New LED turn signals installed

[Jay2TheRescue]

Ordered an LED turn signal conversion kit, and installed it today. It came with a solid state load equalizer that was designed to plug right into my wiring harness. I am pleased with the result. The lights are a lot brighter and easier to see over stock.



Here's a picture of the front of the bike. The new light is pictured on the left, the old light is on the right.

[cems70]

Wow, what a difference! Less power draw on the battery too, even if turn signals aren't on as much as things like headlights, taillights and brake lights.

[Jay2TheRescue]

The lights on the front are on all the time. They act as running/turn lights. This is a comparison between the stock incandescent running light (on right) and the new LED running light (on left).

[imzjustplayin]

now the question is, how many watts difference? Usually, the turn signals work off of the load of the circuit, if you reduce the load, they'll blink quicker, and if you fixed the issue of them blinking too quickly by adding more LEDs, then the power savings is negated entirely.

[Jay2TheRescue]

When I first installed the LED's it did flash fast, but then I installed the solid state load equalizer, and they flash properly now. The reason I chose the equalizer I did is that its not simply a resistor. It is marketed as "no load, no heat" so the energy savings of the LED's is not negated by wasting the energy saved by making heat in a resistor. I checked before I put my seat back on, and the equalizer unit had no trace of getting warm.

[alvaro84]

I wonder how these 'load equalizers' work. If they really don't load the battery as much as incandescent lights I've found the successors of our bikes' turn signals. But I really don't know how these can fool the blinker circuit without putting a load equal to conventional turn signals

Anyway, I don't care too much so I probably won't replace them until the originals break Ciliegia had battery problems lately but I got a new one for her last week, and when we're not in town we don't use these lights too often, for too long They're typically on for a few seconds during my 25km (15.5mi) road to work

The back parking/brake light that's constantly on is already LED on Teresa, so is the license plate light. I couldn't find any LED replace for Teresa's H3 lowbeam yet and I don't really know if it available here (in Hungary) at all. I've already seen a 10W powerLED in action so I can imagine it could possibly replace the 55W halogene - and it could even be better than Ciliegia's 35/35W combined H4 low/highbeam. We'd really appreciate more light there...

[Jay2TheRescue]

You may want to look at these... I bought the first one listed on the following page: http://www.customdynamics.com/loadequalizer.htm They also have solid state turn signal modules for bikes as well. I'm sure they have a solution for your bike.

The company was very helpful. I made my order on the internet, and they called me first thing the very next morning. They informed me that the parts I ordered would not fit as well on my bike, as others. The lady even recommended I purchase a pre made kit for my bike, that included all the parts I had purchased separately, (plus new lenses as well) for less money.

[imzjustplayin]

great thread, will have to remember it for future reference.

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

When I first installed the LED's it did flash fast, but then I installed the solid state load equalizer, and they flash properly now. The reason I chose the equalizer I did is that its not simply a resistor. It is marketed as "no load, no heat" so the energy savings of the LED's is not negated by wasting the energy saved by making heat in a resistor. I checked before I put my seat back on, and the equalizer unit had no trace of getting warm.

You know, I read the webpage and I've searched for this online, but I find nothing to say that this isn't just a load resistor.. If this really IS a load resistor, then there is no benefit to using this in terms of energy savings.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Even if the net energy use was the same, I would still switch because the main motivation to switch to LED was that the LED units were brighter than the stock bulbs, and I had considered this a safety upgrade. The unit is advertised as no load, no heat, and a simple resistor would get hot. I'm unsure what is in the unit as all of the electrical components are sealed in a pool of black epoxy to waterproof the unit. As I said though, I did check and the unit had no sign of getting warm after being in use for several minutes.