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Post by william42 on Apr 18, 2014 20:48:44 GMT -5
On my first night ride a few weeks ago a guy pulled up next to me at a stop light, rolled down his window and said "Hey man, I ride too so I'm just sayin'- your tail light is really hard to see". I thanked him and thought about it all the way home. That dinky little tail light on the back of my dinky little scooter would be really hard to see until you got right up on my . I did some Google searching for "super bright 12 volt LED light strips" and found a 5 meter roll for around 15 bucks. I ordered and got them two days later. I cut the strip to a length that would fit wrapped around the sides and back of my trunk, soldered a length of duel solid strand 24 guage wire to the conveniently located copper solder points on the strip and tapped that wire into my tail lights. They can surely see me now! But if that wasn't enough, and seeing as how I still had multiple feet of strip left, I cut another length that fit around my rear bumper and wired that strip into my break lights. I tapped both sets of wires into where the break and tail lights are. Conveinient and easy enough to do. So when my key is on my trunk light strip is on and when I break the bumper LED's come on. I feel much safer now. So a big thank you to the unknown rider that thought enough about a fello rider to say something!   |
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Post by ltdhpp on Apr 19, 2014 9:29:32 GMT -5
Typically the extra brake lights should be up high, but anything helps.
My avatar pic is what the back of my 150 looked like with the brakes on. Can't miss that... lol
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Sophomore Rider
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Tail lights
by: william42 - Apr 20, 2014 4:08:20 GMT -5
Post by william42 on Apr 20, 2014 4:08:20 GMT -5
You're right about the break lights being up high. I guess I was focusing on being seen and not thinking about placement. The break lights were an afterthought which is why they ended up being down low. It will be easy enough to switch the two wires so I'll do just that. Thanks for the heads-up!  |
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Post by rockynv on Apr 21, 2014 12:17:07 GMT -5
On my old bike Vintage Style I used LED running board lights from Walmart which I mounted to a piece of PVC 1X4 across the sissy bar above the top case. Used a 4" red LED light for the brake and 2" yellow ones for the turn signals.
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Tail lights
by: oldchopperguy - Apr 23, 2014 13:11:20 GMT -5
Post by oldchopperguy on Apr 23, 2014 13:11:20 GMT -5
Nice safety addition!
I noticed the "unseen tail light" phenomenon too. Scooters are somewhat small, and if equipped with a trunk or "top-box" a car (or especially a truck, or tall SUV) tailgating your scoot can't see your lights. THEIR fault, but YOU'RE the one who will get rear-ended.
My "new" old Kymco has truly magnificent rear-lighting, but under my recently installed VERY large trunk, those lights STILL disappear to a driver tailgating me. (And we ALL know drivers will ALWAYS tailgate us... LOL!). To cage-drivers, we all wear targets on our backs, so we may as well wear lights on our trunks...
My new trunk has a built-in LED light in the cover, so I also illuminated the monster-sized fake light, with strip LED's for a super-bright brake-light. I also inset yellow strip LED's into the big tail light for extra turn-signals. Now the tail-light, stop-light and turn-signals are all duplicated at windshield-level, IN THE FACE of a tailgating driver.
Mods like these are not too expensive, or difficult, and can be real life-savers.
Nice job!
Leo in Texas
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Post by Skunk Shampoo on Apr 23, 2014 15:16:47 GMT -5
Gmax has some helmets with rear lighting that you can pair with a wireless brake light kit.
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Tail lights
by: wheelbender6 - Jul 30, 2014 20:40:23 GMT -5
Post by wheelbender6 on Jul 30, 2014 20:40:23 GMT -5
Great idea, Will. Small price to pay for avoiding being rear ended.
There is a guy in my neighborhood that attaches a flashing red light to his back pack when riding in the dark.
He's on a metric cruiser.
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Post by Kwagga on Jul 31, 2014 5:11:18 GMT -5
Fortunately my Sym has awesome lights in the front and rear, including high on the topbox. I went to a sign making place and asked them for off-cuts of reflective vinyl or stickers and cut/punched shapes out. I have blue reflective stickers in different places around my scooter. At night I am visible from all angles and people associate it with law enforcement, so are really careful around me. I have a pearl white strip covering scratches on the plastic over my exhaust, which looks affective and hides the damage.
Sent from my Lumia 1320 with Tapatalk
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Post by rockynv on Aug 4, 2014 13:10:08 GMT -5
Florida DOT under their Ride Safe program hands out free reflective safety gear for bicycle and motorcycle/scooter riders including reflective arm bands and reflective stickers for your helmet. They even have a black reflector for your helmet which shines brilliantly when light hits it at night.
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Tail lights
by: huflungdung - Aug 20, 2014 16:19:49 GMT -5
Post by huflungdung on Aug 20, 2014 16:19:49 GMT -5
Being newly back into two wheel travel, I've reached the conclusion that the biggest safety issue is not being seen. Even during the day.
So, being an engineering type and overthinking the problem, I've now got a bright green/yellow helmet, ride with a dayglo vest on, and am considering an elevated flag of some sort.
I also want a brake light that is so bright it's impossible to miss in the daytime. They now have these 10 watt LEDs for just a few dollars on ebay. Not "equivalent" to 10 watt incandescent bulbs, but consuming a real honest 10 watts - about 700 milliamps at 12 volts. This is roughly equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent - close to the headlight brightness ..
Do an ebay search for Item Number 141069518827 to see what I'm talking about.
And these are really bright. Just have to add a small heat sink and a dropping resistor... because the duty cycle would be low, the scoot should have no problem supplying the energy.
At night they should look really bright.
Be nice to buy something off the shelf, but everything that approaches this seems to be $180+
This idea may exceed DOT brightness specs, but I doubt anyone would give me any trouble about that - in the interest of improving safety.
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