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Winterizing my bike usually consists of adding the fairing with lowers. If the temps drop real low, I like to supplement this with the addition of an electric vest for longer rides. I felt that the fairing's radio, coupled with the electric vest was more than likely asking the charging system to keep up with too much. I figured it was a good idea to free up as much juice as possible and that leds would be an easy way curb the consumption a bit.
I’m sure most of this has been covered a number of times, but I figured I would give everybody a run down of the swap to show anybody that has been thinking about doing it just how easy it is. Everything that I needed was ordered from superbrightleds.com and my order was received within two business days. Below is a list of the parts to swap the two tail lights and the four turnsignal bulbs on a standard. I assume that a special would be about the same except that you'd want to nix the two amber 1157 bulbs in favor of two more 1156 bulbs.
Quantity: 2
Product: 1157-x30 LED bulb $ 8.99 (each)
Options: Red 1157-R30
Quantity: 2
Product: Right Angle 30 LED bulb $ 9.95 (each)
Options: Amber LED 1156
Quantity: 2
Product: Right Angle 30 LED bulb $ 9.95 (each)
Options: Amber LED 1157
Quantity: 1
Product: LED bulb Flasher Unit $ 12.95 (each)
Options: FL2-RED
The bulbs all fit the stock receptacles without any modification. As the turn signal bulbs are 90* bulbs, a few of the sockets had to be rotated a bit to ensure that the bulbs faced the right direction. This was done easily enough by loosening the 2 small screws that secure the metal strap that holds the socket in place, spinning the socket until the bulb pointed in the right direction and tightening the screws. I gave everything a good clean while I was in there because with an estimated 10,000+ hour bulb life, it might be a while before I have these things apart again.
When compared to the stock setup, I would say that these bulbs are at least as bright, and when viewed dead on, noticeably brighter. I do notice that instead of the entire lens lighting up, most of the light is directed in a two inch circle in front of each bulb. I assume that this is attributable to the leds’ tendency to be very directional. This in turn makes the reflectors in the stock housings pretty pointless as there is very little light hitting them. I don’t think that it looks any worse, just different. As the license plate is lit by the clear panel on the bottom of the tail light, it is a bit dimmer and is bathed in a sort of eerie red glow, but it is still visible for quite some distance at night and seems perfectly acceptable to me.
I didn’t have a chance to look at the stock flasher before I ordered and the electronic flasher that I ordered has the 12v-in terminal on the opposite side of the load terminal when compared to the stock flasher. It would not work in either of the two possible slot combinations. This was easily fixed by running two small wires with male blade connectors on one end and female blade connecters on the other to make a short extension cord. This way, I was able to run the terminals on the flasher to the correct slots on the factory receptacle. After doing this, everything worked perfectly. With a little more research, I would have noticed that the superbrightleds.com flasher number CF12ANL-01 looks like it would be plug and play. I may think about picking up the correct flasher the next time I’m at the parts store, but for now this one works perfectly even though it looks a bit strange.
As expected, I did lose the auto-cancel feature, but mine never worked terribly predictably to begin with so this was not a big problem for me. To be completely honest, the electronic flasher is the most appreciated part of this whole conversion. Prior to the swap, my flasher would rarely work at all at idle; I would generally have to give a little throttle to get it to click when sitting at a stoplight. Now, when I hit the signal, the flasher just clicks away regardless of engine speed. In fact it will click just as well with the bike off and just the ignition on. This was unheard of before. Some of my problems might have been due to the fact that I’m sure I had replaced most of the bulbs at one point or another with automotive bulbs that did not draw quite as much and the terminals on the bike could probably use a good cleaning, but this flasher sure doesn’t seem to care.
I am completely satisfied with the whole thing. For $75 including shipping and a half an hour of my time, I have freed up a bit of the charging systems capacity and made life a bit easier for me. I would definitely recommend this swap in its entirety, and think that, at the very least, anybody that is having flasher issues should seriously think about upgrading their flashers to an electronic one. I wish I had done so years ago.
I’m sure most of this has been covered a number of times, but I figured I would give everybody a run down of the swap to show anybody that has been thinking about doing it just how easy it is. Everything that I needed was ordered from superbrightleds.com and my order was received within two business days. Below is a list of the parts to swap the two tail lights and the four turnsignal bulbs on a standard. I assume that a special would be about the same except that you'd want to nix the two amber 1157 bulbs in favor of two more 1156 bulbs.
Quantity: 2
Product: 1157-x30 LED bulb $ 8.99 (each)
Options: Red 1157-R30
Quantity: 2
Product: Right Angle 30 LED bulb $ 9.95 (each)
Options: Amber LED 1156
Quantity: 2
Product: Right Angle 30 LED bulb $ 9.95 (each)
Options: Amber LED 1157
Quantity: 1
Product: LED bulb Flasher Unit $ 12.95 (each)
Options: FL2-RED
The bulbs all fit the stock receptacles without any modification. As the turn signal bulbs are 90* bulbs, a few of the sockets had to be rotated a bit to ensure that the bulbs faced the right direction. This was done easily enough by loosening the 2 small screws that secure the metal strap that holds the socket in place, spinning the socket until the bulb pointed in the right direction and tightening the screws. I gave everything a good clean while I was in there because with an estimated 10,000+ hour bulb life, it might be a while before I have these things apart again.
When compared to the stock setup, I would say that these bulbs are at least as bright, and when viewed dead on, noticeably brighter. I do notice that instead of the entire lens lighting up, most of the light is directed in a two inch circle in front of each bulb. I assume that this is attributable to the leds’ tendency to be very directional. This in turn makes the reflectors in the stock housings pretty pointless as there is very little light hitting them. I don’t think that it looks any worse, just different. As the license plate is lit by the clear panel on the bottom of the tail light, it is a bit dimmer and is bathed in a sort of eerie red glow, but it is still visible for quite some distance at night and seems perfectly acceptable to me.
I didn’t have a chance to look at the stock flasher before I ordered and the electronic flasher that I ordered has the 12v-in terminal on the opposite side of the load terminal when compared to the stock flasher. It would not work in either of the two possible slot combinations. This was easily fixed by running two small wires with male blade connectors on one end and female blade connecters on the other to make a short extension cord. This way, I was able to run the terminals on the flasher to the correct slots on the factory receptacle. After doing this, everything worked perfectly. With a little more research, I would have noticed that the superbrightleds.com flasher number CF12ANL-01 looks like it would be plug and play. I may think about picking up the correct flasher the next time I’m at the parts store, but for now this one works perfectly even though it looks a bit strange.
As expected, I did lose the auto-cancel feature, but mine never worked terribly predictably to begin with so this was not a big problem for me. To be completely honest, the electronic flasher is the most appreciated part of this whole conversion. Prior to the swap, my flasher would rarely work at all at idle; I would generally have to give a little throttle to get it to click when sitting at a stoplight. Now, when I hit the signal, the flasher just clicks away regardless of engine speed. In fact it will click just as well with the bike off and just the ignition on. This was unheard of before. Some of my problems might have been due to the fact that I’m sure I had replaced most of the bulbs at one point or another with automotive bulbs that did not draw quite as much and the terminals on the bike could probably use a good cleaning, but this flasher sure doesn’t seem to care.
I am completely satisfied with the whole thing. For $75 including shipping and a half an hour of my time, I have freed up a bit of the charging systems capacity and made life a bit easier for me. I would definitely recommend this swap in its entirety, and think that, at the very least, anybody that is having flasher issues should seriously think about upgrading their flashers to an electronic one. I wish I had done so years ago.