5th Gen Farkle-Heavy Overhaul Project: LED mod, painting, stebel, accessories, etc, Complete!

So for those of you who might have been watching some of my other threads around here, I finally completed the work on my bike, and did a complete write up with pictures. Please forgive my use of the imgur gallery to host it, but it's long and picture heavy, and this was the easiest way to put it up somewhere so I could x-post.

Stebel, Whelen LIN3, brake light modulator, rim tape, HIDs with timed ignition relay, hazard switch, heated grips, lots of fancy wiring, plastics repair and painting, rim tape.

It's all through the jump:
http://imgur.com/gallery/5IKGb


Will happily answer any questions pertaining to the details of each step of the project, or any other installation info.

I also have a bunch of spare wire, pressure hose, and a spare fitting (lost the first one, bought another, then found it) for mounting the stebel, in case anyone near me wants them for their own stebel install.

 

Nice work there Evil. I especially like the $20 paint booth. That is what I would term, "Where there is a will, there is a way."

Looks as as though all the paint work turned out pretty darned good. Where did you get the retro reflective rim tape from?

 

Thanks.

The rim tape I used was this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00317FSCE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As a lot of the reviewers have said, the applicator is a bad joke and it's a pain to install. I ended up screwing up the first side I did, though got better at it after that. You have to install it by hand and take your time to meticulously stretch it and line it up perfectly.

The tape itself, however, is excellent. It's good and thick and tough, and stretches just enough without breaking, and if you're careful you can peel it back a bit to re-align it if you end up off the mark a bit. It's also very bright in the light.

 

Nice work Mr. EvilStig ! Between this & polishing fairing bolts a la Zoom-Zoom, I got my winter projects all lined-up ! Bad news this forum is I tell ya !

 

I was just looking at a magazine I get at work called Jobber News (an Autobody magazine) and there was an ad for this company that sells automotive LED headlight upgrades. Since I work in the automotive field and see a lot of newer high end and other cars I have noticed quite a few vehicles with high power LED headlights and they are as bright as HID but draw far less power. The other benefit would be a lack of current draw on start up that is experienced with HID's.

Take a look at the link

http://www.vleds.com/new-products/cxa-led-headlights.html

 

LEDs have their drawbacks, including difficulty in focusing them correctly (don't work with regular reflector housings) and overall brightness... I honestly have never seen any LED headlights that can compare with the brightness of HIDs, and while there are LEDs on the market bright as or brighter than stock halogens, they're just about as expensive as HIDs.

That's not to say they're not worth considering, just that they're not what I would prefer.