Brake light switch alternative 3 (front)

Moto Guzzi V700, V7 Special, Ambassador, 850 GT, 850 GT California, Eldorado, and 850 California Police models

Created: 2014 September 02

Updated: 2014 September 02

I extracted this information from David Bodner on the old Yahoo! Loopframe_Guzzi news group (which has now moved to Groups.io). In David's own words:

I was getting tired of always hitting my rear brake first, so the driver behind me could see my brake light. Here's my particular front brake switch solution.

It's basically the same idea as brake light switch alternative 1 on Gregory Bender's website. The switch I chose is the OEM front brake switch for a gazillion Japanese bikes. I know Honda and Kawasaki used it for several decades. Probably Yamaha and Suzuki, as well. It's widely available, cheap, and made for the job.

Since my carbs have choke flip levers, I don't have a choke lever mounted on my front brake perch. This unused hole in the perch is perfectly sited for installing the switch with a small nut-and-bolt. To depress the switch (turning it off) I installed a small L on top of the brake lever. (See second picture.) This L used to be part of a small corner bracket that I attacked with a hammer and hacksaw. Just about anything will work.

This will look out-of-place on a really nice-looking bike. As mine is far from a show bike, I didn't mind having a slightly goofy looking implementation. But, I wanted to avoid any irreversible modification. So, the L is mounted with hot-glue.

While the switch was still loose, I rotated it around the bolt until the switching action was properly adjusted. Then I snugged the nut and applied a bit more hot glue to the rear of the switch to keep it in place.

I've made no provision for waterproofing, and we'll see how long it lasts. But, I'm not that concerned. The switch is cheap enough. And a failure on the road will be far from catastrophic.