help: mounting taillight into cafe tail

[malloy]

I finally got a really nice cafe tail designed for the xs650. The only problem is that is it designed to be used with the rear fender which holds the tail light/ brake light. I have no desired to run a rear fender. I really like the BCR setups with light attached to the tail. I've been scratching my head all day on how I'm going to mount a flat light on a curved surface. anyone out there have a solution to my problem. roccitycafe how are you doing your? from going on BCR's website I can see a spacer behind the light. I sent him an email, hopefully he writes be back.

here is the tail that I have

here is the light, basically looking to put a round light in there. I had to one lying around

this is the bike..

any help would be great. I'm really racking my brain here. I know I'm going to need a spacer (unless a curved tail light exists?) but I don't know how i'm going to make the spacer. plexiglass???

 

[Terry]

You could get some neoprene about 1/4" thick and cut a gasket with a xacto knife mounted in a compass. if that isn't thick enough just glue another circle onto the first to get 1/2" thickness. If you haven't cut the frame behind the shock mounts you could just make a bracket that carried the tail light and plate under the rear edge or even epoxy or glass the bracket behind the bottom edge. Maybe even not use the round light and use a LED ribbon on the bottom edge of the seat cowl. I have that same seat on my SR500 and love it, but I run a fender.

Terry
J'ville, Fl.

 

[malloy]

thanks terry. I still have the rear hoop with brackets, I really want to use this round light. it has like 40 LED's and is super bright and I like the chrome ring. i'll do some research on the neoprene

 

[liam]

maybe some kind of pvc pipe fairing/shroud?

 

[HerrDeacon]

I mounted my round LED light on my tail. When making the tail I curved the end to match the light lens that I bought, that way it fit the curvature of the tail with no gaps. Have you tried laying your light on the end and moving it around to see if the curvature will match? Here are a couple of pics of mine. The light is different than yours but if its a circle the same principles may apply. Basically the LED part of the light is mounted inside the tail and the lens is outside, just needed to buy some longer screws.

 

[malloy]

sent you a PM. my round light has a flat chrome bezel. (metal) there is no way my light would work with a spacer or something to fill the curvature. where did you get your light from?i'm really running out of options here.

 

[malloy]

actually found another thread on this subject. I'm going to try the heating of the lense as suggested.

http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=3308.0

 

[malloy]

SUCCESS!!! after doing searching I went and picked up a 3.5 inch trailer light from advance auto. popped the lense in boiling water for 5mins and formed it to the tail. got my holes lined up.. all I need to do is drill and mount the light. I think for finally assembly i'm going to reheat and bolt it down. pics to follow... thanks all.