The XS Triple Sidecar - fusebox and breather

One of the things that can really make or brake your experience with a bike is reliable electrics. And one of the most overlooked parts of said electrics are fuse boxes. Old grimey fuse-holders often lead to dramatic drops in overall voltage or even no voltage at all. Cleaning the contacts is a good temporary solution, but when you realise that one of the tabs is actually broken and that's why your headlight is more like a candle in an old lantern there's an issue that has to be addressed.

The amount of space under the seat is "a tad" limited, so a fuse box with side-connectors had to be used.

The stock fuse-holder with glass fuses and not one of them being of the right specification...

And that's the new fuse box wired in and boy is that headlight bright now...

The other thing I really had to tackle was the lack of a breather filter. Opinions on these vary, but I am pretty convinced, if it is oiled up properly it will not aid condensation inside the engine. Now of course I couldn't get one (locally) that would fit straight out of the box, so I had to fire up the lathe and make an adaptor:

The red K&N-oil will add at least 10hp. 😉

Last thing missing is the steering damper mount, which you will see in one of the next posts.