LED Tail light/turn signal replacement bulbs!

I'm planning on doing a major overhaul of the bike soon and I figure while I have it all apart would be the ideal time to install some light mods. I want to put a brake light flasher in, and swap out the incandescent brake light and turn signal bulbs for LED ones to give them the instant on/off I need for them to be eye-catching, and also to reduce the load on my rectifier since I'm running a lot of touring accessories on the bike.

I've seen previous threads on here about this subject, and which LED bulbs are recommended, but unfortunately they're all full of dead links and names of long-defunct websites. So I figure it's time for a new thread.

What do you guys recommend for LED brake and signal lights? What are the brightest drop-in replacements on the market? What bulbs should I buy and where should I buy them? All suggestions welcome.

P.S. I am aware that LEDs aren't designed to properly utilize the reflector. Obviously a good beam spread is important to me, but overall output and ability to run them off a flasher is going to trump reflector utilization for me.

P.P.S. I am intending buying a Whelen lin3 and wire it in to the top of the reflector, but I want LED replacements for the main bulbs as well. Preferably white ones since then I can avoid installing separate license plate illuminators.

 

I just replaced mine about a week ago. I just went to an automotive parts supply store, (Lordco here but you have lots down there too). I took my original incandescent light with me, told them I wanted an LED to replace this dual filament incandescent bulb, that I wanted bidirectional and I wanted red LED. Someone here said you match the LED colour with the colour of the lense. I guess if they are clear, you put whatever colour you need to have in there. That's what they gave me and they work great. I have a modulating brake light too. They had them in stock and Bob's your uncle. About 11 bucks each here and the 6th gen needs two That bottom bulb is a bitch to replace when you have the racks for hard bags. I stepped well away from the bike with a wood clamp on the brake leaver and checked it from several angles from about 50 feet back. If you want to change the signal lights, you will need a resistor so that the flashing is proper.

 

This was taken a few years ago with the incandescent lamps. so I should have turned the signal light off but I wanted to see what Mr Cager would see following me.

 

That is not how RR's work. The more power your bike consumes, the less power that your RR has to ground out. So more accessories = less load on the RR, just try to keep your running voltage at at least 13 volts. Basically the more power that you can use up via farkles the less power your RR has to convert into heat.

 

Need some pussy to go with that cat...

This would be a parallel resistor to the LED bulb in addition to the usual series resistor necessary for the LED to survive.

And it will need to be a high wattage resistor at that, e.g. a 25 or 50 watt 6 ohms power resistor mounted to chassis or a heat sink.

A 10 watt 6 Ohm mounted on a heat sink might survive since it is a blinking signal and not on continuously, but will burn up if the circuit is energized more than a blink.

A 25 watt just meets the expected power load, and a 50 watt gives you a margin factor of 2.

 

Does that mean there is a fix for the shite Honda R/R

Anyways, I got my tail LED bulbs here
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/45hp-led-16mm-wedge-base-7443-tower-bulb/634/1911/
The turn signal LED bulbs conversion is planned over the winter. I have to get a load resistor or one of these as well as LED bulbs for my warning lights...

 

What's with all the resistors? I was planning on just switching to a digital flasher... simpler, lower-power solution.
Amazon.com: Amico Car Vehicle 3 Pin LED Turn Blinker Light Flasher Relay 12V DC 0.02-20A: Automotive

And my bike is kinda overdrawn with farkle, worried about not having enough juice to keep the battery charging after the radios, radar detector, headset, phone/GPS, HIDs, lights etc...

 

If it is just the brake light, then no need for the resistor. Even with the modulator I have on mine, the LED bulbs work fine. If you are gping to use LED on the turn signals, then you need resistors. Otherwise they apparently flash far too fast.

My understanding is that HID are power demanding only while warming up. I keep blowing 20A fuses when I forget to turn off my highbeams before a cold start. All four headlights are on the same fuse. I am working on a fix for that this weekend. Going to run a separate circuit and fuse for highs. The high and low should have been separated in the first place so you had some light in the event of fuse failure.

 

Looks like a good solution--let us know how well it works, if you like it, etc...

Product predscription:
Electronic LED Flashers have no minimum load-12VDC. Eliminates the need for load resistors, turn signals will flash at normal rate with or without LED bulbs. Use the Flasher Selection Guide to determine the correct Flasher for your vehicle.

 

was looking at those, though they're -really- pricey...

thinking about just starting off buying a few different cheaper models of bulbs and see if I can get anything decent for it before throwing down on a really expensive set... might get lucky I guess (and if not I'm only out between $3 and $8 a bulb and can still use the LEDs for other things). Will happily report here what I find as far as effectiveness and bang/buck.

Right now thinking of trying out this stuff:
LIN3 Amazon.com: Whelen Engineering LIN3 Series Super-LED Lighthead - Red: Automotive
Adjustable Brake Light Flasher Amazon.com: Brake Attention Flasher Module for LED Brake Lights / Rapid Flash Then Steady On: Automotive
Signal Flasher Relay Amazon.com: Amico Car Vehicle 3 Pin LED Turn Blinker Light Flasher Relay 12V DC 0.02-20A: Automotive
White 7443 LED bulb from MIC TUNING INC ($10/pair) 2 pcs Car/Truck/Vehicle T20 7443 White 54 SMD 3528 LED Tail brake stop LED head Light Bulb - Compatible Bulb Model(for reference only):7740, T20, 990, 991, 992, 992A, 7440A, 7440LL, 7440NA, 7441, 7443, 7443R, 7444, 7444A : Amazon.com : Automotive
Amber 7443 LED bulb from Cable N Wireless ($6/pair) Cable N Wireless 2 Pcs 7443 T20 High Intensity 12V 13-SMD Stop Backup Blinker Corner Indicator Turn Signal 5050 LED Light Bulb Pair (Amber Yellow) : Amazon.com : Automotive
Red 7443 Dual Intensity LED bulb from Elite Mailers ($19/pair) Amazon.com: Elite Mailers T20 7443 - 68 SMD LED Dual Filament Light Bulb - Red - 2 pieces: Home & Kitchen

 

Lol yeah the fix for the factory rr is throw it in the trash and buy a MOSFET rr

 

Then get a voltage gauge to keep an eye on things. By the way hids save power, LEDs save power as well. Aka more work for your rr to do.

 

My HIDs don't really save much power since I got the absurdly overly bright ones (I think 45watt)
The ignition draw on them is so high that it causes a voltage drop across my battery terminals low enough to reset my clock and trip odometer. I bought a set of timed delay pulse relays that should space out their ignition after the bike has warmed up, which should help somewhat. I haven't installed them yet.

What I'm looking at though that makes me want to go LED signals is that my entire instrument cluster dims with each flash of my blinkers when I'm running at idle, and I'm planning on installing heated hand grips and another accessory socket this next overhaul which will add even more load on the system.

Anyway, don't think it's the stock RR. Near as I can tell no problem with the charging system either, and the battery is new since I go the bike. I'm not sure what else to fix.

 

I second superbrightleds.com. They have many LEDs with 180+ dgrees of coverage and are SUPER bright!

 

So that's 2, I might have to look closer at those... one thing to mention though, the page doesn't say anything about these ones being dual intensity. Are they? or would I have to rig something funky to get them to work as brake lights?
45HP-LED 16mm Wedge Base 7443 Tower bulb | S series | Specialty & Automotive | Universal LED Bulb Finder | Super Bright LEDs

 

Product description says that bulb is dual intensity. But shit, that is expensive.

 

Hmm, just had to do a search on the page and it DOES say it in the product description... however not in the title like this one: 7443 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 18 SMD LED Tower | S series | Specialty & Automotive | Universal LED Bulb Finder | Super Bright LEDs

furthermore, the one I just linked lists brightness as 35/140 lumens, while the first ("bigger and brighter?") bulb just lists a flat 120.

So something seems off. I've sent an email to their sales team to ask about it.

 

Yeah and you need 2 of those! I went ahead anyways . I saw these ones on Ebay but not sure about the quality tho
7443 7440 High Power Samsung Chip LED RED Turn Signal Brake Tail Lights Bulbs | eBay

 

So I heard back from SuperbrightLEDs.com and they told me if I wasn't sure to probably go with the smaller (and cheaper) bulb, and based off what I know about LED brightness, it sounded like they may be about equal, if not more bright than the larger bulbs, since the 5050SMD LEDs have a much higher output than the 3528SMDs.

and since the other set of cheapo LED bulbs I bought has a shipping ETA of sometime next year, it would be nice to have these before it's time to do the work on the bike.
7443 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 18 SMD LED Tower | S series | Specialty & Automotive | Universal LED Bulb Finder | Super Bright LEDs

 

Okay, so I got 2 sets of brake lights in so far, as well as the modulator and the Whelen LIN3.

Here are my findings:
The $16/pair LED bulbs from EliteMailers are maybe 2/3 the brightness of the stock bulbs, with substantially less visibility from different angles, or against the reflector. No real surprise here.
The $18/each 7443 18x 5050SMD LED tower bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs are equally bright as the stock bulbs, and maybe up to 10% brighter. They take a minor hit at extreme viewing angles, but they still stand up to the stock ones well.
The brake light modulator is FANTASTIC. You absolutely can't beat it for the price. Extremely customizable, guaranteed to get the speed and duration of flashing you want. Combined with the LEDs for instant on/off It's great.
It gets even better with the Whelen LIN3 as a third brake light. It puts all of the other bulbs to shame. It was super easy to mount and small enough I could install it in the tail light housing if I wanted to. It's BLINDINGLY bright, probably almost definitely too bright, but it's guaranteed to do its job and get the attention of the cagers behind you. I would recommend mounting it inside the housing to give it some diffusion through the lens and make it less conspicuous. I use my brakes sparingly in traffic, relying mostly on engine braking, so I'm not overly concerned about being obnoxious to the other drivers.

Video here: http://herpnderp.info/LEDmod.mp4 (big download, because I'm not prepared to deal with youtube shenanigans today)