Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Here's a new one. 3 litres of oil and a crush washer. €50

I hate buying anything here.

Unicorn oil!!?

One thing I like about my 90s bike, it runs on the cheapest most basic oil possible, sometimes hard to get! Cam run semi or full Dino, prefer Dino as super cheap and gets replaced often anyway.

Ducati 748 yellow in xerox colours, for £3k, that's gonna be a bag at that price right?

Might've been down the road with those fairing on...

haven't a fucking clue. It's mental. Never thought I'd say 'I miss Halfords' in my life, but here we are! There's not auto shops here per se, just workshops with charge a left kidney for any kin of repairs.
I was quoted ( I had to insist on a quote) £100/h labour to check on why the horn isn't working.

749 is one of the most beautiful machines made by man. Fin.

I always liked the 749/999s too - vastly underrated styling excercise by yer man Terblanche. They just didn't handle all the bolt on road gear very well - the S and especially cooking R versions still look awesome.

Check it...

Hooooy now yung 'un! I totally fubar'd that. I meant the 748 is one of the most beautiful machines ever made.

Saying that though, I'm 100% with you on that. That era Ducati, especially with the bug eyed lights is vastly overlooked I think. Classic trellis frame with a lot of modern touches. I mean...they're not the cleanest looking bikes, and look a bit odd from some angles, specifically the bulky front end, but they're still very attractive machines.

What do you mean 'they didn't handle the bolt on road gear' though?

Aha, can't fault you colonel, the 748 is a design classic! I just meant the stuff like indicators and mirrors, plate hangars and the standard pipe. They really seemed like afterthoughts on the 999s. I'm still of the trellis frame / dry clutch = Ducati generation!

That is because you are right.

Ok, fairings could mean that it has been down the road. But the bike frame survives quite well. But check for damage on the footpeg frame holders.

When was the last time that the valve clearances were done and belts changed. Is the bike used regularly? If you want to chat about what to look at gimme a shout.

I need some help because I’m useless with electronics. My bike came with shitty indicators from the previous owner and the rubber has given up the ghost and they’re all floppy and hanging.
I bought some other shitty indicators to replace them but one came with a soldered wire disconnected and hanging out. Pic attached.

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True true. I hate Ducati talk. Every time it comes up, I crack open eBay.

Response from the eBay seller was

Hi, after seeing your attached pictures, in fact the red wire is inside the light originally, but not in the outside, it maybe arrived of breaking outside or strong out power, if i resend you a new one will be ok? JUST Connect it with out side cable interface

When I said yes new one please, the response was

Just directly connect this two interface,not take apart cable in side light

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I’ve no idea what he’s on about or how I can get these to work. Do I not need the red wire on one of the lights? The light and rubber and threaded part are all glued together so I can’t easily open it to solder the cable back on

They've misunderstood you. They probably thought you wanted to connect the light by taking the wiring out instead of using the connections and disregarding your faulty part issue.

Likely you are dealing with several different people somewhere in Shenzhen and it's getting lost in translation

Well yeah exactly, the language barrier is proving to be a problem. Any road, I need the red wire basically?
My knowledge of anything electrical circuits is 0. I was just going to cut and stick same colour wire to existing same colour wire on the bike and hope for the best. Most I’ve done before is rewire a plug.

It's simple stuff. Try and prise open the lens and you will probably have that led strip come out with one wire attached.

It will be clear where the other one came from.

Solder that back on or get someone to do it for you.

Reassemble it and wire it up.

If the connections don't match just snip the off and get some universal press fit connections.

It’s plastic and all glued together. Looking inside as much as possible, the black wire seems to be connected to the light strip and the red one to a small metal piece inside which makes me think that red is earth right? Will it work for now without an earth and only the black wire connected while I order new lights or wait for a replacement from eBay?

Thanks for your patience and sorry for my infant understanding.

some bikes have one wire coming from the bulb and that's it. as the casing earths to the frame and makes the complete circuit.

so yours might do that too. you may find it earths to the threaded part, although its likely a circuit board so may not do that.

but if thats the case you could strip the wire back and sandwich it in between a couple of washers or to the frame.

its just something to try, not necessarily a fix but will get you on the road until the replacement turns up.

Thank you! I’ll see what’s what.

Well it needs both wires. Replaced the worse of the two and predictably, the new cheap eBay ones are even shitter. Super dim and only half the LEDs light up.
Recommendations for some actual decent indicators?
Original Suzuki replacements are about 30/40 per side which is madness

I don’t much like sending people to them but I recently noticed this kinda stuff in Halfords.

Probably needs to be a bigger branch and probably not as cheap as eBay but I don’t think they seemed too expensive when I saw them and at least it’s easy to return if they don’t work and you can get an idea of the quality before you buy.

Yeah not a bad shout (unfortunately)
There’s a big one up the road, I might swing by today

Otherwise Wemoto - they have stuff on the walls in the kiosk but if you fancy a trip to the seaside