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Advice on turn signal replacement.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ggreenfield
  • Start date Start date
G

ggreenfield

Guest
I found these great looking carbon fiber signals but it states:
Will work as turn signals ONLY and are not DOT approved
Click to expand...

Okay then.......

Then there are these LED signals. At that site they mention:
We Recommend Resistors with this item. All LED Lights draw less current than Conventional Bulbs, therefore LED's may cause your lights to flash faster than normal. The use of a resistor brings the flashing back down to normal speed.
Click to expand...
At $10 for 2 resistors I can see why they recommend them! ;) What value of resistor might they be using? I have resistors and could probably come up with something on my own. Any suggestions for a value or how to wire them in? Presumably you just add a resistor on the positive leg of the signal wiring?

Also quoted from that site:
These also work great as rear turn signals.
Click to expand...
Does this imply that they won't work as front turn signals?
 
the led's should work without resistors if you get an electronic flasher to replace your mechanical flasher. electronic flashers use much less current. i got one at a car parts store for about $8.
 
Ditto just get an electronic flasher and the LED signals will work fine.
 
signal lights

signal lights

FYI, my son put a set of the small led carbon fiber signals on his GS and they are really hard to see unless you are really close. They look very nice but his are just not very effective.
On the other hand, I readily admit to being an old fart who thinks that you can't get enough lights onto the back of your bike anyway.
Lee :-D
 
just get rid of the signal lights and use hand signals.......you can wear a different pair of gloves every time you want to change the look of your signals......
 
Muser3 said:
FYI, my son put a set of the small led carbon fiber signals on his GS and they are really hard to see unless you are really close. They look very nice but his are just not very effective.
On the other hand, I readily admit to being an old fart who thinks that you can't get enough lights onto the back of your bike anyway.
Lee :-D
Click to expand...
Do you think this is due to the small size or just that the LED's were dim? I don't really care if I have LED's or incandescents.
 
I have not actually dissected one of the LED turn signals but I wonder...is it as simple as just a few LED's in series? No circuitry involved at all? If they are in series then I suppose that if one of the LEDs were to die then none of them would work?
 
i think that you can get them both in series and parallel. leds are very unlikely to fail just one in a series though, unless they are recieving too much voltage. you shouldn't need any drivers if they are already in a bulb format.
 
ggreenfield said:
I found these great looking carbon fiber signals but it states:
Okay then.......

Then there are these LED signals. At that site they mention:
At $10 for 2 resistors I can see why they recommend them! ;) What value of resistor might they be using? I have resistors and could probably come up with something on my own. Any suggestions for a value or how to wire them in? Presumably you just add a resistor on the positive leg of the signal wiring?

Also quoted from that site:
Does this imply that they won't work as front turn signals?
Click to expand...

I installed some turn signals just like the ones in your link (mine were chrome). They didn't put out much light, and they are plastic. I later installed these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ambe...014QQitemZ330219924856QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

which are made from aluminum. I stripped the clear off them and polished them. They put out much more light, and are much better made.
Here's the old ones:



and here's the newer ones:



 
Wow renobruce those are sexy. The first set looks kind of sad. The price is nice too.
 
Has anyone though of making a set of their own? if wired correctly led's can be very bright, last forever and actually light up faster than standard bulbs, though this would be more efficient for a brake light, which i am actually trying to do right now. The turn signals aren't that big of a deal to me. But i will post a how to when i am done
 
i know that for cars at least, LED bulbs are available for just about everything now... i would bet that somewhere there are the bulbs we need, or if not, they'll be available soon i'm sure...
 
there are alot of bulbs avaliable if you search.. but it seems like they don't illuminate omnidirectional the way incadicent bulbs do generally. which is what leads to seeming to be less bright.. unless you are at the right viewing angle you are just getting a poor reflection. i have seen some omnidirectional bulbs as of late, but i haven't tried any myself.. could be better.
 
they're also getting better viewing angles on most of them, closer to at least 180 degrees, so at least if your bulb mounts horizontally it will be pretty well visible to people around you
 
ohgoodtimes said:
Has anyone though of making a set of their own?
Click to expand...
Yes. At work we actually make LED signs. Ever seen those BIG LED signs above the interstate that say "I-70 closed EB" or "Amber Alert" yeah those signs. Contained within those signs are several boards with different sized LED sockets, some with 6, 10 or more LED mounts. The problem I could not resolve (yet) was the housing. I'm still considering a modification to the stock 81 GS750E tail light lens. On each side of the OEM lens there is a perfect place to mount a turn signal inside the lens which would eliminate the need for a signal stalk. I really like the idea of no signal stalks to break off but I'm still not entirely certain that I want to go drilling holes in a perfectly good taillight given the cost of replacement. :shock: Additionally, the signal would have to be red (not amber) in color and while I think this is legal I'm not so sure it's the safest bet. There are plenty of studies claiming Amber signals are better then Red signals because drivers react faster to Amber signals. I dunno......

There are LED replacement bulbs that might work great for a brake light but I'd really prefer to do my own sid-by-side comparison. How bright are they really? Notice that those LED "bulbs" have LEDs pointing to the sides as well. I think that was one of the bigger concerns with LED brake lights. You can't see them from the side. The cost is certainly reasonable. I might buy one just to see.

You'll notice some other nice LED's there for brakes and signals combined. The cost of those is not so nice.

If you were to build your own LED signals, how were you intending to wire them? In series? Considered a brake light/signal combo?
 
ggreenfield said:
If you were to build your own LED signals, how were you intending to wire them? In series? Considered a brake light/signal combo?
Click to expand...

I was thinking is series, but i am going to mess around with it, maybe have a couple or daisy chains, like 3 sets of three or something. And see what is brightest. I was thinking about flush mounts in the rear, but i would need to have a good lense that would throw the light in 180 degrees, i would build them into the brake light but they wouldnt be visible from the sides so yet another problem. Basically in the rear i was thinking of putting them near the red reflectors hoping that the blinker would illuminate and reflect off of it to increase visibility. As for the front i am still pondering housing. The tail light would be simple for the most part, i would use a bulb but remove the fillament & glass and use that as my power source just go from there.. I hope all that made sense. here is a cool video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...411&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

i have also seen them with sequential turn signals like little arrows that scrool across the lense pointing the way you are turning. Very very cool.
 
I used all aluminum (Chromed) mini bullet signals with dual filament on my gs850.

For the rear I had one filament tied into the brake light and one tied into the directional. They are small and tight to the bike, look good and are very bright, both as a brake light and turn signal.

For the front I used amber ones and tied one filament into the low beam for running lights and the other filament was the turn signal.

Cant see em very well in the pic but its the only one I can find off hand.

sofar1.jpg
 
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