LED lights on Tweeksis - she's an adorable 83 if that matters..

[cowpuc]

So,, my buddy who is a hard core HD guy and really good friend is also a Trucker... Was down there yesterday supervising a project he had going involving adding some support to some floor joists - not bike related so I will stop there.. While I was busy showing em the best way to smear glue on a 2x8 he was busy telling me how crazy I am for "riding that beat up old Yamaha with a headlight that has a similar out put as my brain" - then he mentioned something about "6 watts"...

Being very familiar with his '10 Ultra Limited that I helped him build the motor in I know for a fact he has LED's in it.. Considering this, I made comment that, ok,, his bike may have slightly better lighting than my 1st Gen BUT - I could probably buy 6 MK1's for what he had in his HD lighting.. He said,,, not soo kokomo - I bought Trucker Lites for my HD - their NOT OEM.. After calling him a "cheap so n so" and cleaning off my glue covered hands on his HD shirt - he asked about my Yam lights.. Told him everything I knew - which aint much..

He said - sounds to me like my Semi headlights would set right in the old girl and WOWZY - are they awesome = actually the same light as in his bike only rectangular instead of round.. He suggested we pull a headlight out of his truck and plug er into my scoot when he gets it home.. Sounds like fun..

Got to thinking about that dorky Reserve Power Unit.. We briefly yakked about it and came to the conclusion that even if it didnt work properly without doing a bunch of snipping, jumpering, and all that - we could probably plug the light in without letting the smoke out of something somewhere..

What do think bongobobny , Flyinfool , yamagrl or anyone else with something to say..

Be kinda cool to ride at night and not feel like I am wearing a blind fold..

Edited April 27, 2017 by cowpuc
spelled "their" "there" and thought to myself - heyyy,, that aint right - so I fixed it

[Flyinfool]

Yes you will need to something with the DRL or it will be constantly switching between HI and LO beam till it does let the smoke out of something. Then you will want to jumper the CMU in the dash so that the headlight warning is not constantly lit up.

[cowpuc]

Yes you will need to something with the DRL or it will be constantly switching between HI and LO beam till it does let the smoke out of something. Then you will want to jumper the CMU in the dash so that the headlight warning is not constantly lit up.

 

Thanks Jeff.. Got an idea,,, I have a light bar off an old shadow with the spots on it.. Was looking at it = looks like that puppy would line right up under the fairing.. If I put hi/low spots in the light bar and wired up my headlight to those so they were running thru the RLU and off the bikes OEM switches and then wired an LED headlight like I am speaking in parallel with those "spots",,,, hmmm.. Isnt the issue with trying to run LED's on the RLU thingy problematic because of the low draw on the LED's? As long as total draw is close to OEM headlight - should be good to go?

[Flyinfool]

The bike wants to see around 50W of headlight power. if the headlight you are looking at is only 6W, you need to pull a lot more power. I do not know what the threshold of the sensors on the bike are. It MAY take less than 50W to make them happy.

[snyper316]

All I got to say it was a pain for me, But well worth it I can see just as good as I do with my Tahoe. If his lights will fit right in there I will be kicking myself because I did some modifying to get my headlight to fit. I still have the stock bulb with the LED in it but I wanted to try a headlight that was made for LED.

[bongobobny]

OK, Pucster, I am a little corn-fused about just what it is you are really trying to say, but if you want to install a LED in place of your OEM headlight, here is what you have to do to make all gone with the RLU!!

 

Step 1, unplug it, throw it away (or sell it to someone who needs one)!

Step 2, jumper the Yellow wire to the Yellow/Green wire. These wires are the high beam wires.

Step 3, jumper the Green wire to the Green/Red wire. This is your low beam circuit.

Step 4, remove the irritating white "headlamp fault" lightbulb. It is called the "reserve pilot light" on the schematic and only lights up when your low beam or one of your tail lights goes out if memory serves me correctly. Yes, even one of the two tail lights going bad can trigger it...

 

Now, it's been a while, but I think on the CMU there is also an LCD indicator for the headlights as well. I'm pretty sure connecting the Yellow to Yellow/Green in step 2 handles that...

 

Besides the safety feature of the RLU automatically switching the high beam on if the low beam blows, The RLU is IMHO kind of moronic! A good rider checks all of his lights prior to setting out on a ride, and if you are riding at night and your headlight goes out, you're going to know it immediately!! As far as daytime riding for safety, well a pair of driving lights pretty much overcomes that need too!!!

 

Another thing I want to mention about the MK1 headlight is to paint the black rubber bezel around the headlight WHITE!!! It makes a world of difference!! Last I checked, it is scientific proof (No, not the liberal's alternate scientific facts...) that white reflects all light, and black absorbs all light! Now silver is actually a variation of gray, which is part black, and I don't care how shiny you make it, it does not reflect light quite as good as white! So, using metallic tape over the black rubber does not work a good. This is a very old "old school" motorcyclist trick to make your tail light more visible at night, paint the silver reflector white...

Edited April 28, 2017 by bongobobny

[Flyinfool]

Bob

I know that a lot of things are different and unique on the 83. But doesn't the CMU still have the reed switches inside of coils to trigger the CMU warnings? Those reed switches still need to be jumpered to make the warnings go away.

 

As far as the usefulness of the RLU, I have had a headlight burn out at 75MPH going around a curve at midnight, I sure wish that bike had a RLU, I never was able to get the pucker out of that bike seat afterwards........ That said, the RLU is bypassed on my bike so that the HID will work.

 

I also repurposed the white headlight bulb on the dash for something else. I have the option of not turning on my headlight and so I have a bright red LED in that socket that is lit whenever the headlight is not lit. It will remind me to turn it on in the daytime if I should forget, and will also let me know if the headlight failed in the daytime.

 

Even though I have HID on the bike now, I still carry the old stock bulb for emergencies.

 

With the HID systems they do not like to get turned on and off all the time so many have added some switch feature so that the headlight does not come on right away with the key, then turn off with the starter and have to fire back up again, I am not sure if this is an issue with some, any, or all of the LED systems available. The LED itself don't care, not sure of the ballast.

[videoarizona]

Puc,

 

On a slightly different direction....(I'm still undecided about changing my 89's headlight bulb). But have added LED's up under the cowl connected to the running lights at the turn signals. They light up the road right under the front end for slow riding at night and make me more visible for cars as they pass me by...

 

 

 

Bought the little strips at Wal.Mart. Simple stuff but I like the look. Thinking it would be great for you as you FTFW in the boonies looking for a place to pitch the tent!

[snyper316]

@bongobobny, @cowpuc I love my bald eagles and I think tinker kinda reminds me of one nowadays!

 

"Never ride faster then your guardian angel can fly."

[cowpuc]

videoarizona = WOWZY capowzy do I like the looks of that brother!!! DEFINITELY gotta go there!! THANK YOU!!! Might be in touch on hook up BUT - I already have a plan in my head using an existing toggle/tapping into wiring for lights on my crash bars that were already there - WOW does this bike have the bling already installed!! May also check into just swapping out the bulbs in the crash bar lights for LED's...

Thanks Bongo and Fool for the jumpering tips - THAT is what I was looking for. Also Thanks to all who assisted..

Here is a link to the LED headlight I am thinking very seriously about going to - my buddy thinks he may be able to pick one of these up for me for about 100 bucks on his business account: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Truck-Lite-27450C-One-Rectangular-LED-5-X-7-Ford-GM-Van-Jeep-XJ-YJ-Headlight/182540011083?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D40130%26meid%3D241075847f5d4969ab04e33af6768c3f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D252834342344

 

I did take one of the old lights that my neighbor had in his semi (before he went to this type) and BINGO - it set right in the mounting bezel like it was made for it.. He is driving right now (probably down in Texas as I type this) but he/I will pull one of his LED headlights when he gets back - jumper those wires and see what happens... This could get interesting.. I've been using "The Force" for so long at night I hope I am able to do this...

Edited April 28, 2017 by cowpuc

[cowpuc]

bongobobny, cowpuc I love my bald eagles and I think tinker kinda reminds me of one nowadays! https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170428/20fd75c928c3500a5557caf52c23aa3d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170428/4787dac032f414c6c226c4d88cf2a8cf.jpg

 

"Never ride faster then your guardian angel can fly."

 

OUTSTANDING SNYPE!! LOOKS GREAT!!! Was half finished with my post above and had to run to the docs office.. Came back, finished and sent it - then found this..

Yep - looks great,, better than stock for night riding?

[snyper316]

OUTSTANDING SNYPE!! LOOKS GREAT!!! Was half finished with my post above and had to run to the docs office.. Came back, finished and sent it - then found this..

Yep - looks great,, better than stock for night riding?

 

It will blind you when you look at the bike even in the daytime, But yes a heck of alot better then the stock did, Even with Led in mine it did better then stock it just would not aim right, Basically seemed I was just brightening the space I could already see. So was chatting with Bongo and Fool one night and fool said something along the lines of the light will probably not work right unless it was in housing made for LED So i got this light, interesting enuff I could not get it to seat all the way back just trying to figure out a way to maybe rig an actual pan in there for the light and still allow me to adjust it, as of right now I have it modified enuff to be able to adjust. But it was also supposedly a 5x7 light.. But to answer your question on a very dark road out in the country it does its best work even on low beams. I just used the plug off the RLU and cut it about an inch from the plug and twisted the wire together, sodered it and heat shrink tubed it. Plugged it in to the existing plug and had my jumper plus if I chose to I would just go back to stock.. If it isn't raining tonight and is dry I will go down the dark alley across the street and get a couple pictures.

[snyper316]

As I said a dark alley, well Tinker and me didn't care for it as it was wet, muddy and slick. So I rode out by my buddies house and pulled off the side of the road, here is a car passing best I could do for side by side comparison, keep in mind I have only one light.

 

This is dim it has 6 leds lit up

 

This on dim

 

 

Did the best I could here but off to my left on the road is a car about lined up with me,

 

I have my light aimed down a little more just so I don't blind someone coming at me.

[cowpuc]

WOWZY do I like the looks of that Snype!! I been doing some digging on what my buddy uses in his semi - looks like the draw on them is 1.7 amps... As I mentioned - I have this light bar off a Shadow that looks like it would be wayyy easy to mod up and use on Tweeks.. It has normal motorcycle "Spots" on it.. Now I am thinking of following Bongo's instructions on being rid of the RLU - picking up a set of those Truck-Lite 27450c lites and a set of buckets to match that I can stick on the lite bar.. This would give me the same lighting as a modern day semi tractor trailer running state of the art modern LED's w/ high-low beams and it looks like I can do it all for about 250 bucks IF my friend can still get the lights for 100 bucks each..

Think if that works out I will get creative and pick up some of those cheap LED strips like David - @videoarizona shows on his scoot.. Placed on the sides and inside of the headlight area where my headlight once was - it would be way cool to have some low low watt usage lites to use for camping as he mentioned...

 

FUN STUFF!! Tinks looking GREAT there Snype!!!

[snyper316]

WOWZY do I like the looks of that Snype!! I been doing some digging on what my buddy uses in his semi - looks like the draw on them is 1.7 amps... As I mentioned - I have this light bar off a Shadow that looks like it would be wayyy easy to mod up and use on Tweeks.. It has normal motorcycle "Spots" on it.. Now I am thinking of following Bongo's instructions on being rid of the RLU - picking up a set of those Truck-Lite 27450c lites and a set of buckets to match that I can stick on the lite bar.. This would give me the same lighting as a modern day semi tractor trailer running state of the art modern LED's w/ high-low beams and it looks like I can do it all for about 250 bucks IF my friend can still get the lights for 100 bucks each..

Think if that works out I will get creative and pick up some of those cheap LED strips like David - @videoarizona shows on his scoot.. Placed on the sides and inside of the headlight area where my headlight once was - it would be way cool to have some low low watt usage lites to use for camping as he mentioned...

 

FUN STUFF!! Tinks looking GREAT there Snype!!!

Once I added the led lights on the side I could not tell my headlight was on so really it was a no brainier then.. Either take the led driving lights off or go 100% led!! And when I have them all on wow I can see I no longer feel like I'm wearing yellow brown sunglasses trying to get down the road..

 

"Never ride faster then your guardian angel can fly."

[snyper316]

PS I am seriously thinking about getting rid of the spots tho and going to the led driving lights.. I might use the spots in a different way tho, not sure..

 

"Never ride faster then your guardian angel can fly."