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Serious Thumper
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Savage heart of darkness
Posts: 680
Cartersville, GA
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JOG hit it... make sure the brake light isn't on all the time. If either switch (front/back) is shorted or stuck, that will happen. In fact, it happened to me down in the Baja on my Harley a few years ago. My rear brake switch fused in the closed position, causing my brake light to stay on. Mine didn't burn out, but caused my voltage to drop from 14V to around 12V which didn't charge my battery very well so I had starting problems all the way back to the states. I had to park on hills, so I could bump start. I thought I had voltage reg or battery problems until someone pointed out that my tail light was awfully bright. After that I pulled the bulb and finished riding home in the daylight only.
The tail light is 5W, but the brake light is 21W; i.e., a substantially heavier continuous load on the battery and alternator. One last thing, those bulbs are keyed to fit in the socket ONE WAY ONLY, but I've seen people force them in backwards on both bikes and cars. Anytime you see a car with one tail light much brighter than the other, then thats what they did.
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