I decided to relocate the rear taillights on my 1200S to give me some more room for saddlebags. While there are many kits to do this, Dad and I talked about it and we decided that they might fit just fine on the rear-most strut bolt. I decided to give it a try.
I bought a set of front turn signals that match the existing front signals on my bike off of eBay. I did this so I could run them as both turn signals and running lights; the front signals have two filaments in the bulb while the rears only have one filament.
This is a straightforward swap. I removed the strut hardware and the stock signals. The strut hardware is 5/16"x18. The rear signals are threaded 5/16"x18 as well. The front signals I used are threaded 5/16"x24 (fine thread). That made finding hardware a bit harder at the local Lowe's since most of their hardware is coarse-thread. The "SAE" hardware they sell is fine-thread, and I bought two 5/16"x24-2" long bolts.
The rear-most strut bolt normally threads into a bracket under the rear fender. This bracket is a U-shaped piece that is retained on each side by the rear-most strut bolt, and is retained under the top of the fender by the license plate mount. I needed to put the bolt in from inside the fender to retain the lights, so I removed this bracket and drilled the threads out on the drill press. Drilling this on the bike would be difficult, but off the bike was not a problem.
Currently the project is not completely finished. I need to re-route the wiring. Currently it is just run on the outside of the strut to the existing hole for the wiring. I'll drill a new hole for it later. Also, I intend to replace the remaining strut hardware with bolts from the inside and bungee nuts.
Here is a picture from the back. Note that now, without the original standoffs, the signals tuck in nicely to the bodywork.
Here is a side shot, showing the signals mounted more rearward than stock. This gives plenty of room for saddlebags:
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