LED Taillight

[Earthscape]

I have been waiting for many, many years for someone to make a good LED 1157 bulb that works for the red taillight and the white license plate light for the Tiger.  The only one I have seen made is not bright enough for me.  In the process of updating my dash and indicator lights to LEDs, I decided to look into some other way to get LEDs into the tail light.  Note that in my state it is officially part of the yearly inspection that there be a red tail/brake light, and a white license plate light.  I have seen the license plate bolt LED lights, but going that route just didn't sit right with me, and it would still leave a very bright red LED light shining on the license plate.

I have used these in my KLX250/650, and they are far brighter than a regular 1157 incandescent, but they are only red (or amber 1156 for blinkers), no white for the license light.  900 lumens(!) of fantastic brake light.  So my goal is to be able to use a pair of these in the Tiger.

http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/Super-bright-Red-LED-tail-light-bulb-1157-bay15D_p_125.html

After noodling around some ideas, this is what I came up with.  On any mods I do to any bikes, I try my best to make everything completely reversible; no permanent modifications.

Taking the tail light out and apart, I removed the bulbs and double reflector.  The reflector is held in with only 2 screws.  I used a piece of 1/32" aluminum cut to the appropriate length and width so that it filled most of the back of the housing, and bent forward a bit more than 90*.  The forward bend is long enough to cover the clear portion of the tail light lense at the bottom.  I used 2 additional screws through the aluminum into the 2 other unused mounts in the housing for additional stability.  Note that the second mount holes are not on the same center line as the 2 holding the original reflector, and the holes are also slightly bigger (bigger diameter screws, but I used shorter ones that I had).

On what becomes the bottom of the aluminum, I attached 2 of these dot LEDs in the natural white color:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-wired-bolts/little-dot-smd-led-accent-light/639/1925/

I had planned to use 3, but they are so bright, you could probably just use one.  There is just enough room between the aluminum and the lense for the LEDs to fit.

I soldered the LED leads to the hollow rivets used in the tail light electrical connections.  They are clearly labeled.  The LEDs come with very long wires.  I made them as short as I could, but there is still some wire that needs to be tucked into the bottom of the light housing because the LEDs are on ribbon wire which is then converted to regular wire with a section of heat-shrink tubing.  The extra wire fits no problem.

With the lens back on, the aluminum now blocks the main tail/brake light bulbs from lighting the license plate, and it also provides the surface to stick the LEDs which have self-adhesive.  Doing it this way, all the modifications are in the housing, and the lense can be removed just as before, with nothing connected to it, or modified on it.

As soon as my 1157 LEDs arrive, the project will be complete, and I'll finally have LED tail/brake lights on my Tiger.

Hope this is helpful for someone looking to do something similar.