Anyone played with LED's yet?

I decided to do some upgrades while I have everything apart.. So on to Ebay I went and found a bunch of 32 LED 1156 and 1157 bulbs. I was skeptical but they claimed to be brighter than the "stock" bulbs. Obviously being LED's they use far far less power than regular bulbs and last practically forever so I figured I'd give it a try. I knew they would have very little load so some kind of electronic flashers would need to be found too. (normally flashers are thermal which is why they blink faster if you hook up a trailer to your car, more load = faster flash) At the same time I got a halogen headlight which is probably going to draw more power than the factory one?

So my bulbs came in the other day and they really do look brighter than the ones I took out! The electronic flasher I got off the shelf at advanced auto parts fits right in the factory location but it only works for the hazard lights. I'm still waiting for the one I got off ebay to show up to try on the blinkers. When I tried this one for the blinkers the left side did not work only lit up the dash indicator and the right side worked fine. Very odd, I'm sure there is a logical explanation but I'm not sure what it is. With the factory flasher all the blinkers work they just blink eratticly.

Anyway, I'm really impressed with the blulbs, and they were cheap too. I replaced every blinker and brake light and I just need to try that blinker flasher and see what I get but either way I am pretty satisfied with the way it is. Anyone wants a link to guy on ebay I used feel free to PM me, but there are plenty to choose from.

Ron

Ron - these mods are very common. There is plenty to find in this forum about this topic. There is some discussion right now in another thread (see especially my post there about Radianz and Luxeon)...

A lot of us use LEDs Ron as mentioned earlier. But, the problem with the lights not working isn't a problem with the flasher. If the indicator light is flashing the flasher should be ok. Double check you connections, sockets and grounds. Also try switching the bulbs from the other side to see if they work in them. Good luck and ride safe.
Les

I may be telling you something you already know but you do know the bike has two flashers. The one on the right side is for the emergency flashers and the one on the left of the bike is for the turn signals (at least that's the way it is on my 1100).

Anyway, I'm sure you know that but i just wanted to mention it in case you didn't.

Have a good one,
Tony T

It's not flashing. It flashes with the factory one but not the electronic one. The electronic one works fine for the hazard lights though. The hazards lights do not flash with the factory flasher. Kind of funny. I have a different electronic flasher coming I'll see how that goes. Anyway, with that flasher in for the turn signals the indicator light just lights up dimly for the left side only, the right side work as they should. It's very weird. Everything functions fine with the factory flasher just blinks at odd speeds since theres virtually no load on it. I'll mess around with it some more when the other one gets here.

Thanks for the link! I missed that because of the title. My goal was to keep all the factory full sized lights and just change the bulbs. I'll have to take some pictures when I put all the body parts back on and try to make a comparisson shot. I swear the LED replacement bulbs ARE brighter, but they are no name brand from japan on ebay bulbs The package just says SUPER BIRGHT, that's it LOL. Anyway, so far I am liking them, and they cost $30 including shipping for 6 bulbs. Now if the rest of my parts would show up I could start putting things back together. I still have to paint it, change the front forks, steering bearings, swap the carbs, new oil lines, new coils, and a new ignition.. I'll get some pictures eventually.

Ron

AR15Ron wrote:

It's not flashing. It flashes with the factory one but not the electronic one...

...by the way, I had the same problem once when I was assembling a bike. To skip the long-story of troubleshooting, the temporary battery turned out to be less than half-full of water and it wasn't holding a charge. It had enough to push the old analog blinker, but not the digital one. Weird. Good luck...

Biquetoast wrote:

AR15Ron wrote:

It's not flashing. It flashes with the factory one but not the electronic one...

...by the way, I had the same problem once when I was assembling a bike. To skip the long-story of troubleshooting, the temporary battery turned out to be less than half-full of water and it wasn't holding a charge. It had enough to push the old analog blinker, but not the digital one. Weird. Good luck...

Good call on the battery voltage. It's a brand new battery (about 2 weeks old) it was fully charged when I started but yesterday I found a flasher in my junk box that said Electro-mechanical so I decided to give it a try. The indicators barely lit up at all and nothing worked (hazard lights still worked fine). So thinking of your post I checked the voltage and it was 11.5. Put the charger on it and everything works fine. I bet if I wasnt too lazy to try that other flasher again it would work fine. Makes me wonder if my new battery is defective....

Ron

Here's a pic of one of the LED's I used.


Post edited by: AR15Ron, at: 2007/03/17 04:42

Post edited by: steell, at: 2007/03/17 12:52

AR15Ron wrote:

... Makes me wonder if my new battery is defective....

Ron

I have had a defective battery straight from the store more a couple times in my few years of riding. Bad odds... :blink:

Also, could you please resize that photo to like 450 or something? Thanks...

I have no idea how to do that? I didnt actually upload it, it's hosted on photobucket. They automaticaly resize it down to 800x600 I think? I spose I could crop all the backround out or something.

Here ya go, you can remove yours. I can't type the exact syntax here, because it would get rendered by the forum, but when you click the "Img" button the first time, it puts a "size=150" in the statement, then you paste the link, then you click the "Img" button again to finish the link. Then you can change the "150" to "450" like I did. Hope that helps...