ianhogg
Race Dog
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2010
- Messages
- 1,503
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- 34 Stanbury Street, Proserpine, QLD
- Bike
- Kawasaki Versys
Yamaha WR series Aluminum frame add Brake light switches
There is quite a bit of talk on this forum about using the WR as a road legal bike. Some bits are quite easy, the headlamp has dip/main and the tail light has a brake light circuit in it but not used.
There are a couple of difficult areas. The brake light switches are one of them. A solution I wasn’t aware of at the time was a hydraulic switch which replaces the banjo bolt on the master cylinder (picture attached.) They are available on the internet and apparently locally. Make sure you get the right pitch of thread (Yamaha 10x1.25). I didn’t like the fact that the front one would wrap up with the handlebar bush guard if you threw the bike away.
Banjo hydraulic brake light switch
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=196825.0
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=106297.0
The solution I used was the standard Yamaha pattern pull to make switches. I’ve done this before and found that these switches are much more resistant to mud and pressure washers than any other small switch I’ve tried. On the front it is quite simple, put one in a tube, zip tie the tube under the bango bolt and where the spring comes to on the lever drill a 2mm recess and hook the spring in.
However, the rear is a much trickier proposition. That area is prime real estate (so is the headlamp cluster but that’s another discussion) taken up fully by the kick start, frame and motor so hanging it on the side is not an option. However, the inside of the frame is hollow with splines so it is possible to place the switch on the inside. I drilled a 5mm hole through the frame for the spring and after shaving 6mm off the rod end of the switch (don’t take too much, the plastic gets quite thin) I was able to put the spring straight onto the brake lever return spring loop. See pictures.
I took a leaf from the Yamaha book and instead of routing the wire past the hot exhaust I did what they did with the neutral safety and took it under the sump and up the downtube. That had the advantage that both brake switch leads (front/back) are in the same place as they need to be connected in parallel anyway. The neutral safety I used for a neutral pilot light.
There is quite a bit of talk on this forum about using the WR as a road legal bike. Some bits are quite easy, the headlamp has dip/main and the tail light has a brake light circuit in it but not used.
There are a couple of difficult areas. The brake light switches are one of them. A solution I wasn’t aware of at the time was a hydraulic switch which replaces the banjo bolt on the master cylinder (picture attached.) They are available on the internet and apparently locally. Make sure you get the right pitch of thread (Yamaha 10x1.25). I didn’t like the fact that the front one would wrap up with the handlebar bush guard if you threw the bike away.
Banjo hydraulic brake light switch
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=196825.0
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=106297.0
The solution I used was the standard Yamaha pattern pull to make switches. I’ve done this before and found that these switches are much more resistant to mud and pressure washers than any other small switch I’ve tried. On the front it is quite simple, put one in a tube, zip tie the tube under the bango bolt and where the spring comes to on the lever drill a 2mm recess and hook the spring in.
However, the rear is a much trickier proposition. That area is prime real estate (so is the headlamp cluster but that’s another discussion) taken up fully by the kick start, frame and motor so hanging it on the side is not an option. However, the inside of the frame is hollow with splines so it is possible to place the switch on the inside. I drilled a 5mm hole through the frame for the spring and after shaving 6mm off the rod end of the switch (don’t take too much, the plastic gets quite thin) I was able to put the spring straight onto the brake lever return spring loop. See pictures.
I took a leaf from the Yamaha book and instead of routing the wire past the hot exhaust I did what they did with the neutral safety and took it under the sump and up the downtube. That had the advantage that both brake switch leads (front/back) are in the same place as they need to be connected in parallel anyway. The neutral safety I used for a neutral pilot light.
