Speedo mockup

One of the things I’ve never really liked about my XJ (check out the red/white ones) is the gauge cluster. Like a lot of bikes built in the 80s, it’s huge! It’s like a black, plastic lunch box bolted between the handle bars. With the stock bars and bikini fairing, you can’t really see it, but I’ve got the fairing off and short bars. In fact, I’m toying with the idea of switching to the set of clubman bars I’ve got gathering garage dust. The long an the short of it: I need to replace or rebuild that lunch box! With the bike off the roads for bit, now is as good a time as any. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I'll be rounding off that left corner

The “tab” on the right will house the various indicatiors. I’m planning on adding either all 5 (2 directionals, oil, neutral, brights) of just 3 and leaving the directional indicators off. Either way, I’m planning on using some round, low-profile, 12v incandescent dashboard lamps. I’ve got some 20 gague steel that should work for this and be thin enough to allow me to use the handle bar clamps to hold it on (hence the 2-holed mounting setup).  The whole thing will sit reasonably flat, and even with the clubman bars on it should look good.

I’ve got  a whole assymetrical thing going with this bike (stemming from the offcenter gass cap, really) and I’m digging how this layout fits with the rest.