$10 mini taillight


rayivers

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There's been a lot of road work here recently, and I find myself crawling past local police at least once a week. A few asked about the bike's lack of license plate (in CT it's still regarded a 'scooter', no problem), but one guy mentioned that it should still have lights. He was right - I'd put non-functional lighting on my ICE bikes and left the Zero's headlight on for just this reason. With 3 number plates an MXR screams 'race bike!' at every cop, so I figured it was time to blend in rather than stand out.

The front was easy - Liquid hooked me up with a Polisport Halo headlight and top mount, then I stole the bottom mount from my EXR-conversion kit. I also installed reflectors on the turn-signal mounts for a little more street-bike camouflage. This helped with the approach and drive-by, but out back I still had nothing.

I looked at a number of tail-tidy things and smallish taillights, but it seemed like all were too big, weirdly shaped, or had some kind of giant plate mount I didn't want. Then this Akozon unit popped up on Amazon, and for $10 I figured what the hell. So glad I did! I really like the way it looks - a white fender tipped with reflective red, just what I wanted. The pics don't do it justice - in person it really looks like it was designed to fit the fender. This light has 15 LED's, looks like the outer 2 pairs could be wired as turn signals (likely a real pain to do). It might also be an easy way to make an MXR enduro-legal, using a front-brake MC switch and small 12V battery.

Taillight 1 (AOF thread).jpg

It looks awful underneath, same as before :) - but it's rock solid and I doubt it's going anywhere soon.

Taillight 2a (AOF thread).jpg

I haven't tried the light, but here's what it looks like illuminated:

Akozon Taillight 2 (illuminated).jpg

Briefly... 305mm/12" K&S 8266 rectangular brass tubing cut to two @120mm lengths, one M5 hole each @ 108mm from the back of the light, other tube ends tie-wrapped to light's M5 mounting screws & JB Welded, double-stick tape from the lens top to the fender, two M5 stainless screws into fender threads, then a ton of PL Premium or similar construction adhesive around the light/fender junction and JB Welded areas (see 2nd pic, PL is light brown, JB Weld dark gray). I used a little PL around the screw heads, no LocTite at all. This light only weighs @ 90g, so this should hold it fine.

I used 4 screws on my bike, and spun the front RH insert. Next time I'll try heating the screw heads with a big soldering iron, softening the LocTite but not the plastic.
 

rayivers

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CT, USA
Great find, Ray!

Did you plug it into the EXR auxiliary harness or not? What kind of a harness/connector did you use with it?

I didn't hook up either the head or tail lights, they're just for show. Afaik there's no way to connect them to the MXR harness, and even if there was I believe the Alta current-sensing circuits wouldn't like the taillight LED's.
 

Rashid510

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I didn't hook up either the head or tail lights, they're just for show. Afaik there's no way to connect them to the MXR harness, and even if there was I believe the Alta current-sensing circuits wouldn't like the taillight LED's.
There is a way. Its getting the lighting harness and rear harness for the EXR. The ACM will like anything below 35w for the headlight and I believe the same for the rear... (since its sharing the circuit for the license plate light and the turn signals and brake light)
 

rayivers

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CT, USA
There is a way. Its getting the lighting harness and rear harness for the EXR. The ACM will like anything below 35w for the headlight and I believe the same for the rear... (since its sharing the circuit for the license plate light and the turn signals and brake light)
OK, thanks, that's great to know. For some reason I thought there was also a minimum-power requirement.
 

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