Royal Enfield Bullet Lucas ammeter ‘conversion’ – free

Ladies and gentlemen, the Royal Enfield instrument panel – 'casquette' in Enfield speak – the Redditch company's take on Triumph's nacelle, shown here in its largely faithful Indian-built incarnation. Largely, because there's a couple of glaring exceptions to its appearance and it isn't difficult to guess which they are…

Both speedometer and ammeter are decidedly unappealing but of the two, the OE ammeter is worst. With its lumpen green and red detail the best that can be said of it is that it's visible – much like dog shit sprayed with fluorescent paint is visible. The speedo doesn't exactly shout 'period' but it is, arguably, a little less offensive.

For many owners, riding is what owning a Bullet is all about and the instruments exist for reference and no more – bollocks to appearance. For others, the machine is a canvas on which to paint their notion of a 1950s mount, some even going so far as to rebuild the bike with a rigid rear courtesy of Hitchcock's catalogue of tempting bling.

I fall somewhere between the two: I like period appointments but I'm cheap and mean, which means I'd rather put the cash in the tank or at the least, spend it on practical upgrades. And wherever possible I prefer to roll my own.

Ammeter looks even worse now

Okeh, so I was tempted by a Smiths Chronometric knock-off on ebay at under 20 quid. Two minutes to fit, looks cool and suprisingly accurate according to GPS (the odometer however is…well, shit, frankly).

To complement it, I wanted a Lucas ammeter but for a cheapskate the cost is prohibitive, and no mount of jumbling turned up one at suitable voltage any cheaper.

Time to think laterally…

It occurred to me that the OE ammeter is dirt cheap when new and practically giveaway, used, on ebay after a Lucas upgrade. Cheap equates to candidacy for experimentation which meant I could experiment with mine and replace it cheaply if it all went tits up as the say. After all, there's nothing actually wrong with the original, it works perfectly well as an ammeter.

With access to any kind of DTP or drawing software and a printer, you can draw a new face which looks just like a Lucas or Miller instrument with which to transform your original. Find inspiration by looking at vintage ammeters on ebay and draw one according to what you like best. Here's what I chose:

I found this ammeter on a bike for sale on ebay, copied it using Adobe's InDesign…

…and printed off plenty of examples as back-ups

Removing the ammeter from the bike is as easy as disconnecting the battery and undoing a couple of nuts from its terminals. With the ’bars at left lock you can access the instrument at the headstock as well as from the front of the casquette with the headlamp removed. Once undone, the ammeter is pushed upwards to free it from the bike. Be aware that it's a tight fit and may require some persuasion. Don't be tempted to strike it with anythng hard – the casing is very soft alloy and easily warped or split.

Now the fun starts. There's no easy way to disassemble the device because the bezel is crimped in place. However, with a jeweller's screwdriver, you can carefully work the soft alloy of the rim, gradually loosening it until it comes free, revealing the face within.

After cutting out a slot for needle deflection I carefully pasted the new face into place. The bezel went back on with a bit of persuasion and I used the rounded end of a pencil to pinch it down and secure it. A smear of clear bathroom sealant around the body and the face of the ammeter sealed it. Back in place and connected up it worked a treat and looked pretty good too. I suppose the new face may fade over time but with a bit of luck fading will add patina for greater 'authenticity'.

A marked improvement over the original (reflection from overhead strip lights)