Moustache / Series 1 LED Tail Light
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:30 pm
Hello
Bought some cheapy LEDs off Fleabay that someone on this forum suggested. They come encased in a length of rubber and look like an octopus's limb.
The lens of the oner is pretty small and has some internal ribs. This makes it pretty awkward to fit the LEDs to a backplate in all the right places so the LEDs don't foul on the ribs and screw hole bosses of the lens.
So I curled one into the lens. (This has nothing to do with 'curling one down'). This curly strip of red LEDs forms the stop-light. I cut 2 lengths from another couple of strips and pushed them into place. The bottom row uses white LEDS to illuminate the reg plate. I kept the LEDs at the aperture end of the lens rather than shove them all the way in and blobbed in some silicon here n there to keep them rock steady.
A back plate was made from 1mm aluminium, shaped using one of those moving sandpaper things that used to scare me in metalwork, 2 screw holes drilled and one larger hole drilled for the wires to pass through a grommet.
It is now fitted to a bike running your average electronic ignition stylee 12V AC and it was fugging AMAZING. No, but it works pretty well. Next step is to fit a Wassell 12V DC rectifier / regulator which should sharpen it up and give a better headlight. Which would be nice for those dark rides home from work.
Cheers.
Bought some cheapy LEDs off Fleabay that someone on this forum suggested. They come encased in a length of rubber and look like an octopus's limb.
The lens of the oner is pretty small and has some internal ribs. This makes it pretty awkward to fit the LEDs to a backplate in all the right places so the LEDs don't foul on the ribs and screw hole bosses of the lens.
So I curled one into the lens. (This has nothing to do with 'curling one down'). This curly strip of red LEDs forms the stop-light. I cut 2 lengths from another couple of strips and pushed them into place. The bottom row uses white LEDS to illuminate the reg plate. I kept the LEDs at the aperture end of the lens rather than shove them all the way in and blobbed in some silicon here n there to keep them rock steady.
A back plate was made from 1mm aluminium, shaped using one of those moving sandpaper things that used to scare me in metalwork, 2 screw holes drilled and one larger hole drilled for the wires to pass through a grommet.
It is now fitted to a bike running your average electronic ignition stylee 12V AC and it was fugging AMAZING. No, but it works pretty well. Next step is to fit a Wassell 12V DC rectifier / regulator which should sharpen it up and give a better headlight. Which would be nice for those dark rides home from work.
Cheers.
