Tail/brake light bulbs...

[Redbrick]

Kathy's 1150RT has Kisan Tail-Blazers installed and they work fine but the tail light illumination isn't that great..Any replacement bulb that will give off more light?

 

Phil.........Redbrick

[T__]

Phil, I agree, the stock rear lighting is on the low side of poor.. I also looked into installing a higher powered tail light bulb.. I was going to install the upper brake light socket in the tail light as the allowed a brighter bulb to be installed..

I even went so far as soldering a set of wires on a 2357 brake/tail light bulb then inserting that in the lower tail light socket hole to see what it looked like in the sun light & at night.. I was able to significantly increase the tail light brightness but then the stop light didn’t stand out when the brakes were applied..

 

OK, phase 2, new direction—I then reinstalled the stock tail light bulb in the lower hole then inserted that 2357 in the top hole.. That is a dual filament bulb so I now had a tail light top & bottom with the brake light getting a fair amount brighter.. I though that would work but the heat production was pretty high & I thought it might melt the lens if I was stopped for a long time so I kind of dropped that idea..

 

OK, we’re now at phase 3—I went on-line a & bought a dual LED light bar endowed license plate frame from Signal Dynamics.. Simple hook up,, draws virtually no extra power,, very bright as an additional tail light & with it’s dual intensity LED’s it also got brighter as an additional brake light.. That seemed to work out fairly good & gives an additional tail & brake light in case the original burns out while on the road..

 

Twisty

[Redbrick]

Quote "OK, we’re now at phase 3—I went on-line a & bought a dual LED light bar endowed license plate frame from Signal Dynamics.. Simple hook up,, draws virtually no extra power,, very bright as an additional tail light & with it’s dual intensity LED’s it also got brighter as an additional brake light.. That seemed to work out fairly good & gives an additional tail & brake light in case the original burns out while on the road.. " Quote

 

Thanks Twisty.........I'm not the only one that thinks tail light is dim...When I follow Kathy I notice it but the Hyper-Lites stand out OK even though they are the 8 bulb type rather than 16 as I have on my bike...Brake light is bright but would like more lights in the back...I'll look into an led frame.....

 

Phil........Redbrick

[Baba_ORiley]

Kathy's 1150RT has Kisan Tail-Blazers installed and they work fine but the tail light illumination isn't that great..Any replacement bulb that will give off more light?

 

Phil.........Redbrick

 

 

I've used a Tail-Blazer for years and I'm wondering if you have it set to the maximum brightness. Most (but not all) models of the Tail-Blazer have two levels of brightness that are available (no, I'm not talking about the difference between taillight brightness and brake brightness!)

 

Here's how to adjust the brightness: With the brakes applied (either foot or hand) and the ignition off, turn the bike's ignition on, then off, quickly 3 times leaving it in the on position. An adjustable brightness Tail-Blazer will do a stutter-flash and assume the opposite brightness setting from the current setting (low or high intensity). It is easy to see the difference in the running light intensity of the tail lamp.

 

Alternatively, if you have the same model Tail-Blazer as I do, you can change the bulb out. Some Kisan Tail-Blazers use a commonly available dual pin (G4) halogen light bulb that plugs into the Kisan special automotive bayonet base than contains the microprocessor. The Kisan manual indicates that a higher power bulb can be used, but cautions to look for a bulb that produces more candlepower (lumens), not just a higher wattage. A simple trip to Lowe's or Home Depot can yield a brighter bulb to fit into the Tail-Blazer base (these 12-14V DC dual pin G4 halogen light bulb are used in desk lamps and home track lighting). Of course a higher intensity bulb may be hotter, so that is a consideration.

[ESokoloff]

Phil, I put two of these

WLED-R4 (find under LED Bulb & Products/12v car/Miniature Wedge Base Bulbs) in the un-used holes on the rear mup flap on my RT & GT.

They are small but every little bit help.