Question about modding/adding to the electrical system on a modern bike (CBR300R) | GTAMotorcycle.com

Question about modding/adding to the electrical system on a modern bike (CBR300R)

JP0160

JP0160

Well-known member
I have a ton of experience building "drones" and RC helicopters from back in the day, soldering and wiring skills specifically. I have hooked up many LED strips and extra plugs, but for some reason I'm super nervous about doing anything to my bikes electrical system.

I want to add some 12v LED's on a simple on/off switch. They are the typical strip LED's used in exterior signs, about 1/2" x 3" long, all wired in parallel with about 5" of wire between each of them. I'm thinking 2 under the rear fender, 2 under the bike, and 2 in my front fender/cowl. Would it be easier/safer to run them all in parallel directly off the battery (increasing wire length to fit in the locations I want), or run them in 3 sets of 2 directly from the battery?

Or, should I be splicing into a 12v power source that will turn the lights on when the bike turns on (along with a switch to manually turn them off) instead of connecting directly to the battery? The lights I'm using use an incredibly small amount of power, but they are 12v.

This just seems so simple but for some reason I can't get my head around it today.
 
use a stand along circuit, so if it fails - nothing on the motorcycle is effected. Use a relay with a fuse - KISS principle
 
So keep them in parallel, run off battery, and add a fuse? That sounds like it would work just fine. See what I mean? simple but I just couldn't wrap my head around it lol. Thanks!
 
JP0160 said:
So keep them in parallel, run off battery, and add a fuse? That sounds like it would work just fine. See what I mean? simple but I just couldn't wrap my head around it lol. Thanks!
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On a cage where running extra electrical wiring can be tedious it makes sense to try to utilize existing wiring wherever possible, even if it means adding relays and such to manage load, however I agree on a motorcycle where the battery is no more then a few feet in any direction from the front or tail end, just running a separate fused circuit direct from the battery is probably easiest.

What at kind off Helis and RC do you fly? I was very much into the hobby back in the early 90s with a lot of fixed wing single and multi glow gear, came back and got into electric Helis again for a few years after I got my full scale licence, and then drifted away again. Was an instructor with MAAC for a period of time.
 
PrivatePilot said:
On a cage where running extra electrical wiring can be tedious it makes sense to try to utilize existing wiring wherever possible, even if it means adding relays and such to manage load, however I agree on a motorcycle where the battery is no more then a few feet in any direction from the front or tail end, just running a separate fused circuit direct from the battery is probably easiest.

What at kind off Helis and RC do you fly? I was very much into the hobby back in the early 90s with a lot of fixed wing single and multi glow gear, came back and got into electric Helis again for a few years after I got my full scale licence, and then drifted away again. Was an instructor with MAAC for a period of time.
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Yeah that makes sense, I have the lights and wire and switch, just need to find an in-line fuse.

I mainly flew a 130X, 300CFX, a couple of Align 450 Pro's, and a few crazy Acro drones. I flew a mix of sport flying and 3D, was just starting to get piroflips down. Got into it for about 3 years and sold it all off a few months ago. I didn't like the direction the hobby was headed with all these GPS-equipped "noob machines", fly-aways, crashing into people/property, and the upcoming FAA regulations and registration.

FlightTeam6er said:
Rip all that crap off. I did and now I don't have to worry about looking stupid of messing up my electrical system :)
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Good for you?
 
JP0160 said:
I mainly flew a 130X, 300CFX, a couple of Align 450 Pro's, and a few crazy Acro drones. I flew a mix of sport flying and 3D, was just starting to get piroflips down. Got into it for about 3 years and sold it all off a few months ago. I didn't like the direction the hobby was headed with all these GPS-equipped "noob machines", fly-aways, crashing into people/property
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I had so much fixed wing stuff that I lost track. Still have my original trainer (circa 1989 or so) in my basement to this day, battle scars and all. The "instructor" who took it for it's maiden flight, well, failed to preflight things lets just say. Still flew after a quick and dirty balsa and epoxy repair overnight, would still proabably fly today. Sold off all my other glow stuff a few years ago, dabbled in electric when LiPo's started to make it realistic (it was all heavy slow turds back in the NiCad electric days) but aside from one plane I have left I got out of that too.

Flew 450 and 500 series helis for a while, got into some light acro, but got tired of the repair bills...ever stupid little dork was $40 here, $100 there... Still have my Trex 450 but hasn't flown in years.

I was out before the drone era really picked up, and like yourself, I don't like where it's taking the hobby. You used to join a club and get mentored and trained when it came to RC (otherwise your experience would seldom be positive, nor cheap), but now any idiot with money can buy a virtually self piloting drone that requires little or no skill to operate and off they go...just tap a few buttons on your iPad, and done. The mentoring that used to teach right from wrong, safe from dangerous, where to fly and where not to...is now history. Unsurprisingly, this exposed the hobby to the idiot crowd in short order, and all the fear about "drones" is the result.
 
PrivatePilot said:
I had so much fixed wing stuff that I lost track. Still have my original trainer (circa 1989 or so) in my basement to this day, battle scars and all. The "instructor" who took it for it's maiden flight, well, failed to preflight things lets just say. Still flew after a quick and dirty balsa and epoxy repair overnight, would still proabably fly today. Sold off all my other glow stuff a few years ago, dabbled in electric when LiPo's started to make it realistic (it was all heavy slow turds back in the NiCad electric days) but aside from one plane I have left I got out of that too.

Flew 450 and 500 series helis for a while, got into some light acro, but got tired of the repair bills...ever stupid little dork was $40 here, $100 there... Still have my Trex 450 but hasn't flown in years.

I was out before the drone era really picked up, and like yourself, I don't like where it's taking the hobby. You used to join a club and get mentored and trained when it came to RC (otherwise your experience would seldom be positive, nor cheap), but now any idiot with money can buy a virtually self piloting drone that requires little or no skill to operate and off they go...just tap a few buttons on your iPad, and done. The mentoring that used to teach right from wrong, safe from dangerous, where to fly and where not to...is now history. Unsurprisingly, this exposed the hobby to the idiot crowd in short order, and all the fear about "drones" is the result.
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That's cool, I understand the difference between nicad's and lipo, I was doing media for a RC rock crawling website back when Lipo's started to hit the shelves at decent prices. I never really got into the fixed-wing stuff, for some reason I just have more trouble with it than a heli. I did build a profile 3D foamy from scratch, flew a bit and learned some mild acrobatics but I never got the electronics/prop combo right and it was just too heavy to fly nicely.

Those 40 and 100$ "oops" moments, yeah those were definitely part of the reason I started to lose interest in heli's. one second of lost orientation means an hour of work and money out of your pocket. I have plenty of videos on my youtube of me crashing my "drone" at 50kph+, the worst that happens is a bent prop.

I fly just down the road from me in a nice open field, and I kept running into people with those dam Phantoms. "Look ma, no hands!". They would routinely take their hands off and let the thing fly itself. I even witnessed a flyaway Phantom 2 and proceeded to laugh my *** off. No thanks! I do NOT like being around someone flying a 2kg meteor with absolutely 0 skill or any thought for safety. I decided to drop the hobby and buy a motorcycle. LOL!
 
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I'd use a relay, and trigger them off of the other lights that you are using at the same time.
Check and make sure that the bike can handle the extra load, and that the lights are legal, first.
 
Baggsy said:
I'd use a relay, and trigger them off of the other lights that you are using at the same time.
Check and make sure that the bike can handle the extra load, and that the lights are legal, first.
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by legal he meant it must have one of these
http://www.theshockdoctors.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Certification-marks-Ontario.jpg

See how much your alternator/reg/rec can produce and calculate your load and see if the extra load will or will not affect your current set up
 
mars said:
I think he meant the colour of the lights, as some lights are illegal to have on a vehicle.
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Yeah I haven't done the research yet but I plan on getting something legal. I have red and white right now, but I can pick up something else if needed. I was thinking blacklight to light up my boots and the road markings :rolleyes: /troll
 
Well, not quite. Red light cast towards the front of the vehicle is a no-no. Rearward is fine. Red (or several other colours) installed in a way that could be interpreted as producing "flashes" is a no-no.

If you want to make something that looks a certain way when the bike is sitting in a parking lot then you can do whatever you like - but in that case, you are better off wiring it so that the auxiliary lighting power is only active if the ignition switch is NOT on (that way you will not have the aux lighting on when rolling down the road, and you don't need to leave the key on when parked and kill your battery). Obviously this will need an extra switch to turn the whole deal off when it is parked but not on display.

Aux lighting that is active when rolling down the road should adhere to the standard colours for vehicle lighting in order to not confuse people: White or amber light cast towards the front, and red cast towards the rear.

Extra lighting towards the front can help you be more visible. The bike that I ride most often didn't have amber front running lamps. It does now.
 
Brian P said:
should adhere to the standard colours for vehicle lighting in order to not confuse people: White or amber light cast towards the front, and red cast towards the rear.
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I'm all for standardized lighting, I agree with the regs and adhere to them - had to change my rear signals to red when I added tail lights to my VTX (vs just signals alone), but that was easy.

FWIW, forward facing *blue* light appears to be a valid legal option (see Q5/A5) in Ontario now so long as they don't flash, hence why TTC busses use them as an indicator of an accessible bus.

If they flash or even flicker however they fall into the snow removal vehicle category (not legal for anything other than actual snow removal equipment), or emergency vehicle, same thing.
 
Brian P said:
Well, not quite. Red light cast towards the front of the vehicle is a no-no. Rearward is fine. Red (or several other colours) installed in a way that could be interpreted as producing "flashes" is a no-no.

If you want to make something that looks a certain way when the bike is sitting in a parking lot then you can do whatever you like - but in that case, you are better off wiring it so that the auxiliary lighting power is only active if the ignition switch is NOT on (that way you will not have the aux lighting on when rolling down the road, and you don't need to leave the key on when parked and kill your battery). Obviously this will need an extra switch to turn the whole deal off when it is parked but not on display.

Aux lighting that is active when rolling down the road should adhere to the standard colours for vehicle lighting in order to not confuse people: White or amber light cast towards the front, and red cast towards the rear.

Extra lighting towards the front can help you be more visible. The bike that I ride most often didn't have amber front running lamps. It does now.
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So I could run red in the rear and white in the front, that would be legal but not quite the look I'm going for. How does the law work if your lights are projected toward the ground? IE red all around but pointed downwards enough that its not really visible over the main lights?
 
JP0160 said:
So I could run red in the rear and white in the front, that would be legal but not quite the look I'm going for. How does the law work if your lights are projected toward the ground? IE red all around but pointed downwards enough that its not really visible over the main lights?
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You are working hard to increase your heat score here. Even if the law is on your side (and it doesn't seem clearcut that it is) doesn't mean a cop won't give you the ticket anyway.

Personally, I think Brian gave you great advice. Make the bike look however you want while posing beside it in parking lots, don't make it easy for cops to give you a book of tickets while on the road.

See https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08#BK120 Section 62
 
GreyGhost said:
You are working hard to increase your heat score here. Even if the law is on your side (and it doesn't seem clearcut that it is) doesn't mean a cop won't give you the ticket anyway.

Personally, I think Brian gave you great advice. Make the bike look however you want while posing beside it in parking lots, don't make it easy for cops to give you a book of tickets while on the road.

See https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08#BK120 Section 62
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I've stated a few times now that I am going to have a switch. I don't plan on riding with the aux lights on, these will be for those 2 minute "Hey look what I've got" moments.
 
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