Great info
adding an additional brake light to the bike
- Thread starter Dan T
- Start date
My 10" Admore smoked rear light bar continues to work well on Blue STar, after being transferred from my CB1000c. So a total of 4 years service on it now. Mounted just under the Givi plate, it is well positioned to be in the view of overtaking motorists. The new model, with the accelerometer is the way to go now. Well worth the few extra $$,,, Cat'
I went with the Admore strips, later added a LED strip above the license plate and then saw a Knight Riderz light on a Yammy in the Adirondacks in NY. Could not take my eyes off that moving light. Check out customdynamics.com for these lights - they draw your attention. Yup, I added one of these below my license plate. No stops by the gendarmes yet.
Being retired and on a fixed income ( and being the cheap ba**ard that I am ), I mounted a fairly bright red LED aux light to my rear fender under my license plate energized with a solid state flasher. Total cost was about $14.
I've used the Knight Riderz LED Light Bar on three bikes now. Cost is $29.95. It's simple to set up and works well. I try to set it up as high as possible and away from the rear brake light. The idea being to have a second light come on when the brakes are applied and be more attention getting.
The "Knight Riderz" is a reference to the lights on the Knight Rider car from the TV show. The used to have this cool look of going back and forth. You can do that with these too. I chose to have them off till the brake light comes on. Then it flashes rapidly, slows down, and then goes on solid.
Chris
The "Knight Riderz" is a reference to the lights on the Knight Rider car from the TV show. The used to have this cool look of going back and forth. You can do that with these too. I chose to have them off till the brake light comes on. Then it flashes rapidly, slows down, and then goes on solid.
Chris
Added the Whelen Lin3, replacing the reflector on the rear fender. Just put on a programmable brake light flasher (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FADDOL4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). The light is clear until it fires red. My riding buddy says it's a good attention getter.
+1 A very sound and popular idea.Daboo said:
Another popular farkle. I moved my reflector down to the bottom hole in the fender that's possibly meant to mount the large license plates used in European countries.GadgetGuy1230 said:
What light is this connected to? The LIN3 is also programmable yeah?GadgetGuy1230 said:
Oh yeah! When you come to a stop in traffic check your mirror. You may see your new brakelight reflected off of the car behind you. Sometimes cars will stop over a car length short of you. Sometimes they creep up so that the strobe doesn't flash in their face. It is bright.GadgetGuy1230 said:
Tedbrogden
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How did you install the Knight Rider bar ? Did you use the 3M tape provided? Thanks!
On the each bike, I've made a plastic "bracket" from a black bottle of moss killer. (We use a lot of moss killer in Seattle.) I cut out about a 6 inch length from the side of the bottle where there was a bend and cut it down to size to match the Knight Riderz bar with room enough for two screws to mount it to the underside of the rear top case carrier. And yes, to fasten it to the plastic "bracket", I just used the 3M tape they provide. It worked great.
Good idea, I may put that back on or add some reflective stickers on the back of the bags
Flasher/Modulator is on the LIN3
LIN3 is programmable, 27 patterns, however no patterns flash then stay on. I set the LIN3 to just ON and let the modulator flash about 6 times in a second then stay on.
Still got tailgated 3 times on a 180 mile ride the other day, flashy brake light had no affect on one of them (had to pull off and let them pass). Yes sir, it is bright, I like it.Oh yeah! When you come to a stop in traffic check your mirror. You may see your new brake light reflected off of the car behind you. Sometimes cars will stop over a car length short of you. Sometimes they creep up so that the strobe doesn't flash in their face. It is bright.
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Got it.GadgetGuy1230 said:
There are always exceptions. Certainly nobody wants to be tailgated but at least these guys were probably very aware of you. Much worse is a driver who rolls up on you somehow unaware of the space and time you're occupying.GadgetGuy1230 said:
We know that almost nothing works 100% in all scenarios but the LIN or equivalent is a welcome addition.
That's exactly what I've done. I'm not sure how much visibility the reflectors add, but at least it looks like I care about safety.
st11ray
2006 ST1300
I have hyperlites on the reflector brackets and a Whelen stop, tail, and turn signal light bar mounted to the bottom of my Givi rack. The Whelen flashes and goes solid like the hyperlites. It also has running lights and turn signals. I tried to get mine as high up on the bike as possible to get the light "in their face".
You guys that added these lights as brake lights had to power the light from the OEM brake light wire right. I don't see any other way of doing it but I had to ask. I'm reading the direction and it says to power the light from the battery using a fuse. This can't be done if it is supplementing the brake light. Am I off track on this? LOL
Yep that's what I did. The lights are all LED so the current draw is very little. The brake light wiring doesn't even realize there's an added load.
No you're not. That instruction might make sense if there were three wires and some kind of switching device built into the light assembly— fused positive lead to battery and negative lead to battery with a trigger wire going to the brake light switch or brake light wire. Do you have a link to your light in case there's something we (or me) are missing?Dan T said:
Like I said all my 'hot' leads go to the hot brake light wire and the negative leads go to a nearby ground.
Close..lol. You can just tie it in with the existing brake lite wire AND ground wire. Did same on mine when I added the optional brake lite(4 LED light) in the recess of my GIVI tail- trunk. Myself, just removed seat to get at wires in the location where the factory tool kit is located.
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Don't forget, the OEM brake lamp circuit is already a "from the battery using a fuse" circuit.
Are you aware of this thread addressing the same topic running concurrently to your thread? You may find some useful information there, as well as a schematic indicating one methodology of wiring an additional brake lamp.
skipcurt
Skip
+1.
Whelen TR3 for me.
