i installed a clear alternatives tail on my 03 600rr, and it works intermittently. it flickers, seemingly at random, between working properly and half the running lights working, random vertical rows of LED's lighting up and not lighting up, etc. the turn signals always work as they should - only the running light, and sometimes the brake light, are a problem. finally, when half the running light led's are flickering or off completely, i can tap the brake and they all come on, and when i release the brake they stay on for a while. i can't figure out what would do it. somebody suggested a bad connection, but i soldered the factory taillight plug onto the harness, and i know the plug and wiring are good. could it just be a defective unit, or is there something i'm missing?

 

Sounds like a defective unit to me.

 

clear alternatives confirmed that today - told me to ship it back, and they'd ship me another one. cool deal! now i've just got to deal with not having 4 rear signals for a litle while, and rewire it all AGAIN when i'm done.

 

i just installed a clear alternatives smoke tail lens on my 03 RR tonite. damn what a PITA. could not get the damn screws that hold the metal brackets to the plastic out. had to sabotage the stock tailight. then once i got it all hooked up the signals worked, the running light worked but the brake light would stay on. after 30 minutes or so of troubleshooting found out that the rear brake light switch needed adjusted a lil bit. also blew a fuse during the install so i had to dismantle the left side to change a damn fuse. had to take off the right rearset to adjust the damn brake light switch. simple mod that turn out to be a pain. but it looks good now. i love it.

 

sounds like you had a great night!! ive done tons of minor wiring on this thing in the past week. rewired the footpeg LED's and siliconed over the cavities so it looks really clean, added a license plate light, modified and painted the license plate bracket, bent the bottom lip of the plate in and bent the plate down, so it's visible and lit, but not scraping the hugger, tapped into my footpeg turn signals for the clear alternatives tail, added resistors to that circuit (jumpered off signal +, wrapped around bolt to ground), troubleshot (heh) the taillight because it flickered, replaced the plug with the factory plug on it (now ive gotta put it back since i'm returning it). also added flushmounts to the front, glued them to the fairings since the nuts that hold them on suck. then, wired in the running light wires with diodes. took my gauge cluster apart to find that the buttons on it had fallen out and were floating around, hence the annoying vibration i couldn't find and the fact that my buttons didnt work. had to disassemble the buttons, jb weld the broken bits, jb weld them back together, and jb weld them back to the board. all in a day's work. you know you could have adjusted that switch without removing the rearset, right?

 

i also had to take my damn gauge cluster apart too to fix the damn buttons floating round in there so i had to take off the upper fairing which isnt bad but putting it back on really sucks. then i tried to adjust it with the rearset on but the screw thing was messed up so i had to take it off. i took my rear pegs off so no foot peg leds for me. it was a long and painful night but the tail section looks real clean with no turn signals hangin off the side or any foot pegs. heres a few pics....
http://www.putfile.com/imnorman/images/121822

 

yeah i like how that gauge cluster is put together - no booby traps set for me like those stupid clips that break off when you don't realize they are there, or things that fall out on their own. next time i take the upper fairing off i'm removing the screws from the gauge cluster so i can remove it anytime. the buttons are pretty simple - there's an upper and lower white section that snap (poorly) together, a black hold-down between the white pieces, and a little copper dome that acts as a spring and a switch. so i just removed the upper, lower, and hold downs, glued the upper to the lower with the hold-down in the middle, cleaned up the mess, and reinstalled. no more coming loose! next time it breaks or my jb weld fails, i'll find some different buttons to solder onto the board. your tail section does look good, although the empty space makes it look a little bit tall, and the license plate sorta hangs out. definitely good looking with the all black theme though. how about a dark smoke windscreen? i've got a zero gravity i'm pretty happy with. and yeah, the upper fairing is a snap to take off - i can get mine off in 30 seconds. putting it back on is a nightmare!! and the more crap i solder into the front turn signal circuit, the harder it is to get back together ..i was gonna do resistors along with the diodes, but i don't think i have room with the ram air tubes there.

 

i was gonna do a carbon fiber sport tech windscreen but i got a camera mount on the bike so i left my stock one on there. might get one still though just swap it out when i wanna use the camera. damn i should've left the screws out so i could remove the gauge cluster at anytime. thats a good idea. its held in place just fine by those rubber mounts. the only thing now is kinda wish i would've got the carbon fiber jardine exhaust which would make it look really good. i'm also going to get the silver lower fairings painted black to match everything. post some pics of your bike when u get a chance.

 

see i dunno about carbon fiber. it's cute, and it's great for weight, but unless youre going with a carbon fiber scheme, it might look silly to get just 1 or 2 things. now if the whole body is carbon fiber, or at least accented with carbon fiber, it might look good. but otherwise, it might look kinda gaudy. i'll get some pictures up when i get it clean and get the rim stripes on. i'm thinking about doing that gear indicator mod to the cluster too. I'd also like to powder coat my engine casings black and get a red lower fairing and a rear cowl, and tint the flushmounts, taillight, and "position light" (the little running light between the headlights). all just little cosmetic stuff but it makes a big difference.