2018 Street Twin Simple Fender Tidy

So, I’m one who actually likes having the rear fender on my 2018 Street Twin. What I didn’t like was having the rear turn signals so far back and attached to the too-large license plate holder that had too many reflectors and seemed too bulky. It all just seemed, well, untidy.

2018 Triumph Street Twin BEFORE – with an Untidy Rear Fender & Licence Plate Holder

I set out to tidy up the rear fender & license plate area with some basic goals:

  1. Use all the original stock lighting.
  2. Minimize any wire splicing.
  3. Minize any fabrication.
  4. Add a bit of an industrial look.
  5. Keep it as low-cost as possible.

What did I do? I…

  1. Relocated the stock blinkers to the rear shock mounts.
  2. Removed the original licence plate/rear blinker holders.
  3. Kept the stock tail light in its original position on the fender.
  4. Created a simple license plate holder that allowed me to:
    • Keep the stock tail light.
    • Keep the stock license plate light.
    • Attach a license plate.
    • Have a rear reflector (Arizona state requirement).

How I did these things:

  1. Relocated the stock blinkers to the rear shock mounts. I purchases some mending plates from the Home Depot that seemed like a good length (Photo 1). I ended up having to drill out an existing hole to accommodate the bolt for the existing bolt holes on the inside of the top shock mount. I also had to drill a new hole and drill out the existing hole to accommodate the blinker mounting bolt and the wiring. I simply bolted this bracket to the inside bolt hole (those holes are there to allow attaching a luggage rack) and angled the bracket down slightly so the blinker would clear the fender (Photo 2).
    • I ended up having to splice the blinker wires – because when I removed the protective wrapping from the wiring harness I found that the blinker wires were connected to the power wire near the end of the wiring harness nearest the tail light and license plate light. I bought some wiring and used crimp/heat shrink connectors for all the new wiring connections. (Rick proper nomenclature).
    • Then I added some wiring protection with corrogated wiring tubing (Photos 3 & 4).
  2. I also removed the stock license plate and turn signal brackets. This was a simple matter of removing the fender then removing the additional plastic piece that was the blinker/license plate holder and removing the turn signals. (Photo 5).
  3. I created a simple license plate holder. For this I wanted to keep from doing any fabrication – or as little fabrication as possible. I don’t have many tools – a battery-powered cutting tool and sheet metal shears – for cutting metal and a typical drill with bits that can drill holes in metal.
    • So I went to the Home Depot to search for a solution. I found a “Tie Plate” — a small piece of sheet metal with a series of symmetrical pre-drilled holes. I liked its industrial look – similar to the intake covers (Photos 6 & 7).
    • I drilled holes to accommodate the stock tail light then holes to allow me to reuse the stock license plate light.
    • I did have to drill 2 new holes in the license plate so I could attach it to this simple bracket because I liked this piece of sheet metal and didn’t want to create a bracket wide enough for the license plate (Photo 8).
    • Then I used a sanding sponge to give the sheet metal a brushed-aluminum look.
    • I also needed a way to cover the exposed wiring from the removal of the stock license plate bracket. To do this, I purchased a $3.00 small plastic trash can and cut out a shape that I used under the fender to provide some protection for the wiring. (See Photo 9).
    • Finally, I purchased reflectors designed as license plate holders and attached them in the standard license plate holes to satisfy the Arizona requirement of having a reflector on the rear of the motorycle (Photo 10).

2018 Street Twin Rear Turn Signal Relocation Bracket
Photo 1: Repurposing a Mending Plate as a Turn Signal Relocation Bracket
2018 Street Twin  Mending Plate: AKA Turn Signal Relocation Bracket. Drilled out 2 holes and added 1 hole.
Photo 2: Mending Plate: AKA Turn Signal Relocation Bracket. Drilled out 2 holes and added 1 hole.
Photo 3: Underseat Wiring – Splicing for Turn Signals & Wiring Protection
Photo 4: Wiring splicing to relocate turn signals.
2018 Street Twin Stock Turn Signal & License Plate Bracket
Photo 5: Stock Turn Signal & License Plate Holder – Remove 3 Bolts to get to the wiring & Tail Light Bolts. Remove the bolt holding the turn signals.
2018 Street Twin Tail Tidy
Photo 6: Tie Plate – for the license plate & license plate light bracket.
2018 Street Twin Tail Tidy
Photo 7: Tie Plate for the License Plate & License Plate Light Bracket.
2018 Street Twin - Custom License Plate Bracket - Under Fender View
Photo 8: License Plate Bracket – 2 New Holes to Attach the License Plate.
2018 Street Twin - Under Fender Wiring Protection
Photo 9: Plastic from $3.00 Trash Can to Protect Wiring.
2018 Street Twin - Custom License Plate and License Plate Light Bracket - Brushed Aluminum
Photo 10: A Bit of an Undustrial Look for the Simple Bracket.
2018 Street Twin - Custom Tail Tidy - Side View
Photo 11: License Plate Bracket Side View.
2018 Street Twin - Custom Tail Tidy
Photo 12: License Plate & License Plate Light Bracket.
2018 Street Twin - Left Turn Signal Relocation
Photo 13: Left Side Turn Signal Relocation with Wiring Protection.
2018 Street Twin - Right Turn Signal Relocation
Photo 14: Right Side Turn Signal Relocation with Wiring Protection.

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