Cycle Wing Indicator Repeater Wiring

The standard wiring arrangement for cycle wing repeaters doesn't seem terribly satisfactory. The grounding at the wing stay can become unreliable after a few years exposed to the elements , and removing the wings or the repeaters themselves is fraught with unnecessary aggravation - prising out connector pins, threading wire through tubes etc. - even drilling out pop-rivets if they've been used for the ground connections.

I've used two core flex to bring the ground connection inboard, and dispensed with threading any wires through the wing stay - most of the wire route is out in the open anyway and cable tying just a few inches more to the rear of the tube looks tidy enough to my eyes. The two core sheath is also so much neater and flexes better than the over-sized crinkled sleeving used to protect the original single wire.

The two core is wired into the repeater directly rather than have exposed joints under the wing, The bulb contacts can simply be pulled from the rubber body, opened up, wires cut out and the new wiring soldered in. The sheath has to be stripped back further than is ideal to allow the two cores to pass far enough through the two separate holes in the rubber, and pushing the contacts back into place then exposes a short section outside the rubber with no sheath. This flexes rather too easily relative to the rest of the cable so silicone rubber and adhesive lined heatshrink tubing is added to stiffen things up and keep everything dry.

Two pole circular waterproof connectors are used under the bonnet to connect into the loom and ground points. (These connectors were chosen to be small enough to pass through the repeater hole in the wing.) The two ground wires are commoned to a ring tag and added to the main chassis connection at the brake union near the right hand front wheel.

e.g. Polevolt part nos.:-

TW02/01 : Thinwall trailer cable 2 x 1mm (Flat twin)

8551-2 : Mini Sure-Seal 2 way plug, receptacle and terminals