Good morning.  I bought some cheap turn signals as the bike I'm working on came with the front right one only.  Has anyone modded the chinese two wire ones to work with the three wire connection in the fronts?  If so, any tips and tricks to get them up?  

Best regards.

The stock front lights have a turn signal and a running light.  The three wires are a ground, running light and turn signal.

Your new turn signal lights have only two wires because........either they are turn signals only - or they are running lights and turn signals and use the body of the housing and mounting point for the ground.

If they are LED - you are also going to need to install an electronic flasher module in place of the existing mechanical one.

The really sad part is that the cheap Chinese turns signals are most often not very bright.  They are visible when you stand 20 feet behind the bike and look at them - but get them out in the bright sun and traffic and have a car going 60mph behind you as you are signaling - and chances are they won't be able to see your turn signal when they are back 100 feet.

I realize new factory turn signals are expensive - but there are a lot of used turns signals on eBay that are affordable.  Cheap LED bulbs are not as visible as the stock filament bulbs - it takes a more expensive LED to be equal to the stock turn signals.

Jog:

I didn't buy a lot of them - but I did buy a couple of sets and learned my lesson.  You just cannot expect much when you pay $17.98 for a set of turn signals.

Not only did I have that experience personally - I have ridden behind a lot of motorcycles while out riding that have replacement turn signals or tail lights that are pretty much worthless in sunlight.  They have given up a bit of their protection from being "rear ended" for the sake of looks.  If you install a set - either park it out int the in sunlight or just trade bike with our buddy while riding to see if the new lights are bright enough to get the attention of a distracted driver. 

The LED turn signals that use a dozen or so of the little LED emitters that are smaller than a pea are worthless in sunlight.....it doesn't matter how many of the little LED's are installed.  The little LED units are mass produced and cheap and therefore a lot of folks use them to make turn signals - but the LED units just aren't bright enough to be useful.  If they look like the ones below......they are not bright enough to be useful.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224489000021?hash=item3444964c55:g:VP4AAOSw1ghgveLN
https://www.ebay.com/itm/154151340826?hash=item23e422cb1a:g:2O8AAOSwwQ5e10N9

Yeah, I ended up finding that the wire was not the proper gauge, nor length.  They were incandescent bulbs, but the build quality once I dug one apart ended up being super NOPE.  So back to the search.  

A few months later, I managed to find a pair of newer OEMs for the rear on FB Marketplace(2014 for my 2000), and the missing left front on eBay.  Now I just need to take the time to assemble everything.

I'd rather not get squished when I go out, especially first year riding too.  

thx for the info, I'm thinking to replace the freaking dim stock lights

och wrote on 03/11/22 at 15:03:05:

Tocsik wrote on 03/15/22 at 14:49:13:


Yep, I have the Kuryakyn tracer signals on the rear of my S40 and the front of my XVS950.

I am planning to upgrade the front signals on my S40 to the Kuryakyn as well.

https://youtu.be/W95672x3f50