Electrical (Tech Blog)

By Dave Porter, Customer and Technical Support at The Bonneville Shop The headlamp shell is one of the most prominently displayed parts on a vintage British motorcycle, as it sits proudly between the forks and in front of the handlebar. All too often, a project motorcycle is acquired with a dented, rusted, or incorrectly fitted […]

By Dave Porter, Customer and Technical Support at The Bonneville Shop      If your British motorcycle was made before 1966, chances are it was originally specified with a 6-volt electrical system. A 6-volt system is adequate for daytime running, but with limited lighting, ignition, and battery selection, the choice to switch to a 12-volt

By Mike Grage, Customer and Technical Support at The Bonneville Shop LED Troubleshooting – We didn’t have LEDs when I started professionally wrenching on motorcycles over 30 years ago, but I most certainly wish we did due to the low power requirements.  Done right LED lighting can make riding a battery less bike at night

The Back Story During the late 1960s, the BSA Group was busy developing the next generation of Triumph and BSA motorcycles at a leased 17th-century mansion in Warwickshire, known as Umberslade Hall. Situated nearly equidistant from Redditch, Small Heath, and Meriden, the research and development facility was the epicenter for the design teams to update

By Mike Grage, Customer and Technical Support at The Bonneville Shop 12 Volt Charging System – Quite often we get questions about electrical diagnostics, most common is the charging system and how to test rectifiers. Whether it is a solid state or the factory diode pack, they work the same.  The first bit of advice

We get a lot of calls from customers fed up chasing electrical gremlins and, upon questioning, we realize that they are troubleshooting an old, brittle and potentially hacked on original wiring harness. Deciding to replace the wiring harness is an easy choice in such situations and we stock a vast inventory of wiring harnesses to

The 446 LED headlamp bulb is a technological marvel, and considering its modest draw from the electrical system, it is a “must have” for almost all owners of vintage British or American motorcycles (who can forget Harley’s generator engines, they could really use this headlight). The chip is designed to allow either polarity grounding (+

From the factory, British motorbikes were fitted with a rectifier and either 1 or 2 Zener diodes. Because they consist of fragile electrical components that can dry up over time or fail from vibrations. You can replace the parts themselves but the quality of replacement rectifiers and Zener diodes leaves a lot to be desired, […]