Enhanced Turn Signals/Running Lights
I used a pair or the 20W MR16 bulbs in a pair of Silver Bullets. I mounted them with Gold Wing riser shims from J.C. Whitney (made by Show Chrome) attached to the forward bolt which hold the spotlights to the CWI spotlight mounts.
The stock 1157 bulbs just don't get it to me at all and I wanted increased visibility both in daylight hours and night time conditions. Since the MR16 is a single filament bulb, we need a way to allow it to blink.
With the Nomads wiring, to use a single filament bulb or LEDS, we can put a resistor and a diode in series coming from the run signal wire going to the to the lamp to drop the voltage down a bit so the bulb won't burn at full brightness as it would at +12v. We also add a diode on the blink signal wire, then we tie the run/blink wires together and run them to the Silver Bullet. But I really don't like that as I am wasting the potential of those Silver Bullets by dimming them in the run mode and that pull down resistor pushing a MR16 bulb is going to get pretty hot as well. What's a biker to do?
Use a pair of Magic Blinkers to pull off this task, although I found out you can buy the relays used on your own for like $1.50 each...doh. The Magic Blinkers allow the MR16 bulbs to be on solid full power and every time the "blink" occurs , the MR16 bulb is turned off then back on.... blink blink blink.... Any way the best place to tap into the wiring is in the headlight housing. Look for the GREEN wire and the GREEN/YELLOW wires for the turn signals. The BLUE wire is the running light and ground is YELLOW /BLACK. I will use 14 gauge wire for the harnesses and I will heat shrink the and individual wire runs. I routed the two cables through the headlight , then through the chrome panel behind the headlight, and then to the Silver Bullets.
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Universal Silver Bullet Kit with 5/16"-18 Mounting Bolt - The power wire exists the light through a hole in the body behind the mounting boss. The light is grounded through its mount. These are my front turn signals which run to the Magic Blinker. MR-16 20W bulbs come standard with these. |
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1-set of Goldwing riser spacers from JC Whitney Part # ZX015551W $18.00. Search SHOW CHROME for GOLDWING RISER SPACERS.
These will be mounted so that they attach to the mounting bolt of the spotlights and then to the Silver bullets, therefore eliminating the stock turn signal bar all together. |
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The CustomLED "Magic Blinker" is designed to allow single filament light bulbs (or single intensity LED assemblies) to function as both running lights AND blinkers - at full brightness! Simply connect your single filament bulb or LED as described in our instructions, and your indicator bulbs/LEDs will now stay on constantly as running lights, and blink when you engage the blinkers! Note: the indicator will turn off for the duration of the blinker pulse - this is how the blinking is achieved. The relays are mounted in the headlight bucket and tie wrapped to the headlight bucket and anchored with adhesive tie wrap anchors. For Magic Blinker installation instructions click here. |
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The pictures to the immediate left are of the MR-16 bulbs. As you can see the LEDS are brighter. Thanks to Dave of Custom Dynamics and Jon of Custom LED for their assistance and continued world class support. If all vendors were like this, I'd never get pissed off.
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Yet another option is a pair of Radiantz 1.85" amber LED cluster in amber. The 20W MR16 bulbs which come stock in the Silver Bullets are fine, but that is another 40w to be powered by the electrical system. These LEDS are the same type as the tail lights I have deployed on the rear of the bike. Use the shown circuit, cut the MR16 sockets out, solder these LED boards in where the socket was using the LED Yellow (+12V bright) wire and the black wire which is ground, take a 3"x2"x1" piece of soft foam, push the foam in the housing was to fill up the cavity, then snuggle the LED board against it and screw on the outer cover. The Orange wire for the LEDS is not connected in this instance since it is intended to be connected to the RUN Circuit. But we are using the Micro Blinkers since they were installed earlier and we just want the highest state of brightness, so we go the Yellow wire.
Click here to see a video of the MR16 blinkers Click here to see a video of the LED blinkers Click here to see a video of the LED Turn Indicator blinker
LONG TERM EVALUATION AND A WARNING As a footnote, from a long term evaluation perspective on these clusters, I must relate the fact that both front clusters began to fail roughly around the same time frame lasting no more than 6 months. The Nomad puts out roughly 14.2v through it's electrical system. I can not prove it but I believe the voltage is too high on the input side of the LED clusters and causes the boards to generate too much heat for these boards to dissipate when the boards are operated constantly in the HIGH mode. Once the components begin to degrade and become more susceptible to heat, they fail faster as time goes forward. The boards themselves were hot to the touch and I have never encountered that from an LED board before. When they began to fail the very center LEDS went into a strobe pattern and then went dark. Since the Center LEDS are in the middle of the board, where it would be difficult to cool as compared to the edges of the circle, I believe my conclusion is correct. If you are going to use these units in the HIGH OUTPUT mode, make sure you have some way to ventilate them. The Silver Bullets are a great fit for these but they offer no circulation internally at all. My mod had the LEDS running in the HIGH mode constantly. Furthermore, if you use these you may wish to consider putting a resistor in series with each unit to drop the voltage down to around 12 volts.
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If you were not using the micro blinkers and wanted to replace the 1157 stock bulbs with LEDS up front such as these you would employ a circuit such as this.
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If you wanted to add LEDS, or other small wattage lamps, on either side of the bike to function as Blink only side Indicators you can do this. |
