Don't put that there

Dinner with mom Monday night. Showed her pics of the motorcycle and my homage to grandpa. She was touched...

...and then it was the usual earful about riding safely and all that.

Moms...

So sometimes, you gotta just get out the tape. Have to tape something on and just stand back and look at it. So, with this in mind, I did just that.

Lemme back up. I've been toying with this 'concept' idea for a few weeks now. This retro 1950's thing, that started with the tank and hasn't quite let go of itself yet. So I started looking at headlight designs and tail light designs to accent this theme, instead of just having the tank be it's own thing and calling it a day.

Well, the tail light that I was quite excited about going with, showed up a couple days ago. And at first inspection of it and the bike together, I was struggling to find a place to mount it, or a method in which to mount it. And the size of it is just maybe 15% bigger than I had hoped.

(I guess a convenient side note to all this is I've picked a few of these up on eBay and they're not too expensive. Hence this is the second attempt at a brake light solution I have sitting around).

The thing is, the hang up is... I'm a sport bike guy first as a rider. I'm also a sport bike guy first, as a designer and a fan of motorcycling. I watch motorcycle racing. A lot of it. So, now that we've established those places from which my heart and mind and preferences reside, this is the rub...

... sport bikes tend to have a clean back end.

I've spent some conceptual time and made some design choices around the cleanliness of the rear space. The simpleness of the rear half of the bike. I've located the license plate off the left side and down low, vs. the center and up high. All the lighting solutions have a simplicity in mind to preserve this clean line thing. And although I love this retro light thing road I've gone down... it's cluttering up my rear end.

So to speak, of course.

And I needed to see it 'in action' so that's where the tape comes in. Just needed to step back and look at it objectively. Well, not really objectively since I'm the only one with an opinion on this thing, and arguing with myself means I never win an argument. Ever.

Anyway, I taped in on, but as I said, it's really fighting with the cleanliness of that horizontal front-to-back belt line the bike has. So my thinking is now more like this (and subject to change, but hey... I think I've got it down now).

I'm thinking I'm gonna move the concept of the retro lights to the front headlight- which can certainly be a highlighted item and won't compete with anything else. And the turn signals, which I originally wasn't going to even worry about for now since I have to wire them and figure all that out. But, using some cool retro turn signals in the back, since those can be mounted on the side and semi-hidden yet make a statement nonetheless... that is a good compromise.

Then I can just get a simple curved brake light that I've found but not purchased yet, that will follow the flow of the rear seat hump, hides in there nicely and probably will not even be noticed until it lights up. Not causing any trouble; just standing in the back and agreeing with everyone kind of light.

Like most plans, this is, too, is subject to change. but I think this is part of the process. And as messed up as my 'processes' can be from time to time, I guess it's part of the challenges of this build. Getting these things figured out, and whichever way works the best to get there.

Getting there is half the fun, after all.