I tried several types of small turn signals, and found them all to be unsafe as they could not be seen in the sunlight.  The lights could be seen if you were looking directly at them - but they would not get the attention of any driver behind you who was distracted.

I tried this one first.....it had a 26 Watt filament bulb without any reflector behind the bulb.  It was not bright enough to be seen in the sunlight.



So I tried an LED turn signal....it was worse than the filament bulb and I sent them back to the seller.



So I took the small housings for the filament bulbs and I modified them to have a pair of 1.5 Watt LED lights that made the turn signals work great.  Here is where I got the LED's.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-wired-bolts/plm-series-wired-one-...

Here is how I installed them on a flat plate I epoxied inside the housing:


And here is a video of the filament bulbs in the rear and the LED's in the front.  It is in the evening so even they rear lights look good - but the front LED lights are much brighter and can be seen in sunlight easily.

View My Video


I have just found this retailer that offers turns signals that are DOT approved.  These turns signals should be much safer than the small ones that I tried.

http://www.kandstech.com/index.php?page=universalsignals

http://www.kandstech.com/productreleases/newprod200.pdf

Pine:

I have already done the rears......I just took the video as a comparision before I converted the other pair.

The filament bulb may have been putting out 300-400 lumens, but a lot of it was being wasted because of the bad housing design.  Without a shiny reflector the light was not going out the back, and half of the light was being blocked by the bulb socket.

The links I provide for K&S were for the small lights - they have lots of other turn signals available - and some have extended mounts.  It appears they may even have Suzuki style lights.
http://www.kandstech.com/index.php?page=home

I was not looking to save energy as the turn signals are used so seldom I don't believe they have any big effect on power usage.  I did have to get a turn signal relay that was LED compatible.

My goal in posting this is to make people aware that the turn signals that use the small LED lights are just not visible in sunlight and are not safe.  I am hoping that we can find a source for a  safe turn signals for our members to use......we don't want anyone getting run over.