Virago Tail Light on a Special?

[delagem]

The rest are, or were, old BMWs - a /5, a /6, and a rather special R90/6/2 "conversion" .....
. So actually, I guess I'm "6twins", lol.

You could have at least posted pictures from 3/4 view, so we can see more taillights; it is the subject of the thread, after all...(and added a ruler so MaxPete can confirm you are complying with the FMVSS - A US Federal govt standard, by the way! Fight the power!)

Pulled the trigger on this style seat; thank you for the idea (and photo credit to), Buzzword. Intent is to keep the stock fender, with a cutout/welded insert to work with Weston's awesome seat, and painted to match the tank. Thinking black cherry candy, or maybe simple maroon for color. Don't care for chrome much. Note that Buzzword's fender is angled upwards significantly. Ours should remain stock position and length. Pretty much sold on the black "Lucas style" tail light, unless anyone can offer better suggestions?

Michael

 

[nj1639]

delagem, if you go with the Lucas style tail light, hold off on mounting the rear fender - if you're going to mount it other than stock - until you have the tail light in hand.
The rear fender you have now will accept two of the three Lucas mounting bolts with little adjustment where the current license lamp attaches. Using that location and the stock mounting of the rear fender will keep a horizontal flow to the application. Anything other than that is going to look wonky, lol. I've done three of them and they're a nice add. Might get a pic up tomorrow on the current one......

 

[nj1639]

Found this pic of my old '83 with the Lucas mounted as stated in the previous post.

 

[delagem]

Thank you for the photo! So that's the stock location for the fender, with the Lucas style light mounted at the license plate lamp is mounted? That's the look I'm going for, but without the seat and side panels. Trying to roughly approximate the lines of my Norton, but my son wanted a different style seat from what I like:

 

[nj1639]

Yep, that's the stock fender mounting and the Lucas where the license lamp/ plate holder was. I'll get a shot of my '77 tomorrow, different angle.

 

[aldo5468]

We considered keeping the stock seat pan and having it recovered, but we really don't like any of the options that use it. They drop down on the sides, messing up the lines of the bike. I asked Weston what our options were but never got a reply. I'll give him a call this week, I'm sure he's terribly busy this time of year.

Plan is to toss the stock seat, and fit a humped seat, something like this, only with fenders and a more graceful looking tail light.

Chris likes these style seats better:

But as he just today picked up a free Suzuki S40 Boulevard (aka Savage) I'm afraid we've lost him to the dark side. Finishing this one alone I may be...

Coconut Pete, or anyone else, can you recommend a better tail light? I chose the Virago because of the shape, but I don't have one handy to see how big it is, how it'd look. I'm afraid it'll be way too large too, but that's just a guess from looking at photos. Honestly, I like the Emgo Lucas tail light, but there isn't an LED integrator available for that, and I'd love to strip all the unnecessary running gear, especially the turn signals. I've got an interesting idea on modifying an LED headlight to incorporate turn signals too. Don't even know if it's possible, though.

I've done the homemade integrator mod too. Did my first one in 1993! (where you take a 5 to 4 wire trailer conversion box to power a two bulb taillight, making it into turn signals as well as brake and tail lights). But I think these LED models would be more reliable.

We considered keeping the stock seat pan and having it recovered, but we really don't like any of the options that use it. They drop down on the sides, messing up the lines of the bike. I asked Weston what our options were but never got a reply. I'll give him a call this week, I'm sure he's terribly busy this time of year.

Plan is to toss the stock seat, and fit a humped seat, something like this, only with fenders and a more graceful looking tail light:

Chris likes these style seats better:

But as he just today picked up a free Suzuki S40 Boulevard (aka Savage) I'm afraid we've lost him to the dark side. Finishing this one alone I may be...

Coconut Pete, or anyone else, can you recommend a better tail light? I chose the Virago because of the shape, but I don't have one handy to see how big it is, how it'd look. I'm afraid it'll be way too large too, but that's just a guess from looking at photos. Honestly, I like the Emgo Lucas tail light, but there isn't an LED integrator available for that, and I'd love to strip all the unnecessary running gear, especially the turn signals. I've got an interesting idea on modifying an LED headlight to incorporate turn signals too. Don't even know if it's possible, though.

I've done the homemade integrator mod too. Did my first one in 1993! (where you take a 5 to 4 wire trailer conversion box to power a two bulb taillight, making it into turn signals as well as brake and tail lights). But I think these LED models would be more reliable.

Here's a couple pic's of Lucas-style repop taillight w/ plate bracket on my stock XS650 rear fender. There is only one lamp socket, so it doesn't lend itself to the idea of integrating turn signals into a central housing, but that (as others have mentioned) simply doesn't give enough separation between them to let drivers behind you know for sure which way you want to turn unless they're way too close to your tail.. Having said that, and as you can tell from the pic's, I did shorten the original stalks on my bike a bit, so I'm partly pregnant on this one.

 

[nj1639]

Here's the '77 with the Lucas and trimmed turn signals. Not sure of the legality of the turn-to-tail lamp spacing. Stock mounting of the fender and using the existing holes of the Special license lamp for the two lower Lucas mounting bolts. You'll have to drill the fender for the upper third mounting bolt. Ground wire for the tail light gets attached under the fender to one of the mounting bolts.

Aldo posts while I type......nice Heritage rims there Redleg! Oh, and props for the tutorial that you have on mounting the xs750 tank! It went without a hitch!

 

[aldo5468]

View attachment 118670
Here's the '77 with the Lucas and trimmed turn signals. Not sure of the legality of the turn-to-tail lamp spacing. Stock mounting of the fender and using the existing holes of the Special license lamp for the two lower Lucas mounting bolts. You'll have to drill the fender for the upper third mounting bolt. Ground wire for the tail light gets attached under the fender to one of the mounting bolts.

If I remember correctly, the upper mounting bolt comes thru the fender at an angle - I cut same angle on a short piece of poly bushing so the nut would tighten up squarely on the bolt.

 

[nj1639]

^ Yes it does. Good idea.

 

[aldo5468]

Hello, I'm making an '83 XS650 Heritage Special into a cafe-style bike with my son.

Does anyone know if an early '90's Virago XV750 tail light will fit on an '80's XS650? I've only run across one reference here on the forum, and it was also someone wondering if it would fit.

The reason I ask is, while I like the look of the "Lucas Style" taillight, our intent is a minimalist look. Ideally the turnsignals will be incorporated into the tail light. On a Virago, this is easy; many companies sell an LED "integrator" panel to replace the bulbs in the tail light.

I'm concerned about the size of the housing being too big for the fender, and the curve not matching. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thank you!
Michael

No, the taillight and its gasket used on large Virago's is too wide to fit the cross sectional contour of the stock XS650 fender. I have both bikes, so took a quicky measurement. Fore and aft, the curve might match well enough but not side-to-side.

 

[delagem]

No, the taillight and its gasket used on large Virago's is too wide to fit the cross sectional contour of the stock XS650 fender. I have both bikes, so took a quicky measurement. Fore and aft, the curve might match well enough but not side-to-side.

Ah, that's what I was afraid of. Thank you for taking the time to look at it for me. At least the question has been answered.

I am still looking for suggestions on good, clean-looking taillights! Pictures preferred!