Installing LED lights is an easy and fun way to make a unique
statement with your motorcycle, and the finished product will look
awesome. After you buy an
motorcycle LED lighting kit you like or buy LED strips to design your own, you can easily install them at home.
Preparing for the Project
1.Gather
everything you’ll need. In addition to the LED light kit, you’ll need
additional electrical wire, preferably in two different colors to help
you differentiate the positive and negative battery connections. The job
will also require velcro strips (or a permanent adhesive if you
prefer), additional 18- or 20-gauge electrical wire, sandpaper, pliers,
screwdrivers, soldering equipment (or soldering gel), wire terminal
connectors, electrical tape, and an in-line fuse.
2.Test your
LED strips. Test the strip by attaching the positive lead wire to the
positive terminal on a battery and connecting the negative lead wire to
the negative side of the battery terminal. Make sure that each
individual strip fully lights.
Your LED kit may come with a
battery you can use to test the LED strips. If not, you can use your
motorcycle’s battery to test them. Just make sure you disconnect it from
the motorcycle first. You can even use a spare nine-volt battery you
have around to test the strips.
As you’re testing the strips,
separate all of the same-size strips into different piles. This will
make it easier to use them later.
It’s a good idea to disconnect
the motorcycle’s battery now even if you don’t need to use it to test
the LED strips. In most models of motorcycle, you will find the battery
located beneath the seat. By disconnecting the battery, you can test
your LED light strips without worry of harming the other motorcycle
components that it powers.
3.Test locations for your motorcycle
LED lights. Your specific LED kit may come with instructions for where
to mount your lights, but if not, use painter’s tape to temporarily
attach them to the motorcycle. Try a couple of designs and make sure
that you have enough strips to complete the design you want.
Make sure you’re using masking tape since it won’t hurt the paint on your motorcycle at all when you peel it back off.
4.Pick
a placement for your switch. Your LED kit will come with a switch,
which should have three leads on the back—positive, negative, and
ground. Pick a comfortable location where you will later mount the
switch.
Attaching the LED Strips to Your Motorcycle
1
Attach
velcro to your LED strips. Once you know exactly where all of your
strips need to go, you can go about attaching them to the motorcycle.
Many
motorcycle LED kits
will come with tape strips already attached, but after sticking them,
you’re pretty much stuck with the design. Using thin velcro strips
instead can give you plenty of adhesion while also giving you the option
to move them at will.[4]
If you’re certain you won’t ever
want to move the strips, you can naturally use the tape strips that come
with them or pick up some strong double-sided tape to use to adhere the
strips.
2
Attach the strips to your motorcycle. With your
positioning picked out and your velcro applied, you can now adhere the
strips to your motorcycle. For some spots, such as placing a strip on
the underside of a fairing, you might have to remove pieces. These
aerodynamic pieces are simply held in place with mounting screws, so you
can remove them with a screwdriver and/or socket wrench.[5]
When positioning your strip, make sure that you velcro it with the
wiring pointing toward the battery. You’ll need to feed all of the wires
in this general direction.
3
Fish the unconnected wiring
toward the battery. Some wiring, such as that behind a fairing, might
need to be fished out for you to take care of the electrical portion of
the project. You can use rigid line like that from a weed eater or even
fishing line. Tie the wiring to the line, then once the fairing is back
in place, you can fish it out with the fishing line.
Connecting the Electrical Components
1.Connect
the switch to the positive terminal on the battery. Using some
additional red (since it’s the positive terminal) electrical wiring, you
will need to attach your switch to the positive battery terminal.
Solder a ring terminal to one end of the wire. This end will fit over
the positive terminal on the battery before you tighten it down. Solder
another terminal to the opposite end after you’ve run enough wire to
reach the switch.
You should additionally splice your in-line
fuse into this portion of the wiring. LEDs draw very little power, but
connecting a fuse is always the safe thing to do. The in-line fuse will
have a wire coming out of each side. Cut a gap in your wire in a spot
where the fuse can fir easily near the battery under your seat. Use your
wire strippers to remove maybe 1/2” of the wire sheath and twist
together your wire and those from one end of the fuse, then use
electrical tape to secure the connection. Do this on both sides, so the
fuse runs seamlessly. You will only need a 5-10 amp fuse since the
lights draw so little power.
If you’re unsure how, you can look
up how to Solder, or you can purchase a soldering gel, which allows you
to place the wire into the terminal along with the gel, then simply add
heat.
Your switch will most likely have male terminal
connections, so you’ll need a female terminal connections to solder to
the wire.
For any wire splices that you make sure the project,
you can additionally buy heat-shrinking wire wrap to further secure the
spliced connection. The wrap slides over the wire on top of the
electrical tape (make sure you buy the appropriate size for the wire
you’re using), and then you can apply a bit of heat with a lighter
(don’t burn the wire to either side of the wrap), which will cause it to
shrink down and reinforce the splice.
2.Connect your ground
wire. This connection also requires an additional piece of wire with a
connection to the switch soldered at one end and a ring terminal
soldered at the other. You will connect one end to the ground terminal
of your switch, and you will connect the other end to the metal frame of
your motorcycle. The ground wire needs to have a metal-on-metal
connection, so it’s easiest simply to find a metal portion of the frame
with a bolt near the switch location and to put the ring terminal over
the bolt and tighten it back down.
In order to ensure that
it’s a metal-on-metal connection, use a piece of sandpaper to remove any
paint that might be on the frame directly where the bolt tightens down
to the frame.
3.Connect the positive LED strip wires to the switch. Run the positive wire from each of your
motorcycle LED lights
toward where you have placed your switch. Run the wires tight to the
frame, securing them if you need to. Once all of the wires have enough
length to reach your switch, use your wire strippers to remove a bit of
the wire sheath, twist them all together, and solder them to the
terminal you need to connect them to the positive terminal on the
switch.
If the positive and negative wire sheaths on your LED
strips are connected, you can use an X-Acto knife or box cutter in the
divot that runs parallel to the two wires to separate them since you
will need to run them in opposite directions.
If any of the wires
end up being too short, you can use some of the additional wiring you
have to make it longer. Just use the wire strippers to remove a bit of
the end sheaths, twist each bunch together, and secure it well with
electrical tape.
4.Connect the negative LED strip wires to
the negative battery terminal. Now run all of the negative wiring from
your motorcycle LED lights to the battery. Like you did with the line
from the battery to the switch, you’re going to connect them to the
battery with a ring terminal. Once you’ve run all of the negative wires
from each LED strip to the battery, solder them into the ring terminal
that you will attach over the negative terminal of the battery before
tightening it down.
Tips
If you have multiple strips in a similar location on the bike, you can
always splice the positive wires together and the negative wires
together in that location. This will allow you to run one wire toward
the switch or battery instead of several.
It may help to remove
some of the fairings on your motorcycle while you work, so you can more
easily secure the wiring to the frame in a way where it won’t be visible
when you’re done.
Use your nine-volt or test battery to test
your LED strips after each splice. It’s much easier to fix a splicing
connection before you have moved on than to try to retrace the steps of a
particular wire later on.
Remember that some states have laws
that may prohibit these types of lights while you are driving on the
road or highway. In other words, check the laws in your state prior to
riding on the road with your lights illuminated. They are only allowed
for "Display Only Purposes" in some states. Check the laws before you
ride, and stay safe out there.
Some kits may also have a key fob
remote control for the lights, in which case you will also need to run
the antenna wire down the frame of the motorcycle to improve reception.
Warnings
If your specific motorcycle LED kit doesn’t come with a fuse in the
wiring, then you should splice one in. It’s always safer to have a fuse
even for low-draw LEDs.
Ensure that you disconnect the motorcycle battery before you get started.
Things You’ll Need
Weather-resistant LED light strips
An in-line fuse
Electrical tape
Soldering gel or a soldering iron and solder.
Lighter
18 or 20 gauge electrical wire (preferably in black and red to help you differentiate the positive and negative connections)
A pair of wire strippers
Velcro or a more permanent adhesive if that’s your preference
A stiff wire to help fish the electrical line through the tighter spaces of the motorcycle
Switch and ring terminals
Pliers or wire crimpers
Sandpaper
Screwdriver
A battery to test the LED strips
SOURCE From http://www.wikihow.com/Install-LED-Lights-on-a-Motorcycle
