I bought a KTM Duke recently and decided to fit a Top Box. The bike was fitted with a tail tidy when I bought it and I've now found that the indicators are in the way of the rack mount. I was thinking of getting a piece laser cut out of each of the mounts but think it might weaken them too much. I then decided to drill a hole in the mount, fit the indicators to that and then either route the wires through the tail tidy or try and feed them through the frame. I can't easily feed them through the frame as it requires removing a plastic cover that protects the wiring/battery/fuse box etc. and that is a major job requiring tank removal, disconnecting all the wiring/battery/seat lock, fender etc. I can easily route the wires through the original tail tidy mount and am confident I can waterproof them again. The problem I have is that the wires run in the open between the indicator and tail tidy as shown in the image. I'm planning on covering the wires with heatshrink but that's the only protection there'll be at the moment. The second image shows the wires inserted in the tail tidy tube that takes the wires into the under seat area of the bike I was thinking of a slight bodge by using plastic or metal tube but found with a practice fit that I can't get the wires safely in position without the tubing damaging them and I hadn't thought of a way to fix them in place anyway (unless I did another bodge and used Gorilla tape. At worst they'll be out in the open with the only 'protection' being heatshrink. Can anyone think of a better way that doesn't require stripping down the bike?
If'n it was me, I wouldn't route the wires to that central spar, i'd clip 'em to the plate (assuming top box mounts) and run them closer to the bike / bodywork before tucking them inside somewhere convenient. I see no issues with having the wiring external and covered in heat shrink, go look under the rear fender of any naked bike and you'll see wiring, go and look at your horn, O2 sensor, under your dash, you'll see exposed wiring. Edit, or just buy shorter indicators and use the original mounting points.
Thanks for the suggestions. The indicators originally fitted to the tail tidy have a non-standard mounting (compared to every other one I've seen) and are designed to fit flush to that mounting spar with a separate bolt holding each one in place as there's no space inside to have one of those tubular bolt mounts. It's the indicators that came with it or none. Unfortunately I can't find out who made the tail tidy to see if they have shorter indicator options. I failed to mention that there's no way that tail tidy is coming off without serious damage to the bike or the tail tidy. The idiot who fitted it used the steel hex screws that came with it into the aluminium subframe without using any grease at all. The screws are made of cheese and have welded themselves into place. I squirted penetrating oil into the screws and surrounds with a syringe every day for a week and I managed to remove 2 of the screws and the threads were completely filled with tiny metal filings. The 2 that are left in are now have rounded out heads. I've tried easy outs and even tried my 400nm impact driver with an easy out that actually hit the torque limiter without shifting them. I could easily drill the heads off but the removal of whats left of the screws is beyond my skill set. I can't see anywhere convenient to put the wires in without drilling or filing bits of the bodywork down. Where it looks as though there's gaps in the bodywork when you look closer they don't provide a through route into the underseat area. After saying that I'm going to study the whole frame again. EDIT: I realise that I didn't make clear that my concern of having the wires run from each indicator to the tail tidy tube/mounting spar was for accidentally grabbing them and breaking or pulling them out rather than just the fact they'll be in the open.
That's the reason I suggested a different routing or shorter indicators, to avoid that open run. I'd keep looking, there has to be a way to sneak the wires inside by a body panel somewhere, watching this vid I'd be tempted to try and fish the wires through where the rear light loom enters;
I've downloaded most of Moto Mirius videos already as my next job is fixing the front disk brake which is binding very badly. Hopefully a simple rebuild will sort it. I'll study that one you posted. If I can find a definite route through there I'll remove the side panels and try that. I'm reluctant to remove the side panels unnecessarily as the previous owner being a bodger (did I mention that before?) stripped 3 of the 4 threads on the main bolts that hold them on. I've re-tapped them but being aluminium they're now not very robust and, I suspect, will easily strip again. There's not enough room behind the frame to add a nut and re-tapping to a larger size will probably mean enlarging the holes in the side panel (and rack mounting), something I'm reluctant to do. Basically everywhere the previous owner touched he bodged it, side panels, radiator mounts, passenger footpegs and those are the things I've looked at closely. Hopefully he didn't do any work on the engine.
It sounds like enough of a horror that I'd want to get it apart and deal with all the ruined fixings - an over-torqued bolt isn't far off being a stripped thread after all, it'd be a bit hair-rising for something useful to remove itself at the worst moment. Otherwise I think I'd wrap the wiring in heat shrink and cloth loom tape and leave it as-is.
Heatshrink and a smear of grease or ACF is legit weatherproof. The only issue with your existing solution in the initial photo is really just how it looks, which comes down to personal taste/perfectionism.
I've fitted the indicators covering the visible wire with a double layer of plain heatshrink and a bit of adhesive heatshrink where the wires leave the indicator housing for waterproofing on that end. I've got some flexible silicone adhesive to waterproof the area where the wires go into the tail tidy mount. It actually took me a while to get them working. I'd prepared a new set of wiring using new connectors and resistors on the new cables but either couldn't get them to light up or if they did they flashed so fast that they seemed permanently on but dull but the results were inconsistent each time I tried. I was about to remove the resistors from the old indicators and crimp new connectors on them to replace the new resistors as the old ones definitely worked OK. Just before I did that I decided to try them without any resistors at all and they worked perfectly??? I can't find any other resistors in the bit of loom I can see and can't find the relay to see if that has been changed for one that works with LEDs as I think it's under the tank and don't want to remove it. I'm not sure why the old LED indicators work with a resistor in the wiring but the new ones don't particularly as the new ones came with resistors supposedly matched to them. The only thing I've come up with to protect the 60mm of wires on each side in the open from accidentally being grabbed/pulled is to drill another hole in each side of the rack mount exactly opposite each other and as close to the wiring as I can get. I've ordered a length of 4mm brass rod and am going to cut threads onto each end with a die and fix in place using brass acorn nuts. Although I've tapped and re-cut quite a few screw holes in the past I've never cut threads with a die but I think it's something I can do myself.
