Accessory Frt Turn Signals

[Slide]

I have to change my front signal lites due to the style of windshield I have. If I buy the smaller units listed on ebay will I have to put on a load equalizer even though the rear signals are OEM? If so, what specs does the equalizer require. Thanks for the help.

 

[Slide]

Bump. Doesn't anyone run aftermarket front signals?

 

[Buster Hymen]

I don't have the smaller front signal light but generally you don't need to run a load equalizer with them as long as they aren't LEDs.

 

[Lew L]

I ran some rectangular accessory turn signals for about a year. Then one day my wife was following me down the mountain to work and when I signaled she said they were not much compared to the stock signals. But the little rectangles looked good otherwise.:a014: I checked them out in the garage and went right back to the brighter stockers.

 

[Waylander]

Have aftermarket front and rears, Just pulled the stock ones off and put these on. Only difference other than size (I kept kicking the rear ones when mounting the bike.....) is they blink a little bit faster.

 

[Buster Hymen]

Have aftermarket front and rears, Just pulled the stock ones off and put these on. Only difference other than size (I kept kicking the rear ones when mounting the bike.....) is they blink a little bit faster.

If you run the largest size wattage bulb in the turn signal, it will slow down the blinking rate. Mind you in some of the small turn signals, it's hard to put any decent size bulb in it.

 

[mikemax04]

I bought a smaller set (bullet shaped) from JC Whitney two years ago and am well satisfied with their brightness and size. They come in smooth and ball-milled chrome. It's not how big your signal lights are but how bright and these will get you noticed.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Answer to your question.

As long as you have incandescent bulbs somewhere in the circuit the blinkers will work.

Mini or not doesn't make any difference as Buster is right about LED's being what makes the difference.

LED's have almost zero load so they won't operate a blinker relay very well. (actually they won't operate the blinker relay at all)

A blinker relay requires some amount of load current to operate as it takes current to charge the capacitor inside the relay. I had mini blinkers with 6 watt halogen bulbs on both ends of the bike and it worked fine.

I currently have LED front blinkers and stock rears (temporarily) and it also works fine.

When I go to LED's all the way around I will go to Radio shack, buy some resistors and figure out how many Ohms it will take to make it work. The resistance to ground through the lamps or through an add on resistor determine blinker speed. The less resistance the more current and the faster the blinking.

My guess on what size resistor for an all led system would be whatever the resistance of the factory bulb is divided in half as the turn signals are in parrallel.

The formula for resisatnce in a parralel circuit is "the inverse of the sum of the inverses" which if the factory bulbs are 100 ohm would be 1/100 + 1/100 = 2/100 invert this and you get 100/2 which equals 50 ohms

I am only using 100 ohms as an example, you would need to measure it with a DVOM to really know. My guess is about 40 ohms on each bulb.

A resistor in parrallel with the turn signal will add load to the system and bring the current up to get the blinker to work. You don't have to put a resistor on all four led blinkers just two as the blinkers on one side of the bike are already wired in parrallel with each other.

 

[Slide]

Thanks for the info everyone. I plan on keeping the stock rears because their mounts are excellent for strapping my luggage pack onto. From what I gather, with the stock rears I can go either bulb or LED up front without requiring a different relay.

 

[G Man]

Slide, maybe you could re-locate your stock signals to create more room for your windshield. I fit a Memphis Shades windshield to my Max. It had a cut out the same dia. as the headlamp. I removed the metal bracket above the headlamp that the front signals mount to. I installed the windshield which fit nicely around the headlamp. I cut up a couple of small brackets and re-located the signals off of the upper triple tree mounts. I gave some thought to mounting the signals down lower off of the fork tubes, but I couldn't find a set of fork clamps the same diam as the fork tubes. This worked out o.k. though.

 

[Slide]

GMan, I know exactly where you are coming from about mounting them on the upper triple clamp. If I decide to mount them on the fork tubes I will have to make up a bracket being no one makes any for the 43mm forks. Kuryakyn makes nice mounts but will not make them for the Vmax. I guess they feel there would not be enough demand for them. I have a friend who will make me a set out of aluminum. Will post pics when done.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

GMan, I know exactly where you are coming from about mounting them on the upper triple clamp. If I decide to mount them on the fork tubes I will have to make up a bracket being no one makes any for the 43mm forks. Kuryakyn makes nice mounts but will not make them for the Vmax. I guess they feel there would not be enough demand for them. I have a friend who will make me a set out of aluminum. Will post pics when done.

I did some last night to mount my fronts since The holes I originally drilled in my cybermax headlight got taken over by the re-mounting of my flyscreen. (discovered I couldn't do with out it)
I used angle aluminum, boxed the ends to clean them up and "pinch" mounted them in the upper triples.
Something bilet would have been nicer but since they are mostly covered by the flyscreen I am satisfied.

I'll post pics tomorrow...

On another note if you do a search on Mario Aguirs bike you may see some picure of fork ounted lights that look like the "EMGO" brand. They don't make them in 43mm either but I am guessing they wer milled out or shimmed maybe, VERY clean looking installation.
Update. I looked for them myself and here they are.