To get the bike running originally, I bought a super lightweight (in fact “Anti-gravity”) battery. In this picture you can see the starter motor that died.

As wonderfully lightweight as that battery was, it didn’t accept a charge, and died completely (perhaps it went out in sympathy with the starter?). I had bought it from Northside Motorcycles and they were great – they fully refunded, and sold me a more traditional battery.

When I had the bike offline for a couple of years, that traditional RoadStar battery also kicked the bucket. I guess I should have kept it topped with water/acid and maybe even charged it a couple of times. Oh well. It weighed a ton, and had to be mounted upright.

 

When I repositioned and reworked all the electrics leter on, I bought a Motobatt glass mat unit.

“Maintenance free, never needs water, install-and-go” according to the words boldly printed on its resplendent sealed yellow casing.

It isn’t small, it isn’t big, and it can be mounted on its side under the seat. Perfect.

 

 

I crafted a simple battery holder using galvanised strap iron – pop riveted to the seat mount, and designed to hang in place over the frame. No frame modification, so I’m clean with the design rules. A couple of coats of etch primer, then gloss black.

The battery is now held in place by a combination of inertia, the electric cables, some wishful thinking, and a block of foam under the seat.

I painted the “bottom half” of the battery with black gloss so that it would not be so obvious, and all is well.
Apart from receiving a couple of dents when the seat was too close, this setup has worked fine for months.

So, this was my original concept – to replace the big old headlamp with a tiny LED light fitting… maybe a second one as a high beam… all snuck into the nooks of the headstem.

 

Of course, I may yet do that at a later date. But in the interests of getting the machine finished and registered in time for the Distinguished Gentlemans Ride, I went down the safer (and maybe more sensible) route of putting the basic headlight structure back.

 

The traditional headlight-as-a-wiring-box makes a lot of sense. It’s mostly waterproof, it is close to the handlebars and switches and lighting. And there’s plenty of room for connectors and wires.

The original trim had some dings and scratches, which added to the patina consistent with the age of the bike. The glass was fogged and dirty – but I discovered that a rag on a stick, doused in metholated spirits, worked wonders to bring back the clarity of the glass.

I was a bit grumpy about having to drop my original plans, but I’m happy with how it turned out in the end.