06-04-2016, 04:09 AM
Trying to tip the odds in my favor by adding a BRIGHTer brakelight. In the past I've had those add-on LEDs like Hyper-lites (they work, but seemed kind of small) or built up my own using dual mode LEDs mounted on a license plate frame.
Skeene Design P-3s would be nice, but kinda spendy although the BMW guys don't seem to mind so much.
This time I was cruising around another forum where they've been talking about the usual Whelen LED units but they're kind of bulky since they're designed for ambulances and LEO cars.
Someone mentioned the SLULTRA from Nova Electronics LED unit that is thinner so I found one on eBay with reasonable shipping (the online store they mentioned costed too much to ship to Hawaii).
I think you can find this for about $45-50 each.
They include the black plastic mounting bezel along with screws and what's neat is that the flasher unit is built into the LED unit itself, plus its all sealed up so it should be fine on the bike. I ended up setting it up so it doesn't flash and acts like a bright brakelight figuring the LEOs wouldn't bee too happy since this is a flashing strobe-like LED. It has about 8 modes and I was hoping it would have one that would flash then go steady but no such luck. You need a separate brake light flasher like the ones from Signal Dynamics to piggy pack to get that function.
You touch the blue wire to the red positive power feed and it steps through all the different flashing modes. Then you either secured the blue wire to the black ground wire, or leave it secured unconnected.
Mocked it up using an old dealer plate and eventually got a plain black plastic one from eBay:
Testing with the rear running light only:
Brakes applied, both brake lights on! And yes, if you are OCD you will notice the license plate isn't centered which didn't occur to me until I was finished and then had to go back and center it all up.
Of course I ran into the usual "gotchas" that never appear when you're mocking things up. Had to lower that safety check sticker plate because the LED unit blocked too much of the sticker.
To run the wires up into the tail light housing to tap into the power there is a gap at the bottom of the gasket that goes between the housing and the fender so I routed the wires up through that. Excess wire gets tucked into the license plate mount.
Just need to tap into the positive power lead (green-yellow), run the black ground wire into one of the fender mounting holes tucking it under the rubber grommet. Blue wire that controls the flashing mode gets coiled up and tucked behind the plastic license plate frame where it is easily reached so you can connect it to a power lead to change the flashing mode.
Aloha,
Huladog
Skeene Design P-3s would be nice, but kinda spendy although the BMW guys don't seem to mind so much.
This time I was cruising around another forum where they've been talking about the usual Whelen LED units but they're kind of bulky since they're designed for ambulances and LEO cars.
Someone mentioned the SLULTRA from Nova Electronics LED unit that is thinner so I found one on eBay with reasonable shipping (the online store they mentioned costed too much to ship to Hawaii).
I think you can find this for about $45-50 each.
They include the black plastic mounting bezel along with screws and what's neat is that the flasher unit is built into the LED unit itself, plus its all sealed up so it should be fine on the bike. I ended up setting it up so it doesn't flash and acts like a bright brakelight figuring the LEOs wouldn't bee too happy since this is a flashing strobe-like LED. It has about 8 modes and I was hoping it would have one that would flash then go steady but no such luck. You need a separate brake light flasher like the ones from Signal Dynamics to piggy pack to get that function.
You touch the blue wire to the red positive power feed and it steps through all the different flashing modes. Then you either secured the blue wire to the black ground wire, or leave it secured unconnected.
Mocked it up using an old dealer plate and eventually got a plain black plastic one from eBay:
Testing with the rear running light only:
Brakes applied, both brake lights on! And yes, if you are OCD you will notice the license plate isn't centered which didn't occur to me until I was finished and then had to go back and center it all up.
Of course I ran into the usual "gotchas" that never appear when you're mocking things up. Had to lower that safety check sticker plate because the LED unit blocked too much of the sticker.
To run the wires up into the tail light housing to tap into the power there is a gap at the bottom of the gasket that goes between the housing and the fender so I routed the wires up through that. Excess wire gets tucked into the license plate mount.
Just need to tap into the positive power lead (green-yellow), run the black ground wire into one of the fender mounting holes tucking it under the rubber grommet. Blue wire that controls the flashing mode gets coiled up and tucked behind the plastic license plate frame where it is easily reached so you can connect it to a power lead to change the flashing mode.
Aloha,
Huladog
