Let there be light...
Let there be light...
L.E.D.’s finally all working
Last September at the Reno Street Vibrations rally, I had some LED’s installed; aprox 300 individual lights in strips placed strategically throughout the motorcycle. With all that wiring… the lightshow was bound to short out somewhere, it did…
When you have show lights installed at one of these venues, you have to keep in mind the following:
1. These installers only work at these shows hence they will try to book as much installs as they can during the show which means they will be rushing to get through your bike to get to the next bike because they have hundreds of bikes to work on in a weekend.
2. There is no set price; they try to get as much out of you as they can. Try listening how much they quote the guy or gal before you so you have a starting point on the negotiations.
3. Make sure you don’t leave without getting the installers contact info… when your home and the light strips stop working for one reason or another, you will want to get a hold of someone to debug the problem or to swap out a faulty light strip or remote control module.
4. Your adding another mile of wiring throughout your bike, when you take your bike into any shop for any work… new tires, oil change, motor rebuild whatever… make sure you warn the shop in advance that you have miles of extra wiring due to your LED’s… my bike must be a pain in the *** to work on. This may cost you extra dollars due to the extra time it will take to make sure the shop gets all wiring back to the original locations and working order. I did not anticipate this at all.
5. You may think that these new lights look great and make you more visible at night however your local Police may not think the same way you do (especially with blue or red lights)
6. Get familiar with the wiring, the lights will come loose or stop working at various times. You don’t want to keep calling or emailing the installer – they have already forgotten about you along with the 200 installs they performed during that show.
7. Get you lights installed during the day. They all look great at night but the quality LED’s are brighter and should be visible during daylight.
8. Sure a light strip or two will burn out and need replacing however if they all go out at the same time, the problems is probably with the controller module which is installed under your seat connected to your battery. Uninstall and send it back for a replacement. Take several pictures of the wiring mess under your seat before you disconnect everything…you will need guidance on how to reconnect the controller module and which wires go to what?
9. You just added another 300 things to worry about and fix on your bike. Do you really want this?
Just some things to think about. Yes they are fun and are truly appropriate during holiday cruising . I do get a lot of tourists stopping me to take pictures and yes I can totally spot my bike when parked in a sea of bikes…unless someone ells has lights. Food for thought, thanks!
Last September at the Reno Street Vibrations rally, I had some LED’s installed; aprox 300 individual lights in strips placed strategically throughout the motorcycle. With all that wiring… the lightshow was bound to short out somewhere, it did…
When you have show lights installed at one of these venues, you have to keep in mind the following:
1. These installers only work at these shows hence they will try to book as much installs as they can during the show which means they will be rushing to get through your bike to get to the next bike because they have hundreds of bikes to work on in a weekend.
2. There is no set price; they try to get as much out of you as they can. Try listening how much they quote the guy or gal before you so you have a starting point on the negotiations.
3. Make sure you don’t leave without getting the installers contact info… when your home and the light strips stop working for one reason or another, you will want to get a hold of someone to debug the problem or to swap out a faulty light strip or remote control module.
4. Your adding another mile of wiring throughout your bike, when you take your bike into any shop for any work… new tires, oil change, motor rebuild whatever… make sure you warn the shop in advance that you have miles of extra wiring due to your LED’s… my bike must be a pain in the *** to work on. This may cost you extra dollars due to the extra time it will take to make sure the shop gets all wiring back to the original locations and working order. I did not anticipate this at all.
5. You may think that these new lights look great and make you more visible at night however your local Police may not think the same way you do (especially with blue or red lights)
6. Get familiar with the wiring, the lights will come loose or stop working at various times. You don’t want to keep calling or emailing the installer – they have already forgotten about you along with the 200 installs they performed during that show.
7. Get you lights installed during the day. They all look great at night but the quality LED’s are brighter and should be visible during daylight.
8. Sure a light strip or two will burn out and need replacing however if they all go out at the same time, the problems is probably with the controller module which is installed under your seat connected to your battery. Uninstall and send it back for a replacement. Take several pictures of the wiring mess under your seat before you disconnect everything…you will need guidance on how to reconnect the controller module and which wires go to what?
9. You just added another 300 things to worry about and fix on your bike. Do you really want this?
Just some things to think about. Yes they are fun and are truly appropriate during holiday cruising . I do get a lot of tourists stopping me to take pictures and yes I can totally spot my bike when parked in a sea of bikes…unless someone ells has lights. Food for thought, thanks!
Last edited by SFORAFF; Dec 28, 2010 at 11:42 AM.
Tourer
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 286
Likes: 1
I have ran leds on every bike I have had but have not put any on this one yet I guess I am just waiting for the time to get a set and install them its a nice lazy day project hiding the wires are the hardest part. Now I just have to decide on what color to run, I have run blue on every other bike with out any problems but it was a risk I will no longer take
musicnbikes:
musicnbikes
Yes you can, there are Nine different settings ranging from a low faiding glow to a bright strobe setting. Will they operate while riding and do I ride with them on...? Yes
Are they legal to ride with them on in California? Depending on the color and placement... no forward facing lights accepted, you notice all mine face sideways or down. Yet Im showing blue LED's which the Police do not like, so far I have not had any warnings or tickets not even puled over yet.
Completely legal to ride with them on in Nevada (where I had them installed)
I'll post if I ever get stopped...
Yes you can, there are Nine different settings ranging from a low faiding glow to a bright strobe setting. Will they operate while riding and do I ride with them on...? Yes
Are they legal to ride with them on in California? Depending on the color and placement... no forward facing lights accepted, you notice all mine face sideways or down. Yet Im showing blue LED's which the Police do not like, so far I have not had any warnings or tickets not even puled over yet.
Completely legal to ride with them on in Nevada (where I had them installed)
I'll post if I ever get stopped...
Cruiser
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 109
Likes: 0
From: Oklahoma
L.E.D.’s finally all working
Last September at the Reno Street Vibrations rally, I had some LED’s installed; aprox 300 individual lights in strips placed strategically throughout the motorcycle. With all that wiring… the lightshow was bound to short out somewhere, it did…
When you have show lights installed at one of these venues, you have to keep in mind the following:
1. These installers only work at these shows hence they will try to book as much installs as they can during the show which means they will be rushing to get through your bike to get to the next bike because they have hundreds of bikes to work on in a weekend.
2. There is no set price; they try to get as much out of you as they can. Try listening how much they quote the guy or gal before you so you have a starting point on the negotiations.
3. Make sure you don’t leave without getting the installers contact info… when your home and the light strips stop working for one reason or another, you will want to get a hold of someone to debug the problem or to swap out a faulty light strip or remote control module.
4. Your adding another mile of wiring throughout your bike, when you take your bike into any shop for any work… new tires, oil change, motor rebuild whatever… make sure you warn the shop in advance that you have miles of extra wiring due to your LED’s… my bike must be a pain in the *** to work on. This may cost you extra dollars due to the extra time it will take to make sure the shop gets all wiring back to the original locations and working order. I did not anticipate this at all.
5. You may think that these new lights look great and make you more visible at night however your local Police may not think the same way you do (especially with blue or red lights)
6. Get familiar with the wiring, the lights will come loose or stop working at various times. You don’t want to keep calling or emailing the installer – they have already forgotten about you along with the 200 installs they performed during that show.
7. Get you lights installed during the day. They all look great at night but the quality LED’s are brighter and should be visible during daylight.
8. Sure a light strip or two will burn out and need replacing however if they all go out at the same time, the problems is probably with the controller module which is installed under your seat connected to your battery. Uninstall and send it back for a replacement. Take several pictures of the wiring mess under your seat before you disconnect everything…you will need guidance on how to reconnect the controller module and which wires go to what?
9. You just added another 300 things to worry about and fix on your bike. Do you really want this?
Just some things to think about. Yes they are fun and are truly appropriate during holiday cruising . I do get a lot of tourists stopping me to take pictures and yes I can totally spot my bike when parked in a sea of bikes…unless someone ells has lights. Food for thought, thanks!
Last September at the Reno Street Vibrations rally, I had some LED’s installed; aprox 300 individual lights in strips placed strategically throughout the motorcycle. With all that wiring… the lightshow was bound to short out somewhere, it did…
When you have show lights installed at one of these venues, you have to keep in mind the following:
1. These installers only work at these shows hence they will try to book as much installs as they can during the show which means they will be rushing to get through your bike to get to the next bike because they have hundreds of bikes to work on in a weekend.
2. There is no set price; they try to get as much out of you as they can. Try listening how much they quote the guy or gal before you so you have a starting point on the negotiations.
3. Make sure you don’t leave without getting the installers contact info… when your home and the light strips stop working for one reason or another, you will want to get a hold of someone to debug the problem or to swap out a faulty light strip or remote control module.
4. Your adding another mile of wiring throughout your bike, when you take your bike into any shop for any work… new tires, oil change, motor rebuild whatever… make sure you warn the shop in advance that you have miles of extra wiring due to your LED’s… my bike must be a pain in the *** to work on. This may cost you extra dollars due to the extra time it will take to make sure the shop gets all wiring back to the original locations and working order. I did not anticipate this at all.
5. You may think that these new lights look great and make you more visible at night however your local Police may not think the same way you do (especially with blue or red lights)
6. Get familiar with the wiring, the lights will come loose or stop working at various times. You don’t want to keep calling or emailing the installer – they have already forgotten about you along with the 200 installs they performed during that show.
7. Get you lights installed during the day. They all look great at night but the quality LED’s are brighter and should be visible during daylight.
8. Sure a light strip or two will burn out and need replacing however if they all go out at the same time, the problems is probably with the controller module which is installed under your seat connected to your battery. Uninstall and send it back for a replacement. Take several pictures of the wiring mess under your seat before you disconnect everything…you will need guidance on how to reconnect the controller module and which wires go to what?
9. You just added another 300 things to worry about and fix on your bike. Do you really want this?
Just some things to think about. Yes they are fun and are truly appropriate during holiday cruising . I do get a lot of tourists stopping me to take pictures and yes I can totally spot my bike when parked in a sea of bikes…unless someone ells has lights. Food for thought, thanks!
SFORAFF,
First off I would like to say that is one sweet looking scooter you have! I am also sorry about your luck with the lights.
I would also like to say that I have been in business installing the LED light strips for some time now and also do the gauge background lighting and have never had any trouble with any of the wiring and/or lights. Even though you have 300 LED's there should not be that much wiring. I dont know who done your lights and not trying to bad mouth anybody but just dont want people getting the idea that these things you experienced is across the board with all lights and installers. There are ways to minimize the amount of wiring and if done correctly you will not have those problems. Your right about the mechanic hours going up as they have to work around these light and if they get rough with them it does cause shorting and lost contact problems but again if done correctly that to is minimized. As far as pricing you should not have to negotiate pricing. They should have pricing for different setups and you pic the setup you want. Only time pricing should go up is if you have a custom install with more lighting and that should be set to. Again compliments on the bike it is bad a$$.
Brian
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To Brian -
SFORAFF,
First off I would like to say that is one sweet looking scooter you have! I am also sorry about your luck with the lights.
I would also like to say that I have been in business installing the LED light strips for some time now and also do the gauge background lighting and have never had any trouble with any of the wiring and/or lights. Even though you have 300 LED's there should not be that much wiring. I dont know who done your lights and not trying to bad mouth anybody but just dont want people getting the idea that these things you experienced is across the board with all lights and installers. There are ways to minimize the amount of wiring and if done correctly you will not have those problems. Your right about the mechanic hours going up as they have to work around these light and if they get rough with them it does cause shorting and lost contact problems but again if done correctly that to is minimized. As far as pricing you should not have to negotiate pricing. They should have pricing for different setups and you pic the setup you want. Only time pricing should go up is if you have a custom install with more lighting and that should be set to. Again compliments on the bike it is bad a$$.
Brian
First off I would like to say that is one sweet looking scooter you have! I am also sorry about your luck with the lights.
I would also like to say that I have been in business installing the LED light strips for some time now and also do the gauge background lighting and have never had any trouble with any of the wiring and/or lights. Even though you have 300 LED's there should not be that much wiring. I dont know who done your lights and not trying to bad mouth anybody but just dont want people getting the idea that these things you experienced is across the board with all lights and installers. There are ways to minimize the amount of wiring and if done correctly you will not have those problems. Your right about the mechanic hours going up as they have to work around these light and if they get rough with them it does cause shorting and lost contact problems but again if done correctly that to is minimized. As far as pricing you should not have to negotiate pricing. They should have pricing for different setups and you pic the setup you want. Only time pricing should go up is if you have a custom install with more lighting and that should be set to. Again compliments on the bike it is bad a$$.
Brian
First of all nice choice of bike color! I have the Blue Pearl Metallic which is really close to your I believe.
Second, I love my lights and this is why I spent the time replacing the controller and the light strips as they go bad. I like my bike looking like a parade float yet there is a price to pay...
Ive got 16-17 extra pos/neg speaker wiring from my seat to both tires, air cleaner, cow bells, eyes in my cow bells, oil filter etc... its increduble that you cannot see any of the wiring but the wiring is there... all that wiring will cause extra density in pressure points unde ther tank and seat and will eventualy go out if you like I, go on long rides and ride often.
Sure if your bike just sits looking pretty with all the lights flashing I see no issues but with regular riding and an additional 16 to 17 wires snaking all over a moving vehicle... there will be down time service.
Thats all im preparing folk to realize. Also... when you have 50 bikes in front of you and seven hours to install them all... you will be rushing the job... I dont think bike rally's are the best place to get this job done if you are looking for quality installation where the installer takes his time.
I think I hit the terminal velocity with lights, I just dont have any more room under my seat. Too bad.
To: DarkTrak
Originally Posted by [SIZE=4
DarkTrak[/SIZE];7713529]Oma separate note: would you mind snapping a picture of the Pinstriping on the rear fender? Who did it?
