Rear LED Lights?

[Willsmotorcycle]

 

[Obo]

Here's another shot of where the relay is and how to replace it, with some color photos.

Honda ST1300 Brake Lights LED Bulbs

 

[Hound]

 

[dduelin]

The hand drawn “map” at the bottom of the picture was the position and name of the relays in my 2005 looking straight down at them. As I tried to describe earlier from memory, there are 8 relays in two groups behind the side cover. I got the sideccover backwards…. They are on the left side not the right side. So, the turn signal relay is the rearmost in the line of 4.

 

[ST Gui]

The OEM brake light bulbs are white

They're white incandescent bulbs which produce a full spectrum of light that gets filtered by amber and red lenses to amber and red light. LEDs produce specific-ish frequencies of light from the full spectrum of visible light (yeah and maybe some infrared too). So a white Incan will likely produce more red light outside of a red lens than a white LED does outside of a red lens. As Obo alludes - red LEDs behind a red lens is better than white.

Oznium, Cool White, Straight Black, P/N: 1320 is now ordered... The 'Cool White" is at 9,000k and the "Warm White' is at 3,000k. They are 6,500 lumes each. Hopefully not too bright!

Not to worry. Their rated output is more reasonable 25lm not 6500. 6500K is a common color temp for headlight LED bulbs. 6500lm would be get you stopped in a heartbeat with your license plate reflecting light into the eyes of following traffic. Even if it's 25lm per LED that's till only 125lm with is plenty bright to read a plate. You don't need white light brighter than your tail/turn//brake lights.

9000K+ is definitely more blue than white. Warm might have been a better choice.

I replaced my brake/taillights with LEDs because the factory rear tail lights just aren't bright enough in daylight to suit me. The delta between the LED brake and tail light illumination is significant so both are brighter without any doubt that I'm using the brakes.

There is still a hot spot as I haven't found an LED bulb that has the full spread of light for that application. Obviously vehicles with factory LED illumination have designed reflectors and lenses to work together.

I didn't use strobe bulbs for the factory lights because the I want those lights to be stock and not have the legality questioned by the uninformed. But I do have a strobe and a dedicated brake light only connected.

As always - pics of your handiwork are greatly appreciated. Maybe even a YT vid?

 

[Shuey]

Thanks all!

With the addition of STRider's white light LED bar for above the license plate, red LEDs will be my brake light choice. (But, I might test out the white LED brake light just to see what it looks like . . . shocking pink? Inquiring minds want to know.)

Appreciate the relay location info. I think that will be step one in my upgrades.

Thanks ST Gui for the encouragement to take pics. Will do. I'll probably start another thread with 'before' pics followed by 'after' upgrade ones. I know how to take videos on my iPhone, but not sure if I can post them here easily like photos. Don't know how to put them up on YouTube and not sure I want to. We'll see.

When ready, I'll close this thread out with a pointer to the new work thread. Work starts soon!

Shuey

 

[STRider]

Here are some pix of my relay. Instead of terminals on the relay body, there are wires to a connector. Don't worry, it plugs right in and with the rubber retainer from the original one, it fits into place perfectly and the wires just tuck in beneath the relay block.

FYI...

First pic just to show the relay and the connectors.


This pic is with it in the same location as the original OEM relay.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

I have seen a lot of LED bulbs installed in incandescent tail lamp housings where the running light mode was simply to bright. It didn't matter how much brighter the brake light was. It is as though after the tail light exceeds a certain intensity, no matter how much brighter the brake light is the difference between the two is insufficiently noticeable to safely indicate brake application.

Test whatever you put in for your own safety.

 

[Obo]

I have seen a lot of LED bulbs installed in incandescent tail lamp housings where the running light mode was simply to bright. It didn't matter how much brighter the brake light was. It is as though after the tail light exceeds a certain intensity, no matter how much brighter the tail light is the difference between the two is insufficiently noticeable to safely indicate brake application.

Test whatever you put in for your own safety.

Agreed. Sometimes it's better to have more lights vs more light.

 

[Mellow]

I like hyperlites.com because it's redundancy.

 

[RaYzerman]

I'm a Hyperlites fan also. Maybe not the biggest, but they get a lot of attention (and comments) for the buck. I do also convert the stockers to LED when possible.

 

[ST Gui]

I'm a fan of redundancy too. My tail/brake lights are LED but no strobing of any kind. This is to keep the functionality as simple and reliable as possible. I have a dedicated brake light only built into the black plastic pad on the factory rack. I also have an EMS strobe as a brakelight replacing the factory rear reflector. The reflector was moved to the bottom of the rear fender.

With dedicated brake lights mounted away from the factory tail/brake lights there less worry about not having a sufficient brightness delta between tail and brake lights. The separate dedicated brake lights can be tricked out if desired without compromising the reliability of factory lights.

 

[STRider]

I like hyperlites.com because it's redundancy.

I like hyperlites.com because it's redundancy.

 

[motornut]

I have not changed the stock brake lights but used a third brake light off a ford van under the rear luggage. They are led on amazon and light up well. I put the relay under the seat near the tail lights.

 

[ibike2havefun]

In addition to whatever else you do, have you considered adding an additional set of lights such as those from Admore? I hung their strip-o-lites just under the rear platform / top box mount and they really showed well. I also installed their lighting kit specifically for the Givi V46 top case, putting even more signal close to the eye level of drivers behind me.

[EDIT: I'd forgotten about this little video I made and posted to YouTube after adding the lights. It also showcases that lovely growl produced by the Staintune mufflers. Man do I miss that sound.

]

 

[Obo]

For those out there who are not made of money (or are thrifty), you can still achieve the same effects without paying the premium prices of these other parts. There's nothing wrong with paying more if you can and wish, and these items are what gave me inspiration to do the same on mine. I however wasn't willing nor really able to justify the costs up here for these items when adding in exchange rates, shipping, customs etc. It did take some creativity in design and wiring as nothing homebrew is plug and play.

For example:

top case brake light:

home made L bracket from metal scraps I had on hand & 4 small nuts and bolts - free
light - 3 1/4" x 1" mini led red clearance marker light. didn't use the white mounting bracket. used the bolt stud on the light for a cleaner look.
flasher - amazon GS-100A
already had some old wire on hand as well as zip ties, solder iron etc.
cost: under $20


brake light to replace rear reflector


2 7/8" x 2 1/8" red clearance marker light (has the build in DOT reflector too which was important for me vs just a light.)
just enlarged the existing hole for the OEM reflector and ran wires up to the flasher unit under the tail.
Cost: under $10

The "lights" from Princess Auto (you can see the white mount for the top light not used and the old OEM reflector from the bottom light)


Finished product: (photos taken before I bought the OEM top case)


and in function:

 

[aniwack]

This is the most popular model I install replacing the reflector on the lower cowl under the brake light above the license plate.

Strobes N' More E3 LED Lighthead - StrobesNMore.com

www.strobesnmore.com

 

[ST Gui]

This is the most popular model I install replacing the reflector on the lower cowl under the brake light above the license plate.

I have the original E3 on my ST. Very clean install and it exactly matches the raised boss for the reflector it replaces. It's more than bright enough day and especially night.

V.2 appears to have a high/low power/brightness option which is good for night use. I may have to upgrade. As I use a flash pattern that's not legal there's no need for me to attract the wrong attention.

The installation instructions show two On/Off wires. Their functions are obvious except for the WHITE wire:

RED: Connect to +12-24V
WHITE: 2nd activation wire +12V

Is it just a duplicate of the RED wire or is there a reason it's a discrete wire/connection?

I'm not a fan of the company Strobes n More but they sell decent kit and that's good enough for me.

 

[Larry Fine]

Is it just a duplicate of the RED wire or is there a reason it's a discrete wire/connection?

My guess is it's for programming: every time you touch it to +12v, it changes the flash pattern.

 

[SMSW]

If you are going to add an additional brake light, consider the Whelen M7. @tonythecarguy, and I installed these on the back of our ST's; when I sold my ST the M7 went to my VStrom. These were originally emergency vehicle lights, and they can be found on the back of ambulances and fire trucks. They have something like 150 flash patterns including 4 flashes then solid (what I use) or a solid. You can find these on ebay but you might have to wait for one to come along that is reasonably priced. Be sure you are buying a red one. M7's are so bright you might have to put a dark film over the light. Without this covering, every time you lightly touch the foot pedal (to illuminate the light) you will experience a photon push that ups your speed 10 to 20 mph.

I do credit mine w/ saving my bacon once, but who really knows if the guy woke up or finally saw my taillight and slammed on his brakes.