Homemade FZ6 LED tail with integrated signals

[MattR302]

Last year I made a custom LED tail light for my bike, I think I posted pics on here. Since then I've made a better one, but haven't installed it yet.

One of my local riding friends has a FZ6, she's on here, but doesn't post much. Well her and her boyfriend were telling me how her bike has no turn signals now that they swapped exhausts with someone else and lost her stock fender and signals. So I whipped this up for her, we installed it yesterday along with a SW-motech top case rack.

Front side of the board

running lights

brake lights

signals

running lights with signals

brake lights with signals

board installed in the stock housing. running light leads soldered to 1157 bulb base for plug-n-play. turn signal leads through hole in the top of the housing sealed with some hot glue.

running light. the way the FZ6 lens is, it makes the 3 rows of 4 LED's look like a lot more.
Wait, you said there was no rear signals! "I didn't even notice those!"
Ok, well we might as well extend the snipped leads on those and hook them up while we're at it.

Bright as hell brake lights.

running lights with hazard flashers. It's funny to see the quick on-off of the LED signals compared to the incandescent bulbs in the short-stalk ones. They seem to fade on and off. From long-distance, like 100+ yards, the incandescent ones are more visible than the LEDs in the tail light. Not so much as brighter, but more visible due to them being further away from the red lights. Not really anything you can do about that with the signals in that small housing.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I haven't seen any aftermarket lights in person, but I will guarantee that mine is brighter. We ran out of time last night, but we will also be hooking up her topcase brake lights, as well as a brake light flasher module that pulses the brake lights for 2 seconds before a solid on.

 

[Motogiro]

That looks trick! :rockon:

 

[pester]

Great job


sent from my s4

 

[Wildcat_drvr]

PLEASE! Do a write-up of how you did this and what you used to do it!!I can't afford a store bought led set-up on my income.Found a $5.00 flasher unit but it needs LEDs to work proper and what you made would be perfect!I'm electrically challenged but can do anything :eyebrow: with proper directions.Your project is awesomely cool! :rockon: Rich

 

[outasight20]

Looks awesome, nice work! Do be aware though that when the signals are that close to the center of the bike, it is hard to notice them/distinguish which one is on from a distance. I have been behind many a supersport with ebay integrated taillight and failed to notice when they had their signal on.

 

[MattR302]

Looks awesome, nice work! Do be aware though that when the signals are that close to the center of the bike, it is hard to notice them/distinguish which one is on from a distance. I have been behind many a supersport with ebay integrated taillight and failed to notice when they had their signal on.

Yes, like I said at the bottom of my post, the incandescents were definitely more noticeable, due to them being farther away from the brake/tail light. I wouldn't want to rely on an integrated taillight as my only rear signals.

PLEASE! Do a write-up of how you did this and what you used to do it!!I can't afford a store bought led set-up on my income.Found a $5.00 flasher unit but it needs LEDs to work proper and what you made would be perfect!I'm electrically challenged but can do anything :eyebrow: with proper directions.Your project is awesomely cool! :rockon: Rich

I'll draw up my schematic later, but I would recommend you start by reading the top sticky post on this site: HIDPlanet LEDs
There's tons of good information and builds on there.
For a rough idea on material costs, LED's are usually ~$20 for 60, a couple bucks for a prototype board, a couple bucks for each voltage regulator, a couple bucks for the appropriate resistors, a couple bucks for the right diodes, a couple bucks for the wiring, shrink tube, etc. Plus tools like a soldering iron, solder, heat gun, wire strippers, hot glue gun, etc.

Just a warning though, it gets addicting, you'll find yourself buying LED's in bulk since they're cheaper, and wanting a fancy soldering iron since it makes soldering way easier.

Here's a post about my builds for my DR350 tail light
Suzuki DR350SE superflux LED tail light

 

[JHawley]

I'm that guy.

this thing is fantastic. I rode behind her the day after on our commute to work. and its very visible.

I think if maybe the lens housing wasn't red then the turns would be more visible, but by keeping the old stalk turn signals its awesome to watch from behind.