Rear turn Signal - Red/Amber switchback Led mod - ST1300

spiderman302

spiderman302

Joined
Apr 22, 2011
Messages
1,047
Age
69
Location
Camarillo, Ca
Bike
2006 ST1300A
The rear turn signal is Amber only on the ST1300. The running light is not connected.

I found a bright switchback LED that is too bright for a running light but it could be wired to the brake light instead. This would give you a bigger brake light. The red light looks red through the amber lens. The switchback function will give the amber turn signal precedence over the red brake light. Always better to have a bigger brake light....
I really like the amber / white switchback LED that I now have on the front, this is its amber / red compliment.
150 ma. amber, 150 ma. red ( 2 watts )

https://www.amazon.com/Partsam-60-3...mber+Switchback+Dual+Chip+60-3528-SMD+Car+Led

update: above is unavailable so try this one

red yellow switchback 7443

If you remove the rear turn signal, only the outer two pins are connected. The middle pin is for the running light. I just carefully soldered a wire to the center pin and put on a male bullet connector. I had to trim the middle plastic out of the connector to re-hook up the turn signal wires. This center pin you will want to connect to your brake light circuit with this Switchback LED. Which can be tapped from either tail light. I commute into the sun so the guy behind me needs to see my brake light over the glare of the sun.

I replaced my flasher relay with this one. It plugs right in.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...versal-motorcycle-electronic-flasher/787/842/


Plan B would be to hook the center pin to the running (parking) lights.
 
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Years ago Electrical Connection had a turn signal brake light conversion it was a red bulb that was added to the just below the turn signal bulb and at night when the brakes were applied the turn signals amber lenses showed red.
 
spiderman302 said:
I found a bright switchback LED that is too bright for a running light but it could be wired to the brake light instead.
Click to expand...

Running light? How would this be implemented if it weren't too bright? Would it have been a amber running light while extending the brake light function? I'd give up amber directionals for extended brake and taillights.

I'd try a taillight/brakelight LED in the rear directionals (is there a red/red switchback?) but to work as a turn signals and brake lights would require some additional wiring to give the turn signals priority over the brake lights just cars with combined taillights/brakelights/turn signals.
 
This setup will do exactly what you want. All we have to do is add the fixed low power red (or amber) Leds for tail lights to the mix to get all three. I will see what I can easily fabricate that you could replicate. Lots of options here...
 
Spiderman, Thanks for working this out sounds like a solution fro a needed upgrade. Can you post a video showing what they look like in operation.

Thx
Jeff
 
I just hooked up the center pin (the red leds in the switchback 7443) to my brake light circuit. Wow my tail light gets 10x brighter and doubles in size. I think I like it better with the turn signals dark, it really makes the brake light POP. Ah, I do feel real sorry for the guy behind me. Now my anemic OEM brake light (with old RED leds) and with these new switch back leds are now as bright as the RED LIN-6 3rd brake light which sits about 6 inches above it. Hope I do not start any grass fires with all those extra photons....

If you get the above switchback led and put it in your rear turn signal (along with the required LED turn signal blinker relay) and do nothing else you will have a great amber LED turn signal.

I have some parts on order so it will be a while for the running light fix...

I do have two 2.5 inch round Red clearance LEDs down on my back crash bar for extra running lights as well as oval RED plastic reflectors on the outside edges of my saddle bags. So I am well marked to begin with..
 
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spiderman302 said:
If you get the above switchback led and put it in your rear turn signal (along with the required LED turn signal blinker relay) and do nothing else you will have a great amber LED turn signal.
Click to expand...

I'm going to order the red/amber SBs and just plug them in to start with. I've already got SBs in the front and the requisite LED flasher so this will give the rear directionals parity. Should I ever need to run the emergency flashers from the ACC position the battery will probably last 5-10min longer. :lol:


I had to trim the middle plastic out of the connector to re-hook up the turn signal wires.
Click to expand...

Could you expand on that a bit? I'm not following.


Extending the width of the OEM brakelight is a great mod. Thanks for that. It'll be the next step. It can be done with or without upgrading the OEM bulbs to LEDs. (I've already switched them out to LED but the taillight performance is only slightly improved.)
 
This sounds like a cool mod that turns the entire back end into a brake light!
Can you post a vid of it functioning?
 
Photos on the turn signal socket center wire attach with connector trim.

TailTurnSigLight.jpg


Made a video but could not up load the file... need to convert to different format?
 
Video isn't hosted on this site. It needs to be uploaded to a host (YouTube etc.) and a link posted here. Using the video icon above (second from the right/next to the Quote icon) will imbed it in your post.

Thanks for the pics! Clears things up perfectly!
 
No. this one bulb will give you an amber LED turn signal. The middle pin is not connected. If you connect this pin to your brake light circuit you will get red brake light from your turn signal. The red light is too bright to be used as a running light. Since it is controlled by a current source it can not be dimmed.

So to add a running light we will have to add a second small red LED light into the fixture. So get the bulb and enjoy the amber turn signal and the added red brake light, this is the best part of the deal. The running light will be a bonus. I just got the parts just have not had the time to tinker. I got too many irons in the fire....
 
This is great info fellas. It looks like I need to order some of these thanks again.
 
Here is the simplest solution to add a marker light to your rear turn signal. You only need to buy 4 of these, that is two per turn signal. Drill a 1/8 inch hole through the side of your turn signal socket to feed the wires through. These leds are prewired and have the correct resistor in line. Just hook the black wires to ground and the red wire to your marker (tail) light circuit. Now my example is NOT a rear ST socket but was a replacement socket that I used for my front turn signal. You should use only red leds per DOT. DO NOT get the blinking led (LEOs will not be happy with you). Crimp on bullet connectors so you can try different options.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-wired-bolts/wired-12vdc-led/55/#/tab/Specifications

red LW-R-12VDC-K

I have decided not to do this on my bike but some of you wanted to try it. I like the rear LED amber turn signal that is also a red brake light.

P1050123x.jpg

The more you know the better your choices.... Ride safe.
 
Just want to verify that the LED amber brightness is at least as much as the stock bulb when your are behind the bike? I tried a similar LED replacement a while back that was all amber and was not thrilled with the intensity when following.

On a side note, I kind of like the rapid blinking these cause with the stock flasher; really grabs attention. Plus it only requires a 300ms glance at the dash to see if you left a signal on :cool: Is there a drawback to keeping OEM, aside from the possibility that front incandescents may not turn on all the way, which would be eliminated if replaced with led?
 
You will NOT be disappointed with the brightness of this switch back led.

I have thought about taking my turn signal switch apart and removing the locking part so that you have to hold the turn signal on. When you let go it will turn itself off. Then the hyper flash would be useful when making quick lane changes... I find that I do not use the turn signal as much as I should because of the lock.
 
spiderman302 said:
I like the rear LED amber turn signal that is also a red brake light.
Click to expand...

I'll definitely be doing this mod. I'll probably try the additional two LEDs for red running lights on one side to see if I like it. Since I already have LEDs for the tail/brakelights having the directionals <pop> on with with the original brakelights will be more effective as will as just plain look cool.

Thanks for the pic and simplified alternative. It would have been a mess to try it with diodes relays whatever or drilling into the reflectors themselves.


spiderman302 said:
Then the hyper flash would be useful when making quick lane changes...
Click to expand...

Ok that would be the basis for a brilliant mod: a dual rate flash mechanism/relay that give a regular flash rate for normal lane changes and a hyper rate for quick lane changes. The real trick would be efficiently and quickly choosing either mode. Note that this is NOT a suggestion but merely a flight of fantasy not realisticly executed in the real world.
 
Actually that might be a better solution. I could just put my hyper-flasher back under my seat and run a wire up to both handgrips. I could just put a momentary push button by each handgrip. then the left push button will go to the left turn signal leds and the right push button could go to the right turn signals. They would be wired in parallel with the existing circuit. That would give you both hyper flash by push button and regular flash with the OEM turn signal switch...
 
Something to think about - Amber off Amber off - switchback function.

There are some "switchback" red/amber LEDs that have an 'amber-red-amber-red' function. You need to absolutely avoid these type of lights!
Not because they are illegal, but because 1 out of 12 males are color blind! They will not see this shift from one color to the other like most of us.

This is why it is very important that signals go on/off.

This is part of the reason I had decided to not put markers lights in my rear turn signals. The main reason was that on/off is more noticeable than light to bright. The Amber OFF Amber OFF switchback makes this a workable solution.

my 2 cents...
 
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