Brake light upgrade

[wacky941]

Back in March I was sideswiped on my bike, the very first thing that came out of the guys mouth was “I didn’t see you!,” so now I have made some changes to my brake lights to make it more visible.

First, bought the lights I wanted, they are actually police grill lights.
Next, I sat down and gave it a lot of thought as to mounting and wiring requirements. Then, I went shopping for what I needed.

This is what I came up with,


I measured out a piece of aluminum, cut it, marked and drilled it, then match drilled the existing inspection sticker plate.



I added a couple hard rubber bump stops to the mount plate so that it would remove any vibrations and stabilize the whole assembly, then I mounted the inspection sticker plate to the back side of the mounting plate. I did this so that just in case a problem ever arose for me having these lights, I could easily remove them and put it all back to original condition and there would be no signs of any alterations.



I fabricated my harness and did a temporary install for length, then cut the wire.


In the picture you can see the top mounts, I used a couple ˝ inch nylon stand-offs to provide spacing for clearance of my wires.


This is the first temporary mount I did to get a good look at it


After completion of the main harness, I laid it in and secured it, then I fabricated my power disconnect harness which includes an inline fuse and relay. The relay was easily mounted to existing mount brackets for the air box that are no longer being used.



Looks like I will need to break this into two postings because of the number of pictures.

[wacky941]

Continuing with the thread:

I installed all of the wiring, installed my grounds, spliced into my brake switch wire and connected to the battery. This is what the installation looks like,



I built one other thing so that just in case I get pulled over because of the lights, I can easily reprogram or even turn the lights off by connecting a programming control box and simply pushing button #1, #2 or #3. I decided that I would place this in the tool compartment so that it is always available if needed.


As you can see, I have two of the lights mounted vertical and one mounted horizontal, the two vertical lights are programmed to burn steady while the horizontal one will strobe.



The last picture is a video, click on it and it will give you an idea of how it works.


Personally, I think it came out quite well, of course I have a biased opinion too. The only thing left is to disassemble the whole thing and paint the mount plate.
What do you think?

[Steve]

Nice job!

Have you had the opportunity to be behind the bike at about driver's-eye level?

I ask that because I did something similar with a different set of lights on "Junior" last year. I thought the whole process went very well, until a friend was following me and commented that the lights were visible, but not all that noticeable, until he was rather close to me. I changed the angle of the license plate to be more vertical and compared. There was a HUGE difference. This happens because LEDs are much brighter when they are viewed in a rather narrow angle. You may want to change the angle so that the lights project more to the "straight back" angle, rather than "slightly tilted", which is standard for a license plate.

Here is the "before" shot:


Here is the "after" shot, the only difference is the angle of the plate (and the LEDs on the frame):


And here is a short video of my lights in action. Sorry about the blue lines, my cheap camera does strange things with sharp points of light.


.

[wacky941]

Actually all that they are is brake lights, the standard tail light is still functional and is the only light lit under normal conditions. Only when I put on the brakes do these lights light up.
There won't be any problem for anyone to see my brake lights when they come on, if you've ever been pulled over by the police or passed by a police car that pulled someone over then, you've seen how bright these lights are.



This is what I used, it's programable for different types of alternating or simultaneous flashing modes and they even burn steady. They're actually police grill lights, Police Lightz - P36 LED Grille Light.

This will give you more information about them, this is also where I ordered them from http://www.emergencycity.com/Police_...p/pl-p36xx.htm

[Steve]

It's OK if you have them only as brake lights, they still work better if they are pointing straight back at traffic, rather than slightly up.

The difference is about as dramatic as seeing someone in front of you turn on a flashlight, then having them shine it directly into your eyes.

.

[reliant_turbo]

cool. no one should miss that.

I just have the superbright led's 3w with brake flasher.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1157-led-bulb-dual-intensity-1-x-3-watt-high-power-led-w-brake-flasher/923/2274/

the strobe effect is pretty noticeable though not as much as cop lights all over the back of your bike.

id be a little concerned about the wig-wag effect if the vid shows it correctly. around here, you can strobe but wig-wagging left to right mimics a cop car and gets them all excited. then again, your life is more important than worrying about cops bothering you.

Brian

[wacky941]

I was just looking at the link and I like that!
The bulb that I have in the tail/brake light is the standard, stock bulb, I think that the bulb you link to would go real well with the rest of what I have built.

Thanks for the link!

[tkent02]

cool. no one should miss that.

Driver hit trains, trucks and busses, they will still not always see you.

Nice lights but don't think they will always be seen.

[mustangflyr]

Brake light upgrade

A product to consider is one I've used on my GS since new which is the SOS Priority Lites. All three lights operate together as tail lights and brake lights with turn signals as normal. No issues with police or state inspections and I'm told they are eye catching day or night. Plus easy install.

[twistedd49]

Nice job. Came out good. Could you program the light to strobe for the first few seconds then switch over to the wig-wag? Might make it even more visible.

[Gregory]

I am impressed. What could have turned out tacky really ended up looking professional.

[bigskybldr]

Nice upgrade. I like the idea of making yourself more visible, it might just catch the guy's attention that otherwise would slam into you.

[wacky941]

It's been awhile since I have been able to really sit down and post anything, been working lots and traveling quite a bit, in fact I'm in Colorado right now where it's 1 degree and a foot of snow on the ground.
Anyway, just to give an update, I have ridden the bike numerous times since doing the mod and have noticed that whenever I apply the brakes any vehicles behind me back off and provide more distance between than they had provided before the mod, even when I stop at a light they keep quite a bit of space between us up to about thirty feet but never has been less than fifteen feet.
It seemed that prior to modifying the brake lights the cars would stop within four to five feet of my rear tire.

Overall, I think I have accomplished my goal of making myself more visible and making other drivers see me.

I am debating whether I want to leave them as they are or make the light on the bottom come on solid and the two sides flash, I guess I can try that when I finally get home.

In two days it will be exactly one year since I was hit on the bike, time sure flies!

Just checked and it has warmed up to 14 degrees, woohoo it's warm

[1980GS1000E]

In CA, any wig-wag strobing is for LEO only. That will get a ticket out here.

[81gs1100]

I like the idea, but I would like to mount mine inside the tail light, well behind the tail light lens. Just a strobe, nothing more then the 30 year old light and faded lens.

I also had the idea of strobing a lazer though a crystal 2 or 3 times when I hit the brakes. Get a fan of random lazers for a split second. Just dont know the adverse affects if one beam were to happen to hit someone directly with super sensitive eyes.

but for now Im just going to glue some of the emergency strobes into my tail light lens, I figure 2, 160w HID bulbs would do fine alone. My friend has a strobe kit installed on his car and has one 160w HID bulb in each tail light, turn signals, and headlight housings, and at high noon in the sun, you NOTICE it. I just don't know how many watts the system would use. It stores the power so its not using 160 watts from the system all at once.

I guess I would like to see the LEDS in person once, see how the flash is in the day time. All I know is with the HIDs you don't even have to be looking in that direction and you'll see it. at night the ones in the headlight housing look like a flash bulb, or lightning strike.