No load electric flasher

[ddragon63]

Next question

whichever way I go with the turn signal/brake light change I plan on changing all my signal bulbs to LED's. www.superbrightleds.com has some sweet stuff.

Now before I ask the question I wanna make this clear I don't care about my "AUTO CANCEL" I cancel my own on every other bike.

Now heres the question.... If I run a no load electronic flasher to go with the LED's what happens if I'm in the middle of No-wheres-ville and one goes out. Most service stations will carry incandescent 1157's. So the question is if I put in an incandescent 1157 to replace a dead LED 1157.. will it talk nice with the flasher? I would assume yes as the flasher is designed as a "no load"

[Lonerider62]

First, I would ask the manufacurer of the flasher because they have engineered it and to eliminate any problem, carry a spare LED bulb if they say it would be a problem. My guess, and it's only a guess, is a no load flasher relay would be a timing device and load would have nothing to do with the timing but that's only a guess because I have no idea how it actually functions.

[ddragon63]

First, I would ask the manufacurer of the flasher because they have engineered it and to eliminate any problem, carry a spare LED bulb if they say it would be a problem. My guess, and it's only a guess, is a no load flasher relay would be a timing device and load would have nothing to do with the timing but that's only a guess because I have no idea how it actually functions.

problem with caring a spare is I'd have to carry 3 different kinds. that's an extra $40. the bulbs are rated for 10k hours of run time. But as I've stated in other posts "puppies die new all the time" May just have to double up on bulbs. I would assume as a "no load" flasher as long as we are under its max rated load it won't care what its plugged into. But I'm not sure....

[jetmechmarty]

The LED lamp isn't going to go dead. If you don't break it, it will stay lit for a very long time. My XS650 probably still has some of its original lamps. If they were LEDs, they'd probably out live me.

[ddragon63]

The LED lamp isn't going to go dead. If you don't break it, it will stay lit for a very long time. My XS650 probably still has some of its original lamps. If they were LEDs, they'd probably out live me.

guess I'm just paranoid

[ManagerMike]

Most "no load" flashers are designed to work from all led ("no load") up to usually 6 amps. Having an led signal fail entirely is next to unheard of (individual elements in the led array may fail over time), and if in the rare freak circumstance that you do have one signal fail on the road (and you are aware of it, the flasher won't give you any indication) you can always resort to the old fashioned hand signals untill you get home.

As a side note, I did the full led conversion some time ago, including all of the cluster back lighting and indicators, but found that the turn indicator lamps just weren't bright enough to see in full daylight, so I restored just those two lamps back to incandescent so I have a visual reminder to cancel the turn signal should I forget.

[Azoroth]

I have an electronic flasher in both my wife's car and in my truck. They both have the normal bulbs in all the signals. Should work fine on the bike.

[CatatonicBug]

I would be more worried about the idea of running incandescent bulbs in the same circuit as LEDs. I know on mine, when I was switching the tail light bulbs to LEDs, I tried to have 4 LEDs int he trunk, and leave the 2 stock bulbs in the OEM tail light. When I did that, the LEDs did not light up much at all. The incandescent bulbs draw so much juice that the LEDs don't know what to do. Once I switched to ALL LEDs in that circuit, everything was fine.

Another thing to remember is that the 1157 bulbs on our bikes are NOT the same as the regular bulbs sold in most auto parts stores. They are a different wattage. However, if you remove the stock flasher and auto-cancel, that wouldn't really matter for you.

[ManagerMike]

I would be more worried about the idea of running incandescent bulbs in the same circuit as LEDs. I know on mine, when I was switching the tail light bulbs to LEDs, I tried to have 4 LEDs int he trunk, and leave the 2 stock bulbs in the OEM tail light. When I did that, the LEDs did not light up much at all. The incandescent bulbs draw so much juice that the LEDs don't know what to do. Once I switched to ALL LEDs in that circuit, everything was fine.

Another thing to remember is that the 1157 bulbs on our bikes are NOT the same as the regular bulbs sold in most auto parts stores. They are a different wattage. However, if you remove the stock flasher and auto-cancel, that wouldn't really matter for you.

I've been running that setup for some time now; ican in the cluster turn indicator, and three LED on each side for turn signals(one front, two rear each side). As the are all wired in parallel they all see the same voltage. I'm wondering if somewhere in your circuits you may have one or more lamps wired in series. just a thought

[cywelchjr]

I've been running that setup for some time now; ican in the cluster turn indicator, and three LED on each side for turn signals(one front, two rear each side). As the are all wired in parallel they all see the same voltage. I'm wondering if somewhere in your circuits you may have one or more lamps wired in series. just a thought

Some brands of LED replacements have a problem with working with standard bulbs in the same circuit. I have the same bulbs that cbug has, and had the exact same problem, and mine are indeed in parallel. As soon as they were ALL LED they worked normally, and when I replaced the light fixtures in the trunk with new fixtures that are dedicated LED units that are significantly brighter than the LED bulbs in the original fixtures were anyways.