How to Wire Motorcycle LED Lights
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- How to video on wiring LED lights for your motorcycle.
In this video, I walk through the steps of installing an LED strip brake light with integrated turn signals on my Honda CB550 cafe racer project. The wiring process in this video can be applied to other makes and models of motorcycles as well.
All the parts are linked below.
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Parts & Tools Used:
All the parts and tools I use: www.amazon.com...
LED Taillight: amzn.to/2iz684q
LED Turn Signals: amzn.to/2iFiHGM
Flasher Relay: amzn.to/2PAktdS
Bullet Connectors: amzn.to/2juu5tm
Soldering Iron: amzn.to/2jun77C
Filming Equipment:
Camera: amzn.to/2tPFnL9
Lens: amzn.to/2teMX4o
GoPro: amzn.to/2sbj2KR
Microphone 1: amzn.to/2ub6sYu
Microphone 2: amzn.to/2uaYYEY
All videos posted to the Classic Octane TH-cam Channel are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Classic Octane, LLC highly recommends that you engage with a professional mechanic when conducting repairs on your motorcycle. Classic Octane, LLC assumes no liability for anything you choose to do to your motorcycle before or after watching one of the videos or utilizing the content from this TH-cam. All repairs or modifications you perform to your motorcycle are made at your own risk. All content is on the Classic Octane TH-cam Channel is exclusively owned and copyrighted by Classic Octane. Any illegal reproduction of this content is a violation of the law.
Neat trick my father taught me for indicator wires: When driving, GREEN grass is on the RIGHT of the road, and the YELLOW centerline is on your LEFT
Nice if you don’t live in uk 🫤
@@Noname88184 Sorry, I can't understand you, I live in one of the many countries that drive on the proper side of the road
Yellow could be for hard shoulder
GREEN has the letter R for Right. YELLOW has an L for Left.
@@patrickbaitman8336 That works better, thanks! I do my driving in Japan so this color mnemonic makes more sense!
Dude! Legend... really simple and comprehensive walk through of one of the 'mysteries' of motorbikes 😏 I'd been wondering about how to go to LED on my cx650 build and the those flashers make it easy! Thanks 👍😎✌️
You are a VERY good instructor! Explain things very well, clear & easy :-)
O...M...G... It's like he custom made this video for me. Just what I needed. And nicely produced--- Perfect visuals, good explanations, no BS.
Wondering if you can help: I wana put new LED lights (indicators) to my 1983 Yamaha SR 500. The old lights had 1 wire running the final bit from a bundle to the old bulb. My new led has three wires. How to connect three new to 1 old?
Dude I will pay you to FaceTime me and help me with this…everything is working fine except my running light. Help me 😂
Nice one, mate! I'll give it a go. Elecronics doesn't seem so much like witchcraft after this video!! LOL
FWIW, when I rewired by instruments I staggered some of the bullet connections so that you don't end up with a large welt of connectors you need to shrink. Heat shrink wont create a really nice joint if the connector and leads in/out are too different in size.
You can also remove the need for the relay by adding in resistors inline. but I think your suggestion is much better ;)
Nice vid.
1) decreased current draw
2) reduced size and weight
3) increased lumen rating
True but if that craps out you got no back light, no brake light, no turn signals and no hope of popping in a replacement bulb at the nearest fuel station if you make it there alive at night without being hit by a semi or an SUV.
@whatupbrahs then how come I see so many new or nearly new cars/bikes with blown led taillight etc. if all these led units are so great?
this is the best explanatory video ive ever seen about this... congrats man
Just a NOTE ,I am finding if the videos are watched many Qs are answered , Thank You for the time you spend
I love the way you sacrificed the factory wiring to color match them perfectly to already existing male bullet connections. It absolutely 100% made this simplified for a noob like myself to do it. Only downside is R.I.P old tail lights. Also, thank you very much for providing the color diagram and going over it so thoroughly/simply.
A 4th reason (and probably the biggest, IMO) for going to LED's is that they use significantly less wattage than the stock lights. These old Hondas had the best electrical output of any bikes at the time but they are woefully inadequate compared to today's technologies. So the reduced power draw by the LED's can be of great value if your regulator/rectifier bugs out on you and you're trying to limp home on remaining battery power.
Ron Icard where can I get the led lights?
Check the links right beneath the video. You may need to click the "Show More" to make them appear but he linked all of the lights he used.
Ah. Thanks.
Ron Icard
Bmw motorcycle
One of the best conversion instruction videos out there! Thank you, appreciate ya
Glad it was helpful!
Thankyou for your explication on the wiring,....you saved me one hell of a headache!!!!,again thanks mate cheers
You’re at life saver man! Going through my wiring system now and was dreading the led strip twilight with those 5 wires. Now I know! Glad I got my manual to check my bikes wires cause it’s a 91 Suzuki gn125. Great video! I appreciate you walking through each step! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Kevin Blas Did you have to use resistors?
Greetings from a former Austin, Texan! Man I miss Austin some days! Just bought myself a 1980 cm200t. Definitely plan on replacing the Gigantic lights with LEDs. Thanks for the videos!!
Great video! Thank you for posting. God bless!
Thank you man! Th is was straight forward and easy to follow! Much appreciated!
Hi Taylor, I've used these led strips on a couple of my recent build's.ie a cb250 superdream ,GL 500 and GL 650 interstate which I've converted to cafe racers.i like to cut a slot in the hoop and feed the wire inside the frame to give it a smooth factory look.i had a lot of positive comments on these ,why not try it on your next build 👍
Ps,in England we still have to put additional indicators on for the MOT test but still looks cool.
Love your vids Keep it up 👍👍👍
If I want LED taillights/turn signals and get the LED flasher relay, would my front turn signals (stock 1980 goldwing) still work? Or should I just purchase LED’s for the fronts as well
Did you ever find an answer to this question
This was extremely helpful...cheers!
Thank you. Yours was the first video that actually showed the conversion instead of a shaky view of someone changing a light bulb.
Nice tutorial, but these don’t seem very bright. How do these compare to the the stock lights, from the perspective of the driver seat of a car or truck behind you?
I just found your video thank you for sharing
Thanks for the detailed instructions. I just installed this product in my cb750k8 along with the relay from your link. My confidence level, for wiring, has just increased exponentially thanks to your video. On to the front LED's next.
Awesome, good luck with your project!
Unlike all the other motovloggers. You are the absolute best The Best. And I hope all rest of them see this. Please repost so they. Do!!! You are the best because you are excellent and you never ask for money thru patron or otherwise and if you do it’s random and suttle. Not oh please. Sign up for patron for extra content. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah. Thanks Taylor. Sooo much. Keep rocking it it would watch you way more even than I do. But I know u have to work I’m retired and I just wish you had way more videos. But I understand you have to work. And enjoy your videos greatly
Very helpfull video, thanks! I'm working on my first build, and I find electronics the hardest part. 1 thing I didn't get, do you need 2 seperate relais? Like for front and back?
Probably beginner stuff, but I'm learning as I go. Hope somebody can help me out. Thanks!
This is an incredible video and extremely helpful. Thank you for making this, I will certainly use this info to help me complete my rear tail light installation.
I'm trying to install this on my 2003 Honda F4i the turn signals work fine but the running lights don't even though it's showing 12 volts they won't light up but it lights up fine on my bench power supply
Damn this tutorial is so good! I wish i saw this before i installed my LEDs. It would have saved me some time.
Thanks!
3 years ago...?
I searched for this sort of description, in the past, and recently, the last three days. No Go. So I got a hold of my friend to do my tail light, brake/running light yesterday, threw him 50 bucks. He didn't want the money but I made him take it. Haha. Done.
And then this morning this shows up on my TH-cam. First site, outta the gate. Sons of bitches at TH-cam do this just to torment people. Anyway, I screen captured a few of the important moments,
i.e., schematic run... and now I'm an electrical genius. Hahaha. Really appreciate this bro.
I really think the internet is corrupted though, this should be common information whenever you punch it in but it should not be such a major ordeal to locate this sort of vitally important description oriented material. All the information is out there, but I guess idiots/youtube, just have to mess with everyone. And make something so wonderful in concept become such a pain in the ass sometimes. Example. My Yamaha 2006 V Star 1100 had a catastrophic shaft shear about 4 years ago. Never heard about it before I bought the bike, of certain years run. I suggest you check out what occurs if you own one in certain years. You just have to check, check as in put a couple of dimples in the threads to keep it from running off the shaft thread. That nut is the one which connects the universal to the two shafts from the engine to the rear shaft. Yamaha never had a recall. I was coming out of a stop. At about 30 miles an hour, my shaft sheared. What a ride. Look it up. If I was doing 50 or more I would have been dead. Or severely injured. My cat like reflexes save my ass hahaha. Anyway I limped the bike home. My friend and I got online. Remember this is 4 years ago, we found the situation had been remedied by some gracious individual on the internet, followed his instruction and for only 2 days and beer, we remedied an otherwise $ 3500 to $4,000, no recall by Yamaha, shop fix.
I wonder how many people got fucked up from the KNOWN shaft shear on the certain year run of V-Star 1100. I know I'm way off topic. But you can't find this same information of remedying the catastrophic shaft Shear on a V-Star 1100 today, as we did 4 years ago. This fact, makes this video, that much more important and appreciated bro ! Thanks for thinking of others.
I have a Tao Tao 150cc Quantum .
I didn’t do no special things with the wire but to connect the colors with the right colors.
“The two Lonley wires “green and brown”
White “Taillignt” = connect to Brown
Black “Negative” = Dark Green
“The group wires”
Yellow “Left Signal” = Baby blue
Green “Right Signal” = Orange
Red “Brake” = Green/Yellow
To make sure which goes where make sure you connect the Black and White wires first so you can figure out the Red,Green,Yellow wires or else it will not turn on.
my brother you are literally a life saver because i bought that exact same strip lighting and i got an older motorcycle so thank you for explaining how to do this because this literally saved me tons of $$$ and pain!
Where did you plug the relay into? I’m new to this.
Wicked video bro I love my bikes am currently turning my Honda cbf into a street fighter I can see it on my channel 🇬🇧❤️
I missed why a new flasher relay was needed ... is it just a new flasher or is it specially made to flash LED lights?
Me too.
The new relay pulses the lights a different way than the old school relays. Most old school flasher relays (especially on bikes from the 80s and earlier, possibly newer as well) work by the power drawn for the light. As more power is drawn the circuit heats up and causes it to open, breaking the power flow, as it cools down it closes and allows power to flow back through. This cycle of heating and cooling causes the power to turn on and off for the turn signals making them flash. Since leds draw so much less power than incandescent bulbs they are unable to heat up the circuit enough to cause it to open. Since the circuit can't open the bulb is unable to flash. The new relay has a different wiring set up (I'm not sure how it does it, haven't looked to far into it) that allows the leds to work properly.
@@TheSamuraieater Great explanation. Thanks!
This is a superb video. I just changed my stock halogen headlight on my Honda VTX 1800 to an LED bulb and I was thinking of changing the flashers too. You explain so well and your work is so professional. Thanks!
Was wondering if someone could help me out here! I have some LED turn signals for the front of my bike and a universal LED strip for the back. All lights come with the factory-style bullet connectors. Would this mean I only need to replace some flasher relays?? for reference I have an '83 Kawasaki kz440 but the wiring was very similar to the video
my drl flickring i test voltage 5watt 33ohm resister i was connect thats block 2 volt on battery drl got 10volt when engine start drl got 12+volt depemd rpm but sometime one stop working until i switch off today i discount resistor and attach capistor now drl got 12.8 when engine on still flickring bcoz voltage updown upto 14.8
Quick question, if you’re wiring onto exisiting harness which has two (negative and coloured) wires each side for indicators. Do you just connect coloured wires as there’s only one negative wire from the led strip?
4:21 gets you to the start of the meat and potater's. Thanks for this vid. Nothing like reassurance going into electrical realms.
Is a battery needed for LEDs? Or can power from alternator be safe (after engine starts) - I'm talkn bout Kickstarter bikes from 80s (SR 500)
Hi I have fitted new LED Indies to my VT600 fitted LED flasher (2 pin, bike has 3 pin socket ?) wether L or R switched , both indies flash together !!!! what have i done wrong or haven't done cheers
I got the Black Wire, White Wire, and Red Wire that you wrote down to work the same wires on my TAO TAO Chinese scooter… so the Yellow connected with the baby Blue and the Green with Orange .
Where do I get these wiring diagrams? Are these for all motorbikes?
I live in Malaysia and i've been searching for wiring diagrams for a Nimota CK9.
Thank you!
Awesome video man. I have an issue with my strip light. When I turn either the left or right signal on, both indicators on the back flash but the front ones are fine. Any ideas why? Also, what do you do with both common grounds from the original indicators? Do they just stay disconnected? Cheers dude.
Great Video! am now try to change CBR650F 2017 LED headlight into 2014 CBR650F(which is using H4 Bulb) no hi-beam on the new LED headlight... any idea? need to made some wiring changes in the winker switch ?
Its ok if I joined the 3 grounds (stop and 2 indicator light) into one line to connect the led light?
Dude, thankyou! You really made it so easy. Question I'm wiring a modified honda c70 from scratch do I need more than one relay ?????
This might be a little late to ask this but I bought this and have a Kawasaki Vulcan S and I have a ground cable for the Brake/Running Light and 2 ground cables for both rear indicators. So my question do I only connect the ground cable on the strip to only one and what do I do with the other ground cables?
you just motivated me to spend nearly 1000USD on customs parts yo! thanks
Jeez, if only these were a liiiittle bit dimmer...lol. But really, these look dim AF compared to most.. "real" LEDs today.
Where would be the best spot to install some inline fuses on a bike like this? Ive got a 1980 suzuki gs450 with no fuse holders. Pretty scary. I havent driven it yet but bought 3 inline fuses that i want to install first.
Help!!
Like a massive idiot, I cut the bullet connectors and stripped my wires that are connected to the bike, not the old taillight. Could I possibly just sauter the new taillight to the core wires, or do I need bullet connectors for it to work?
Just bought a headlight for my 97 fireblade. Head light comes with built in led's turnsignals with three wires coming out of them black red yellow. An as you know their are only two wires each side for these to go into.can you help.thanks in advance
These videos are so great, not modding a older bike but still helping so much!
Thanks for watching!
Hey man thanks for the great video, it helped a lot! My Honda has sky blue and orange wires as well, but it also has sky blue with white stripe and orange with white stripe along with them. How to I handle those?
How come you dont need to use a metric diode in that conversion? Not sure if I understand correctly, but if you have only one turn signal indicator light for both sides, you need a diode kit to make it work? Or is it not the case all times? In your other video "How to fix motorcycle flashers all going off at once" you had the same indicator light module, but had to install the diode kit?
Listening to him will cross your eyes.He didn’t explain nothing about the relay for the led.So if I don’t have a replay my led won’t work
I want to reduce the load on the electrical system to allow me to take charge out for a powerbank.
Low energy consumption and long life are my reasons to swop but using load resistors does nothing for power consumption!
Great video. Very clear info on an otherwise confusing topic.
The relay had to be replaced because you were converting to LED?
Correct. LED lights draw a lot less current so they can't trigger a standard flasher relay so you have to replace it with one designed for LEDs. Luckily they are plug and play and very cheap.
Do you need to change the relay, if you're only going to change the brake light to led?
I have a 1999 r6 converting full led I have the same flush mount Led you have in the front how is it that my led aren’t as bright I checked it myself and I’m getting 9.6v to them and the have the running lights and flasher lights on the as well how do I correct that issue.
What do I do to replace the regular tail lights with LEDs without replacing the front regular signal lights?
what specifically did you solder to the amazon taillight to get it to the bullet connector? or did you solder it straight to the bullet connector?
Hi, I have LEDs on the back of my mtx 80 but there not working right, when I start the bike i have to turn on the lights to high an that's all it gos to off or h then my light an back light will come on but it's staying on full all the time till I hit the breaks?? An it dims down What's that about?
anyone whos putting led lights on there bike stopped caring about the purity. They can get over themselves lol. Good vid.
Good work, would you please help me to get wiring diagram of Honda CD70 bike on line?
Hi Very nice video but I seem to not have power anywhere on the lights - my cluster is in fact working but can't seem to make the flasher and the front light working - anyone can help?
im a purist in a way, with 6 bikes (some heavily modified) an i have wired it up by re using the original wire just rewired the extension harness ends to the new light etc
I know you sell diodes, what are they used for? I thought you needed them to convert to LED? Great video
hey thank you so much for the video, i did everything you thought in the video and the lights went on perfectly. I took the bike for a ride shortly after and then boom it shuts off by itself and wont turn on again. The lights are still tho somehow its like my batteries are too weak to start the engine, has this got something to do with what i did to the wirings? I really hope you can help me out on this one, thank you again
Thank you for the video.
It will be great if you can share the Wiring diagram file.
Very thorough and easy to understand. You are a great instructor, keep up the great work
I think i did my wiring wrong. When i use the break my breaklight blinks. Have you ever ran into a problem like this?
Hallo Sir kan jou Make a Video about Gear indicator for Handa Pan european st 1100 1994.
Just wondering if you come across wires for the horn as am having trouble with my cbr600f
It is sod all to do with the purists what you do with any wiring that is basically from a scrap loom. I thought you would french the lights in, zip ties are a bit lame especially for you.
My turn signals aren't flashing yellow... Havent' received the new flasher relay in yet...is that the cause?
What colour are the L and B wires to the relay on stock honda, it isn't clear on the manual diagram, thanks. I want to get stock lights working before I think about going the led route.
Great video man but did you have to install resistors/diodes?
Possibly a stupid question, but what do you do with the extra ground wires from the rear signals?
Finding the correct wires on the bike is easier if you label them with some tape when you take apart the rear light assembly. No more wiring diagram needed
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making this video.
Thanks for watching!
Do I need the relay if Im only using brake/stop light?
No, if you're using the stock turn signals you don't have to change out the relay.
Okey. Thanks👍
After installing LED turns and brake they work fine untill i start the bike. after starting there is a little flicker it also seems to affect the tach. as well. any ideas?
So to sacrifice the factory wiring as you said... Did you just cut those off the old lights?
What size connectors did you use to solder the LED wires to the bikes wires?
When I connect the brake wire it turns off my tail light and only the brake lights work. What am I doing wrong
I have a cb750? can i get a smaller battery for my bike than the standard?
Do you have a video that shows how to detach the the lights so you can change the?
Thats waaay too much work for me :( xd but nice video man
my light has a blue and yellow red , black.what is blue and yellow.
Looking for your video on how to install the rear led tail light strip into the frame
Can you connect them to the existing stock lights.. and use led also
What would happen if I used the factory flasher unit?
So what was the link for the turn signal relay for led thx in advance
can you show me how to combine all 3 ground wires into one?
can you show me how to combine all 3 ground wires into one?
Do you have to connect all the old ground wires to the new black wire?
Do u have to solder them together? Can u jus twist them together and put electric tape on them ?
Ya idk . Very confused after watching .
What the heck am I doing doing wrong? That's how I've got mine wired including the replacement relay. My issue: All 4 lights flash no matter if it's left or right signaling. When I patch an old lamp the system it all works fine. I'm going to try resistors. But I don't understand why you aren't needing them.
Sounds like you need one of the diodes I sell on my website ClassicOctane.com . The cause is most likely your turn signal indicator.