ATC70 Taillight

[Frankencelery]

I was following my son around on his 70 one night and realized it needs a taillight. I found some cool LED taillights at Wal-Mart and bought a couple. They seem to run ok at 6v, though I haven't actually tested using his machine yet. I wonder if I can just feed it the AC from the coil, or if I should use an inline diode. I understand that an LED is a diode, but there's some kind of regulator circuit built in, and I don't know if AC will fry it. That's question #1.

The second question is that I'd like some ideas about a bracket to hold the taillight. Honda used to make one, but those are long gone, I hear.

[CRAZY70MAN]

I have standard 12v LED taillight on my 70 and use the stock 6 volt system. It powers the 55 watt halogen driving"headlight", really car fog light, and the 8 bulb led rear. Have had it on there for a couple years and it works great. The led lights will pull less power with more illumination I beleive. Got mine at wallymart..... put a on of switch to headlight as well. I ride my 70's pretty hard and year round, so the system has been Trike tested Good luck. I would like to figure a brakelight instead of just a rear running light though?? Here is mine, mounted right on the frame...

[Frankencelery]

I know...there's a nice flat spot right on the frame where it could be mounted, and it looks good too. Thanks for the pic. However, I am loathe to drill any holes in the frame. I'm still trying to decide on that.

Wait a second...how do you run a 55-watt 12v halogen on that bike? I would expect it would hardly glow at all! I had purchased a 6v 25W by mistake, and it was so dim you couldn't see anything, so I went back to a 6v 15w, and it's back to normal.

[Frankencelery]

Ok, got it done! No drilling in the frame, either. I just couldn't bring myself to put holes in the frame. Also, with the rear brake adjusting nut right there, I didn't want anything that might interfere with it.

Instead a took a standard zinc-coated 4" L bracket and mounted it at about 45 degrees on the left rear grab bar bolt. Then I put the bracket in my vise and twisted it so that the face of the bracket would be straight back. Then I drilled holes in the bracket for the screws and wires, and mounted my Piranha V168R LED light (also from Wal-Mart) to the bracket. I put a diode in the line so that the LED wasn't getting AC. Like I said before, I didn't know if it would do any damage, so I didn't take the chance. Being LED, it flickers a bit, especially at idle. I could get rid of that by putting an electrolytic capacitor across the line, but if I do that I'll put the capacitor inside the headlight housing. Then I put a blob of silicone on the back side of hte bracket where my wires and diode are soldered on, to avoid corrosion, and it's all done!

I've included a pic, but I didn't think to show one at night. It's really impressively bright, and I expect it will never burn out. The only thing I might do differently is paint the bracket black so it isn't so visible.

[CRAZY70MAN]

Looks great! Ya, my light flickers at idle but lights very very well when riding. I do a lot of night riding, especially in the winter and it has worked out well. Love the 70's, have a blast on them