I decided to clean up the rear end of my shadow. The first part was replacign the huge stock blinkers with some mini LED versions. I was hoping to mod so that traffic from the side can tell if I am turning as well as traffic from the rear. I got them off ebay for like 15$, and they look cool, but arent all that bright enough to be safe.So after that I found these cool flexible, weatherproof LED strips on www.oznium.com. I got 2 white 2.4″ strips for the tag lights, and 2 orange 19.5″ strips for the rear blinkers. Below is the installation walkthrough
First I installed the mini LED blinkers on the stock mounting brackets. The blinker that I used had grounded mounting hardware, so I had to run a wire from the hardware to the bullet connector, to keep every thing close to stock as possible. I could also go back to stock using this setup because I did nt modify the mount. To mount the mini blinks, I used a series of fender warshers and rubber washers that I cut out of old bicycle tube to minimize vibration.
LED blinkers and Tag bracket/light
First remove the three wires that run the rear tail light, then remove the fender to get to the frame and wiring.
Remove the nut that holds the blinker assembly on, snip the wires and remove the blinker.
Wire the LED Blinkers up on the old stock mounts. I used a series of fender washers and rubber washers to help with the vibrations. I slso had to run a wire from the hardware to the gound wire, and used bullett connects in case I want to go back to stock.
Removal of the tag bracket:
Edit: I made some spacers out of 3 stacked layers of fuel line and sip tied them to the corner of the framerails (not seen in this picture) to flare the rear fender out enouth to not rub the LED strips. This made it a bit tricky to remove/install the fender, but was easier than adding spacers to lift the rear fender up ( as opposed to flaring it out) due to the mounting points seen here above the tag mounts and on the tail light.
After removal of the stock tag parts, I began making a new lowprofile tag bracket out of 3 side square tubing from the local hardware store. I was hoping to use the old reflector mounting bolts, but they are not quite wide enough. The bracket is made out of aluminum, so it is easy to drill/saw, and I mated the three peices with some JB weld. I had to drill holes for the following: mount to frame(using old reflector holes), tag mounting holes, safety clip holes, holes to help fabricate cuts in center peice, and an array of holes for the wiring gromets in the center top peice..
Here are the three peices before being JB welded together. the top one holds the tag lights, the middle peice is just a connector(I sawed off one leg to make this just a right angle piece), and the bottom peice is what mounts to the frame. Also note that the peices are roughed up with sandpaper on appripriate sides before assembly.
Here is a template about how the bracket is put together. Blue attaches to frame, green holds them together, red holds the lights
Here you can see the mockup with the lights. looking back, I could have just used a single longer light as well. To help with the wiring, I drilled some holes, and then siliconed in some rubber gromets made from old power cable casings.
I also had some 19.5 inch orange strips that were going to go aroung the fork tubes as front signals, but since the mini LED was small and dim as compared to stock, I decided to go safer and install these strips as rear blinkers. With the fender off, it was very simple. These units are very flexible on X & Y axes as opposed to just being flexible in one direction like some other units. They also included some adhesive tape, so bsically, you just clean the lip of the fender, run the lights, run the wires. I did make sure to leave a good bit of slack on the wires, bundeled and hiddend under the rear, so in case you ever have to take the fender off, you will have some extra wire to stretch the fender out and place somewhere near the bike whie the res of the wiring is disconnected. I put tothe my mini blinks and LED stips on the same bullet tip that spliced into the stock wiring. One last thing that I did was put in some safety clips to keep the tag bracket on in case the bolts/wires let go in hopes that I will notice it dangling before it finally lets go if that scenerio ever arises. The clips are just small zip ties that are left a bit loose intentionally.
So here are the completed pics, as you can see it cleans up the rear end quite a bit. I wold have been interested in remving the tail light/brakelight, but it would have left a spot on the fender to be bondoed/painted ect. This is one of the things that I like about the newer model shadows, having the brakelight under the fender just makes it look naturally smoother.
Don't waste your money on these cheap ebay pieces of crap tiny round LED blinkers. One broke off within a day or two and the other one rattles away in the wind somewhere on the backroads (I guess tat is my fault technically). I just replaced these units with cheap orange pigtails and orange filiment bulbs from local auto parts store and tucked them under the rear fender when I redid the fronts. I tried using the electronic flasher relay with no rear filament bulbs, but never could get the flasher to work without a filament bulb in the wiring, oh well... whatever... blinkers still look and work great, but remember to use heat shrink tubing on the solder joints to keep out the elements.
