Gotcha. Another possibility would be replacement LED bulbs. I've bought a couple and not been happy with 'em though. What I did find were Luxeon LEDs, which are amazingly bright, leave spots on your retina type of stuff. They'd need resistors and some way to attach them in the tail light, so they're not plug n play. Here's a video of how bright one diode is (not a cluster of diodes). The red diode is actually a little brighter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_LhU2kOOMc

 

Sounds like what you might want to try and retrofitting your stock tail light. I did this to my CBR F3 back in the day using a Maxxima LED stop/tail light assembly. They are the same units found on big 18-wheeler trucks you see out on the roads. Very bright and very intense along with great build quality. You can find these "universal" LED units at truck stops or truck retail stores that carry lighting for the big rigs. I've contemplated doing this again but to my VTR this time as I'm lke you, I prefer the clean appearance of a red lens versus clear.

The Maxxima unit I had used 60 high-intensity LEDs. you can see the same one I used here http://www.uatparts.com/miva/merchan...ory_Code=MAXX2. As you can see, they can be had for next to nothing when comparing to buying some LED tail light for the VTR. Note you have to buy a pigtail seperate as they never include it.



Dimensions are:

Width 6.40"
The VTR tail looks similar in shape and internal dimensions as my CBR tail did. I'm sure it could be done with a little bit of work. Nothing too hard as all it really involves is removed the red lens from the tail light and then mounting in the Maxxima LED unit inside where the reflector for the tail light is. Notice there are no mounting holes in the picture above. That's because you have to buy a seperate grommet piece that has a mounting plate and pattern made onto it. I couldn't use that piece on my CBR because it took up too much room. So what I did was epoxy it directly to the reflector and never had a problem over several years of owning that bike. Wire it up and put it back together and you're done. The tail light would be brighter than any other bikes tail lights. I used to outshine all the OEM bikes with LED tails no problems. Makes you feel alot safer being at a red light and flashing the bright *** brake light to get a cagers attention.

 

I just made this a few weeks ago,



I made a bracket, and 3 #194 LEDs on each side. Much better than the blinkers on the undertail.

 

Definitely better than the blinkers on the undertail! Nice job.

I think I might stop by the local truck store here where I bought my last Maxxima unit and do the same treatment on the VTR as I did on the CBR. Seems the cheapest method for getting the brightest performance and still retain a clean OE appearance.

I'll post a thread with a how-to.

 

I've got a couple pic's if it helps.
larger availabe on my flickr
Sorry about the underexposure, had the light metre all wrong.
Turn / Running with Turn / Brake

 

Had a long reply complete, then my browser crashed. So here's the condensed version.

First video (here) shows signals and brake lights in action, but angle is too low to show how bright they are.

Second video (here) is better example of brightness. Turn signals are really more amber than video shows.

I wouldn't tint a clear lens containing red/amber LEDs because you wouldn't be able to tell the amber from the red.

LED replacement bulbs might work, if you find some that reflect equal to what an incandescent does, in all directions.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for putting the vids up Chris!

Another thing he might could do is to buy the LED tail like you have but rather than paint the lens red with translucent paint; he could remove the lens, mask off the LEDs and then paint the board or reflector (whatever is in there) red. Just a thought.

That is basically what I used to do for the Dodge Neon community when I ran a custom lighting business.

They wuld come like this...




And then I'd take them apart and paint the chrome reflective areas with a translucent red paint to get a more OEM kind of look....