Saturday, February 19, 2011

Headlight brackets for 50mm fork tubes

Since the RMZ250 does not have a headlight, it meant that I would need to figure out some way to mount a headlight once the RMZ forks are on the bike. Fortunately, the DRZ400SM (only the SM model, not the 400E or the 400S) has the same size fork tubes (50mm) as the RMZ, and since the DRZ400SM is a street bike, it has a headlight. I've been keeping my eye on eBay, watching for headlight brackets. New ones from the dealer cost ~ $140 by the time you get the 4 rubber inserts (upper and lower for each side) plus all the taxes. I found a seller on eBay who was stipping down a brand new DRZ400SM for a conversion to a track bike, and he was selling the headlight brackets for $29, plus $10 shipping. Score!

Now I can mount my original DR headlight plus the headlight cowl. However, I plan to ditch the actual headlight glass assembly and just use the mounts with the cowl, and make my own bracket to bolt a VisionX Solstice 10-Watt LED as the low beam, and a 24-Watt LED from ADVMonster for the high beam. Hopefully, I can design some type of lexan protector shield to place in front of them and make it all look good and work properly.

The DR650 headlight glass
Right:  DRZ400SM headlight brackets (fit 50mm forks)
Left: DR650 headlight brackets (fit 43mm forks)