So as some of you may remember, I picked up a clear alternatives 2003 integrated tail light, and modded it to fit in the tail of my 07. Well now its time to wire it up. The tail light came with resistors, and I have no clue what they do. I double checked all the lighting on a 9v and it worked just fine, as well as tested it on the 12v circuit and it was plenty bright. All OK, and testing was done without use of resistors.

I wanted to know if the resistors should be wired in, what they actually do, and will anything bad happen if I do not put them in. The light is built into the tail of the bike, and is permanently attached. I want this to last, cause if I blow the lights out, I am going to have to scrap the tail and start over, or have one hell of a time replacing the electronics.

Thanks for the help.

 

You dont need the reisitors. Their purpose is to slow down the amount of power going to your lights if they are blinking to fast. If your lights are blinking at a normal rate then your fine. Im actually about to put resistors on mine because one I turn my signals on they are on solid without even blinking

 

If you have resistors in the front turn signals, then you wouldn't need them in the back. However, i'm gonna assume from your post that you don't have them. Basically, without resistors, here's what will happen.

-If you have one set of stock signals (in the front for example), and wire your integrated taillight without resistors, you will get a faster-than-normal flash rate. Most people actually like this faster flash.

-If you have aftermarket LED signals in the front AND you wire your taillight up, when you turn on a signal, it will blink so fast that it literally looks like it is just steady. Not good as a turn signal. If you install one set of resistors (in the front OR rear, doesn't matter), it will slow the blinking rate down to that faster-than-normal flash. If you install resistors in the front AND rear signals, you'll get a flash rate pretty close to stock.

On a side note, the resistors get wired in like so:


----ground-----------------
l
resistor
l
----positive--------------------------------signal wire



The resistor is there to basically eat up some of that excess voltage that the LED's don't need, therefore it gets wired in-between the positive and negative wires to complete the circuit BEFORE it reaches the turn signal.


Hope this helps!! Let me know if you need anything else. My advice is that if you are replacing all of your signals with aftermarket ones, wire in one set of resistors, and you'll get a faster-than-stock flash rate that is very visible to traffic!

-Adam

 

Perfect.. thanks guys. I have led front signals, and will be wiring in an led integrated tail light.... although I did have the bikelitez one on there with no resistors and the flash rate was pretty close to normal... guess I will just have to play with it. Thanks again!

 

Yeah you dont need them. But you may run into a problem when your bike snt started and you try to turn on your blinker and it stays solid for a minute. Or when you first go to turn on your bike. But after that it will work fine. My bike does that because I did front and rear with no resistors and they look solid since no power is being used anywhere else.

 

If it works let me know, I was thinking of doing the same thing...It just seems to be the most cost effective alternative

 

It works.

 

all aftermarked signals on my 07.. front, and FE... mine blink fast, no problems with them staying on or anything..

i feel alittle more visible with it blinking faster.

oh yeah.. no resistors at all.

 

How could the resistor possibly get wired in after the turn signal? I don't even think it's possible to ponder that. Maybe if you haven't taken it out of the box yet?


In other news does anyone here currently have resistors and if so how hot do they get? Will they melt the tray at all? I just got my integrated tailight and i did some tests with it. Everything is working fine i just dont know where to put the resistors(they are massive).

 

After the installation all i have to say is, wow that tailight has the ****tiest fitting ever. It's 10x worse than i thought it would be. If you have the money go for the hangar. This light looks great after installed but the fitting is 1 out of 10. Bends and stretches a bunch of things during installation, but it looks really nice.


Anyone got any ideas where to put these massive resistors? I'm not sure how hot they get, dont want them around the wires. I could easily hide all the wiring to make it look stock if I took the resistors off, but ilike theregular blink rate. For somereason i associate the fast blink with brokenturn signals. I guess i could hide the resistors somewhere else on the bike. I'm sure one of you here came up with a better solution than my temporary one.