LED Lighting

[Badbob]

Is anyone messing around with LED lighting on their GZ250?

Anyone interested in this sort of thing?

I want to add some additional lighting to my bikes as well as replace as many of the lights as I can with LEDs. They are much more durable, use very little power, and can be much much brighter than conventional turn signals and running lights. I know there are lots of companies out there that will sell me very expensive solutions for this like $95 brake light replacement. This is not what I'm looking for.

I was an electronics technician for 20 years. I can read schematics, use test equipment, and do precision soldering. I also have tools I know how to use. Making my own LED lighting or modifying something to work is not out of the question.

For example, I was in WalMart today and saw a small LED light that was designed to plug into a cigarette lighter that could easily be modified to work on a bike. The only real problem I saw with it was that it was bright yellow.

If any of you have done anything like this or knows of someone else who has rolled their own I would sure like to know about it.

If you have any ideas post them here and lets discuss it.

[Dupo]

Only thing i did on the GZ was add some red LEDs under the chrome covers on the engine to light up the heads. I was going to get some LED bulb replacements off ebay (which really arent that much if you can find the guys who sell cheap). I want to replace the signals on my shadow with LEDs and will probably take that route (replacement LED bulbs).

[Bill]

Try a search at VolusiaRiders.com. It seems to me there was a fair amount of discussion on LED lighting there. I'm totally in a fog about anything electrical but it seems like there are quite a few folks at that forum that could help.

Cheers!

[Badbob]

Try a search at VolusiaRiders.com. It seems to me there was a fair amount of discussion on LED lighting there. I'm totally in a fog about anything electrical but it seems like there are quite a few folks at that forum that could help.

Thanks Bill I'm going to give them a look. I probably need to check out some of the KLR forums as well. Those guys are pretty creative. I saw one the other day with fuel cell mounted on the luggage rack so he could increase the range. Like 400 miles wasn't enough. :)

[oneyunguy]

Why yes, I have, and I do! I purchased around 50 Blue leds (5000MCd brightness) direct from Hong Kong off of Ebay for super cheap. I have used them for many things, even the bike. I wanted to "light up" the engine bay and wondered for sometime how to do it. I had some ABS strips lying around and thought they would work well. I ran them down a table saw to make a channel up the middle to run the wiring, and drilled holes to poke the LEDs through, 4 per side. I then took a small swith and mounted it to a small square of thin ABS, and attached to a screw holes on the frame that werent populated.
It gives off a nice glow to the engine (the photos dont do it justice) , as well as on the road right around where the front tire meets the road.

http://upload4.postimage.org/1664968/leds1.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1664968/photo_hosting.html)

http://upload4.postimage.org/1664972/leds2.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1664972/photo_hosting.html)

http://upload4.postimage.org/1664974/leds3.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1664974/photo_hosting.html)

http://upload4.postimage.org/1664976/leds5.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1664976/photo_hosting.html)

http://upload4.postimage.org/1664977/leds6.jpg (http://upload4.postimage.org/1664977/photo_hosting.html)

Next, I want to change the rear brake light to brighter leds, possibly white behind the red lens. Then, I want to to accent the bike some more with more LED's and use a remote to be able to turn them on and off at will.

[oneyunguy]

My two EBAY favorites. Ultra fast shipping to my door from China!

http://stores.ebay.ca/LCK-LED-LIGHTING- ... esstQQtZkm (http://stores.ebay.ca/LCK-LED-LIGHTING-COMPANY_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm)
http://stores.ebay.ca/Hkemart_W0QQssPag ... esstQQtZkm (http://stores.ebay.ca/Hkemart_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm)

[Badbob]

The blue LEDs look great. Thanks for the links. Looks like a good source.

[Dupo]

Theres always this place too ;)

http://www.customdynamics.com/index.htm

I just wired red LEDs along the chrome engine covers with some zip ties. Worked great on the bike. Didnt go too nuts, 2 per side. Nice glow but not to overbearing. My next venture is to get one of those kits on ebay that fade and change colors for the shadow :)

[Water Warrior 2]

Dupo, replacing your regular signal bulbs with LED's may not work. If the signal flasher is not an electronic flasher or reasonable facsimilie then there will not be a load to make it function. What # is the bulb in the signal and the wattage ???

[Dupo]

Not sure of the part number for your turn signals. But i do know they make direct replacement LED bulbs. Going to get some for my spirit in the spring actually.

[Badbob]

You must replace the flasher if you replace the turn signals with LEDs. Watch out for solutions that simply add more current load to make the existing flasher work with LEDs. You don't gain much doing this. What I want out of LED Lighting is to free up power for other things like heated grips.

Every time I look at LED lighting I find new stuff. In ten years they are going to replace just about all the incandescent lighting.

[Badbob]

This place looks promising. Lots of bulb replacements as well as what appear to be electronic flashers. Looks like you could change out everything except the headlight for around $65.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/

[Badbob]

GZ250 flashers are not a standard two or three wire flasher. Changing it would require modifying the wiring and may not be reversible. I'm still looking into this.

[Badbob]

A few discussions I have found on the subject. You may need to join the forum to see the images.

Need Help Designing LED Tail/Brake Light[\url]
[url=http://forums.linear1.org/index.php/topic,728.0.html]Luxeon III Tailight Retrofit (http://tinyurl.com/23o4uj)
LED's and Sequence Flasher mixed with some other functions? (http://tinyurl.com/224v92)
Dual brilliance motor-cycle tail light. (http://www.davidbridgen.com/brakes.htm)
LED Tail light Schematic (http://tinyurl.com/2pu3mx)
Flash Flash Flash and Steady On Flasher (http://tinyurl.com/237gpt)

For those who are electrically challenged please not that electrically speaking there is very little difference between motorcycle and auto lighting. When searching for lighting information do not limit your search to motorcycles.

[Quimrider]

keep us updated. I'll be doing some investigation into this myself. (once I get my GZ250 that is!) I replaced all incadescents in my car with LEDS except the headlights. had a bulb burn out that was a pain in the ass to get to. I didn't want to do it again so I changed everything to LEDs.

[Badbob]

keep us updated. I'll be doing some investigation into this myself. (once I get my GZ250 that is!) I replaced all incadescents in my car with LEDS except the headlights. had a bulb burn out that was a pain in the ass to get to. I didn't want to do it again so I changed everything to LEDs.

I fully intend to keep this up dated.

I picked up four trailer clearance lights the other day cheap with the intention of mounting them on my panniers. one pair as running lights and one as additional brake lights. I haven't found the electrical connectors I want yet. I want connectors that are water resistant and easily removed. 3M makes one that I think will work well but I can only find the female ones locally. I've been everywhere I can think of in my area but no luck yet.

Next the brake light gets changed to LED. Prices are getting low enough on the better bulb replacements so a bout ready to jump on that.

After the brake lights I'm going to tackle the turn signals. The flasher may work as is. It looks to be an electronic solid state flasher. I'm hoping this this is the case so it will simply be a matter of selecting appropriate LED replacements. If this is not the case then I get to rewire for an after market flasher.

Switch to and HID headlight to get even more power savings.

Then add some running lights. White LEDs for the front. They don't use much power so either some very bright LEDs or maybe four or more not so bright. I don't know if I can get them anywhere near as bright as halogen bulbs but their are LED headlights in the works.

Replace side reflectors with LEDs. The they can see them in the dark with their head lights out.

The point of all this is to not only really light up the bike for safety and get the reliability of LEDs but lower the power consumption as low as possible so I can add things like heated grips for those few cold days we get here in Tallahassee.

[Quimrider]

LOL, forgive me for laughing. Being from Michigan/Northern Ohio I don't exactlly equate Tallahassee with cold. Sounds like you've got some interesting ideas. I look forward to reading about your progress.

[Dupo]

Heres something interesting to do with LEDs ... (i put 4 purple ones in my Hypercharger). When the butterflies open/close with the throttle ... the light output dims/brightens :cool:

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1299/lights016tb6.jpg
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/358/lights018gc7.jpg

[Badbob]

I've never seen that before. Did you dream that up your self?

[Easy Rider]

Heres something interesting to do with LEDs ... (i put 4 purple ones in my Hypercharger). When the butterflies open/close with the throttle ... the light output dims/brightens :cool:


Way cool, however..........
You may not like them so much if you meet a Cop having a bad day and he tickets you for having a blue light visible from the front! :cry:

[Dupo]

Its deep purple ... the camera just wouldnt capture the purple for me and makes it look blueish.

Yea Badbob ... had some LEDs laying around and couldnt figure out what to do with them. Just kinda hit me ... hey that would look cool inside the hypercharger ... lol. Really neat effect, gonna post a vid of it for some people at the one shadow forum. They wanna see it dim/bright with the throttle. Get alot of people just staring .... then say 'dude, thats sweet' :cool: