Seven Fifty cafe-racer. Tail light.

This post is a first of series about project wiring and electrical components placing.

What can I tell about this tail light I designed and made?  I found   housing for it completely occasionally some years ago. In fact it was a slim and neatly made aluminum case for round company stamp and it was nearly thrown out in the trash bin by one of my colleagues from daytime job when we moved to a new office.  As I saw it I had a thought about using it somehow later. So I picked it and then put it on the shelf in my garage.

And now this stamp case turned out to be the perfect case for Honda CB750 cafe-racer tail light. I disassembled it, removed some parts and cut the hole for glass in the cover. I had at hand some universal tail/turn lights so I used a glass from one of them, only slightly decreased it in diameter. I have no photos of process cause I thought it was mere experiment.

And here is whole set of tail light parts. Below you may find some explanation about all units.

I bent the holder for light from 3mm aluminum plate and then it was welded. After that I grinded it, cut out opening and drilled holes then sandpapered and polished it.  The rear cover I made of 2mm aluminum.

I used 5pcs of high power LED bolts (23mm head and 10mm thread on the leg) in my Zephyr 750 cafe-racer kit tail lights, and I decided to use one of such bolts in Seven Fifty cafe-racer tail/brake light.  As it supposed to be the only source of light, I had to make it as much bright and diffused as possible. I tapped the blank of reflector from 3mm aluminum plate and threatened it with sandpaper in drilling machine.

Finished reflector:

Funny, but glass itself turned out to work like a kind of magnifying glass. The light looks twice as big through it.

And last modification I made to LED bolt itself. I disassembled it, replaced wires with a bit thicker ones, re-soldered all contacts to be sure there will be no lack of contact. I also cut openings in side walls of bolt head to make light more diffused. I  still thinking about lens, if to left it clear or make it matte, thus I didn’t glued lens into bolt yet.

Now about how tail light looks assembled. Rear plate mounted to the leg with LED bolt and first nut:

Reflector made to neatly fit LED bolt and inner diameter of cover.

O-ring installed in cover.

And cover with glass screwed onto rear plate:

Second nut (brass) and washer fix the holder cover:

Few additional photos:

How tail light installed on the bike and what all those holes for and what will be under the cover I’ll show in one of my next posts.

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