Not sure if this is on CSC or the Builder or Both?



The mailman delivered the MSO for my new GL1800/CSC trike today; I immediately scurried to the MVD, than excitedly shot back home to install my new license plate.

What should have been a simple 10 minute install turned out to be over an hour of aggregation! The CSC chrome illuminated license frame is secured to the trike with 4 threaded studs welded to the back of the frame, two of which protrude thru the bottom fiberglass valance and are accessed underneath the trunk. The other two studs protrude thru the fiberglass trim below the trunk lid and are accessed from the inside of the trunk.

Each of the 4 suds had a stack of 4 washers (16 washers) and an acorn nut. I thought this to be a little amateurishly Mickey Mouse and disappointed to find on a supposedly 1st class conversion!



I replaced this crap with some spacers and Nylock nuts. When installing the license plate you are unable to completely remove the frame due to permanently affixed wires; consequently the frame dangles about 2” above the ground, the weight of the frame strains on the soldered electrical connections. I would have thought that the engineers/builders would have foresaw this obvious potential problem and installed a disconnect.

Approximately 99% the wire harness is protected with a rubber shrink tube; however, about an inch or so of these thin wires are unprotected at the point where they connect to the license plate/running light. This is at passenger side of the frame, forcing these thin wires to bend around the sharp edge of the top of the license plate. Once again, what where the engineers/builders thinking, couldn’t they foresee the potential problem? I diagonally trimmed the license plate and taped the edges to protect the wires. This should NOT be necessary on a conversion of this caliber!!!

Secondly; in my opinion this licenses plate frame is marginally legal in the state of Arizona. The 7/8” wide boarder at the top of the frame partially obstructs the expiration decal and the word “Arizona”, which violates state law. Granted, the cop would have to be a real jerk to write a citation for this, but has been known to happen. This raises the question, what if I’m cited, how do I comply with the law, I can’t simply remove the frame because the wires are permanently affixed (no disconnect) and the frame is also the license plate light?

So as long as I’m nit-picking; let’s move on to the trailer wire harness and trailer hitch. The harness just hangs from the bottom of the trike. Easy cheap fix, I secured it to the bottom of the rear valance with some Scotch brand inter-locking Velcro. For the life of me, I don’t understand why the trailer hitch wasn’t designed with a conventional receiver and retaining pin? Instead, if you want to remove this Shin bruising hitch when not trailing, you have to crawl under the low trike and remove two bolts. This is a fairly easy task for folks with a lift; however, I think it’s safe to assume that most owners don’t have a lift. I think that it’s also safe to assume that most people that buy a trike are not as agile as they were when they were riding their two wheelers and find getting down on their back to squeeze under a low trike to remove two bolts to be a fairly big deal!

In the “Big Picture”, these criticisms concern relatively minor (IMO) shortcomings and can be easily dismissed as “all products” have their shortcomings, BUT and this is a big “BUT”; if your mind works like mine, you can’t help to ask yourself….”what else….is this indicative of the entire build”? Doesn’t exactly instill confidence that you spent your almost $50K wisely!

Sorry for the long rant….OK flame away!

Jim