Custom Lights

covertune

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Salmon Arm, BC
Looking for some ideas for custom lighting on my '83 Maxim… no ground effects or anything like that, but cool head/tail lights and turn signals.
 
Well seeing as ground fx would violate the BC Motor Vehicle Act it's probably best you aren't considering that :thumbsup:

As for neat lighting, my buddy loves LED's and put a red LED panel under is rear fender and wired it in-line with the rear brake, so the entire rear lights up red when he is slowing down.

Conversion to HID headlights is a pretty decent project but vibration management is important cuz the filament can get burned out from all the rattl'n. LED headlights could also be good!

You could get an integrated taillight but that is a gray area in the BCMVA...

BMW-style fork lights make you look like a train at night :)
 
Any pics of your buddy's LED rear end?

There must be more people on here who have replaced their stock lights with something else..
 
Your imagination and budget are the only limits. Take a look at what I've done for around $300CDN. The tail light is the single most expensive light at $167 for the large (10.75"), but it is well worth it! It is very bright and keeps the cars at a distance. There are options for smoked lens, and a smaller 8" light bar.

My headlight is an H4 lens ($5 at local swap meet) with 4500K HID bi-xenon kit ($45 from ebay). In combination with the LED lights ($30/ea from ebay) I can turn night into day. Front turn signals have been converted to 1157 sockets (marker and signal) with high power LED bulbs ($90/pr.) installed. All the dash lights are also LED's.

Virtually nobody says they didn't see me, and my air horn deals with those who might... :)
 
Wow Dave, that is a beautiful bike! You go on many adventures? ;)

Also, I'd love to know what brand of airhorn you're running.

Here is my buddy's LED taillight addition. Ignore the dead diodes on the array, they seem to come on sometimes. It lights up the entire wheel well when it's night time and it adds more lighted area in the daytime.

tENi6C8.jpg
 
Thanks! It's a work in progress. I try to get onto gravel once each day, and have a mini Iron Butt ride and a week long camping trip planned for this summer. I'm running a Denali SoundBomb horn. It is a copy of the Stebel Nautilus air horn, with a few improvements.

The dead LED's in your buddy's tail light are probably cold solder joints. If the light can be opened, a quick touch with a soldering iron should fix them.
 
If you upgrade to HID, make sure you get a seperate on/off switch. I figured that out only after burning out two of them. Switching out your 1157 bulbs to 1157 leds from eBay is a fast bright and cheap upgrade. Also available on eBay and other places is a little box that will make your led brake light flash like a strobe. It was only about $5 and easy to install.
 
I have some 60mm diameter red LED "angel eyes". The plan is to try to mount them inside the stock rear signals as extra running lights. With the addition of some relays or electronics it'll be setup so they turn off each time the turn signals blink.
Should make the bike more visible at night and the turn signals more eye-catching.
 
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