Front Turn Signal LED Conversion

[Shuey]

I've been searching the threads to know what I need to convert the front turn signals on my . . . soon to arrive ST1300.

Lot's of entries for the ST1100, ST1300 mentioned some places without clarification of parts needed or, the referenced URLS aren't in service anymore.

So, I think I've found references to three bulb designs, but nothing about where to acquire the clear lenses.

So, what's the current thinking on best options? I'm looking for LED bright white running and parking lights with bright amber turn signals.


Front turn signal LED bulbs?

Amazon.com

or

No Resistor Switchback LED for Honda ST1300 2003-12 Turn Signal w/ Daytime Light | eBay

Fit for 2003 - 2012 Honda ST1300 (Better for clear lens). These new socket has 3 wires, connect the white wire to the negative of the turn light, the green wire to the positive of the turn light, and the red wire to the positive of the parking light.

www.ebay.com

or

Amazon.com

Clear lenses?
No idea.

Thanks for any response,
Shuey

 

[Willsmotorcycle]

st1300 clear lenses

Type that into either site and your choices will be plentiful.

 

[SupraSabre]

After seeing Al's Goldwing catch on fire @ WeSTOC this last year, due to LEDs in his taillight, I have decided that LEDs for my headlight are fine, but I'll stick to regular bulbs in the rest of the bike!

 

[AIBIKRNC]

I searched for the clear lenses on Ebay and there were a number of options that came up. The bulb base fitment portion of the lense housing was not accurate. It required trimming with an exacto knife for the base to properly seat in place.

 

[dduelin]

After seeing Al's Goldwing catch on fire @ WeSTOC this last year, due to LEDs in his taillight, I have decided that LEDs for my headlight are fine, but I'll stick to regular bulbs in the rest of the bike!

Was there direct evidence an LED bulb caused the fire? Any bike with modifications to wiring are at elevated risk for a short and a fire. My Wing had a hidden hitch trailer hitch installed when I bought it and the wiring was a hack job. The first job I did on the bike was remove the hitch and trailer wiring harness along with restoring the wiring to a safe condition.

 

[ST Gui]

where to acquire the clear lenses.

I went to eBay to get mine. It's my firm belief these lenses are made by only one company in China and are sold by several merchants. No name is given to the manufacturer. The typical cost at the time was ~$25. Pick a vendor with a good rating and wait. These are not a very high quality part. Once installed they work well enough and look good. I am very happy with the end result.

The socket is poorly executed. As mentioned the tab openings need to be cleaned up with a sharp knife. Something like an X-acto knife would work well in that situation. Cut tiny bits at a time. It's mostly flashing that needs cleaning up.

The ingredients are:

switchback bulbs - amber/white (7443 base for the 1300)
clear lens assemblies
LED compatible turn signal flasher/relay

Those no-resistor bulbs are pricey. Too much so IMNSHO. They're unnecessary. The LED flasher obviates the need for these bulbs or resistors that are often sold with switchbacks. Basic bulbs somewhere closer to $20/pr will do. I don't have a recommendation for LEDs.

That kit includes sockets. Some Euro or UK bikes don't have running lights and need three wire sockets to add a running light to the indicator. Does the NA 1100 have running lights? The 1300 does (you probably already know that) so no sockets required.

I got my switchbacks from Fyre Fly or something similar. The name is in the very lengthy switchback thread a few years back. Some LED bulbs are polarized so if they don't work they need to be removed and turned 180º to work. That may be less common now - I dunno. If the product description says "non-polarized" that's good.

My LED compatible flasher came from superbrightleds. A two prong unit. Pull the old one out of its rubber holder and the new one slipped right it.

 

[Obo]

The clear lenses will indeed need a bit of a trim with an exacto knife to get the bulbs to fit. They are not quite up to Honda OEM quality.

The only 2 caveats for the switchback bulbs are to watch the width AND length.

They have to fit thru the opening (thus not too wide) and have a limited space before they hit the clear lens (thus the length)

Lenses can be bought from Ebay etc... shop around for the best price.

Lenses & Projectors for Honda ST1300 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals on Lenses & Projectors for Honda ST1300 when you shop the largest online selection at eBay.com. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices.

www.ebay.com

These are the bulbs I bought back in 2020. They just touch the clear lens.

Amazon.ca

Don't buy the load resistors, rather buy a new LED flasher relay and swap out the bike's flasher unit behind the fuse box. That will stop the "hyper flash" you'll have with using LED's and the stock flasher relay.

Amazon.ca

 

[DannoXYZ]

If you get 2-wire LED lights, it's possible to connect them to factory 3-wire harness by using 2 diodes to combine the marker & winker signals. This isolates them so that marker-light power doesn't turn on dash turn indicators.

 

[Obo]

If you get 2-wire LED lights, it's possible to connect them to factory 3-wire harness by using 2 diodes to combine the marker & winker signals. This isolates them so that marker-light power doesn't turn on dash turn indicators.

With a clear lens that would result in either an amber running & turn light (if you used an amber 2 wire led - which you can do with the stock lens and bulb.....) or white running and white turn, if using a white 2 wire LED. You'd also need a resistor to make the running light dimmer or you'd never see the flashing effect. You'd have full power to the running and still full power to the flash, so no difference.

I wanted my turn to be amber, but the running to be white. Switchbacks and clear lenses achieve that the simplest way.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Are the U.S. bikes different from R.o.W. ones with dual-filament bulbs? Dimmer 5w for running light and higher power ones for winkers?

Running light is separate signal also controlled by turn-signal switch. When switch is flipped left or right, running light circuit is turned off to give winkers most contrast. Take look how factory 2-filament bulb work when removed from housing. You’ll see that running light filament goes out when winkers are turned on.

Yeah, those dual-colour bulbs are easiest.

 

[Shuey]

The ingredients are:

switchback bulbs - amber/white (7443 base for the 1300)
clear lens assemblies
LED compatible turn signal flasher/relay

Thanks Obo. Ordered the clear lens. Saved a few bucks ordering ones coming from China. Not expecting a problem and not in a hurry.

Brought up the 7443 bulbs and using the amazonconfirmfit utility, it comes back "This does not fit". (for a 2007 ST1300A)
So . . . is this a problem?

If I get these bulbs, I'll order the relay too.

OR . . . will either of the other bulbs noted in Post #1 fit better? Do either of them NOT require the replacement relay?

Shuey

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Three points from my experience.

Make sure that the bulb that you purchase has sufficient brightness for the amber flashing function. I purchased the original bulbs recommended when this farkle first started. The white are plenty bright enough. The amber are on the weak side and are not noticeable enough when the sun is shining directly on them, which is not an ideal situation for advising others of your intentions.

As for the resistors, when these switchbacks first came out they all required either resistors or a replacement electronic flasher relay to prevent hyper-flashing. Some of the newer bulbs advertise that neither of the above is required. I have no idea if preventing hyper-flash is accomplished by a built-in resistor or through electronic circuitry that does not add resistance. If it is the former it is not desirable as it consumes power unnecessarily. If I didn't want to bother researching to find out, I would lead towards the bulbs that state that a resistor is required to prevent hyper-flash only because then I know what I am getting, and that I need an electronic flasher unit.

The third potential issue is the length. Some on here have purchased bulbs that could not be installed because they were to long. The bulb butted up against the lens before the socket could be seated in the housing. Some where on this site you can find the maximum length that will fit the ST1300 turn signal housing. A member here took the time to figure it out and posted it. Many manufacturers list the dimensions of their bulbs so you can check this.

Maybe spiderman will weigh in and tell you what his latest switchback recommendation is for this bulb, which would take care of all three points. I have simply followed his recommendations in the past and have been happy.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Found the post with the measurement for you, along with a warning not to believe listings that state that their bulb will fit the ST1300 turn signal housing.

white on yellow flash turn signal LED bulbs? | ST1300 Related

Who has those fancy white on yellow flash turn signal LED bulbs?

www.st-owners.com

 

[DannoXYZ]

Brought up the 7443 bulbs and using the amazonconfirmfit utility, it comes back "This does not fit". (for a 2007 ST1300A)
So . . . is this a problem?

They’ll fit as far as socket connection since 7443 is very standard. The issue is that Amazon has not tested the combo: these particular bulbs in ST1300. So they can’t claim “fits ST1300”.

Same thing with getting H7 bulbs for my car. I know pretty much every single H7 bulb will work. But 90% of H7 bulbs Amazon sells says, “does not fit”. Because they haven’t tested that exact bulb on my particular car.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

One other thing to look for Shuey.

I don't know about what is on the market now but when I was looking some flashback bulbs did not completely turn off the primary white LED when the secondary amber LED was flashing, or the white would flash on and off alternating with the flashing amber- skimping on the circuitry I guess. This means that when the amber is flashing the white LED either stays on or flashes with the amber and washes it out to a large degree. This also provides much less contrast then a bulb that turns off the white while flashing the amber. You want to make sure that the bulb that you buy turns the white off when the amber flashes.

 

[Shuey]

After reading through most (I think) of the threads I could find concerning upgrading turn signals to LEDs I only became more and more confused and so . . . started this thread.

What I hoped for was a list of part sources for a proven solution. As expected, all ya'll came through . . . parts are on order. Thanks all for your time and input!

Shuey

 

[spiderman302]

I will add the rear turn signal mod that I did back in 2016 that is still working fine...
updated the led link.

Here is a DIY mod for your brake light

enjoy

 

[ST Gui]

One more thing about the fit of these LED 7443 bulbs...

The metal contacts and base design have very slight variations that don't affect function or getting them in the socket. But getting them out can damage some designs. There are a lot of complaints about this on Amazon and I've experienced this myself.

The better (IMNSHO) made bulbs have either:
wide flat pins
wide flat pins in molded channels in the base
thin wire pins in a molded channels

Lesser (AIMNSHO) quality bulbs have either:
thin wire pins not in a channel
thin wire pins one of which is shorter than the others

A google search of images will show the variations.

Electrically none of this matters unless maybe a socket is substandard and its contacts don't align with the bulb's contacts. I'd think this fairly rare. Various sockets can be a tight fit so be aware.

The problem I read about and experienced is the wire pins snagging in the socket and bending way out of shape or breaking off when removing a bulb. Not a problem if the bulb is already dead. But if your testing a bulb that might be good and a pin breaks – that's no fun.

Of course someone will chime in with "I've pulled 10,000 bulbs out 300 times and never had a problem. Good for you.

I want to test new bulbs even before seating them in the bike's socket. I have an Amazon generic 7443 socket and only partially seat the bulbs so the ends of the pins are still exposed. Connecting the leads to a small AGM battery tells me what's what. Then they go in the bike never to be removed until their dead. I was able to reshape and used the bulb.

Possibly more than you ever want or need to know but a broken pin or a pin that breaks when you're trying to reshape it back just spoils the day.

 

[RiderRon]

After reading through most (I think) of the threads I could find concerning upgrading turn signals to LEDs I only became more and more confused and so . . . started this thread.

What I hoped for was a list of part sources for a proven solution. As expected, all ya'll came through . . . parts are on order. Thanks all for your time and input!

Shuey

I ordered these switchbacks from Amazon along with clear lenses from ebay and did not have to trim anything, they fit perfect. Even had a little wiggle room. As mentioned earlier you will need to replace the flasher module with an electronic one to avoid hyper flash.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com