What did you do to your FJ-tracer-gt today?

[wordsmith]

I finished a slightly more interesting and meaningful farkle today.   Traffic is mad and weather hot and humid, and raining on and off, so better off in the garage than on the road today!

Installation of the rear brake-light LED flashing/ pulsing function is now completed, after some earlier pre-fabbing of the wiring.

The LEDs were mounted onto a small aluminium bracket just below the rear light cluster, with the rear face of the LEDs vertically in-line with the LEDs in the main brake light.   This keeps the mass of lights in one place for optimum visibility.  The LEDs were then wired-in to the other components which were ready and installed in the bike.   The whole kit takes up negligible room under the pillion seat – in the pic the relay is arrowed orange and the Modulator in green.   Wiring is untidy – I’ll fix that later now that I know it all works.

The various parts involved are:

·        the two red LED strips

·        a 5amp in-line fused wire from the battery

·        the relay, which is nothing more than an electronic switch

·        the GS 100A Modulator to create the flashing/ pulsing function

·        4 x small spade terminals to suit the relay

·        some wire

·        a little heat-shrink tube.  

When either brake is applied current from the rear brake-light lead (yellow) powers the LEDS in a sequence of 5 slow flashes, then 5 more rapid flashes, then the LEDs stay on in steady state along with the pretty weak OE brake-light.   The LEDs are actually quite a bit brighter than the pic suggests. 

The intention is to highlight to following vehicles that the bike is braking – on previous bikes it was so highly visible that I have had other riders stop me and ask for details!  

The SKENE proprietary P3 lights are an alternative, and having had them on earlier BMWs I can say they are excellent, but pretty expensive.   My set-up here cost me about AUD$35, plus some enjoyable time ‘tinkering’!

Edited January 3, 2019 by wordsmith

[roadrash83]

19 hours ago, wordsmith said:

I finished a slightly more interesting and meaningful farkle today.   Traffic is mad and weather hot and humid, and raining on and off, so better off in the garage than on the road today!

Installation of the rear brake-light LED flashing/ pulsing function is now completed, after some earlier pre-fabbing of the wiring.

The LEDs were mounted onto a small aluminium bracket just below the rear light cluster, with the rear face of the LEDs vertically in-line with the LEDs in the main brake light.   This keeps the mass of lights in one place for optimum visibility.  The LEDs were then wired-in to the other components which were ready and installed in the bike.   The whole kit takes up negligible room under the pillion seat – in the pic the relay is arrowed orange and the Modulator in green.   Wiring is untidy – I’ll fix that later now that I know it all works.

The various parts involved are:

·        the two red LED strips

·        a 5amp in-line fused wire from the battery

·        the relay, which is nothing more than an electronic switch

·        the GS 100A Modulator to create the flashing/ pulsing function

·        4 x small spade terminals to suit the relay

·        some wire

·        a little heat-shrink tube.  

When either brake is applied current from the rear brake-light lead (yellow) powers the LEDS in a sequence of 5 slow flashes, then 5 more rapid flashes, then the LEDs stay on in steady state along with the pretty weak OE brake-light.   The LEDs are actually quite a bit brighter than the pic suggests. 

The intention is to highlight to following vehicles that the bike is braking – on previous bikes it was so highly visible that I have had other riders stop me and ask for details!  

The SKENE proprietary P3 lights are an alternative, and having had them on earlier BMWs I can say they are excellent, but pretty expensive.   My set-up here cost me about AUD$35, plus some enjoyable time ‘tinkering’!

 Nice job Wordsmith, it is really sad how bad the tail light is on these bikes. I ended up putting on X-Arch duo signal brake lights on my GT. With the top case on the bike, the brake light was barely visible in the daylight and not much better in the dark.

[micah2074]

29 minutes ago, roadrash83 said:

 Nice job Wordsmith, it is really sad how bad the tail light is on these bikes. I ended up putting on X-Arch duo signal brake lights on my GT. With the top case on the bike, the brake light was barely visible in the daylight and not much better in the dark.

That’s weird. I always thought the tail light was crazy bright. It’s much brighter than my bikes without LED bulbs. 

[roadrash83]

3 minutes ago, micah2074 said:

That’s weird. I always thought the tail light was crazy bright. It’s much brighter than my bikes without LED bulbs. 

  I don't think having the rear luggage rack with top case helps much.

[betoney]

6 minutes ago, micah2074 said:

That’s weird. I always thought the tail light was crazy bright. It’s much brighter than my bikes without LED bulbs. 

I agree, mine is very bright as well, even in daylight. 

[nhchris]

Conspicuity good!!

I've gotten into the habit of tapping the front break during all stops just to be sure they "see the light." 

Although is seems plenty bright compared to non-led lights I've had on other bikes.

On a recent trip my fellow rider pointed out that my sagging tail bag was obscuring the entire tail light.

Not good!

cb

Edited January 4, 2019 by nhchris

[micah2074]

33 minutes ago, nhchris said:

 my sagging tail bag.

Not good!

 

That started when I hit 40. Deadlifts and squats help....

[wordsmith]

The front conspicuity LEDS/ DRLs arrived yesterday, exactly three weeks after ordering, and I set-to immediately, helped by previous installations of the same lights on other bikes and some helpful words from others on this Forum.  This pair cost me AUD$29 delivered - exceptional value-for-money in my book.

Thinking about where and how to mount them I went back to the past and put an aluminium ‘light-bar’ across the front of the bike, immediately under the headlights.  On my last Tracer the light-bar comprised a length of very thin-walled steel tube, extremely stiff, which I dressed-up with some carbon-look vinyl, but these new LEDS are different to those before and the through-bolt mount would not work satisfactorily on a tube.

So this bar was made up from a length of what the hardware store called ‘gutter strip’ – in profile it’s like a capital letter J with an extended upright.   The ‘gutter’ is a half-round extrusion along one side, which stiffens the strip appreciably, but I’m not at all sure of its real purpose!

I again applied some carbon-look PVC sheet vinyl as this gives a nice match to the adjoining carbon-look elements that are wrapped around the headlights.

Wiring was simple enough, again thanks to previous installs and help here, for I know as much about electrons as the average earthworm!   I ran the wires from the LEDs under the mounting plates behind the windscreen, and simply connected them via Posi-Taps (black to black/ red to brown) to the leads for the spare grey-ish coloured terminals there (see first pic).  

Both terminals’ leads were tapped into as I don’t plan to install any other electrical items, and I didn’t bother with a switch – the LEDs will be on when the ignition is on.   All went well – albeit pretty slowly – except that I had a small heart-attack when switching-on the first time and only one LED lit-up, but a quick checking and tightening of the Posi-Tap connections soon fixed that – and lo! – there was light!  “Brighter than a thousand suns” about sums it up!

All that remains now is to align the LEDs when I'm next out, and paint the mounting-bar's bright metal threads and securing nuts under the headlights matte black to make them a bit less prominent.   

When out and about recently, along with lots of other motorbikes, I took particular note of front-facing lights on other machines, and many were so dim that a self-respecting glow-worm would have been ashamed.   But a lot of bikes nowadays are carrying additional DRLs of one kind or another.

So now with added lights front and rear, and a decent audible warning device I should be a little safer on the roads here and just maybe will avoid the dreaded SMIDSY encounters! 

Edited January 4, 2019 by wordsmith

[wordsmith]

Fitted the Grip Puppies, an easy chore that I’d completed several times before on various bikes.   For me their main purpose is to increase the grip diameter, as I find the pencil-thin grips on most bikes uncomfortable after a while.   They also reduce vibration felt through the ‘bars, but in all honesty I cannot say that I detect any at all on this Tracer.

GP’s fitting instructions amuse me – “just apply a little soapy water and slide them over your existing grips”.   You’ll be lucky!

Not to say that it’s difficult, but practice makes nearly perfect.   On my other bikes, mainly BMW’s, the GPs needed to be cut down by about an inch, but these fit perfectly.   I hasten to add my bike does NOT have heated grips.

After unscrewing the end of the hand-guard mounting brackets the ends of the grips are exposed.   I stood the GPs in some hot water for a minute or two while removing the ‘bar fastenings, then applied a lot of liquid soap to the bike’s grips.  

I eased – as in EASY does it – the start of the GP onto the end of the grip and wiggled it on for an inch or two.  Screwdrivers, steak knives, Japanese samurai swords were not used to start the process.  Then, gripping the GP firmly with a towel it was simply rotated forwards and along the grip while applying firm inward pressure.   

Following this procedure the GP makes steady progress along the length of the grip until it comes up hard against the inboard end.   Repeat the other side.

Both GPs were then liberally rinsed with warm water to wash away as much as possible of the soap residue, then squeezed along their length with a towel to dry things off.   Purely as a matter of idle interest I timed the process from woe to go (excluding the rinsing and drying) – seven unhurried minutes.

I have no doubt that the first time I encounter heavy rain my bike will have a stream of colourful bubbles coming from the handlebars as the soap residue washes out, but it cannot do any harm if not. 

Major farkling is now just about completed, apart from fitting my new Bagster seat, e.t.a. still unknown, but I guess that much of Europe is on holidays, or in strife.  

A couple of little cosmetic touches remain to be added – ‘bling’, if you will – but that’s it!

 

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by wordsmith

[koth442]

Nice work Wordsmith, looks like you've been a busy guy!

[betoney]

5 hours ago, wordsmith said:

Major farkling is now just about completed....  

A couple of little cosmetic touches remain to be added – ‘bling’, if you will – but that’s it!

 

Nice job on the install and thanks for sharing the procedure with others.

I actually wish I had something to do to my bike over the winter, I love fiddling and tinkering.  All of my seasonal maintenance was complete by Thanksgiving, fresh oil and filter, suspension refreshed with new seals and fluids and new tires.  I'm already to hit the road but mother nature has other plans. 😪

[wordsmith]

Thanks, betoney!   It's always like this with every new bike I buy, and in this case it took a little while for the bike to be freighted the 1847km to me, so I spent some useful waiting time ordering on-line what I needed, aided of course by the fact that I'd 'been there, done that' on Tracers previously.   I knew that nothing had changed so felt confident in going ahead.

I too love to tinker and fiddle and to create solutions using non-standard bits 'n' pieces, often sourced from the strangest places!   But now I'm pretty much done, and will be getting out and about when this current very hot, humid, and unpleasant spell of weather ends.   Even in a full mesh jacket, more holey than Mother Teresa, I find it pretty tiring on the bike in such conditions.   I never could ride gloveless, in shorts and t-shirt as some do, but I kinda envy them!

Best...

[wordsmith]

4 hours ago, koth442 said:

Nice work Wordsmith, looks like you've been a busy guy!

Thanks, koth - I have been, and pretty much all done now apart from a little 'bling' (dressing-up the pannier lids, and some red-coloured tape along the crease-line under the tank), but still thinking about a tail-tidy.   Then that's it!   Then - when the weather is kinder - a little riding! 

[whistler]

On 1/3/2019 at 9:44 PM, micah2074 said:

That started when I hit 40. Deadlifts and squats help....

Just saw this and almost launched my coffee all over my laptop...  😂

[BBB]

Fitted cheap ebay short adjustable levers to see if I like them. Nice easy job so quick to undo if they’re not to my liking. Any fans of short levers out there?