Stupid Tail Light Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Grant
  • Start date Start date
As every little counts, maybe this one watt difference could mean that you can ride your old Laverda back home, for once with the lights on.
 
Clem, thanks for the offer. I will go have a look nearby in the next few days.
If I don't find anything I will maybe take you up on the offer.
 
Grant

Just a suggestion, but do seriously consider the suggestion of replacing all your incandescent bulbs with LEDs. They don't last forever but they do last several duty cycles of incandescents, can be just as bright, and are readily available with opposed pins. Everything works as direct replacements except indicators, I could never get them to work for me. Which is unfortunate because the damn things are always failing on me.
I haven't seen the new offset pin bulbs myself, but the newest vehicle in my house is 6 years old. I guess it'll catch up with all of us eventually.

Ken
 
Ken

I believe that you need a different flasher can if you go to LED as the current draw is not enough to set of the flasher unit. I have seen two sort one for all LED front and back and a mixed bulb and LED.

Jugs_S
 
Jugs

Yeah, I did buy a recommended flasher when I bought the "bulbs". Worked fine with the bulbs connected to the flasher off the bike. But when I used the existing wiring (bulbs inserted in indicators), 3 stayed on all the time (irrespective of whether the switch was left or right) and one never came on. Tried fiddling with earth wires, reversing the bulbs, switching bulbs between indicators, sacrificing virgins (had to give up on the last one for reasons of availability), nothing worked. Cam thinks my bike is cursed, offered to take it off my hands for me for a nominal fee if I shipped it to Tasmania.
Anyone want to buy 4 15mm LED indicator bulbs for Laverda, barely used?

Ken
 
Ken,
my flasher requirement may be ok as I have an M-unit, an electronic box of tricks that replaces fuses etc. It is also programmable for duration of indicators and I guess a whole lot more that I will never know.

Speaking personally, I don't like the very sudden on-off action of LED indicators and brake lights. I see it in modern cars as they pass me on the XT250 and it just looks weird to me.
If I have no other option I would go for LED bulbs, but I hope to find some of the 'warmer' traditional bulbs. Just a personal thing, like I said.

 
My major pet hate are those clear blinker lens with the coloured bulbs,they suddenly appeared 5 years ago and are so hard to see,really stupid idea.
 
Also when they build the indicators into the headlight assembly, so that when they run with headlights on it is quite hard to see if/when they indicate.
 
Hmmm,

when I suggested  (sir jestered?) earlier that the globe be replaced with LEDs I was thinking more along the lines of a circuit board (probably veroboard or similar) with a flat array of LEDs, not one of those silly LEDs-in-bayonet-fitting. While I think it would be relatively straight forward, I haven't bothered to look at the CEV taillight to see what the realities actually are. I do think that it would offer a fairly permanent solution to bulb replacement. In that you would never need to change another  taillight globe ever again.

Replacing indicator lamps with LEDs is for sure an honourable thing to do but does seem to offer a number of pitfalls, including the need for a new flasher unit. I have seen kits on ebay that provide a 10W resistor to connect in parallel with the LED lamps, it allows you to retain the original flasher unit but still uses the same amount of power (more or less). I would place that mod pretty low on my priority list.

bazzee
 
Try putting a 460ohm resistor across the terminals on the blinkers. This, along with the LED bulb, will draw enough current to activate the flasher.

I have a different problem. I love LEDs, especially for tail light applications since they tend to last much longer than incandescent bulbs, but I cannot get one to light on my SFC. Since there is no flasher to deal with, this should be a simple change the bulb proposition, but for some reason, while an incandescent bulb works find, the LED replacement does not. The difference in current draw should have no effect, so this is perplexing....anyone else have this problem?
 
G'day Spub

LED's are polarity sensitive so check which way the current is flowing. Not sure about the SFC but on early triples there's a diode in the light circuit that allows the tail light to be energised in "park" mode without the headlight on. If there's a similar blocking diode on the SFC, it may be interfering with your LED.

Cheers,
Cam
 
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