Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner DIY Cruise lights (el Cheapo)

Decided to make a DIY set of cruising lights, got hold of some small 3mm LEDs and just put one in each indicator.

Photos are VERY poor but you should get the idea.

First I tried them to make sure they would fit / work





These pictures give an idea of brightness at night, they are bright enough to be seen and the indicator is a lot brighter so people can still see if your turning.





Total cost about 5 quid and a few hours work, the main time consumer was threading the wires along the loom to the headlight so the wires dont show.

Well that's pretty cool. Good work there!

That's thinkin' outside the box!! Nice going!!!

How do you have them wired? Are they always on? Come on with the brake?

Kieth, I think you're right. By the way I understood it:
They are on all the time and act as just running lights. However, they are not as bright as the bulbs so the indicators stand out over the running lights when engaged.

The easiest thing, I suppose would be to tap into the tail light circuit.

The ones at the rear are wired into the tail light and the ones at the front go into the side light wiring, yes on all the time and during the day they can be noticed at car height as a glow.

They really stand out at night but as said above the indicator bulbs are about 60% brighter... Im actually quite pleased with the result, if they were not bright enough I intended adding another led to each indicator but this is good enough.

BTW, did I say how CHEAP they was LOL

Are you letting them touch the other bulb like that?...Seems like the insulation could melt onto the bulb and get messy.

Theres 2 layers of heat shrink + the insulation on each led.. the indicator bulbs are only on for a short time and flashing when they are so heat is not an issue.

I did think of that in case your wondering...

yeah I wouldnt put it past you...Just a thought

I just did this to the rear of my bike this afternoon, it cost me $3.98 plus a little liquid tape, shrink tube and solder. I didn't do the front because I think the glare on the windshield would be annoying. I'm running stock signals in the stock locations.
I used Radio Shack # 276-0084 red LED assemblies these are threaded, have an integrated resistor and require a 13/64 mounting hole. I drilled the white plate around the socket at the 5 o clock position. I tied into the tail light circuit on the hot side and grounded through the turn signal grounds (that way I only had to feed one wire through the stem per side). They work great, they are plenty bright and the signal is easily visible over the LED. I think if I was doing it over I'd have mounted them at 1 o clock, I feel like they'd show up a little better.
web page flicker.com



If you try this but can't find the same LEDs I used just be sure the ones you buy have a luminous intensity of 50 mcd or better, also the viewing angle of these is 100 degrees, I'm not sure how important that spec is but it's the widest field of view I could find, seemed like a good idea to me.

You need a Yahoo account to get to those pics there, Carl.

Cool I finally figured out how to post em, don't know what I did differently than before but there ya go Keith. I'm thinking I may make another trip to radio shack today for 2 more LEDs, I'm pretty sure the stock bulb will still overpower them, if not it's a simple mater of disconnecting them, on the up side, if one quits working I'd have a spare already mounted.

I'm sure the top two pictures don't do it justice, but by the bottom pics I can see what you've done. Pretty cool setup!

They are brighter than they appear, but not as bright as they could be. I'm going to add another one to each side. I picked them up today. Total cost when I'm done will still be under $8.