" I am thinking of using a rubber tail light holder like on the R/T for my SCR rather than the easy to break/hard to find metal one I have now. "
____ That's a very LOGICAL consideration , for all of us to consider ! ...
After my first few years of experience with DUCATIs, I've always felt that any part of them other than the motor & frame, was pretty-much just junk ! - If it's something not made by Ducati themselves, then it's no-good and ought to be replaced ! _ Sorry-to-say, (for those of you who may think your DUKEs need to be 100% stock !).
__ Anyhow, if anyone expects to actually ride their DUKE very much, then why mount any hard-to-find & expensive part that's just going to let-us-down again, much the same as they have always failed to last, before??
I contend that if some particular stock-part was not actually made by Ducati, then why really bother to continue-on replacing that same stock-type part (with same), when it's priced higher & harder to find than some common replacement parts which could do the same job, at least as well !?!
__ Who other than people like ourselves, are even going to realize that any of our DUKEs happen to have any parts which aren't as stock?
So then why should any of us care to bust ourselves just to POSSIBLY impress others of us who may happen to have some (questionable) reason to prefer solely using ONLY such stock (junkie) parts? _ (BTW, I'd excuse the newer Dellorto-carbs from the list of 'junkie' non-Ducati parts.)
Unless your DUKE is to be placed on a pedestal in some museum or other show-place, I really don't see any logic in sticking with any non-Ducati made stock-parts !
__ After having stock taillight-brackets and rear-fenders crack-up & bust several times on me,, one of the askew/off-kilter installations which I then chose to go with, was to mount the fender & taillight set-up from a '69 Honda SL175, and that lasted the rest of all the years I still owned the DUKE which I had installed those Honda-parts on, (with no regrets) !
____ If there's any of us who choose to look at this issue from the opposing view-point, then please attempt to convince me (& those like minded), that I'm overlooking any credible reason for why any of us who wish to enjoy RIDING our DUKEs, should also choose to use any stock-parts which are known to have any common problematic-issues.
Good-Cheers,
-Bob
UPDATE: - Here's a couple fresh examples of the kind of thing that I think has gotten out-of-hand...
This one,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEDWX%3AIT I wouldn't pay more than 20-bucks for that SCR-type taillight for my own use !
And this one,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEDWX%3AIT I wouldn't pay more than 25-bucks for that street-model taillight.
As I'm not into 'restorations' ! _ My-thing with DUKEs, was always to build versions of models that Ducati never did (but perhaps should've).
DCT-B