape and so on, remove old harness replace new clean harness, connect to all existing terminals and earths,  tidy up with nylon ties, and reconnect battery?
Two hours, inc tea and cake, admittedly missus brought that to the shed.

Two spanners and a screwdriver needed, one 7/16 af for the earth terminals, a 1/2 for the tank and headlamp bolts just to loosen them, [oops forgot one for fuel pipes].

I have done it many times admittedly, but even a novice should be able to do it in an afternoon.

FFS, a new harness comes in a  lump, just join the ends up to where the old ones used to be.

With everything to hand, correct wire colours, clean bike, I can make up a new harness from scratch in a day easy, soldered joints and all.

Too much nervousness and BS talked about electrics.

rule one, earth everything to the frame pref one point.
rule two think of it as a water pipe insted of a wire, what goes in one end has to come out the other; if it doesn't its either blocked [no connection] or diverted and coming out of a leak [short circuit].

simples
sorted
bedtime

I wish I could get hold of the mugs paying for these sort of hours.

[TGR90B]

Like you, I'm not a professional bike wirer. I do know it took me a day to wire my James Comet from scratch. Direct lighting, Ignition done (only an HT lead anyway) & no petrol tank to remove (only a cover strip on top).
Every one to their own opinion, I suppose, but it aint five minutes work.

[iansoady]

I've never used a replacement loom as (a) they're expensive;  (b) I've hear too many stories about them not fitting and (c) I like to include decent earth wires to headlamp, bars etc rather than relying on the electrons finding their way through steering head bearings.

My Arrow had a replacement loom fitted by the previous owner and it was far too long in some places and needed shortening and far too short in others, so I had to rebuild much of it. Plus it had the wrong connectors in various places. I see from ebay etc that they retail around £50 which buys a lot of cable and connectors.

But building a loom from scratch on the bike (for a simple Brit bike) shouldn't take more than a day or so. Although I admit I rarely do it in one go and usually do it in one hour chunks. My ES2 has a harness made of trailer wire and connector blocks and when I rewire it I would expect to spend much less than a day on it.

[Rex]

. My ES2 has a harness made of trailer wire and connector blocks and when I rewire it I would expect to spend much less than a day on it.

The number one "Mr Bodge is in town" alert....choc blocks and trailer wire, along with tape joints and red and blue crimps. Still, on a bike with a mag it shouldn't take too long as there's no ignition circuits.
I don't like wires/looms showing, so running it clipped up under the rear mudguard can take a bit of time especially if holes need drilling and grommetting. Nothing worse (especially on rigids) than seeing the rear light cables taped to the rear frame stays..

[iansoady]

Yes, the Norton is an odd mixture of obviously careful maintenance - clean oil, no rounded off nuts etc - and bodges. The wiring is one such; another is the length of metric studding (albeit with a nice shiny dome nut on the end) instead of the proper 7/16" through stud with Cycle thread ends.

But it is relaxing in a corner while I attend to other things. The very vague plan is to sort out the Guzzi over the winter then get the ES2 rideable and see what needs doing / what I feel like doing.

[Rex]

And that's another one. Nothing says "I don't really understand simple mechanics" than a length of B&Q's finest metric studding and nuts used as a replacement for a long double-ended stud.
Americans seem especially keen on doing this with lengths of "All-thread".