Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum

Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: dre4300 on December 15, 2007, 05:16:19 am

Title: converting to vintage controls
Post by: dre4300 on December 15, 2007, 05:16:19 am
So I have decided that I hate the jap. looking levers and switchgear on my bike and have started to switch to more period correct controls. I know that there is a conversion available but the parts seemed cheap and not worth the money they want for them. I have gotten a hold of some NOS Tomaselli "matador" levers and a racing throttle that are bad ass and now am looking for the electrical switches. First of what the hell is a dip switch? There seems to be lucas horn/ dip replicas everywhere but little discription of the function is available. What if I put the light switch where the ignition switch is? do I need a high/low switch on the bar? Where can I get a decomp lever like the one offered in the conversion? any help would be great.

cheers,
dre
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: RagMan on December 15, 2007, 02:02:41 pm
The dip switch is the hi/ low beam switch for the headlight.
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: t120rbullet on December 15, 2007, 02:43:17 pm
So I have decided that I hate the jap. looking levers and switchgear on my bike and have started to switch to more period correct controls. I know that there is a conversion available but the parts seemed cheap and not worth the money they want for them. I have gotten a hold of some NOS Tomaselli "matador" levers and a racing throttle that are bad ass and now am looking for the electrical switches. First of what the hell is a dip switch? There seems to be lucas horn/ dip replicas everywhere but little discription of the function is available. What if I put the light switch where the ignition switch is? do I need a high/low switch on the bar? Where can I get a decomp lever like the one offered in the conversion? any help would be great.

A couple of things,
You might not like a quick action racing throttle on the street. Kinda twitchy on bumpy roads for me.
You can pick up a decompression lever from any of the Brit bike suppliers or off of eBay. Here's one,
http://tinyurl.com/229zug
The std. Lucas dip switch had Hi-Lo headlight switch on the side and a horn button on the top.
There are also the Wipac Ducon and Tricon style switches. The Tricon has a kill switch in it also. They tend to take up a bit less room if you have narrow bars.
http://tinyurl.com/25zs3l
Another art form you might have to learn is how to make your own cables. Sometimes what they make is not always what you want.
I get my cable making supply's from Walridge Motors,
http://www.walridge.com/
Flanders is another good place to get that kind of stuff,
http://www.flandersco.com/
CJ







 
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: dre4300 on December 15, 2007, 07:21:15 pm
Thanks for the info!!!! I know about flanders already but there is a local place that makes custom cables for $12 so I am just going to go that route since the soldering pot is $200 bucks. Yes a racing throttle is probably a bit quick for the street but my unit has an adjustable ratio. Like I said bad ass! I guess it is one of those british things, "dip" refers to the lowering of the lights.Kinda like lorie or any Guy Ritchie film.
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: LJRead on December 15, 2007, 08:38:32 pm

Surely there must be a way around buying a 200 dollar melting pot?  Used to make yacht rigging with poured bronze end fittings, just heated the lead up in any pot and poured away!
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: t120rbullet on December 15, 2007, 09:59:59 pm
Here is my high dollar lead pot.
(http://my.voyager.net/~cjanes/.photos/CJsFolder/LeadPot.JPG)


Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: dre4300 on December 16, 2007, 05:49:37 am
what the hell kind of fitting is that? ???
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: t120rbullet on December 16, 2007, 02:00:35 pm
what the hell kind of fitting is that? ???

It's a 2" pipe cap with piece of scrap whatever welded on the bottom of it.
CJ
Title: Re: converting to vintage controls
Post by: SRL790 on December 23, 2007, 02:33:39 pm
I made up most of my own cables on SRL790 just using a good soldering gun and some genuine lead/tin solder from the hardware store.  Some tinner's flux helps to get everything to flow.  Just don't get that acid core solder mixed up with the stuff you use for your electrical connections (ask me how I know).