LED taillight suggestions, questions

[jfoley]

I am going to switch my gauge cluster and idiot lights to LEDs and in the process was going to change out my taillights to LEDs so I can free up some power and maybe run some accessories in the future.

Has anyone used the taillight from superbrightleds.com? how does it compare to stock?

Link below:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2F1157-R19W6_motorcycle_bulb.htm

[adidasguy]

They work very well.

(never mind the rest - taken out of context so I removed it)

[jfoley]

how about red for instruments? will this work well at night?

[XealotX]

What percentage of the total available power would converting to LED's free up? Has anyone looked into it?

[adidasguy]

You are free to try whatever colors you want in the gauges. Just a suggestion regarding blue.

[jfoley]

do i need a different electronic flasher relay for the taillight? someone on the forum was saying i would need this, im a bit confused.

[ben2go]

do i need a different electronic flasher relay for the taillight? someone on the forum was saying i would need this, im a bit confused.

No,not for the tail light,for the turn signals.

[adidasguy]

The tail light does not connect to a flasher. Only the turn signals connect to a flasher.

[jfoley]

ok thx, sorry ben, you were confusing me earlier, i wont be upgrading turn signals yet.

[CndnMax]

3. Do NOT use blue for instruments. While you may think it looks cool, you can't see the dials at night. Trey had blue. Too hard to read the instruments. Swapped them with warm white LEDs. If you want blue-ish, use cool white.

I have blue gauges and it's not hard to see at all, even my car came with blue led gauge from factory. With the limited amount of time u spend looking at the gauge it's all about personal preference.

[adidasguy]

3. Do NOT use blue for instruments. While you may think it looks cool, you can't see the dials at night. Trey had blue. Too hard to read the instruments. Swapped them with warm white LEDs. If you want blue-ish, use cool white.

I have blue gauges and it's not hard to see at all, even my car came with blue led gauge from factory. With the limited amount of time u spend looking at the gauge it's all about personal preference.

yea, taken out of context so I didn't see any need to leave my postings.
As I noted in a post:
"You are free to try whatever colors you want in the gauges. Just a suggestion regarding blue"

[slipperymongoose]

Check out  Lights4all on the net or eBay for led tail lights they look pretty good.

[LimaXray]

I would suggest using a 'smaller' LED for the high beam indicator light.  I can't remember what I used, but it is blindingly bright at night.  It is an annoying distraction, but not enough for me to change it.

You'll also want wide angle LEDs for the gauges as it can be difficult to illuminate the gauges consistently with LEDs since they are very directional.  Such a thing didn't exist when I did mine, but that may have changed in the past few years.

As for power savings, it depends on what LEDs you use.  From the factory, each gauge and all the indicators, except the high beam indicator, use a 3.4W bulb.  The high beam indicator uses a 1.7W bulb.  So if you ride around without oil, in neutral, with the turn signal on with a broken flasher, and your high beams on, you'll be using 18.7W stock.  In reality though, the actually savings will be minimal, with the biggest savings coming from the 2 gauge lights.  I'd be surprised if you save 5W during normal operation.