Well last night I finally got around to fitting the LED strip lights I picked up from ebay for £9.99. My previous lights that cost £14 were not waterproof despite my best efforts and gave up in the end after the Sibirsky Extreme trip.
Because I did all the work of fitting the Centech AP1 (from www.nippynormans.com) all I had to do was connect these up. At the weekend I will tidy up the wiring setup some more.
These are quite amazing little lights. They are 24cm long, flexible and completely waterproof. They run off 12v and give off no heat.
They look at bit bling and I’m not quite used to them yet but I am hoping they mean I will stand out that bit more to the legion of motorists that are blind to motorcyclists.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew // Aug 19, 2009 at 12:40
Those look great! Any sense yet of whether they increase your visibility to others?
2 Jonathan // Aug 20, 2009 at 13:24
Hi Andrew. To answer your question, yes they definitely increase visibility. In the day the LED strips lights are somewhat noticeable but you have to catch them at the right angle. At night they are amazing. I almost feel embarrassed to have them on because they make a big statement.
I’ve noticed quite a few motorists hesitate. There are two kinds of motorists in my book. Those that don’t see you at all and those that see you but think they have enough time to pull out in front of you. This second group pay attention to the lights and for whatever reason wisely decide to stay put.
I now have a white helmet with 3m reflective tape which only adds to my overall visibility.
3 Charles // Oct 26, 2009 at 15:39
These look GREAT – nice tweaking! how did you electrically connect them? any problem of power?
4 Jonathan // Oct 26, 2009 at 18:53
I connected them into a Centech AP-1 that I bought from http://www.nippynormans.com and wired in an old switch I had. The instructions said they can be connected directly to a 12v supply but I felt perhaps just running them through a 5amp fuse would do no harm. Because they are LED’s they have very little draw on the battery. I have accidentally left them on, on a few occasions. I did notice hat after a while one strip was more blue than the other and individual LED’s were slightly dimmer than the rest.
Now that we approach winter I have since removed them because I put muff’s over the handlebar’s. That is the downside of placing them on the bar ends. I do like the LED’s. they greatly improve visibility. A fellow F800GS rider said he noticed the LED’s before my HID’s.
Another plus point is that they are waterproof.
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