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LED turn signals on the cheap

4K views 32 replies 11 participants last post by  tylermoney 
#1 ·
As a follow-up to this post https://www.tw200forum.com/forum/ge...ne-your-tw-today-post1007896.html#post1007896 after having a few rides in, I thought I would give a quick update with a brief video to help.

So after last weekends lengthy ride with my son, I ended up with a broken rear turn signal. I rode up on a berm peak waiting for my son and trying to stay out of the way. In a lapse of care, I stopped and went to put my foot down. There was no ground there. I had a 0 mph tip over but it was enough to break the already rough stock rear turn signal. I looked for some cheap replacement options and gave these flexible cheapo LED signals a try. They shipped quick from Kentucky and I mounted them today. I have to say $10 shipped for a set of four and I am pretty impressed. I added some washers for mounting but other than that slight adjustment, they fit great. FYI - what I received was slightly different as the LED pattern was not solid amber, but alternating amber and white bulbs, which in my opinion are even brighter and attention grabbing. If anyone is interested here is the link –>

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4Pcs-Univer...r/253822235398

Anyhow, they are certainly brighter than stock incandescent signals and definitely brighter at night. I don't ride road all that much with the TW but these are flexible, smaller, LED and cheap. Here is a quick vid to see what they look like in action.

One thing to note is that my phone did not properly catch the light distyribution. They are alternating amber and white LEDs and that is very evident with the human eye as opposed to this vid. You seriously cannot beat these for $10 shipped for 4!

 
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#2 ·
Those are pretty cool and the price is even better. :)
 
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#3 ·
$10.00 each which is incredible or $10.00 for four (4)?
 
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#12 ·
I did see it and without anything extra that's pretty darn good.
I just ordered. Ridiculously great deal. Thank-you for posting.
 
#14 ·
Gee, I don't even need any and I'm about to order a set, haha :p
 
#17 ·
In an attention-compromised age when images are instant and prevalent, the creative design process of modern Chinese turn signals serve as a contradiction, acting as a conduit for the mark of the original, individual. Not only that but they also illustrate how Chinese turn signal designers have reanimated techniques and forms using other sources that are appropriated from popular culture, photography, and collage, essentially creating a new variation of the traditional and socially acceptable lollipop style turn signals.

Hence what one may find ugly, others appreciate as stunning. And $10 feckin dollars to replace a stock cracked one :p

 
#20 · (Edited)
As a follow-up to this post https://www.tw200forum.com/forum/ge...ne-your-tw-today-post1007896.html#post1007896 after having a few rides in, I thought I would give a quick update with a brief video to help.

So after last weekends lengthy ride with my son, I ended up with a broken rear turn signal. I rode up on a berm peak waiting for my son and trying to stay out of the way. In a lapse of care, I stopped and went to put my foot down. There was no ground there. I had a 0 mph tip over but it was enough to break the already rough stock rear turn signal. I looked for some cheap replacement options and gave these flexible cheapo LED signals a try. They shipped quick from Kentucky and I mounted them today. I have to say $10 shipped for a set of four and I am pretty impressed. I added some washers for mounting but other than that slight adjustment, they fit great. FYI - what I received was slightly different as the LED pattern was not solid amber, but alternating amber and white bulbs, which in my opinion are even brighter and attention grabbing. If anyone is interested here is the link —>

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4Pcs-Univer...r/253822235398

Anyhow, they are certainly brighter than stock incandescent signals and definitely brighter at night. I don't ride road all that much with the TW but these are flexible, smaller, LED and cheap. Here is a quick vid to see what they look like in action.

One thing to note is that my phone did not properly catch the light distyribution. They are alternating amber and white LEDs and that is very evident with the human eye as opposed to this vid. You seriously cannot beat these for $10 shipped for 4!

Well Sir,
You either got lucky or, you just plain bought a better set than I just did. Before I saw your write up here and video, I'd already done a bit of research and found what appears to be, an almost exact same set only, I paid $15.99 on Amazon for mine. They are supposed to be, just like yours, in the fact that they are "sequential" (kind-a like the old Cougar cars and newer model Mustangs). But, when I hooked only one up, the right rear one, it just flashes a little on the left side but, does not "sequence" like yours. Hmmmm, not sure here. I might have to add some form of a resistor to the positive line, near the signal. I got some hanging around so, I might give them a try. I'm still kinda new here so, I don't know if I'm aloud to post a short, 5 second video of mine in action. You'd get a better idea of how it's operating instead of me telling you. I sure like yours and, the ad for mine was stipulating that mine are to act the same as yours but, ain't happening.
Scott

P.S. Well, I still don't know how to upload a video. Tried it several times on various forums and it never works. Oh well. Suffice to say, my LED turn signal does now work like yours. I don't know if it makes a difference if only ONE is hooked up or not.
 

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#22 ·
I did not add nor modify anything this includes resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, ICs, etc. I just hooked them up and they work. Keep in mind these are only two wire signals. You have three wires on front for "running" light purposes. Make sure you are using the correct two wires. I did not use the blue. Not sure if that would result in what you are seeing however. The only other thing that is different on my bike (electrically that is) is I have a Lithium battery. Again highly doubtful that makes a difference.
 
#21 ·
What did you do to make it (the one you have hooked-up) work correctly? Capacitor/resister?
 
#23 · (Edited)
Shtrnromr,
I surely thank you for answering me here. I didn't mess with the front, only the right rear. So yes, there's only two wires to goof around with. I highly doubt also that your type of battery has anything to do with the operation of a turn signal, be it sequential or not. I'm not sure it's worth messing with at this point, as in return what I presently have and order up the exact ones you got or, simply hunt for some other models that are not sequential. Even though mine were ony $15.99, if I mess with one by adding a resistor to it, THEY'RE MINE, and I can't return them. Losing $16 ain't gonna put us in the poor house. But, I sure like the sequential. We'll see what transpires today. Thanks again for your answer. Very much appreciated.
Scott

P.S. On edit: Also Sir,
From your video, it appears the one shown is on the left front, correct? May I ask, did you install any others prior to the video or, are all four installed? Did you test the sequential operation of just one installed while its mate, front or rear, was still the incandescent bulb? What I'm trying to analyze here is, if the one I see in your video is just the left front, and the rear is still your original ( I may have things wrong here, normal for me) maybe that has an affect on how things work. Just guessing here.
Scott
 
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#25 ·
The answer to this question would be a tremendous help in my decision making for returning the ones I purchased and, purchasing the same ones you and Brian did.
Scott
 
#28 ·
Brian & Frank,
I surely do thank you for trying to help me here. No need to rush Brian. At present, I've decided to keep it all stock right now. I found an exact replacement right rear turn signal for $21 to replace my broken one. And, knowing my luck, yours will work as good as Franks do but, If I bought them and installed them, they'd act funny. There's a real good chance I'll be doing the change-over to LED turn signals in the not too distant future 'cause, I like the brightness of them compared to incandescent bulbs. I really like those ones you're gonna install and Frank already did. Those are most likely, what I'll be going to. I haven't even had a chance to not only ride this new-to-us Blue Noid but, I haven't even started it since we bought it a week ago. Rust in the tank, missing lots of stuff, carb gummed up and a whole lot more. So, tomorrow, may be the first time I get it running when my new fuel petcock comes in. Heck, even my spark plug boot, the bakelite one, is busted up from whatever kind of fall the previous owner did. So, I got more stuff coming. Thanks again but, please do report back with your results of the install, definitely curious.
Scott
 
#29 ·
I put these on right at a year ago and have a few thoughts.
- I got the $15 ones on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CSS4LLL
- They're super flexible and would be very hard to damage
- The wiring connectors are plug and play. No tools or wiring necessary!!
- They blinked super fast and didn't work right until I replaced the blinker module with a $10 solid state version from Amazon. It's also plug and play with the OEM part so it's much easier than messing with resistors.
"2-Pin Electronic LED Flasher Relay FIX Motorcycle Turn Signal Bulbs Hyper Flash" from https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073J82PNF
- 2 rides after I put them on they were both loose. Tightening them up just pushed the rubber off the threads so I put a nut on both sides so I could tighten them against each other and haven't had any more problems.
- My riding buddy says they aren't very visible during the day. I try and stay off asphalt so I'm not worried about it. :)
- Last week one of them lost about half the LEDs after right at a year after I put them on. I had only installed two so I had a spare.

Hope my insights help.... Ride on!!
 
#30 ·
“ 2 rides after I put them on they were both loose. Tightening them up just pushed the rubber off the threads so I put a nut on both sides so I could tighten them against each other”

I bought a bunch of these off DX ($2ea. In qty.) and had the same problem with the rubber coming off the stud, so I used the jam nut solution too. I also safety wired the rubber onto the stud. Very poor design but a cheap and easy fix.
They are actually crash worthy now and I am constantly testing them
Enduro Vehicle Automotive tire Freestyle motocross Endurocross
 
#32 ·
Okay guys, after three trips to the hardware store and spending way too much time yesterday and today on this project, here are my results:

Required hack # 1

As mentioned above by others, I utilized some metric jam nuts (M10 1.50 pitch) to mount these LED turn signals. If you use just the single nut that is supplied, you may pull the threaded tube out of the rubber stalk when you tighten the nut.


Cable Wire Technology Electronic device

Required hack # 2

The male bullet connectors that came on these signals were smaller than the ones on the stock turn signals. Since I didn't know for sure that these LED signals would even work I didn't want to pinch the female connectors on the bike's wiring harness to fit the LED signals, so I replaced the smaller male connectors with some bigger bullet connectors. Since the wire size on the LED lights is pretty small, I added an additional piece of wire to provide some filler metal in the crimp and also to provide something more substantial to grab onto when plugging/unplugging these connectors.

Wire Cable Electronic device Technology Electrical connector


It took me quite a while to figure how to connect the front LED's since they only have two leads while the stock signals have three leads due to the running light feature on the stock front signals. I also wasted a considerable amount of time and blew the main fuse trying to see if there was any way to wire these LED lights to maintain the running light feature (there isn't :(). To hopefully save someone else the brain-death that I went through, here are the connections that worked for my 2005 TW:

Front turn signal connections
TW wiring harness > to > LED wiring
Black > to > Black
Brown > to > Red
Blue > to > N/A

Rear turn signal connections
(There are only two wires on each side, if it doesn't work just switch the connections :))

Other thoughts on whether to switch over to these LED turn signals:

-You have to have both the front and rear LED signals properly connected before they will work correctly ;). So you cannot install LED's only in the front, or only in the rear.
-It is a lot work to replace all four turn signals. Once I started, I regretted doing it especially since my existing turn signals were all working just fine. In the front you have to remove the plastic headlight cowl and unbolt the headlight. Then you have to free up the rat's nest of wiring behind the headlight to access the wiring to the turn signals, remove the stock signals, replace with the new LED signals, etc., etc. etc.
-In the rear, I had to remove my seat, my rear box/cyclerack combination and the rear plastic tail section. Cycleracks are great except when you have to install and/or reinstall them :mad:.
-Once I got the wiring connections sorted out, these LED signals work as intended without any additional electronics i.e., resistors, capacitors, relays, etc. The sequential directional feature works fine and the blink rate is equivalent to the stockers.
-In daylight, the LED's are clearly not as large or as bright as the stockers. I will have to wait until I have the bike out after dark to see how their nighttime performance is.

Bottom line - Installation is clearly not a simple "Plug and Play" exercise. I like the smaller profile, flexible stalks and directional blinking feature. They're cheap and they work, but unless I have to replace broken and/or non-working signals on my other TW's, I will not be switching them over to LED's.
 
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