Turn Signals & Frankenbracket

In my opinion one of the clunkiest items on the stock CB200 are the lollipop turn signals. While some guys may opt to shave them off altogether we decided to keep the signals but to replace them with a set of smaller signals that look better. Mounting smaller lights on the front was a requirement because the stock signals ran into the Clubman handlebars.

I picked up two sets of these "retro" signals from my local m/c parts dealer. They were reasonable at $35 a set.

The front signals on the CB200 are single wire (hot) and the signals are grounded to the frame. These signals are two wire so the first step was to disassemble the lights and cut the black wire down. Next I soldered the ground wire to the spring that sits behind the bulb. The spring makes contact with the housing and the housing grounds to the headlamp mount. Chase the turn signal hot lead into the head lamp and plug in the red wires.

Next up are the rear signals. The stock units mount to the seat grab rail and are not grounded to the bike. We decided to remove both the grab rail and the rear fender and mount our signals in the frame holes where the fender was mounted.

First you need to remove the phillips-head screws that hold on the turn signals. Next loosen the shock mount cap bolts. This will allow the grab rail to slide back and away from the bike. The turn signal bullet connectors (light blue/orange) unplug from wire harness under the seat.

If you want to keep your fender you'll need to make a bracket to bolt the signals to the fender. In our case we unbolted the two nuts on the side of the fender and then removed the two 10mm bolts under the seat and removed the whole fender. There is no need to remove the rear wheel but you do need to unplug the tail light wires from wire harness under the seat. There are 3 wires, brake light (green w/ yellow trace), running light (brown) and ground (green).

With the fender removed, I bolted the rear turn signals into the frame holes where the fender was through bolted. I used a couple of washers for each side made up the difference between the signal post diameter and the fender bolt holes. I had to extend the wires on the signals to reach the wire harness under the seat but then they were straight plug-in connections.

Next up was the tail light. With the fender removed I needed to mount the tail light to the frame. I had a small-ish oval tail light from another project and I decided to bolt together a quick and dirty tail light and license plate bracket. I used a three 6" angle brackets and made a simple Frankenstein assembly. I used two of the brackets to make the main assembly and cut up the third bracket to make the ears and two cross braces. I bolted the whole thing together and drilled a couple of 1/4" holes in the frame seat hump.

The brake light has two hot leads, one is the running light, one is the brake light. I made ground wire with a eye on one end attached to one of the light's mounting bolts and a bullet on the other plugged in to the harness. I'm sure the tail light bracket will get replaced when we get the new seat sorted out but for now it works and makes the bike legal to ride.