Turning An Idea Into A Reality: Integrated Tail Lights

For some, the idea of creating an integrated tail light should be fairly simple and quick, right? I mean c’mon, how hard can it be to crack open an OEM tail light, throw some extra “yellow” LEDs in it, and call it a day, right?! WRONG!! The entire process, for us at least, is a lot more involved than most people would realize, so we’re here today to shed some light on a rather unknown industry and what it takes to create these products with 4 major steps.

IN DESIGN
Rough drafts of initial tail light designs
When we have a product listed as “In Design” that means one thing and one thing only – it’s in design. Out of the 4 stages, this is one of the more important stages as it means we’re toying with design ideas, monitoring bike sales, and trying to secure a local model on which to test. There are several contributing factors that we take into consideration during the design phase and those factors can make or break our willingness to design an integrated tail light. With a team of 3 engineers, we take on a workload that involves all engineers designing their own “rough drafts” of a tail light they’d like to offer and our entire team gets to vote on the top 2-3 designs. Using LED layouts, bike design cues, and the available “real-estate” in the capsule, there are some limitations during the true design phase; but overall, we start from the ground up and design something unlike anything else on the market. This process is also one of the more time-consuming ones as it’s 70% brainstorming, 20% testing, and 10% making sure it works and flows with the bike. Once we’ve wrapped the design phase up we move into the “In Development” stage. This is where the fun begins.

FZ-09-Mold 13+-CBR600RR-Prototype TLK

IN DEVELOPMENT
If a tail light ad is still listed on our website and now says “In Development“, that means we’ve committed fully to designing and offering a tail light for “X” model and will begin turning our ideas from the previous phase into a reality. There have been, and will continue to be, cases where a tail light ad goes from “In Design” and then disappears. This means that at least one or more contributing factors led to us scrapping the idea and not continuing. The main cause of this is usually poor bike sales for that particular model. Once a project makes it to the development phase, we fire up the 3D printers and begin testing prototypes. Though premature in the entire scope of this project, this process is a very important step, as it allows us to physically test a design on an actual bike we have in-house. Some ideas look great in 3D design programs but horrible on the bike and vice versa, which is why this step, in particular, is one we take with extreme attention to detail. Once we have a lens design that we like, we begin improving the LED layout for the circuit board. Our goal is to not only offer a great looking and durable tail light but one that is also extremely bright. We take this into serious consideration and make sure our tail lights are always some of the brightest on the market – regardless of lens color. We’ve also begun making it a standard feature to include our various programmable modes including strobe brake, sequential signals, and pulsar brake, all of which can be accessed with a simple press of a button. This “In Development” stage also allows us to finalize initial designs and begin the mold cutting process for injection molding of our tail lights. As I mentioned earlier, we create our products from the ground up – meaning when you buy our lights, you’re buying OUR LIGHTS – not just an OEM copy with our LED technology. The entire light, made up of a TST-Exclusive circuit board, lens, and enclosure are all made to our specifications and quality. Once the cavities and cores are cut, and the mold tool package is assembled for the injection molding process, we begin manufacturing the first ever prototypes (t-zero: tooling samples Rev.zero) – WOOHOO! Our initial production prototypes are usually pretty rough – no TST logos or branding, no OEM connectors, no lens texturing. We do this to ensure our base model is exactly where it needs to be and can fit the particular bike model just as the OEM unit or better. If no issues arise during our prototype manufacturing, we go full steam ahead and begin mass producing our units; however, there are times when issues arise with the injection molding molten flow, cooling, ejection, deformation during the injection molding process, or even electronic falws. When these issues arise, we normally go back to square one to find the cause of the issue, correct it, and try it again. This can happen several times throughout the “In Development” stage, which is why this process is usually the longest. Once we have a unit that passes our initial QC process, we finalize the product with OEM connectors, lens texturing, and we’re ready to go to the next phase – COMING SOON.

TLY10 Expanded PCB for TL TLH08
TLY09_PCB TLY09-02 Mold Lower

 

COMING SOON

We’re about 90% there and ready to take the market by storm! (With your help of course) Our “Coming Soon” phase simply means exactly that – it’s coming soon. This means that we have finalized and approved all design and manufacturing work, have approved the final manufactured prototypes, and are only waiting for the units to be received by our warehouse team. Once we receive the initial product batch (usually around 500 or so) we put them through a vigorous and extensive QC process. We check for defects and impurities within the physical unit. We connect all units up to a test bench for testing of the electronics and program modes. We even perform extended use tests which involve leaving a percentage of lights on a tester for over 24 hours continuously. For the customer, it might not seem like much is happening once “Coming Soon” is posted on a product ad, but trust us, we’re working behind the scenes around the clock to ensure your unit is perfect for use upon delivery. Additionally, this is usually when we start accepting pre-orders, take final product photos for ad purposes, and film installation videos. We will only change a product ad to this “Coming Soon” status once we are fairly confident we can fulfill orders by “X” date and have units shipped to a customer. You can see photos of a “final manufactured prototype” below. These are the last steps before going full steam ahead and usually these units are put up for road-testing.

TST-Industries_LED-Integrated-Tail-Light-Yamaha-FZ-09-MT-09-2017-2018_Detailed-Image-20 10359_TST-Industries-LED-Integrated-Programmable-Tail-Light-Yamaha-FZ-09-MT-09-2017+_Detailed-Image-30 10397_TST-Industries-LED-Integrated-Tail-Light-Yamaha-MT-07-2018+_Detailed-Image-7

 

AVAILABLE NOW
This one is fairly self-explanatory and not much needs to be said. We’ve wrapped up this entire process and now our idea is a reality. We should have full stock in inventory and ready to ship right from our website. This also means that any special pre-order pricing is no longer valid and may result in a slight price increase. Lastly, you will be able to find commonly purchased items that go with this tail light, able to be purchased in pair with the light for a discount. This usually includes an LED Flasher Relay, Fender Eliminator Kit, and License Plate Light – making each product ad, and our website, as much of a one-stop-shop as possible!

And there you have it. A detailed breakdown of what we encounter and commit to when designing, developing, and selling an integrated tail light – from start to finish. If you have any questions or comments feel free to drop them below and also be sure to like/follow/subscribe to us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. As always, ride safe out there everyone!

About Mark Lourido
Customer Success Specialist. You can find me at the twisties, at the track, or just cruising around town!

12 thoughts on “Turning An Idea Into A Reality: Integrated Tail Lights

  1. Thanks for the info provided here. It’s nice to have a company be transparent and just come out and say – If it’s not going to be worth it to us, we’re going to scrap it. At the end of the day, you’re a business and need to do what’s best for that entity to continue being successful. With that, I will ask – Have there been any plans for an integrated light for an MT10? or was this one of the scrapped ideas that never came to fruition due to lack of demand? This may be my next bike, and i’m looking ahead a bit.

    Also, I had been one that was chomping at the bit about the Integrated light for the Ninja 400; Facebook, youtube, and I might have even sent in an email requesting info. I know I offered to be a guinea pig for testing in the moderate climates of SC ha. Unfortunately, I think the ship sailed on us waiting for the TST light. Not because we opted for another brand, but because the bike may spend the rest of its life confined to the track, as nature intended it be. 😉

    I was a bit skeptical when I first ran across the TST industries company. Being ignorant about it, and seeing only a couple of videos, but tons of LED products, I admit that I initially saw it as a fly by night cheap import turn signal company. Through watching the superbike series, watching the responses and engagement on social media, and also seeing the quality and attention to detail on products I’ve purchased, I’ve grown to look to TST for parts depending on my needs.

    1. Hey Bo! Thanks for the love and support man and for believing in us! In short, the FZ-10 project was one we were very close to committing too. From the outside, it seems to use the same tail light from the 2014-2016 FZ-09 and features an outer shroud of sorts. Unfortunately, that outer shroud prevented us from immediately fitting our light onto that particular model. We explored the idea of designing a separate unit but low availability to a local bike prevented important R&D from happening. As of right now, we don’t have any immediate plans on continuing the design on that unless the bike sales sky rocket.

  2. I just bought the 2018 yamaha R1 and I need an integrated tail light, I have one on my 13 cbr1000rr and looks really nice, top notch quality.

    1. We had contemplated that light for a while when the bike initially released. With the introduction of the new 2017+ R6, we saw another need for a possible tail light option. Unfortunately, we believe the OEM light is a fairly slender unit, and introducing signals may be difficult for other drivers on the road to identify which signal is being activated. We may revisit this project in the future if we find a safer option for riders.

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  4. I’m sorry I’m just having a hard time to your website .i need. Some parts and maybe someone can help me My bike YAMAHA MT-09 2020 .parts rear spools slider -( large size ) rear swingarm spools -rear axle block left side thank you also I wish I can just browse into your website and look all the parts I need amazon and eBay easy at the same time I think the parts are not good quality of course money matters but I rather save the money and pay more I spend already a lot on my bike and gears anyway I just Wana share that SO PLEASE I NEED HELP SORRY FOR THE LONG POST

    1. Your comment is a little confusing and we’re not sure how to help. If you visit our website and sort by your bike you will only be able to view the verified and intended products for your model.

  5. Just checking in here – I saw the YouTube video of YamiYari bringing in his 2021 MT-09 and it “looked like” you might be working on a tail unit ….however I don’t know where you would list the “in development” status – if it’s even that far into development. Sorry for the bother – just super excited to give you my money! 🙂

    1. We are still working hard on that project, but are not ready to create a product page just yet. Keep an eye on our website and social media though as we are continually making progress.

  6. I have and will continue to send my clients your way for their S1000RRs. I know with the 23 year changing up ever so slightly, do you guys have any plans with a new tail light solution? The OE ones are hideous and I want to provide my guys with something similar to the 20-22 bikes.

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