Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech failed inspection

It got up to around 70 degrees here today so I was out riding. Nowhere special to go so I decided to get my bike inspected. It failed inspection because the signals blinked too fast. I couldn’t believe it I said isn’t fast blinking even more noticeable? He said no because with fast blinking you could miss that it was blinking because they might not be turning all the way off. If they blink don’t they have to be turning all the way off? No use, you can’t win once they make up their minds. It passed last year but not this, Go figure.
Anyway, I have to fix them. I have kellermans on the back that’s why they blink fast. I know it is fixable with a resistor or something. Thing is I don’t know:
1. what kind of resistor to get
2. do I need two, one for each side
3. exactly where do I splice them into the circuit
4. and what else should I know about this
I know very little about the electrics on my bikes and try to stay away from messing with it. Which is why I let them blink faster in the first place? Also, I really thought that it would be more noticeable. If someone could ‘splain to me in detail how to fix this problem I would be most grateful.

Kenny,
you'll need one on each side. get a variable resistor from radio shack 1 Ohm to 100 ohm or so. Place it in series on the positive side, make sure it's set to 1 ohm and turn on the directionals. Turn the variable resistor until it blinks at the speed you want. Then disconect and measure the resistance with your ohm meter. Then buy the resistor you need at radio shack 1/4 watt resistors should be fine.

Thanks Ron, I don't have an ohms meter and wouldn't know what to do with one if I had it. Do you think I should go ahead and get a pair of 1/4 watt resistors and splice them in. Also where do they go back in the tail light housing or somewhere under the tank.

Would one of the solid state flasher units do the trick? I know when I installed LEDs in my turn signals that took care of the problem.

Thanks Larry, a solid state flasher would certainly be easier for me. What kind should I get and where would I get one.

Here is where you can get a L.E.D. flasher http://www.superbrightleds.com./tail-brake-turn.html

Soren

Basic electronics and Ohm's (resistance) is really not complicated. Simply put, and ohm meter measures resistance in a circuit. Think of a copper wire. If you attached the ohm meter to each end, you get a reading of 1. If you measure the copper to the outer sheath, you get no reading....or infinity. OHms is everything in between. if you were to slice a pencil in half and connect the meter probes to either end of the graphite lead, you'd get a reading of infinity or slightly below. As you move the probes closer together, the ohms decrease closer to 1. This pencil with moving the probes together is essentialy a variable resistor. The graghite in the pencil is a semiconductor...just as a resister in a radio. A wire is a conductor, the plastic sheath is an innsulator... I hope I made some perspective in this and understand why the lights blink faster with LED's. The filiment in a standard bulb draws more load than a LED, so weakening the flow of current to the LED will cause a "false" load on the circuit (sort of)...there is so much more to electronic theory, but then, I'd be getting way out of the league. Good luck!

Matt "Sandmann" has a bunch of projects on his site, one of them involves these resistors. Basically it tricks the bike into thinking it has normal bulbs. But yeah, one of those flashers designed for LEDs should do the trick.

I used a "badlands" load equalizer.
basicly it is a little box with a couple of wires you tap into
your tail lights and it takes care of the led problem.

Turn signals? Who has turn signals? I put my old ones on for inspection, then ripp them off right after. Hand signals work better.