Tail light change

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Diablo

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Quick edit, I just noticed there is a user mods section, this might have been better in that thread rather than here as in fabrication terms it was a simple task in reality. Still, its done and posted here now.

I Hated the original tail light with a vengeance. One of the first changes to the bike after getting it was the removal of the huge plastic monstrosity that yamaha installed as a tail light along with removing the steel liner from under the rear guard. I found a decent shaped light unit with built in number plate light from eBay, then ordered a sheet of 2mm stainless steel to form a new bracket for the light. I should really have bought 1mm stainless as two mil is a bitch to bend without a decent vice in the workshop area of my garage. After numerous cardboard templates were tried i ended up not needing anywhere near as much stainless as i had first planned for. I had an aluminium number plate mount from an old project on a ducati that ended up going in a different direction, so that was also used in the end as it saved having to cut and grind a separate plate mount or get creative with the single sheet.

Long story short, tail light works as intended, looks (to me at least) vastly superior to the original setup, and as a bonus, its much brighter than the original when braking. Though i am the first to admit that in daylight, the running light isnt as bright as the original yamaha fitment. You can see it fine though, just not as bright. In the UK, we dont need lights on during the day so its not an issue, and as soon as it starts to go near dusk the light looks every bit as bright as normal, maybe its an optical illusion that the running light isnt as bright as i expected. I tried taking a picture as dusk fell, but the camera seemed to want to pick up the white of the number plate light over the red of the running light so it doesnt look as good in the photo as it does on the bike in real world conditions.

In the comparison pic the red bike is my bike early on in my ownership before it was repainted. Didnt really need saying but I am proud of how the bikes turned out so always like to show before and after.

Anyway, here it is in all its much smaller and tidy looking glory.
 

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Looks Great.
I used a 60 LED cat eye tail light I got from Ebay to replace the ugly stock tail light.
It's a lot better looking and a lot brighter too.
 

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I did the Honda CBR, and couldn't be happier.
picture.php
That OEM light is too ugly for such a sweet bike. I can't believe it lasted 25 years.
 
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Nice job on the tail light. I can't believe how big the UK license plates are. Are those the same size for a car?
 
Nice job on the tail light. I can't believe how big the UK license plates are. Are those the same size for a car?

Believe it or not, its actually smaller than the official size. Carries a fine for using it as it is. Normal plate is an inch bigger both horizontal and vertical. Car plates are wider with all numbers in line horizontally. These days in uk you legally have to get plates done by going to a dealer along with proof of ownership to have legal sized plate made that carries the name of the dealer that made the plate along with a number in the corner that shows the plate is certified for road use. Dealer has to create paperwork trail showing all the boxes were ticked. Its complete bollox to my mind. Show plates are exactly the same quality as dealer plates and you dont have to advertise for the dealers with their name and brand under the main digits by going that route. But on a new bike, the law can still do you for a non legal plate if they find there is no dealer and road use info on the plate. Its not so bad for older bikes as grandfather rights allow you to keep the bike as it was built, so no retrofit to new plates is required. The only plate in this picture thats legal is the first one. An inch lower usually doesnt attract attention unless you get a really anal traffic cop (we have a lot of those though), but different styles of number, going smaller, or using a car style full horizontal plate is inviting a pull in our locale. Some forces are more arsey than others so it depends where you are in the uk as to how bad they are at ruining your day. But a pull for one thing usually triggers the laws usual string of attention, so pulled for a plate ends up with exhaust, indicators and black visors coming under scrutiny.
 

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Not forgetting the annual ministry of transport test also comes into play. I have known people who have to swap exhausts, number plates and indicators to get their bike through the mot. Only to go home and swap it all back after passing it. We all used to joke about the local mot guy before he died. He made an extra pound out of most mots by having to stick a small round reflector on the numberplate so he could issue the mot certificate (dot inspectors occasionally do spot checks on the testing stations to make sure they did the test correctly, sometimes they actually arrive unannounced and watch the test done, other times they just sit outside and see what rolls out after the tester hits the test complete key on the computer). We used to joke about it if we ever saw one of those horrible round things on the plate as we knew it had been to pauls. Nobody in their right mind fitted one by choice.
 
9" x 7" legal minimal size for reg plate in UK, but spoil look of bike imho.

Spoils the look of every bike, its why so many ignore the law and run smaller plates. Only bikes that can carry a full size plate are bank manager specials :biglaugh:

Bms - hardly dangerous, goldwing, paris dakar type bmws. Stuff thats only brought out at weekend to polish, retighten bolts on the hardly then put away again in case that cloud thats currently thirty miles away tries to get the bike damp later on.
 
Diablo.......love the light....any more details of light manufacturer and/or pics of modifications reqd to fit as neatly as yours ?
 
Diablo.......love the light....any more details of light manufacturer and/or pics of modifications reqd to fit as neatly as yours ?

Best i can do is a better pic of the light to narrow down what you are looking for. They also do a smoked rather than clear, but i wanted clear to go with the indicators. The bracket is fairly easy to describe. I just had a look to see if i kept the template, but it looks like i binned it after finishing the job. I just scribbled down the basic idea though.

I junked the steel liner. I know people say its structural, but with the new items at the back being so light compared with yamahas stock tail light, i figured there was nothing to stress the mudguard and ditched the liner rather than have to butcher it to keep it in there.

The original plan was for a sheet of ss to mount the light and another using the same bolts to hold the plate bracket. I planned on on both being held by the bolts that go into the rectangular semi captive nuts at the rear of the rear mudguard/fender. The fact its 2 mm ss makes for a way sturdier mount than i first intended, i could easily have gotten away with 1mm.

In my case i ditched the ss number plate mount and used aluminium as i had an aluminium (flat) plate holder lying around so a bit of bending saw that used instead of the steel i had originally planned. Same end result though and far easier than the tail light mount.

I used a pizza box lid to cut the template for the tail light mount, multiple offerings up to the bike while i trimmed away at it to get the inner curve. Even going so far as to bolt it in place with the light fitted to be sure i was happy with it.

Then traced it on the steel, cut it out and ground the edges to get it exact. For reference, althoigh the steel gets close it doesnt actually meet the plastic of the mudguard at the top edge and its fitted so well by the bolts there is no way it ever will.

When it came to the second piece (the bit for the number plate), i had already decided against just square/rectangle, so take mine in the diagram as being more of a project idea rather than finalised. Had i made the stainless second piece up i would likely have narrowed it down aroind the area it met the other stainless but used the same bolt holes. The mount on my aluminium piece involved drilling two new bolt holes as where the aluminium bolts to the light bracket was already shaped narrower. But as it turned out it saved me having to redesign the ss number plate mount L piece to make sure it cleared the mudguard. I rigged the plate mount so there is maybe a quarter inch clearance between plate top and mudguard so no chance of it rubbing when being ridden.

I went through two or three templates to get the tail light bracket to look exact for my needs. Bend it in the wrong place and you can see the corner stand clear of the mudguard and it would have looked wrong. It has to bend fairly close to the captive nut area to look right. The number plate piece isnt bent at right angles either, more 70 to 80 degrees (to be sure it would clear the tyre while riding), but thats all dependant on how far back you come with the plate mount.
 

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Forgot to add, the wire colours on the new light didnt tally up to the max colours. Not rocket science to work out which is which though. Also, I bought an a4 sized sheet of stainless steel for the whole job, though as i mentioned, I ended up only using around half as the ally bit saved me using the remaining piece.
 
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