Tail Lights

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Salty Gator

Salty Gator

New Member
Aug 3, 2009
672
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Florida
Hi everyone,
I recently lost my headlight while cruising to the local store....the tail light remained....so I went up to Wally World the next day and bought a cheap Bell light kit for a stop gap measure until I could afford a better lamp.....but low and behold......the cheap ass kit I bought turned out to be AWESOME.....I kept the old tail light and also installed the new tail light....( multi function )......A guy whom saw me from almost a mile away followed me to the store....just to tell me that he saw me from that far away .....I **** you not !..........uh huh .....there actually are good folks out there.....so don't lose faith y'all.....



Thanks,
Salty.shft.
 
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bigbutterbean

Active Member
Jan 31, 2011
2,417
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Lebanon, PA
i got a cheapo six function blinker on amazon for like 5 bucks, converted an old motorcycle turn signal to a brake light, and use a 6v led flashlight for a headlight. all in probably 15 bux at the most.
 
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bigbutterbean

Active Member
Jan 31, 2011
2,417
3
38
Lebanon, PA
led lights dont use that much battery, and you should get long battery life out of any led light you use. all my lights are battery powered led. I go to the dollar tree and get panasonic batteries for 5/$1. probably wont spend $20 on batteries in a year, and I have 3 lights, two that run on 4 aa, and one that runs on two aa. batteries are no longer as expensive as they used to be.
 
Dave31

Dave31

Active Member
Mar 1, 2008
11,199
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38
Aztlán, Arizona
I too have and use the cheap LED lights and they work great. But I do spend more then $20 a year for battery's. Maybe I use mine more then others? Don't know? But a solar charging light that I can also charge by USB is a great option for me.
 

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Bikeguy Joe

Bikeguy Joe

Godfather of Motorized Bicycles
Jan 8, 2008
11,837
252
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up north now
Yes, if you actually USE the lights, they will go through batteries.

P.S. the batteries at Dollar Tree are a waste of money, no matter how cheap they are.
 
Cavi Mike

Cavi Mike

New Member
Dec 17, 2011
189
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Rochester, NY
Dave31 said:
Yeah but you wont have to keep purchasing battery's, Seems to me after a short time the $20 bucks will be nothing compared to purchasing battery's over and over.
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Interesting. You clearly didn't click the link or even LOOK at the link. The first word in the item's description is SOLAR...
 
2door

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
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Littleton, Colorado
Cavi Mike said:
Interesting. You clearly didn't click the link or even LOOK at the link. The first word in the item's description is SOLAR...
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Just curious as to why you always have to be so abrasive with your comments and replys to people. If you can't respond without being derogative and disrespectful, ignore the thread and move on.

Tom
 
killercanuck

killercanuck

New Member
Dec 17, 2009
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Solar's a good idea if you use it a lot. The last pack of NiMh recharchable's I got was like $15 for 4... and they crap out after a while... plus you gotta buy their little charger too... That was $30, but came with 4 batts.

So yea, even going that route you're still looking at $20/yr :)
 
fatdaddy

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
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San Jose, Ca.
And all of this is exactly why I don't deal with it anymore. I ain't saying it's for everybody, but I just run a 12V battery in both of my bikes now. I don't ride a lot at night, but I do use my brake light and turn signals all the time. And I'm always honking my horn at some silly cager. So far, about a year now on the Huffy, and 4 or 5 years for Tri-Baby, I've never been without power for my lights. Right now I'm just plugging in once a week to keep the charge topped off.
But like I said, It's not for everybody. Ya gotta have someplace to mount a small motorcycle size battery then run all the wires for it. (In line fuses, all the connectors, ect.)
My next step, I think, is gonna be the 12V coil MW sells on ebay. Plugging in is OK, I'd just rather have a self charging system.
fatdaddy.
 
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mew905

mew905

New Member
Sep 24, 2012
647
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Moose Jaw
yeah, I have a battery powered tail light system i bought on ebay for $7, batteries last a while because it's only got 9 LED's on the whole thing, and the only one that gets used alot (unless you ride alot at night) is the three brake LED's (for some reason, one on the front right beside the running light), running lights are another two LED's (so 4 on total while braking), and signal lights are another 2 each. I've run them for two months before weather stopped me from riding for the rest of the year.

However as fatdaddy mentioned, using a bigger battery might be better. I plan on building a set of LED tail and headlights, as well as buying the 12v charger coil, building a rectifier and having a small battery setup (probably the one they sell with the coils, though they're pricey, but compact).
 
fatdaddy

fatdaddy

New Member
May 4, 2011
1,516
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San Jose, Ca.
mew905 said:
yeah, I have a battery powered tail light system i bought on ebay for $7, batteries last a while because it's only got 9 LED's on the whole thing, and the only one that gets used alot (unless you ride alot at night) is the three brake LED's (for some reason, one on the front right beside the running light), running lights are another two LED's (so 4 on total while braking), and signal lights are another 2 each. I've run them for two months before weather stopped me from riding for the rest of the year.

However as fatdaddy mentioned, using a bigger battery might be better. I plan on building a set of LED tail and headlights, as well as buying the 12v charger coil, building a rectifier and having a small battery setup (probably the one they sell with the coils, though they're pricey, but compact).
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Yeah mew, I had planned on putting ammo cans on her for side cases anyway, So I had a good place for a bigger battery. The other side for tools, ect.
MW sells the charger/rectifier that goes with the 12V coil and hooks straight to the battery pack, (they also sell,) to keep em charged. It's all pricey, yer right, but I haven't heard anything bad about the setup yet. They also say you can hook their 12V system up to a SLA battery. I don't know if it's good enough to keep a REAL battery charged, so I'm a little shy about putting $100 into it to find out. Thats a goodly sum of money for me.
fatdaddy.
 
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showcaller

Member
Mar 9, 2011
69
0
6
Los Angeles
I bought two sequential directionals, two amber marker lights, and a running light/stop light from a truck supply web site. It's all 12 volt that i run off a 12 volt EVO 2 which seems to last forever between charges. I posted a video but it doesn't show the switchs on the handlebar or how I hooked up the brake light to the brake control.

http://youtu.be/xQj_t5gF6R4

he website is www.towmart.com and the guy who's website it is, real cool, he got exactly what i was looking for and had some suggestions.

While I am at it, I have a rocker lighted switch on the handlebar so when I make a left turn it lights up the left side and same with the right. The light reminds me my directionals are still going. I went nuts looking for a lighted rocker and found one at Mouser electronics in Mansfield, TX. Their number is 800-346-6873 The switch comes in two pieces, you need part number 691-VVCNC and part number 691-V6D2D66B Their website is www.mouser.com

The wire, shrink tubes, etc. I got a local hardware store. I run everything off a Ballistic EV02 12 volt battery that seems to never need charging! Eventually it will but it doesn't take much.
 
mew905

mew905

New Member
Sep 24, 2012
647
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Moose Jaw
fatdaddy said:
Yeah mew, I had planned on putting ammo cans on her for side cases anyway, So I had a good place for a bigger battery. The other side for tools, ect.
MW sells the charger/rectifier that goes with the 12V coil and hooks straight to the battery pack, (they also sell,) to keep em charged. It's all pricey, yer right, but I haven't heard anything bad about the setup yet. They also say you can hook their 12V system up to a SLA battery. I don't know if it's good enough to keep a REAL battery charged, so I'm a little shy about putting $100 into it to find out. Thats a goodly sum of money for me.
fatdaddy.
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Yeah, $100 is pricey for me as well, considering you can find wiring diagrams for rectifiers, transformers and voltage regulators anywhere on the internet, I priced out the parts I would need on bgmicro, the total cost for a 12v minigen, and a rectifier/regulator (no need for a transformer, I plan on a 12v setup) is $32 and will give you a very, very stable 12v line. after that, you only need batteries and lights. Much more control over what happens too. Unless the battery comes with the whole system (I'd prefer not to mix and match when charging batteries, ends badly for me), I prefer to just do whatever is required for my setup.

And Big Blue, depends on what kind of lithium you're talking about. LiION are angry batteries, if improperly charged (which takes FOREVER, they need to be trickle charged essentially), they tend to explode. If they cant breathe, they explode. If they get hot, they explode... Apple faced numerous lawsuits a few years back because their iPods and iPhones started to explode and/or catch fire in people's pockets, due to the LiION batteries getting too hot.
 
biknut

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,631
409
83
Dallas
I'd like to point out an inexpensive tail light my wife bought me. When I first laid eyes on it, I really didn't expect much. It's not that impressive looking, and I'd probably pass it up shopping for a new tail light, but sometimes looks are deceiving. That turned out to be the case here. It's called a Night Ize Twistlit. I think they sell them almost everywhere, including wally world. It has several things going for it that makes it a particularly good choice for a motor bicycle.

First off, the list price is only $8.95. It's very easy to mount almost anywhere on your bicycle, with no tools. It uses these kind of heavy duty, rubber coated wires that you can twist around any convenient support on your bike. I used supports under my seat.

Vibration is usually a big problem for tail lights mounted on motor bicycles. This type of mounting system insulates the light from vibration a lot better than a solid mount. The light itself is a bright LED, that's inside a water resistant plastic case that causes the actual light surface to defuse the light, so that it looks larger than most LED tail lights. Run time is claimed to be 20-25 hrs. It uses 2 replaceable 2016 3V lithium batteries, and has has 2 modes. Steady on, and flashing.

I've been very happy with this tail light's performance for several weeks now, and I can highly recommend it.

http://www.rei.com/product/846352/nite-ize-twistlit-rear-bike-light

 
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