Boogie_with_Stu
Senior Member
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Look Ma, no hands!
Posts: 280
Raleigh, NC
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Gridmonkey, I looked at those lights when I was going over the "how to get more light in the front of the bike without burning up the R/R bla bla bla" phase. The 3 mode operation of these lights is what turned me off.
There are hundreds of different vendors that sell over a dozen different variations of these lights on eBay. Different housings, colors, brackets, etc...but the thing they all have in common is the "strobe" effect. If that mode could be removed or disabled, these lights would be worth twice the price they are asking for them (to me anyway).
I'm fairly certain that the operational modes are controlled by an on-board microchip, so modifying them is likely not possible....but being a techie and a tinkerer, I'm gonna order one just to play with.
Btw, another way to power these would be to use the front running light power wire. I have 2 "daylight visible" amber running lights that attach to the forks. They pull about 1.2 watts of actual power (x2). So, the original stalk running light/turn signals would just function as turn signals. The 2 custom amber LED lights on the forks and these spotlights could be powered by the old "running light" wire.
The original running lights pull roughly 9 watts each. The new configuration with daylight amber LEDs and these spotlights would pull approximately 10.5 watts per side on low beam, and say...13 watts per side on high beam.
That is only an increase of 8 watts total on the system (worst case) and only a 2 watt increase during most driving. I dont think that is enough to harm the Regulator/Rectifier balance (although I am willing to entertain the possibility that I'm wrong). After all, the OEM headlight goes from 35 watts on low beam to 55 watts on high beam. Thats a 20 watt swing, and doesnt seem to hurt the system any.
Just thinking out loud here...don't mind the rattling noises.
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