765 Auxiliary Lights On My Striple

Being very conscious of our vulnerability on the road I fancied trying out a pair of auxiliary lamps. Especially as the Striple is one eyed unless it’s on full beam (about the only thing that racks me off with the machine).

So where and how to fit them? Unlike the adventure bikes which invariably have crash bars to mount them the Striple has no immediately obvious location. Looking at the side of the bike there are the two M6 fixings for the rad cowl but only the lower one really lends itself to be used as the upper one is too close to the indicator and might reduce the indicator’s visibility.

Before looking further at the fixing methodology I needed to choose my lamps but before even doing that I needed to know how much spare juice do I have to power these things. Triumph after sales guys will tell me, won’t they? Eventually, after a protracted dialogue which ended with them refusing to answer my questions I finished with “about 5 amps, but not a lot more”. This was after enquiring as to the wattage of the OE auxiliary lamps on the 900 Tiger which has the same alternator and battery as the Striple. No answer, two main dealers couldn’t tell me either.

So with this notional 5 amps in mind I eventually settled for these. But I limited the power to the 40W versions as even they were pushing this notional 5 amps a tad.

As you can see the lamp body has a pair of lugs which are threaded M6 and sit between a pair of lugs on a mounting bracket. This was the basis of my fixing methodology. I reasoned that the lugs on the lamp would have been threaded in one operation and as luck would have it the rad cowl fixings are also M6.

Having removed one of the lower rad cowl fixings I measured the available depth of threaded fixing, 19mm but you need to check this if you are intending to follow my example. This screw was replaced by a 90mm M6 A2 stainless steel all thread, that once screwed in everything fitted onto it, I had to remove about 5mm with my Dremel when I came to fit the cap nut. All of my SS components came from these people who I cannot praise too highly.

As you will see from the photo of the underside of the fixing the lamp screwed on together with a combination of SS cylindrical connector nut, standard nuts, thin nuts, washers and a cap nut. Theoretically this fixing has twice the clamping force on the lamp body lugs that the OE version has.



And the finished result looks like this.



The only criticism I have, being the pedant that I am, is the rad is not flat, it has a slight curve, and therefore the lamp’s horizontal axis is not truly parallel with the axis of the bike giving a slightly boss eyed impression when viewed from certain angles. But the prime purpose was daylight visibility which they totally fulfill, definitely didn’t need the higher power versions.

Finally because of the vague, and at times obstructive responses I was getting from the after sales guy at Triumph and the fact that I was about to embark on a six day trip to and around North Wales I connected the lamps to the battery via a fused relay which I located under the pillion seat so that if I found that the lamps were pulling too much juice I could easily pull the fuse on the relay. The ignition switched positive trigger was piggybacked off of the USB charger under the seat.

 

That maybe because it could be running halogen bulbs?

 

You have obviously not read Joseph Lucas’ treatise on the importance of smoke, particularly his closing comment.

For your and others benefit read on and enjoy.


A Treatise on the Importance of Smoke
by Joseph Lucas

Positive ground depends on proper circuit functioning, which is the transmission of negative ions by retention of the visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work. We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working.

This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing. For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions.

The logic is elementary and inescapable!

 The function of the wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.

 Starter motors were considered unsuitable for British motorcycles for some time largely because they consumed large quantities of
smoke, requiring very unsightly large wires.



It has been reported that Lucas electrical components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than their Bosch, Japanese or American counterparts. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British, and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, British shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brake systems leak fluid, British tires leak air and British Intelligence leaks national defence secrets. Therefore, it follows that British electrical systems must leak smoke.

Once again, the logic is clear and inescapable.

In conclusion, the basic concept of transmission of electrical energy in the form of smoke provides a logical explanation of the mysteries of electrical components - especially British units manufactured by Joseph Lucas, Ltd.



"A gentleman does not motor about after dark."

Joseph Lucas (1842 - 1903)