Reworking the lights, rewiring, top tube tank, etc

GoldenMotor.com

Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
It's never really "done". I didn't care for the B&S tank I had on the back so I ordered the KW cap and bung. Just don't have it installed yet. The last few weeks have been spent yanking all of the wiring and lights off and replacing or adding new ones. The point is to use the bike as a platform for demo'ing the high brightness LED our company is now producing. I retrofitted all of the lights with a couple versions of the LED: the running lights, taillight and brake light are all 450 lumen; the headlight is 1440 lumen. The headlight was a 55W halogen and now draws 14W but runs at 30VDC. I'll probably switch to a 1000 lumen 12VDC 10W version before I put it back on the road. The wiring is now all cloth covered wire for a vintage look. The pics are from a B2B expo that had the lights on for about 4-5 hours so we ran them on power supplies. Next month it will be at a solid state lighting expo in Dearborn, MI. Still more work to do before then!
 

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Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
Thanks! A lot of hours getting the rats nest of a wiring job I did the first time around reworked. There's still a little bit to go and then I need to take it all off to do the tank. I know that's rather backward as far as the order to do things but we really wanted the bike at these shows. I'll do the tank and then I'll put it back together and then decide what's next.
 

Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
Thanks SB. The 1400+ lumen LED in the headlight is a little over the top but we're just showing off for now. A 9007 headlamp bulb is typically around the 900 lumen mark so a 1000 lumen LED will be plenty. This is a couple views without the headlight on that I took while checking the wiring. Gives a little better view of the back of the bike. The cars approaching from behind make me the most nervous so I want those to be visible for a long way away.
 

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Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
For now I've set aside the idea of converting the top tube. I can always go back and do that later but it seems like a pretty big undertaking as compared to how much time I can really continue to throw at this. I really enjoy working on it and will likely take it completely apart over the winter to do maintenance and some upgrades. Still, I just didn't like the way the B&S tank looked like a mailbox sitting on the back of the bike. I really wanted a more vintage looking round tank so eBay it was. Vintage mower tank, cut off the filer neck, painted the tank gloss black, glued on a KW cap & bung, and plumbed with a glass sediment bowl. I like it. I have some "Felt" decals in the old Ford script on order and might put those on the ends.
 

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Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
I may have bailed on the top tube tank but I have purchased one of these. It's a Dana three speed bicycle transmission. I prefer my challenges take a more mechanical tact I guess. The "plan" is to use it inline with the motor only instead of the way it was designed (replacing the bikes bottom bracket). I don't want a jack shaft as we usually see them here but will need to have something to transition from the motor to the drive side of the Dana and still have the output sprocket align with the rear wheel. I'm picturing using a tank side shifter for the transmission and possibly a lever actuated clutch. I did a few searches on the forum and using Google looking for any examples where someone has put one on a MB but came up empty. Anyone have suggestions or links?
 

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Harold_B

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May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
Thanks Gary. Well, the LEDs are not currently sold direct. We are the engineering company that came up with the design and the manufacturer too. We are doing the third party engineering testing now. At the moment I cannot supply any LEDs to anyone outside of a few potential customers. To fall into that group you would need to be a company that uses or would use at least 10K parts per year of the high output or 50K per year of the low output devices. If that is the case then I can put you in touch with the sales group. If you are not in a hurry I might be able to offer some online at the end of the first quarter 2013 when testing wraps up. Sorry but it's not entirely up to me. There's a bunch of legal junk to consider.
 

MotoMagz

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Aug 2, 2010
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beautiful build , now my question , how can I purchase the high lumen headlamp leds from ya ?
Gary
Nice Build Harold!!!!

Gary you can build a very simular light for not much money.Here is one I did a few years back http://motorbicycling.com/showpost.php?p=352682&postcount=8 Not trying to diss on Harolds just given ya another option.
The picture bellow is another 1000 lumen running off of a cordless phone battery and a constant current Buckpuck.
 

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Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
Well I feel dissed! Not really. Not at all. Thanks for offering an option since I can't at the moment and thanks for the compliment too. I'm very frustrated that I cannot offer the LEDs even as samples on this site or the flashlight forum I like. When we came up with the idea for how we might make a better LED and produce it in the states we had a few clues that it would be a challenge but it has been over four years in development. What sets our LED apart is that he output pattern is nearly the same as an HID bulb. That means we can just take a bulb out and stick our LED in for headlights like mine. It is wicked bright. I've ordered a buck boost with current regulation to run the headlight so I won't need to switch it out although I should wire in a low output mode.
 

GearNut

Active Member
Aug 19, 2009
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I am finding myself searching for the brightest, whitest, LED lighting nowadays.
Killer lumens with super low amp draw is my goal.

Harold B, is it just the way the photo came out or are your LED's lumens so bright that they are actually washing out the red color in the taillight and side lights in your photos?
 

Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
It's a little of both. The bulbs that come in the running lights and tail light are #921 which are typically about 260 lumen output. The LEDs that are in there now are around 450 lumen and slightly cooler color temperature. The camera is likely auto adjusting a bit but they are really bright which is what I want. I like to be highly visible in traffic. Despite nearly double the output they draw less than 5W as compared to the #921 bulb's 18W.
 

thegnu

New Member
Sep 15, 2011
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freedom pa
If I can stuff it in a headlight, I want it!
Gearnut said it best , my goal is low power consumtion , because the way I design my charging systems on these china motors has some serious limits ie: the magneto only puts out so much an that varies greatly.
Gary
 

Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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Grand Rapids, MI
I know what you mean as far as trying to find the best LED solution for a MB when using the magneto. I have the secondary coil and the regulator circuit from eBay on mine although at the moment it is not connected. It just didn't do the job when I had it wired in during the fall but then I still had some incandescent bulbs in the mix. I recently bought a 12vdc dynamo of the type that runs on the sidewall. I'm planning to put a sprocket on it and put it in the chain loop then use the output to charge the lead acid battery that is running the LEDs and the horn.

So far I haven't had any success with the buck boost converter. I'll take it in to work and ask one of my associates that is a guru with this stuff to lend a hand. No problem with the brake, tail, and running lights.
 

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
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northeastern Minnesota
Regarding the sidewall generator, a couple of thoughts based on my experiments with them the past few years in conjunction with LED lights. I've used both 12 V new generators and older 6 volt units. I've had a couple of them burn out on me and I'm guessing that it has something to do with their being designed to spin at pedal bike speeds, but using them at a generally higher motor bike speed. I also stopped leaving them engaged in day running to see if it helped them last longer. They do warm up. Put your hand on one after a good ride and it will be either warm or even hot to the touch.

No doubt some brands are better made than others. I've been running a 6 V one on my American flyer now that is probably 40 years old with no problems. But I do disengage it unless night riding when I actually need the lights. This isn't ideal since the lights, if bright enough, are a good idea in the day time and a brake light is a good idea all of the time.

On none of mine has there been a fitting for lubricating the shaft. I try to remember to give mine a drop or two of oil, hoping it somehow migrates in to where it will do some good. Your idea of changing the friction wheel on the generator (which would have been in contact with the bike's tire) to a small sprocket fitted so that it becomes part of the drive chain has a lot of merit. It would give the option of changing the little sprocket in size so that it doesn't over spin the generator. Since it would spin any time the chain was moving, having a generator that was well made and meant to run for a long long time would be the thing. There might be a huge difference in a German made dynamo vs Chinese. Might not, too.

Again, I like the idea of the generator being powered by the chain vs. side wheel friction.

It would be good if reliable, bright lighting was commonly available for motorbike enthusiasts who are less inclined to experiment and come up with their own solutions. So I commend you for your efforts. Lives are saved with good lighting.
SB
 

Harold_B

Active Member
May 23, 2012
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43
Grand Rapids, MI
Thanks SB for the well thought out and thorough reply. I suspect that I'll be going through a few iterations of the generator install before I have something robust. Sourcing the generator is kind of hit and miss. It will need to run at a modest speed so that it doesn't overheat, so that it provides a fairly predictable voltage range, doesn't over voltage the circuit and yet maintains a charge on a small (3.5" x 2.5" x 4") lead acid battery. I plan to run all of my lights day and night. I may change the bullet lights to turn signals but they will still be on when not blinking.
A couple posts ago I mentioned that I would be putting a Dana transmission on the bike over the winter. There is probably an opportunity there to mount the generator.