Home Made Tachometer Bracket for a Hinckley Triumph Bonneville

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Last summer, I installed a tachometer on my bonnie. It came with a handle bar bracket. The bracket was convenient but not pretty. I was looking around to see what I can do to mount it on the speedometer dash. There were plenty of options.

Unfortunately, all of these cost plenty of dough. This thread in TriumphRat.net inspired me to make my own.

This is not meant to be a how-to because I kinda just winged it and hoped for the best. The task seemed simple enough until I actually started doing it. I had to remove the speedo and tach from the bike, cut the bracket to shape, paint it, and then assemble it all together.

Removing the Tachometer and Speedometer
The first thing I did was to remove the speedo and the tach from the bike. This was actually pretty easy. The speedometer is held by four bolts located on the front of the unit. Remove the four bolts and then unscrew the speedometer cable from the back of the unit. The wiring harness is inside the headlight bucket. Remove the headlight from the headlight bucket by unscrewing the two screws that hold the headlight in place. The speedo is connected via a single connector. The tach is soldered directly into the harness, so I simply cut the cable off. I left some cable on the harness so that I can wire a connector to it later. This would make servicing the tach more convenient.

Making the Bracket
Now that I have the speedo and tach off the bike, I can sketch out a bracket. I first removed the housing from the back of the speedo where the bracket will eventually attach too. This is held by two long screws. Once that is off, I traced its contour on paper. I then traced the contour of the tachometer on the side where it will eventually attach to. The speedometer has two screws that is conveniently located for use to attach the bracket on to. I marked the holes for these screws as well as the holes for the tachometer screws. As you can see from the scan of the actual template, it is quite crude....but it works. Feel free to use it for your own project.

I created a prototype using a very thin piece of sheet metal. I was able to cut the shape using a snip cutter. The prototype worked well so I proceeded to cut the real thing. I used an 18 gauge sheet of stainless steel. Your local hardware store should carry it in a 12"x12" sheet. This is one hefty metal. I used a hacksaw to cut close to the shape that I need. You will need a vise and lots of elbow grease to get the job done. Cutting the piece won't get you a perfect cut using a hacksaw. After the piece was cut out, I used a metal file to shape the bracket to its proper dimension (again, more elbow grease). This is the hardest part of the project. Take your time and make sure to constantly try out the fit of the bracket while shaping it.

Just before painting the bracket, I used fine sandpaper to clean and rough the metal. This will allow the paint to stick to the metal better. I used a couple of coats of an automotive black paint and finished it off with a couple of coats of clear gloss.


Painted bracket drying

Putting it All Together
I am very happy with how the bracket turned out. Putting it all together was quite simple. I used the existing screws from the s peedo to hold the bracket. I used the existing tach post and nuts to hold the tach on to the bracket. 

Putting back the whole speedometer assembly back on to the bike was just as easy as removing it. It was a simple matter of attaching the speedo cable, plugging in the wiring harness, and mounting the assembly on the chassis. As I mentioned earlier, I put a connector on the tachometer cable to make servicing easier. As you can see from photos, it looks pretty darn good (and there were no vibrations during my test ride).


Finished bracket assembled with tachometer and speedometer


Assembled back on to the bike

Stay tuned for more changes to the Bonnie over the winter....next post, my Bonnie losses weight.



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