The bike, while not being a “project bike,” still was lacking in a few areas:
- No key
- No mirrors
- No blinkers
The previous owner got around the lack of key by just unplugging the ignition switch and hotwiring it.
Due to its age the bike didn’t require mirrors or blinkers to be street legal for Missouri
But since I am just getting my first motorcycle at age 47 and just wanting to be as safe as possible–especially on a bike that tops out at maybe 55 mph–I wanted to add them.
Key
The key was easy. I found another blog that recommended hondakeys.com, and it was a good recommendation. You just send in your bike info and the number stamped on your lock and they send you a key. In my case I couldn’t tell which key model I needed, so the proprietor sent me both kinds, trusting that I would send back the unneeded one.
Cost: $15
Mirrors
On the recommendation of about everyone online I ordered from dratv.com aka Beatrice Cycle. Original Honda OEM mirrors were ~$20/each.
Blinkers
The blinkers I also ordered from dratv.com. I bought their blinker kit 1005H/ST13021x4. These blinkers are chrome steel and not plastic, and the kit came with the 4 blinkers, flasher module, switch (unneeded in my case), and mounting hardware.
Most wiring schematics you find online are kind of crummy scans of crummy photocopies. The best schematic is a vector illustration PDF from Pardue Brothers.
- Cost for schematic: $5
- Cost for blinkers and mirrors including shipping: $128
- Cost for misc mounting bolts & grommets: $10
Battery & and wire terminators
Not long into the installation and troubleshooting of the blinkers we found that the battery was pretty much dead. In addition, we found that some of the wires in the harness weren’t working properly, and we needed to crimp some other wire in.
Cost: $40
Labor
Certainly I did labor, but most of the credit for this goes to my brother Wahoo. He’s the one that works as a vocational mechanic, knows how to use a voltmeter, and did all the heavy lifting for the electrical system. Without him, I’d just be riding without signals.
Left rear blinker stay. I mounted the rear blinkers to the existing threaded holes. Uses a short metric M6, like an M6-12 or M6-16.
Right rear blinker. Yeah, I know it looks ugly running the wire outside the fender. If I ever have to remove the rear tire, I’ll fix it.
Front blinker stays. They mount where the headlight bolts use to be, and the wire connects to the blue and orange wires inside.
Closeup of the front blinker stay
Total Cost so far (including 1st year of insurance):
$1,588
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