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Rfp52
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 11:22 am: |
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After a weekend trip with friends one comment I got was that my turn signals were difficult to see. They said the LED tail / brake was great but the signals weren't very bright. I know there are LEDs and then there are LEDs they aren't all the same and some are just plain junk. One possibility I considered was getting a bright Amber LED bulb and removing the amber lens inside the turn signal. I have the Kisan Signal Minder relay so load is not an issue. Anyone with ideas or experience? |
Andymnelson
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 03:26 pm: |
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I installed 1125CR mirrors with integrated signals, and 2010 1125R LED rear signals- MUCH cleaner looking, and brighter light too! |
Desert_bird
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 04:07 pm: |
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Andymnelson, i've heard some say that the 1125 mirrors shake, bend in at low speeds (due to wind)/don't say put, and don't have as good a viewing area as the stock Uly mirrors (which aint saying much). Any of these issues for you? Thanks in advance DB |
Andymnelson
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 05:32 pm: |
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Well I wouldn't say that they are great...but they are certainly better than stock! They have always stayed put for me- literally never bent in at speed (even um....full speed). They are a touch wider than stock, and they vibrate plenty, but a bit less than stock. |
Andymnelson
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 05:35 pm: |
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this might give you a bit of an idea at to the width: I would think that how you mount this is pretty key to most of your stated concerns. I did a little write up here: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/573203.html (the photos are gone, but the content is still there) |
Union_man
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 07:51 pm: |
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I have seen Andy's setup...nice! |
Ratbuell
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 09:28 pm: |
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I also have CR mirrors on my Uly. And (naturally) on my CR. They vibrate less on the Uly than they do on the CR. The view is better with the CR mirrors than with the stock lollipops. And I much prefer the CR mirrors to the stockers. I built my own LED rears. I would NOT put in the LED bulb replacements...as a rule, I've found they pretty much suck. I used LED's (LumiLED brand) out of police emergency lights for mine, and have heard they're pretty effective ("Damn, dude...those are BRIGHT!!"). I will say that after following Froggy around for part of the weekend, the stockers on the 1125's are nice and bright. I never follow myself on the CR, so I didn't have much experience there |
Blasterd
| Posted on Monday, October 18, 2010 - 10:09 pm: |
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I wish I had a set of CR mirrors for my Uly, in fact I would like the LED rears like what comes on the 2010 bikes. I know people that took them off at the dealer so they could put the bulb type back on... why? |
Xrated
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 03:08 am: |
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Folks, is there gonna be a need for a different flasher unit, if I fit the 2010 LED blinkers to my 2009 XT, or are these bad boys just a simple swap? a (Message edited by xrated on October 19, 2010) |
Desert_bird
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 03:22 am: |
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Do an Ebay search for LED motorcycle turn signals. Plenty of nice units for very cheap. DB |
Court
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 08:41 am: |
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I put Whelan TIR3's on my Ulysses .... Largely as self defense in NYC. |
Andymnelson
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 09:13 am: |
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quote:Folks, is there gonna be a need for a different flasher unit, if I fit the 2010 LED blinkers to my 2009 XT, or are these bad boys just a simple swap?
good question, and one that it appears there is not a universal answer to. Mine flash normal, with no special flasher or resistors or anything. Click on the thread I linked up above, and scroll down to the youtube video to see the blink rate. Apparently the 1125s do not use a flasher, they are controlled by the gauge cluster, electronically. Some others have reported fast blinking, yet others also say they flash normal. So perhaps they made different versions of the signals? Not really sure, but mine work great after simply plugging them in! |
Desert_bird
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 10:37 am: |
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Andymnelson, I think that you don't have problems because your bike (seems to be) already set up for LEDs (I notice the rear LED signals). Incandescent set ups may need a new relay because LED's draw less amperage. With a normal relay for incandescent bulbs and LED signals, the blinkers will blink a bit fast. Just an ignorant guess though. DB |
Andymnelson
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 10:55 am: |
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Nah, mine is an '06....and I removed the stock incandescent lights to install the LED CR mirrors and 2010 LED rears. It honestly does not make sense to me I figure the lights must have some resistance built in....but that doesn't make sense either if the light system is not flasher based on the 1125s! |
Desert_bird
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 11:00 am: |
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Hmm. Well, like I say, just an ignorant guess. ..... and like they say. "If it aint broke . . . . " |
Ratbuell
| Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 02:14 pm: |
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Flasher is only like $20...just get one when you get new signals and be safe! |
Rfp52
| Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 01:57 pm: |
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I like the stock signals and don't really want to replace them just make them brighter. I did try one option that seems to work. I removed the inner Amber lens and replaced the small stock 10W bulb with a Amber 1156 24w bulb. the bulb is much brighter but I am concerned about heat. I don't think the bulb would ever be on for an extended time so I it should not be an issue. I may try it for a while. I have replacement turn signals readily available if it would damage one. |
Hop_along
| Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 06:21 pm: |
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I had another riding partner make the same 'brightness' comment... and his take was that WITH the Hepco Becker side cases, the signals were very easy to see (because of a dark, contrasting background). Without the bags, he had great difficulty following my turnsignals because they didn't stand out very well. So... solution: keep the side bags on |
Cowboycop419
| Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 08:06 pm: |
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Andy- Can you put the photos back on the link where you described swapping out the mirrors/lights? It kind of concerned me the other night after my wife was following me home. She too commented on the dimness of the signals and that was at night. She said you can see them fine, but not enough to get a wandering minded 4 wheelers attention. |
Ratbuell
| Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 10:01 pm: |
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...and all of this is why I don't buy into integrated tail lights / turn signals, and prefer to have my front signals on the mirrors. It keeps the signals out of the light-wash from other lights (mainly the headlight), and gives more noticability to them. Bright, and as separated as possible from other light sources on the bike. As much as I ride, I'll take every bit of help I can get in the War On Cagers. I had a guy tonight tell me the brakelight on my S2 was "annoying". It's a custom home-made LED setup with a Ulysses tail/brake LED board plus two Federal Signal police LED boards hooked to a wig-wag flasher at 10 FPS (flashes per second).
I looked him in the eye and said "GOOD!" |
Tiltcylinder
| Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 09:56 am: |
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Ratbuell I used the same boards in the top case, mounted behind the lens. Nice and bright, retards with suv's and cell phones stay back now. I didn't want to do the flash thing as leo's are sometimes upset by flashing lights other than yellow. Seems most jurisdictions have laws against such things... Working on using yellow ones for the turn signals... just haven't been working on it that hard lately. Have spare turn housings, lenses and the led units... maybe over the winter. (Message edited by tiltcylinder on October 21, 2010) |
Ratbuell
| Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 11:03 am: |
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AFAIK, there's no rules against red flashers, especially in the *rear* of a vehicle. Not like you can use them to pull someone over from back there. The topcase of the Uly has an LED board from a Dodge Magnum third brakelight. On a flasher, of course. And I did the rear signals on it in red, also using police lights. *BRIGHT* |
Hooper
| Posted on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 05:04 pm: |
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Flashers ARE annoying!
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Andymnelson
| Posted on Friday, October 22, 2010 - 12:45 pm: |
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quote:Can you put the photos back on the link where you described swapping out the mirrors/lights?
I can't seem to find them....I'll take some new ones and post em up here. |
Tipsymcstagger
| Posted on Friday, October 22, 2010 - 11:47 pm: |
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Reuel Attwood made some nice LED boards for me that fit into the stock signal housings. He also made a couple of small modules that I've powered from the circuits that used to provide power the front and rear accessory jacks (the accessory jacks are now powered hot to a Centech fuse block). The accessory circuit illuminates the LEDs as full time running lights and the modules cause them to flash when the signals are selected. Very bright. Tipsy
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