Implement instrumentation in headlight?

I'm thinking about moving some of the instrumentation to the headlight unit (small LED's for neutral, oil, etc.). Has anyone on here done this? I looks pretty straight forward, though I'm not sure what to do with the fuel gauge. Anyone have any experience doing this?

What bike are you working with? Guess you're going for a "clean " look ?
There are many types of LED with various mount/bezel types with different brightness ratings. You'll need to experiment a bit to get the best size/brightness level. Luckily, they're pretty cheap and lots these days are already wired as direct replacement for lamps with 12v auto electrics. Before you start cutting holes in your headlamp print up your LEDs on paper and do a "mockup," or take a photo and do a bit of photoshop work to get a good idea of the final product - appearance, spacing, visibility. Maybe you could get a fuel cap with integrated gauge ?

It is for a kz700 and maybe a Suzuki gs450s.

A fuel cap? Didn't think about that at all. I'll have a look and see if I can find one I like. Thanks for the idea.

Any idea what range of brightness LEDs I'm looking for?

KZ700.....? Not familiar with that one.

I'm looking at replacing the back-lighting of my '78 Z1-R fuel gauge and ammeter with LEDs. This is for 2 reasons - the OEM lighting was pretty crap and you could hardly see the dials/needles at all; the bulb holder for the fuel gauge has been chopped off and lost by a PO and I am unable to find a replacement - see the thread on Z1-R fuel gauge lamp socket.

I can't say what you'll need as far as brightness goes - you'll probably have to be like me and buy a few and try them - pretty cheap only about 50-70c each and all you need is a 12v battery to illuminate them to compare brightness. Just remember that unless they're wired for 12v they'll need a dropping resistor on one leg to bring the forward voltage down to what they normally run at - usually about 1.5v at about 20mA. Let me know if you need more info on this when you're going to power up the LEDs.

It is a US model of an '84 KZ750 made with a smaller bore (the US had some import rules on bigger engines as far as I can remember).

Here it is in my garage (yes, I actually do everything on a lawn as that is all I got access to atm :S )


I'll order some LED's off of eBay and add some resistors if they are too bright (found some ready for 12v pre-soldered). I'm also going to do the back-end with something similar to this (edit: won't cut the back end short like that though):



The plan is to make a line of LED's around the edges as lighting and an X across as brake lights. I think... :dry:

LEDs have poor side visibility, tried one in mine. Bulbs have more spread.

Tyrell, for instrumentation lighting that would be good, no?

This is fine as long as the LED is being viewed directly in front and not from the side - ok for instrumentation if you have them mounted flat and in a direct line with the viewer's eye. There are LEDs which have a wide viewing angle - these would be the best ones - probably need to be high intensity also.