Honda evidently has a lot of countries and their laws to contend with... And while the bikes used to be made in the US, our recession and other troubles has caused Honda to return the bikes to Japan for manufacture..
The bikes we get shipped back here to the US are now for world wide delivery.. And because of this, only some of the above bulbs are wired for stop lights and tail lights.. based on world wide laws...
It takes two conversion kits to wire it all up again... I received the first kit last week and wired the upper lights in the top case then...
They always lit as stop lights, but the outer tail lights didn't have tail light wiring so they looked wrong and dimmer even when the stop lights did light up..
The lower light above the center where the license plate is, was just wired to be a tail light without brake lights.... But the bulbs were there and the little pins were in the sockets too... But no wires......
This one is a little harder, as there is no brake light power down in that light bar... The kit with wires and plastic covers and the correct little pins to go into the sockets arrived yesterday....
So this morning, I was taking the top case apart where the wires are for the brake lights... The interior liner of the lid has to come out with 19 screws.... The seat has to come off and the back light bar has to come out...
The wiring needs plugged in and routed along the existing wire loom and cable tied... It takes a long straight coat hanger to fish the wires from under the seat to the tail light cavity... Again everything needs taped and cable tied... And then reassembled...
I'm slow and very deliberate, so it took me about three hours to get it done and all back together.... But the really good news is that I didn't break anything!!! And as you can see, it all lights correctly......!!
I haven't seen anything on the forums about this not being legal in the US, but no one in the States I frequent will ever know one way or the other....
Lower Brake light wiring kit
Look at the video on this below the picture of the wiring harness... It explains how to install the kit...
Tail Light jumpers for outer lightbulbs in top box.
Otherwise it was a mostly down day here after our big day yesterday....
Retired Rod
The more lights on a bike the better. Other drivers tend to not see motorbikes as it is.
ReplyDeleteI agree about more lights the better. After my Suzuki crash back in the mid 90's I always rode with my headlight on high beam during the day & that seemed to solve the problem of people wanting to make head on left turns in front of me. My Honda Shadow Aero has a Harley running light package on the front so no problem. Only one small tailight though & always figured Honda & other bike manufacturers could & should put more than one small tailight on a bike. Do it right in the first place or don't do it at all. Your 3 hours of patience is amazing to me. Would have taken me about 3 minutes....to decide I didn't have the patience for that sort of thing & that would have been that. Maybe I should realistically scale that down to about 3 seconds..............
ReplyDeleteHowdy Rod,
ReplyDeleteSure am glad you got that light rigged to where it works CORRECTLY!!! I HOPE PEOPLE SEE IT!!!
You mean they're not built in Marysville, oHIo, anymore??? I had a trip to the factory planned.. I wonder how many workers that was?? Of course I bet they had ALL voted absentee for the Emperor!!! OR NOT!!!
I still think that big 4X16 after-market stop-light bar makes the best one; a blind-man can see it, but you got'er dun and it works !!! Hope you have good riding weather for a while!!!