Tail Light Clamps for Schwinn 3-Speeds

I decided to make a couple stainless steel clamps for tail lights on Schwinn 3-speed type bikes. The seat stays on the Schwinn 3-speeds are a relatively thin tube that comes to a blunt, round end at the top. I have a few, older clamps around to mount tail lights, such as the Soma Silver Bullet, to these stays, but I thought I'd try my hand at making a couple of new tail light clamps as well.

So what I did was buy a couple of the very large type hose clamps from Home Depot, the kind where a significant section is solid stainless rather than mesh. I clipped out a portion of the solid section, then bent it to shape using a dowel a little smaller than the seat stay as well as a small hobby vise. I then drilled screw holes, final shaped the clamp using a Dremel stone, and polished using Simichrome paste a Dremel felt drum.

 

The result is not bad - a shiny stainless steel clamp made to hold a tail light to a Schwinn 3-speed frame. I am not sure yet which bike I will use the two clamps I made on, but I will take a closer look this spring when the riding season restarts. I may also use one on the 1964 Schwinn Traveler project, though I did have a commercial clamp ready to go for that. We will see, I guess.