admore LEDs to Whitney trunk

[greenhorn]

Hi. Been awhile. Finally figured out how to attache the small Whitney. Just turned the saddle bag supports upside down and used the supplied plate/ hardware that came with the trunk an walla!! Now. For safety reasons I want to add some sort of lights to the top of the trunk.

It doesn't have to be fancy.. any ideas? I found this sight http://admorelighting.com/ doe you see anything ( like the universal light bar) That could EASILY be hooked up? Not a genius here...

Mary

[JWR]

Looks good.
Those lights should work for you.

:)

[mrlmd1]

What's going to keep that from crashing down and those bolts from digging into your fender when you put any weight into it?

[greenhorn]

It's solid. There are two braces attached perpendicular to and on to the saddle bag supports. They came with the trunk mounting plate if you are at all familiar with the Whitney. I have been very happy with the set up.

I ordered from here http://www.customdynamics.com/knight_ri ... ht_bar.htm (http://www.customdynamics.com/knight_rider_led_light_bar.htm) # LB03. Just need a little more visibility especially at the beginning of the riding season (MN) when people aren't looking for motorcycles yet.

M

[Water Warrior 2]

Hi Mary, it has been a while. The LB03 should make a good extra brake light. I'm not sure about the Knight Rider sequence though. It may be illegal and really frowned upon by the LEO's.
Have you considered white or amber LED running lights for the front end ??

[Water Warrior 2]

Hi. Been awhile. Finally figured out how to attache the small Whitney. Just turned the saddle bag supports upside down and used the supplied plate/ hardware that came with the trunk an walla!! Now. For safety reasons I want to add some sort of lights to the top of the trunk.

It doesn't have to be fancy.. any ideas? I found this sight http://admorelighting.com/ doe you see anything ( like the universal light bar) That could EASILY be hooked up? Not a genius here...

Mary
Far out. Thinking out of the box and getting a neat result. I like it.

[greenhorn]

Hi Mary, it has been a while. The LB03 should make a good extra brake light. I'm not sure about the Knight Rider sequence though. It may be illegal and really frowned upon by the LEO's.
Have you considered white or amber LED running lights for the front end ?? WW!!! I thought of pm ing you ...How's it? I'm looking specifically for back end lighting and I got the "non sequential" bar for the reason you stated.

Far out. Thinking out of the box and getting a neat result. I like it. Thanks. I'm kind of proud that I actually came up with the idea. :2tup:

Mary

[jonathan180iq]

I have a video on Youtube showing how to install LED strip lights under the lense of the exact same Jc Whitney Trunk.
I can't link it right now because I cannot access Youtube through the work server.

"Marauder GZ 250 LED tail lights - YouTube"

Type those words into google and it will be the first video link that you see. ;)
I believe there is a brief description of what I used and how to do it, IIRC.

EDIT:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=850&hilit=trunk+lights (http://gz250bike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=850&hilit=trunk+lights)
Here is the original post I made about it. Lots of good lighting info in that thread. Read it all. The link for the video is at the bottom of the page.

[greenhorn]

COOL DUDS Jonathan!! May I ask where you got the led strips from and did they come with everything you needed to install in the whitney handle? Oh please say "yes".

And do you mean that all one has to do to increase brightness of the standard bulb for the break light ( nothing else... just go buy another bulb, take the old one out, put the new one in) is to replace it with " 2397 bulb" that you can get at any auto store? Again... please say "yes". And is the the exact bulb I need to buy?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/ ... fier=16870 (http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/_/N-5yc1s;jsessionid=5A3A8DE6080C70B327D7FA2BF5C1DAC1. diyprod1-b2c1?itemIdentifier=16870)

M

[blaine]

And do you mean that all one has to do to increase brightness of the standard bulb for the break light ( nothing else... just go buy another bulb, take the old one out, put the new one in) is to replace it with " 2397 bulb" that you can get at any auto store? Again... please say "yes". And is the the exact bulb I need to buy?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/ ... fier=16870 (http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/_/N-5yc1s;jsessionid=5A3A8DE6080C70B327D7FA2BF5C1DAC1. diyprod1-b2c1?itemIdentifier=16870)

M

Yes,except that after more research.Jonathan went with a 2357 same brightness as 2397 without using more power.It is a direct replacement bulb that you can get at any auto store.
:) :cool:

[Water Warrior 2]

Changing the regular light bulb for a brighter one is a good low cost idea. That in combination with the LED light bar should make you quite visible.
When Lynda moved up to her M-50 it had a factory LED tail light that was very noticeable. Well...........it was till I put HyperLight brake lights on the bike. The HyperLight LED units made the factory equipment look like an also ran loser by comparison. Gotta love the aftermarket.

[Water Warrior 2]

[quote=Water Warrior]Hi Mary, it has been a while. The LB03 should make a good extra brake light. I'm not sure about the Knight Rider sequence though. It may be illegal and really frowned upon by the LEO's.
Have you considered white or amber LED running lights for the front end ?? WW!!! I thought of pm ing you ...How's it? I'm looking specifically for back end lighting and I got the "non sequential" bar for the reason you stated.

Far out. Thinking out of the box and getting a neat result. I like it. Thanks. I'm kind of proud that I actually came up with the idea. :2tup:

Mary[/quote:3s2ru2gc]
How's it.............it is good in all respects except for the almost continuous rain. Humbug I say. Yesterday was dry but there were pressing must do's that didn't allow a ride. The must do involved a clean bill of health for Lynda so she can quit worrying now. Some silly amatuers in the health system jumped the gun and we needed a specialist to sort it out. All is fine now.

You should be proud of thinking out of the box. You used bag supports in a new way and the bike has a unigue appearance that is very eye catching. Another handy piece of info for the GZ forum.

[greenhorn]

How's it.............it is good in all respects except for the almost continuous rain. Humbug I say. Yesterday was dry but there were pressing must do's that didn't allow a ride. The must do involved a clean bill of health for Lynda so she can quit worrying now. :2tup: This is for a clean bill of health for Linda. :) And this is kind of a mix of I'm sorry about the rain but I'm really glad Linda is ok.... M oh. And if it makes you feel any better, I haven't been out riding since November. We have had a very, very mild minter here ( 2nd mildest in history) but unfortunately we have a looooooong driveway and so even if the temps are near ridable ( +40? in my book) I can't get out. Now TODAY it is supposed to get up to 60? so I'm hoping the driveway will melt off.

BUT I can't complain..... even if I get on the road before May 1st it will be a first.

M :)

[Water Warrior 2]

The Vstrom has been sleeping since Oct 19th and Lynda's M-50 since late Sept. After Lynda got back from her trip half way across Canada(solo) she said "I'm done for the year."
Still wet here and not warm enough to make a wet ride worth while. I must be getting older, I am developing patience. :lol: :lol:

[alantf]

Five month's patience??????????? :sad:

[Water Warrior 2]

Five month's patience??????????? :sad:
Patience plus I'm getting lazy in my old age. So far in the past few days I have been to the post office twice to pick up stuff for the truck and bike. Haven't even made plans to do any installing yet. Maybe next month if I feel ambitious. At one time everything had to be right now but I no longer feel the urge to do things as soon as possible.
Would be riding if the weather was warm and dry. Weather is not cooperating so I won't work my way into an anxious state of mind.

[Water Warrior 2]

Okay, so today is another day and I had a short burst of ambition. Out to the truck and swapped the clear fog light bulbs for yellow bulbs. Went for coffee and drove through snow, sleet, rain and hail all in an 8 minute drive. This Climate Change is really starting to suck. Have you noticed the powers that be are no longer calling it Global Warming.

[alantf]

Climate Change

This is supposed to be our rainy season, but so far it's bone dry. The powers that be are warning that if it doesn't start raining soon, there's going to be a water shortage, & they'll start cutting the water off for an hour every day.

[jonathan180iq]

Okay, so today is another day and I had a short burst of ambition. Out to the truck and swapped the clear fog light bulbs for yellow bulbs. Went for coffee and drove through snow, sleet, rain and hail all in an 8 minute drive. This Climate Change is really starting to suck. Have you noticed the powers that be are no longer calling it Global Warming.

Down here, we actually had the warmest winter of my life. There was one week in December when temps were near freezing and one week in January. That was is. Otherwise, it's basically been a chilly Spring since the beginning of Feb.
I'm not saying it's global climate change, but it's just some weird shit.

[jonathan180iq]

COOL DUDS Jonathan!! May I ask where you got the led strips from and did they come with everything you needed to install in the whitney handle? Oh please say "yes".

And do you mean that all one has to do to increase brightness of the standard bulb for the break light ( nothing else... just go buy another bulb, take the old one out, put the new one in) is to replace it with " 2397 bulb" that you can get at any auto store? Again... please say "yes". And is the the exact bulb I need to buy?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/ ... fier=16870 (http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/_/N-5yc1s;jsessionid=5A3A8DE6080C70B327D7FA2BF5C1DAC1. diyprod1-b2c1?itemIdentifier=16870)

M

Blaine answered your question about the bulbs.
The LED strips were just direct ordered from China via Ebay.

I got two of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RED-9-LED-FLEXI ... 500wt_1139 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/RED-9-LED-FLEXIBLE-STRIP-MOTORCYCLE-CAR-BOAT-LIGHT-12V-/170801247994?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c48c36fa#ht_500wt_1139)

They way these are made, you can actually cut them anywhere along the strip and it won't ruin the circuit. Use the trailing wires that come with the kit, extend them a bit with some of your own wire and just link them into the brake light wiring, which is pretty easy to do once you figure out which wire is which. I used two flixible strips and faced them towards each other, as you can see in the video. The tape holding them in place undernearth the red plastic lense on the top case is reflective double sided tape. It should be available at Lowe's, Home Depot, and maybe even Wal-Mart if you're lucky.

The brake line is the white wire with a black stripe. If you want just running lights, then you needs to tap into the brown line.

[mrlmd1]

Man, Jonathan, those are really Expensive! Don't you just love it when the shipping cost is twice as much as the item you are buying?
Are those light strip still working? I may have to get a bunch of those, just to have for something someday.

I once ordered a little rubber cover which was a little smaller than a nickel, that fit over the starter button on my jetski to keep water out of there, and the item cost $0.25 but they wanted to charge me $9.98 to ship in a box via UPS. I called the place I was ordering from and had quite a discussion with the customer service rep and the ordering dept. but finally convinced them to put them in a friggin' envelope and send it through the US mail. I bought 2 of them and instead of $0.42 for the stamp, they charged me $1.00, so I gave in. Better than $10.

[Water Warrior 2]

Just had to shell out $39 for $20 light bulbs. Not too impressed.
On the bright side the cheap $15 LED lights that came from Hong Kong were shipped free. There were $4.60 in stamps on the package. Go figure. :??:

[mrlmd1]

The light bars in Jon's post were starting at $0.99 and sold for $1.27!

[mole2]

Man, Jonathan, those are really Expensive! Don't you just love it when the shipping cost is twice as much as the item you are buying?
Are those light strip still working? I may have to get a bunch of those, just to have for something someday.

I once ordered a little rubber cover which was a little smaller than a nickel, that fit over the starter button on my jetski to keep water out of there, and the item cost $0.25 but they wanted to charge me $9.98 to ship in a box via UPS. I called the place I was ordering from and had quite a discussion with the customer service rep and the ordering dept. but finally convinced them to put them in a friggin' envelope and send it through the US mail. I bought 2 of them and instead of $0.42 for the stamp, they charged me $1.00, so I gave in. Better than $10.

Since I operate an Ebay store I'd have to tell you that the best I could do for shipping is $2.95. It is against USPS regulations to put items in First Class Mail other than paper or photos. This is due to items jamming their sorting machines. Everything else must ship via First Class Mail Parcel which is more expensive. Let me give you a breakdown of a 1 oz package. The postage (with the Ebay discount of $0.15 which is the same discount from the USPS site) is $1.64 with delivery confirmation. A #0 bubble envelope runs $0.55. Add to that the Ebay and Paypal fees (yes, they both charge their fee on shipping) which combined are 16% + $0.30. That brings the very base cost to $2.84. I make $0.11 to cover paper, tape, ink and handling (yeah, I work cheap). International shipping adds about $2.00 to the base cost for that 1 oz package. There is more to shipping than the cost of the stamp. I print the postage using the option of not displaying the cost. The reason I do that is everyone seems to think that is the only cost of shipping. When I stopped doing that five years ago a lot of headaches went away.

By the way, as a side note to those making purchases on Ebay. When you rate a vendor on shipping time it's the time from when you paid for the item until it's put in the carriers hand. It's not the time it takes to arrive. Check the Ebay rules (of which they don't educate the consumer so that the seller gets lower ratings so they can deny discounts) and you'll see it there. They tell you a 4 in DSR is a good rating and yet if a vendor is at a 4 overall they can and do shut down the store. Selling on Ebay is tough and they are loosing a lot of vendors due to their silly rules over the last four years. Most vendors refer to them as greedbay. And it's costing the consumer in higher prices. If you remember in the past if you put a search in for something you got 20 pages of the item from different vendors. Now you're lucky if you get five. I am slowly transitioning to Amazon and will open my own web site in the future in order to cut ties with Ebay (and I've been with them a long time).


:)

[mrlmd1]

Mole, I understand your problem, but this was from a company directly handling Seadoo jetski parts and paraphenalia, not on eBay. Regardless, I understand about the USPS and restrictions on first class mail, but these 2 soft little rubber covers were as thin as a dime and would not have jammed up any sorting or stamping machine. And $10 to pack it in a small box with bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts would border on insane, and I wasn't told of a bubble envelope or given any other choice than the UPS box. They put the two of them in a tiny plastic ziplock bag in a regular envelope and it arrived just fine via Uncle Sam 2 days later.