Running Lights!

[Manfred]

I scoured the web for several daze, looking for the best solution for adding running lights - with my preference being for them to be in the turn signals. After mucho reading and shopping, I settled on the drastic solution of making an irreversible change, following others who have gone before: with a dremel tool, I enlarged the socket hole in which the single element light bulb had rested. I then inserted a dual element socket (#85803 from Dorman, available at various auto parts stores), keeping the stock ground piece in place.

The new socket does not go all the way into the original hole - but this works out fine, leaving plenty of room in front and behind. The wire providing power to the bright filament hooks up the to stock power line for the turn signal. The wire to the 4 watt running light hooks up to the front running light or the tail light.

Including 4 light bulbs (1157s), around $20 and a couple of hours. I'll see about pix if anyone is interested.

 

[26667]

asap

of course we want pix

and not just because it's gonna be colder than billy ned overnite again in Chicago, w temps almost in the riding range over the weekend

 

[Manfred]

I'll take some pix tomorrow and post them. My old Yamaha XS850 touring edition had running lights and I missed having them. All happy now.

BTW - it's 42 degrees and rainy here. That's cold for us folks, what with the humidity being 70% or so to boot.

 

[crazydrummerdude]

Doesn't Motorrad Elektrik sell running light kits for airheads?

Running lights are on my to-do-list for both my airheads..

 

[Manfred]

Doesn't Motorrad Elektrik sell running light kits for airheads?

Running lights are on my to-do-list for both my airheads..

I didn't see running lights on Rick's site. He has LED tail & brake lights, LED flashing additional brake lights (which I bought and have on my bike).

The modification I did allows the use of cheap incandescent or LED bulbs. I don't see the cost for LEDs in this case being worth the price, as the blinkers are the big draw and they aren't used a large percentage of riding time and the running lights are very low power - LEDs wouldn't save much except when the blinkers are blinking. And I believe a different ($12 or more) flasher is required for LED blinkers.

 

[crazydrummerdude]

I didn't see running lights on Rick's site. He has LED tail & brake lights, LED flashing additional brake lights (which I bought and have on my bike).

Weird. I just looked, too.. and don't see them.

I think I remember they were called something like "Lite Buddies" or something equally ridiculous. Haha.

 

[BFURIOUSB]

another data point

I decided I wanted to become more visible on the road at night. So, I added the LED "lite buddies" running light kits to my '78 R80 "S". It (obviously) requires threading an additional wire to the inside of the turn signals to power the running lights, but is very unobtrusive overall. The LEDs do look bright at night, so I'm happy. It was about $50 per kit front and rear (also available from Bob's BMW). The kits are built by these people.

I also replaced the rear brake light with the LED one from rick's. It does look much brighter than the stock bulb and reflector. This was probably the better buy as far as safety per dollar... but it's hard to quantify such things.

Although, on the plus side, the current draw of all these new lights is probably less than the current draw from the original brake light alone, so I'm probably saving a little power.

-Will

 

[crazydrummerdude]

The kits are built by these people.

Thanks for jogging my memory!

 

[Manfred]

Yup - I checked out the RunninLites and decided it was too expensive, plus they don't appear to have a solution for the front end mounted in the fairing.

Here's what the rear blinker looks like once modified, before mounting. Three more pix following (don't know why I can only load one picture per post).

 

[Manfred]

Pic #2 - here's the same blinker, wired up.

 

[Manfred]

Rear view as lit.

 

[Manfred]

Front view as lit

 

[jeff488]

Lookin' mighty fine, Stu.

 

[Manfred]

Thanks, Jeff.

 

[CRUISIN]

thinking outside the box

Here's what I've done to increase 'conspicuity' on my R80.

First I used bright white LEDs on the engine protection bars wired with the low beam circuit.

 

[CRUISIN]

. . . and then 10W halogens on either side of the fairing wired with the HI beam

 

[CRUISIN]

. . . then to be noticed from behind, 10-LED units in each saddlebag wired as running lights; and flashing LEDs built into the OEM taillight housing that activate with the brake light.

 

[kstoo]

... and it's red.

 

[Manfred]

Cruisin, Great job making your bike noticeable. Those LED flashing brake lights look very similar to the ones I bought from MotoElektric. I mounted mine on the horizontal bar that holds my turn signals, to get a bit of separation from the main brake light.

 

[CRUISIN]

thanks, I too, thought about putting the flashing LEDs on the rear turn signal stalks but just like the clean look of having them on either side of the taillight better.

Here is a wider view of the nearly finished project. All I lack now (cosmetically) is a good seat cover to replace the temporary denim one used during testing of various foam shapes & thicknesses.