LED There Be Light

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 17:31

Being something of a boi racer type, I have had a hankering to "pimp my ride" in the form of some mood lighting. Have procrastinated in this regard until I got utterly sick of myself and ventured out into LED land and bought myself some LED strips.

Was recommended to visit http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...ecs%2Ffalm.htm. Found the site easy to navigate and easily found exactly what I wanted. They have a $25 minimum order, though I needed to spend that to get what I wanted anyway. The lights arrived in good time and with no problems and sat on my bench for a few weeks periodically reminding me just how slack I am

Now it is fair to say I have almost no idea about motorcycle electrics at all, but figure it cant be that hard to install a few point and play lights, surely it cant? I stand corrected, it is not a job for one who knows nothing about electrics and whats more does not even possess a multi meter. I do now

Having a very fundamental knowledge of circuitry was no help at all

What I am good at is taking things apart

and drinking wine

I sneakily invited a young, much more cleverer fella than me up to "observe" and some how he ended up doing the entire job

We set about dismantling Millie. Dont they look fugly with no clothes on

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 17:41

Before I go to much further, I would really like to thank nathanwhite for his hard work, blood (though that came from something unconnected to Millie), sweat (when smoke appears) and tears (of laughter, mine). Thanks Doogle, you really are a fantastic young man, I appreciated your help very much

Not only did this top young bloke come and work on my Millie he managed to find me a Workshop Service Manual for Millie. Of course it was put to good use. Notice the range of tools we offered up. Duct tape, a hammer and a soldering iron that does not get hot enough to melt the solder unless you hold your face a certain way, resembles a grimace, but is actually a silent scream of frustration

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 17:54

As most of us will know, everything has a certain amount of smoke contained inside it. I discovered that size does not matter in relation to the amount of smoke that something contains. Doogle created this amazing connection to the battery, for our brand new wiring circuit, complete with "proper" connectors and everything. Very impressive stuff, see the pic attached. Attached said connection to the battery very proudly, and proceeded to apply some wire cutters to the wire. Well...

Funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Sparks galore, smoke and sound effects, young Doogle almost swore (it does not count when you swear in German eh?) and I started laughing

Probably should have been a bit more serious, but I could see it was a small electrical issue not a major fire. Poor bugger about had kittens

**Laava** · 22nd April 2012, 18:05

Where's the money shot?

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 18:09

So it is all going along easy peasy. Lights are taped into position for final adjustment, all wires are routed back to the amazingling busy junction box, I am starting to get excited

I am about bursting to see the effects that I am hoping will be visible once we liven up the circuit.

One small problem, it is broad friggen daylight! Lights are very ineffective durning the day. I suggested we wheel Millie into the downstairs bedroom, but her handle bars dont fit through the door apparently

So we sette for the games room with the curtains drawn and Maha doing a terrible pose holding a sleeping bag up to attempt to darken the room

Doogle would not let me look at the lights, while he tested them in case I had some kind of fit I think, so when he finally did the big reveal it was so cool! I could see just how they were going to look, I was happiness filled. I walked behind Mille to see what the red lights looked like from behind and asked the blondest question ever

Can you turn the tail lights on so I can see what they look like with the LED's? EH? Oh deary me... Millie has no tail light, everything else works, just not the tail light.

Now we had a few technical difficulties during the day with my identification of certain coloured wires that needed to be together to make the correct circuit. Apparently it is really hard to tell if a black wire has a white stripe, not just once, but twice

so this was probably more of the same.

I called a halt on proceedings and we retired upstairs for a feed.

**Laava** · 22nd April 2012, 18:16

Show me the money!!!!

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 18:25

Will be in the next post I promise

We got back into discovering just why the tail lights did not work after a well deserved rest and a kai. As it was getting dark I wanted to ensure we were offering a safe working environment to who by now should have been on the clock for payment this "easy" job having taken so friggen long

So we fussed about turning the circuit from this kind of one, to that kind of one? Farked if I know, It all got really over my head by the end of the evening

**Laava** · 22nd April 2012, 18:29

Actually, you need to explain the earmuffs!
Hmm?

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 18:33

Photos suck! She looks so much better than what we have, but here she IS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 18:34

Originally Posted by Laava

Actually, you need to explain the earmuffs!
Hmm?

Have you seen the One Direction Hysteria this weekend? Sort of the same here on Saturday, though it was all about Millie

**Subike** · 22nd April 2012, 18:35

Dang that looks neat as,
Wants me want to be crazy and attack mine with something similar.

**Mom** · 22nd April 2012, 18:42

Originally Posted by Subike

Dang that looks neat as,
Wants me want to be crazy and attack mine with something similar.

The pics suck. But the bike looks amazing! It is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. We wired it to the tail light circuit so the lights are ultimately controlled by the ignition, but we also have included a remote on/off so I can pick and choose when they are on or not.

The only thing I can say is...

DO IT! DO IT!

Hell fun times and makes you feel great. I cant wait till winter really sets in now. My commute is mostly in the dark during winter

**Subike** · 22nd April 2012, 18:54

I am fortunate to have some sneaky hideaway places to put lights that will look good
One bonus of plastic chrome, easy to drill little hidden holes into, and plastic glue will hold the led's in place well

like you commuting to work in the early morning before daylight, then again after dusk,

**bogan** · 22nd April 2012, 18:58

haha, nice!

Though I have to ask, did you play dress-ups with the poor man? I can't figure out any other reason to wear high-vis, ear-muffs and safety glasses for wiring...

My GN got the blue light treatment many years ago, you're right about the pics not doing it justice.

HID retrofit next? CCFL ring with HID projector makes the front look mint, and you can see so much better

**Maha** · 22nd April 2012, 19:00

Originally Posted by Laava

Actually, you need to explain the earmuffs!
Hmm?

Truth be known Al, it was because of my constant singing of 'Hey Hey we're the Monkeys' that Doogle got tied of...

Bike looks amazing...big thanks to doogie and his relentless task of sorting the wiring circuit out over and over. Anne made him soup for tea from a crown pumkin earlier in the day, big day that it was..finally got to bed around 11pm