Unobtrusive brake light switch?

My 16H is ex WD so I quote it as 1937 specification but even at that, as you say, it is a year too late to be without a stop light.

However, I have never seen an original Army bike with a stop light and mine doesn't have one either. With a 30 watt dynamo and a tiny battery there is nocapacity for a stop light at night. Unless of course you use LED's and fancy wiring. For me it has worked well all these years as it is. I'd be more concerned about having to feed the bike Ethanol!!!

Hi all,

I love it when that bunch of incompetants we call the DVLA get their facts wrong. The 1935 Road Traffic Act does not require vehicles to have a brake light it merely says that if fitted it needs to work otherwise WHY would Lucas and othershave continued to make rear lights without them right up to 1952?

Then again the legislation was often ignored like the 1927 act that required there to be a reflector mysteriously missing on nearly every original bike I've seen from this era.

The 1953 Road Traffic (Lighting) Act does seem to have made a brake lamp a requirement but also that there must be a reflector. When this act came into force in October 1954 you see stop gap measures until the existing stock of old 525lamps is used up. One of mine (left the factory Oct 54)has a separate reflector.

The nearest you're going to get to a 'period' setup is to use the 53 on brake switch plate (17007? 17008? factory listnumbers NOT current numbers) and the older, larger switch 31281B used until mid year 1953.

Bulky but at least it will look sort of right.

Jim

Thanks for this Jim, I'll leave mine as it is.

Previously David Cooper wrote:

I fear I ought to add a brake light to the 16H - sadly I live in an urban area. But the standard all-purpose Far East thing - with its clamp on the chain stay and clamp on brake rod - is so hideous...even after it's sprayed black.

Maybe a reed switch + button magnet to a hidden relay might be easier to hide away. Has anybody any brighter ideas? With a reed switch the magnet must be in the right place when pedal is pressed - so might need frequent adjustment.

Maybe a simple microswitch glued with clear silicon glue behind the brake actuating lever on the backplate - but that might not be as weatherproof?

David

As you say the very common and very bad stop light switch is far from adequate. I suggest you look up a Honda dealer who deals with the earleir small bikes (or any Jap bike spares emporium) vas a lot of them had different stop switches, several of them are long sausage things with a long spring, I have found them quite easy to fit and they have some decent protection.

Al Osborn.