'78E brake light and turn signal LED conversion - flasher??

[MaxPete]

OK gents, I have two LED bulb-related questions because my trusty old bike Betty has started chewing through incadnescent bulbs at quite a clip (and yes, I have checked the charging system):

1) I have swapped the 1156 incandescent turn signal bulbs to the LED equivalent and searched the XS650.com archives, but I cannot find a clear answer to this question:

• My question: what flasher can I get that will make the signals flash and not cause any other problems. Linky please....

2) I have also swapped the 1157 taillight / brake light bulb and while the bulb itself works fine, the brake-light-out idiot light on my instrument cluster is now flashing.

• My question: is there a way to either fix that indicator - or do I really have to disable it by removing the indicator bulb?

Many thanks,

Pete

 

[Its been a long time]

This post of mine from a couple of weeks ago might at least partially help.

https://www.xs650.com/threads/turn-signal-issue.66381/post-839620

Rear light - I removed the rear light checker unit.

 

[MaxPete]

FANTASTIC INFO - thanks so much IBaLT - well done indeed!

BTW - I got the LEDs from SuperBrite LED.com - they are an excellent supplier with a good stock of pop-in replacements for any old incandescent bulb.

Pete
(a fellow P.Eng. Mechanical Engineer)

 

[Its been a long time]

FANTASTIC INFO - thanks so much IBaLT - well done indeed!

Pete
(a fellow P.Eng. Mechanical Engineer)

I just edited my post to (try to be) be a bit more helpful.

 

[MaxPete]

Hokey Dokey sport fans - my quest for safe, bright, durable lighting on an XS650 (aka The Paint Shaker) continues.

In our last episode, I replaced the four turn signal bulbs with 1156 LED replacements from SuperBrite LEDs on Betty (‘78E) and they worked fine in conjunction with an “electronic” low-wattage flasher as described above. This set-up has worked well on my 1976 XS650C (the always delightful Lucille ) for many years.

I also replaced the tail / brake light with an 1157 LED replacement from SuperBrite and it worked OK - except for two things:

1) the tail light out warning indicator light kept flashing on my dash - likely due to insufficient resistance in the circuit from the LED bulb. This isn’t really unsafe, but it is tiresome as it felt like I was watching one of those police car chase TV shows every time I rode at night. I’m sure there is a workaround - but what a PITA.

2) the much more serious issue was that the difference in brightness between the tail light and the brake light was minimal - so it looked like my brakes were on all the time. Now, THIS is definitely unsafe - so bummer.

OK - so that 1157 LED was a fail. I went back to an incandescent 1157 bulb and it work fine …..for about 55 km (around 33 miles) and then the low wattage filament burned out AGAIN. This short life is ridiculous and totally impractical. Maybe incandescent bulbs were more robust in the old days - but I shouldn’t have to replace my taillight bulb every time I ride the bike.

…..hmmmmmm….what to do? Well, I did what all Canadians do when they have a car problem - I went to Canadian Tire where I spent a few minutes in their light bulb aisle and I found the Sylvania 1157 LED premium replacement “bulb”. It’s called a ZEVO and CTC describes it as “Long Life / High Brightness” and gives you a lifetime warranty on it - which they bloody well should for $15 a pop. I bought a two-pack for $29.99 + HST (Human Sexuality Tax) of 13%.

That’s more than $2.45 USD at the current rate of exchange.

These “bulbs” are very different from any other LED replacement I’ve ever seen and appear to be very robustly built with a sheet metal plate between the two LED arrays. Best of all, they seem to have a massive difference in brightness between the “tail” and “brake” settings. Also, my taillight warning indicator seems to work as normal again - so that’s a plus as well.

Anyhow - I’ll be putting one of these in all of my bike tail / brake lights going forward.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Its been a long time]

@MaxPete That's good to know. I have an LED stop/tail bulb and I'm pretty underwhelmed by it too. Good to know there's a solution instead of carrying a pocketful of incandescent bulbs around.

I removed the bulb failure module.

 

[MaxPete]

@MaxPete That's good to know. I have an LED stop/tail bulb and I'm pretty underwhelmed by it too. Good to know there's a solution instead of carrying a pocketful of incandescent bulbs around.

I removed the bulb failure module.

Yeah, I thought about taking that module off but I hate to lose functionality on my bikes and that warning thingy is worth having in todays busy traffic.

It’s just not cool having it flash all the bloody time!

 

[Jim]

I recently converted the Beamer to an LED Brake/tail, along with the strobing brake module. I also installed an SG taillight assembly (long story, don't ask ) so the SG and the Beamer have identical rears.... keep readin'... I'll get there.
Anyway, after the deed, I was a little underwhelmed with the Beamers brightness. Bikes side by side, I had Sue squeeze both brakes at the same time and there was a night and day difference in 'em with the SG noticeably brighter.... very noticeably.

So I scrolled back through my SG resto thread to see if I could figure out what I did differently. Found it. What I put in the SG was red 1157's vs. the whites I put in the Beamer. 4-5 yr old history in Amazon showed the bulbs I used. Ordered and installed the same and now both bikes are of equal brightness in the um, rear.
And the tail vs brake have a normal difference in intensity.

The red LED is most definitely the way to go.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MY4T4BU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[MaxPete]

Cool - and a heck of lot cheaper than the Sylvania bulbs I got today.

 

[Jim]

Yeah, I thought about taking that module off but I hate to lose functionality on my bikes and that warning thingy is worth having in todays busy traffic.

It’s just not cool having it flash all the bloody time!

Couple things...
Coming from an airplane world, I "preflight" my bikes before every first flight ride of the day... every time. Nuts, bolts... tires and chain... and the lights and horn. At the least, I won't start the day with a burnt out bulb.
It's a good habit to get into.

Also Pete, iirc your year bike has a single bulb in the rear? The big tails on the specials have two. I wonder if it's possible to swap it (or just the innards) for the Special tail and also have that redundancy?

 

[MaxPete]

Couple things...
Coming from an airplane world, I "preflight" my bikes before every first flight ride of the day... every time. Nuts, bolts... tires and chain... and the lights and horn. At the least, I won't start the day with a burnt out bulb.
It's a good habit to get into.

Also Pete, iirc your year bike has a single bulb in the rear? The big tails on the specials have two. I wonder if it's possible to swap it (or just the innards) for the Special tail and also have that redundancy?

Yup, I do that pre-flight type of thing as well - but these incandescent taillights have been burning out so quickly that it always seems that I am about to depart for home from somewhere - and I notice that it’s out.

As for swapping to a dual bulb set-up - there is surprisingly little room inside the round taillight housings on the “Standard” models that I don’t see how one could get another bulb and fixture in there. I am hoping this super-duper Sylvania LED will do the trick.

 

[Its been a long time]

Yup, I do that pre-flight type of thing as well - but these incandescent taillights have been burning out so quickly that it always seems that I am about to depart for home from somewhere - and I notice that it’s out.

As for swapping to a dual bulb set-up - there is surprisingly little room inside the round taillight housings on the “Standard” models that I don’t see how one could get another bulb and fixture in there. I am hoping this super-duper Sylvania LED will do the trick.

My thinking is that there's stuff made today that just isn't the kind of quality we used to have back in the 70's or 80's. Incandescent bulbs is a prime candidate. Even branded bulbs are highly likely to be from a low cost Asian mega factory. Heck, even in the days of Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness, stuff like that proudly said "Made in England" on it. We used to moan of course. But there's stuff out there far poorer quality today.

 

[MaxPete]

Agr

My thinking is that there's stuff made today that just isn't the kind of quality we used to have back in the 70's or 80's. Incandescent bulbs is a prime candidate. Even branded bulbs are highly likely to be from a low cost Asian mega factory. Heck, even in the days of Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness, stuff like that proudly said "Made in England" on it. We used to moan of course. But there's stuff out there far poorer quality today.

Agreed - I rode a 1975 XS650B back in the mid-late 1970s and it vibrated every bit as badly as my XS bikes do today - but I don’t recall having difficulties keeping the incandescent bulbs working back then.

 

[Its been a long time]

Agr


Agreed - I rode a 1975 XS650B back in the mid-late 1970s and it vibrated every bit as badly as my XS bikes do today - but I don’t recall having difficulties keeping the incandescent bulbs working back then.

View attachment 332236

I had a black/gold 650C from new in 1976. Never blew a bulb.

And Japanese electrics were a quantum leap on from old Joe Lucas stuff

 

[Jim]

While I don't disagree about the drop in quality, I suspect it has as much to do with the vibration damper bit as much as anything. Fender mounts, taillight mounts... all that rubber is pushin' 50 yrs older than when we had em new. More hardened and less capable of dampening vibrations.

 

[Its been a long time]

While I don't disagree about the drop in quality, I suspect it has as much to do with the vibration damper bit as much as anything. Fender mounts, taillight mounts... all that rubber is pushin' 50 yrs older than when we had em new. More hardened and less capable of dampening vibrations.

And...... replace the rubber mounts like I have been doing and you find the quality of new (after market) rubber mounts are far inferior too.

 

[zrx1100]

I have been using 1157 retrofit in the stop for 10 years now. Mine is from Philips.

Hokey Dokey sport fans - my quest for safe, bright, durable lighting on an XS650 (aka The Paint Shaker) continues.

In our last episode, I replaced the four turn signal bulbs with 1156 LED replacements from SuperBrite LEDs on Betty (‘78E) and they worked fine in conjunction with an “electronic” low-wattage flasher as described above. This set-up has worked well on my 1976 XS650C (the always delightful Lucille ) for many years.

I also replaced the tail / brake light with an 1157 LED replacement from SuperBrite and it worked OK - except for two things:

1) the tail light out warning indicator light kept flashing on my dash - likely due to insufficient resistance in the circuit from the LED bulb. This isn’t really unsafe, but it is tiresome as it felt like I was watching one of those police car chase TV shows every time I rode at night. I’m sure there is a workaround - but what a PITA.

2) the much more serious issue was that the difference in brightness between the tail light and the brake light was minimal - so it looked like my brakes were on all the time. Now, THIS is definitely unsafe - so bummer.

OK - so that 1157 LED was a fail. I went back to an incandescent 1157 bulb and it work fine …..for about 55 km (around 33 miles) and then the low wattage filament burned out AGAIN. This short life is ridiculous and totally impractical. Maybe incandescent bulbs were more robust in the old days - but I shouldn’t have to replace my taillight bulb every time I ride the bike.

…..hmmmmmm….what to do? Well, I did what all Canadians do when they have a car problem - I went to Canadian Tire where I spent a few minutes in their light bulb aisle and I found the Sylvania 1157 LED premium replacement “bulb”. It’s called a ZEVO and CTC describes it as “Long Life / High Brightness” and gives you a lifetime warranty on it - which they bloody well should for $15 a pop. I bought a two-pack for $29.99 + HST (Human Sexuality Tax) of 13%.

That’s more than $2.45 USD at the current rate of exchange.

View attachment 332232

These “bulbs” are very different from any other LED replacement I’ve ever seen and appear to be very robustly built with a sheet metal plate between the two LED arrays. Best of all, they seem to have a massive difference in brightness between the “tail” and “brake” settings. Also, my taillight warning indicator seems to work as normal again - so that’s a plus as well.

Anyhow - I’ll be putting one of these in all of my bike tail / brake lights going forward.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[Jim]

And...... replace the rubber mounts like I have been doing and you find the quality of new (after market) rubber mounts are far inferior too.

Ain't that the truth.

 

[Jim]

And...... replace the rubber mounts like I have been doing and you find the quality of new (after market) rubber mounts are far inferior too.

Sumo Rubber out of Scotland had good quality rubber bits. Unfortunately they closed their doors early this year. Shame.

 

[Its been a long time]

Sumo Rubber out of Scotland had good quality rubber bits. Unfortunately they closed their doors early this year. Shame.

Yes, I think it's mostly Indian stuff now, if not then Chinese. A shame about the Scottish company. But it's almost impossible to run a small business making things in the UK now. Only way to survive now is high end quality and price. But high end rubber fittings doesn't exist in the motorcycle after market as far as I'm aware.