Let There Be (more RED) Light!!!

[TechiePilot]

Today being a rainy day and all with house chores beckoning, I chose to spend a few hours lighting things up a bit. I've always wanted a bit more red in the rear, and I'm pleased to say that my stage 1 upgrade is looking rather nifty...

First I opened up the rear to see what I was in for. Once I determined which connector was for the brake and blinkers, I lazy-labeled (B)rake and (R)ight.


I zipped out to AutoZone for some parts, primarily red FlexLED, wire harness, and shrink tubing. First order of business was to tie into the existing plugs (all black wires at this point)


Now I've got my stuff spliced...


Next step was to bring the wires up through to the free-space under the pillion seat...I undid the plastic pop-screws near the rear wheel-well. I don't yet have the 'service manual' so I taped the Flex LED wires to the end of a 2ft piece of insulated residential wiring conductor (so I didn't scrape anything inside), and fished it up by the rear frame and into the free space under the pillion seat. Also, by extending the wires up through the back, I don't have to reopen the tail section when I add more stuff, except to replace a bulb, yayy!!




Temporary labels on connector bundles...


This is before adhesion, 'LED' side (unlit)


Now the lights are on and somebody is home!!!


and now for a different angle...
I was trying to avoid the glare of the tail-light so that I can emphasize the LED strips.

 

[FlaNC700X]

Finish it up, adhere the LEDs and tell us how much money and time.

 

[Xcellor8]

That's a great idea, gonna copy that one!!

 

[L.B.S.]

Sweet!! That's going to be awesome

LBS approves of this TechiePilot mod! lol

This is one of my other long term cuties, (2007 CBR125R) and that was one of my very first "want!" mods I did to her. I only hooked the LED strip into the Brake circuit, so it's only on when brakes applied, not as a running light as well. Pictures never do justice. In real life, these are really eye catching when they fire up with the brakes. Myself, I think they stand out more when going from invisible, to ON! versus a low level constant light, that just gets brighter.

 

[Rocker66]

Thats a really need job

 

[TechiePilot]

Sweet!! That's going to be awesome

LBS approves of this TechiePilot mod! lol

L.B.S., nice machine you got there, and thank you, I'm glad you approve of this message. Yes, the LED lights are attached to the brake circuit. More eye-catching that way, and I wanted to make sure I have the attention of those coming up behind me.

FlaNC700X, since this was my first time fiddling/thinking/figuring out my options/trying not to take apart more of the bike than I needed to, the total time was about 2 hours, but now I have the plan, it shouldn't take more than 1 hour. My Autozone shopping list is as follows...
Alpena/24 in red Fled LED light, p/n 77422B $19.99
Dorman/1/16 - 1/2 in heat shrink tubing kit, p/n 87500 $7.99
(this was more tubing than I needed for this project, but I've got other stuff I want to use it for)
Metra/Stereo Wiring Harness, p/n 77500 $8.99
(24-awg single-color wires would also have worked, but I wanted the variety)

Total OOP expense: $28-40
Job Satisfaction: Priceless
For everything else, there's MasterCard... ;-)

 

[FlaNC700X]

Can you take a pic, like 30 ft behind your bike?