[Zooming Jim]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Jim from Michigan & Indiana, and this is my first post. I appreciate that this forum is here and have used it for advice & suggestions for months. I bought a 2017 TW in April and have put ~2700 miles on it.

The 1st month of riding my bike, I realized that the stock headlight bulb was basically inadequate for night riding. Although I would like to install a crazy-bright, LED headlight, I want to keep the bike street-legal.

So the First Modification I made was to replace the factory H4 bulb with a higher-end Sylvania, Silver Star Ultra bulb. This made quite a difference in seeing down the road at night. I'd say this easy-to-do modification made the Low-Beam about 20% better, and the High-Beam about 50% better.

The Second Mod was to replace the stock Indicator Lights bulbs with more durable LED bulbs. After a slightly bumpy afternoon ride, two of the filaments bulbs burned out (the TURN and NEUTRAL). I bought several replacement LEDs from SuperbrightLEDs. I tried a simple White LED, but found that using the same colored LED as the plastic lens above the indicators looked the best. So it was best to use Green LEDs for the TURN and NEUTRAL lights, and a BLUE LED for the HI-Beam indicator.

Although the Odometer/Speedometer light was still working, I liked the look a BLUE LED imparted to the instrument and replaced it. Many other colors are available: Red, Green, Purple, Amber, White (various shades--warm to cool) and even Black Light (ultraviolet).

Next, I replaced the factor Tail Light bulb with a more-durable LED, dual function bulb. There were a few to choose from, some were reported to be "Way too bright, you couldn't see the difference between running light and braking." so I opted for one of average brightness. I think its probably 10% brighter than the factory, filament bulb.

The most recent modification was to add 2, small off-road lights (10W each, 30' angle). I removed the 2, yellow reflectors on the motorcycle's fork. I had to increase the diameter of the hole slightly, by running a drill through the mount with a bit just a little larger than the existing hole. To power these lights, I tapped into the bike's HIGH BEAM power system (Black for ground/negative, and Yellow for Positive).

So to use my bright, off-road lights, I need to be using my headlight's HIGH BEAM, then flip another switch to activate the LEDs. This way, if there's on-coming traffic, I can turn off both the off-road LEDs and the HIGH BEAM by simply switching to LOW BEAM. So far, I like this arrangement, and am currently building a mounting bracket for the off-road LED switch (keeping it within thumb distance of my left hand).


See Pictures Below. Thanks!

 

[lugnut]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[littletommy]

Welcome!!

 

[CS1983]

Howdy. Great info in your post. Thanks!

 

[admiral]

Welcome and thanks for listing what you've done so far. I remember the Sylvania bulb mentioned several years ago but I think it's usually overlooked as the led's are popular. Love the blue speedo lights.

 

[Fred]

Nicely done and documented. Always been a fan of auxiliary lighting and usually do as you do; i.e. build a circuit with an arming switch fed from high beam power supply, then use the high beam switch to trigger the circuit on and off.
A three way switch (On-Off-On) is an upgrade that can allow sourcing 12v either from high beam circuit as above, or directly from a keyed source permitting aux. lighting to be uses independent of high beam. This either/or logic switching can be handy at times.

 

[stagewex]

The blue light for the speedometer looks great. Never thought of anything different than that.
Sometimes in the bright Sun it is difficult to see the Neutral light. So I' might take a stab at replacing at least those tiny lamps.
Do you have the part numbers for them for Superbrights? And the link?
Thanks.

 

[Xracer]

Welcome. Just please don't start putting ground effects lights on your Dub! Save those for the Harley.

 

[old w/??]

Great post; especially for 1st. Now everyone will want to know how you posted pics. Usually can't until after around 10 posts.

 

[Zooming Jim]

Thanks for all of the welcomes & tips!

I do NOT work for Superbright LEDs, but they have a wide selection for almost every application. Although they also have super bright headlights, they are too bright for road use, so I got the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulb from Wally-World (don't work for them either).

Below are screen grabs from the LED site where I bought the replacement bulbs. Just a word of caution, that you may already know: if you try to replace your Turn Signal bulbs, you may need to buy extra equipment to make the Blinking function work. There's something about the lack of current draw from LEDs that cause the factory blinker circuit not to work. I am happy (so far) with the factory, filament bulbs for now, and I don't plan to replace.

Why I can post pictures in my first post is a mystery I will let the moderators explain.


This is the Brake Light: Dual function is for normal lighting & Braking Light. Since it also lights my license plate, I chose the Warm White Option. The Cool White Option might even be better.



These are the little bulbs for your instrument panel. I did buy a few of the WHITE LEDs, but preferred the colored ones.


These are the really effective Off-Road light pods. I used 30' for both, but you can try 2 different beam angles with the Off-Road LED lights: maybe narrow (10'--30') for the left one, and maybe wider for the right one (30' +). This set up is for street riding and keeping the light concentrated more to the Center and Right side of the road (less spill over to the on-coming lane).

One last thing, instead of using electrical tape to secure all of the connections, I opted to use time-saving splicers, connectors, etc..., for this project. The image below shows most of the items I used to tap into the HIGH BEAM circuit. They make things easier and secure. Even an inexpensive Voltmeter will help you determine which wires are hot under which conditions--quite helpful!

(Connectors & splicers bought at a store that rhymes with "BOWES")

 

[TopPredator]

Welcome from Bel Air Maryland

 

[Howsbentley]

Welcome!

 

[Ken]

Welcome, great write up.

 

[TWmonster]

Zooming Jim - this is exactly what I am working on right now. Same colors and everything. I did notice my blue led in the instrument panel dims with high beam and also flashes with the turn signals. Does yours do this too? Stock headlight, brake, and turns. LED High/Neutral/Turn indicators just like yours.

 

[Wade Backlund]

JNS question. New guy here in SoCal 2006 TW I just swapped out the factory light with the JNS so much better. My question is When I go to DMV for the riding test will I need to put the stock headlight back on? Are they not street legal? Thanks!

 

[TW-Brian]

Hi Wade,

Welcome to the forum!

As long as all your lights are working properly, I think it is highly unlikely that the CA DMV will know, or care, whether your headlight is stock or not.

Best of luck with the test,

Brian

 

[Imaposer]

I'd guess that it depends on how things work where you live. Waaaay back in the day, when I took a riding test at the DMV they were only interested in my demonstration of basic skills as outlined by their test criteria. Our annual vehicle inspections were a separate thing altogether and was done by state licensed independent auto shops. Some of those guys only checked for function of equipment, whereas others were real sticklers that checked headlight aim, etc. I'd say that the stickler guys could have noticed that a headlight was not DOT approved and rejected the vehicle's annual inspection until it was put back to legal status. From what I understand, a lot of the guys in the UK have that to deal with.

So, I guess the short answer is actually a question... Does your riding test DMV actually inspect the vehicle? And, do you think whoever inspects it, whether DMV or not, will notice that the light isn't DOT? If it's just a riding test, I wouldn't worry about it at all. If it's a vehicle inspection, I probably still wouldn't IF they notice it, about the worse that'll happen is it'll fail the inspection. If that happens, go home, put the original light back on and get it inspected again. Then go back home and swap back until the next inspection is due...

 

[Wade Backlund]

Thanks!

 

[tylermoney]

Welcome to the forum. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.