Philip Ahlers

Author: fillycheezstake

  • LED Taillight Project

    LED Taillight Project

    As I stated in a previous post regarding my 2012 Suzuki V-Strom 650,  the lack of LED lighting is disappointing.  For me, LEDs just look cooler, can be seen easier, and don’t have that ‘warm-up’ time that incandescent bulbs have. Some even say that this effect can reduce reaction times.

    So, what would be the best way to light up the entire taillight housing with LED power?  After some research, some people simply drop in a replacement LED bulb.  Since my taillight takes the bulb type 1157, I looked at a few direct drop in LED replacements for the incandescent 1157.

    Nice bulbs, man.
    Huh. (superbrightleds.com)

    But, after reading some on various car and motorcycle forums, it seems that these bulbs are far from ideal–since it’s hard to make an LED with a 360 degree spherical light spread.  All of these types of bulbs attempt to replicate the incandescent by shotgunning, or putting a load of LEDs on the drop-in bulb.  Users reported that the LEDs replacements still don’t appear to fill the entire housing with light.

    So, I decided against buying an off the shelf LED replacement bulb.

    I then stumbled upon a few forums where people had made their own LED arrays, and found www.superbrightleds.com.  I placed an order for a bunch of these guys.  Why red and not white? Well, white LEDs are more expensive, and the taillight lens filters all other wavelengths out – so the white LEDs wouldn’t appear as bright, as most of the wavelengths produced would be filtered out.

    And so, the work begins.

    Red LED (superbrightleds.com)

    That’s one of the LEDs that I ordered.  I ordered 50 of the red.  They have 4 pins–two for each the anode and the cathode.

    Opening it up!

    So I pulled the taillight housing out of the V-Strom.  This meant taking off my sidecase mounts and unbolting a few things and taking out a couple of those plastic ‘Christmas tree’ fasteners.  I used a heat gun to separate the two halves, as they were glued/sealed together.

    Two pieces!

    I then started to experiment with LED layouts on my little project boards…

    Which is better?

    And made a board that fits into my housing!  This took a bit of dremel-ing, tape, sanding, and patience.

    Then I attempted to place my LEDs on it in a nice manner.

    …And ran out of LEDs.  I’m ordering more.

  • New Motorcycle!

    A couple of weeks ago, I bought a 2012 Suzuki V-Strom 650 Adventure.

    First off, the engine is awesome.  Super flat torque curve.  It pulls just as hard at 3k rpm as 10k.

    What does this make for?  A bike that is way more enjoyable to ride than my 1992 Honda Nighthawk 750.  All the power on the Nighthawk is above 5k rpm–it feels dead at anything below that.  The ‘Stroms V-twin is just more my style of riding, similar to my 2003 Honda Shadow Spirit 750.

    And, safety.  After having a few close calls due to rear tire lockups and never using enough front brake, I thought it was time to get a bike with ABS, and this bike has it.  I haven’t had it kick in during emergency braking yet, but I’ve made sure that it works!  I’ll be much more comfortable riding 2-up.

    The price for a motorcycle this capable is great!  I feel like I came away with a brand new motorcycle for about half of what I would have paid at a dealer, and a new rear tire to boot.

    The range is great–This motorcycle also has a fuel gauge!  A 5.3 gallon tank means I should get around 290 miles to the tank if I run it dry.  I’ve been averaging about 55.1 mpg over the last couple of tanks, but I have noticed that cruising above 70 mph kills fuel economy, as to be expected.

    And, things I don’t like: for a motorcycle this new, where are my LED turn signals, running lights, and brake lights?  Motorcycles like this are already strapped for spare wattage, and if I want to add things like heated grips, gear, or auxiliary lights, I’ll need to free up some power.  Since the brake light bulb is a an 1157, it pulls about 20 watts when braking.  I can get that down to less than two watts using a custom LED array.  One of my buddies rides a 2005 BMW 650GS and it has LED brake lights, come on Suzuki!

    Another thing:  I’ve already bumped into a few things with the saddle bags.  This is more my fault than anything, as I’m not used to some wide bags on a bike.  Some bikes make it a point to have the hard bags the same or narrower than the handlebars, but Suzuki didn’t seem to care on this one.  I’ll just have to be more aware in the future.

    And lastly, while the V-Strom seat looks great, and feels great for about an hour, anything longer requires some off-saddle time.  I’ve still never ridden a motorcycle with a seat I’m in love with.

    And finally, a crappy picture of it:

    With ABS!
    My 2012 Suzuki V-Strom Adventure!