My "new" '84 Voyager 1300 came with a lot of Markland's accessories all over the bike. Markland makes some great stuff, but sometimes they miss the "Mark" on making it reliable! My bike is such an example.
I was troubleshooting the reason why some of my trunk lights were not coming on, and then I saw smoke rolling up! Yikes! (where's the fuse?) The red incandescent lights all around the trunk are one-wire units, using the base as the ground. Well, just look at the pics to see how the way these light bars are mounted squeezes that hot wire against the edge of the base. One was shorting out, and I don't find any fuse for that system! BTW, the total load of these 16 lights is about 9 amps (before shorting out!). That's about 20% of the total output of the two alternators! I considered spacing the mounts outward about 1/4", but that would mean bending the bar framework at the corners, cracking the chrome. So, I did a search for LED direct replacements and found them. They have almost no protrusion past the chromed plate they mount to, so there's LOTS of clearance for their two wires. Not cheap, at $7.98/ea, but they also draw only 0.050 amps each for a total of about 1 amp for all 20 of my lights (adding four more on the back of my new sidecar!).
My focus was not really on reducing the electrical loading, because most big bikes today can handle it, but those pinched wires concerned me and rightfully so I found out,.....the hard way!
So, I now have a dozen good (no broken lenses or burnt wires!) incandescent clearance lights available, CHEAP! If any of you have older Markland light bars that use these, don't miss this chance to pick up some spares, or replacements for broken ones. $2/each., plus shipping costs.
..................................Tony 
