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Making Your NC700 More Visual & Safe - Mike Mas
Being Visual - to others is possibly one of the most important features we can have with our bikes. As we approach an intersection at night, our single “yellow” headlight could easily be mistaken for just a porch light on someones home!
While The Lights - On our NC700's are minimally adequate for driving, we lack good visibility to others. With this in mind, I decided to go on a LED project to help other drivers see me better by installing some additional lighting on my machine. Hopefully the forum Moderators will leave this in the discussion category so we can all contribute different ways to become more visual to others.
I’ll put up two projects; this one for the “Front” of our NC’s and a following article for rear lighting. As we all know, with the one small bulb in the rear, our NC’s is near impossible to see to approaching cars.
After Spending Hours - on Ebay looking at different lights at prices up to $500 and brackets with questions if they would fit. I visited my local Advance Auto parts store in town and spent 30 minutes looking over the different LED light sets and found what I thought would be a good choice.
I wanted a set of lights that gave me the opportunity to flash the lights in a sequence, to be more noticeable to other drivers, so I bought a set of LED’s called the “Twin Strobz” which comes with a “Led Stack” light with a truck load of Led’s, and a controller. This set is super bright and would make a good set of lights if you choose to use them. The set comes with two lights sets and a each light had around 6 feet of cord plus a connector. The lights plug into a small digital controller which allows the operator to select from a variety of different flash sequences that range from being on all the time - fast flashing - slow flashing and alternating flash from light to light.
Next, I went down to my local China-Mart and bought a set of 2.75” LED running lights ($24.95) I re-wired them to the Twin Strobe controller and presto I had a set of good looking running / Fog lights that looks really good on my NC and I could sequence them in any manner I choose.
Installation - Here where I ran into some difficulty, as we all know, our NC is a pretty slick designed bike which means there is really is no part on the bike that is really 90 degrees the road except by the engine which is not were I wanted them to be mounted. I also wanted them as high as possible so the LED’s are facing forward to focus their light on other drivers. I also wanted them to be spread apart as far as possible so they don’t blend in with the headlight.
Lucky For Me -I just installed my Madstad windshield, which included two side wings and mounts, that provided a perfect place to mount my lights. After a little wire routing planning, I ran the wires back in the steering opening and into an interior air channel on the left side which enters the battery compartment so there was no drilling. Next, I cut some 3M double stick tape to hold the bracket in place and used just one screw with large plastic washers to hold the bracket in place.
Wiring - Wiring the lights was straight forward thanks to the easy access to the battery compartment and fuse panel. One of my own requirements was I would be able to turn the lights on with the motor off, this way if I wanted to park the bike close to a road or parking lot at night she would remain visual, somewhat like parking lights on a car. In order to get full time power, I wired it on the fused side (7.5 amp) of lighter fuse that provides power to an the optional 12 volt receptacle. For those of you who would prefer to have them on with the lights, there is plenty of fuse opportunities in the fuse panel.
Since I was already there at the battery panel, I figured this would be a good opportunity to install my 12 volt lighter receptacle. I did not want it exposed or on the bars so I drilled my battery cover and installed it on the right side where there is a void behind to accommodate the depth and wiring. I found the mating connector and wired the lighter plug.
Light Controller - I mounted my controller right close to the forward top portion of the trunk where I would have easy access. The control module has two lighted buttons; (red & blue) one for power, and the other for the light sequence. As the lights flash - it matches the flash sequence on the lighted buttons, so you don't have to get off the bike to see which sequence is active. The system also has an eprom memory since it remembers your last sequence setting, even when powered off.
In Conclusion - the “Twin Strobz” controller LED light set which was $36.99 and the two LED running light set for $24.98 gives me everything I wanted which is a small price to pay considering some fog lamp sets run up to $500. Most important, they provide additional safety making us more visual to other drivers. I’ll be installing the two unused LEDs that came with the Twin Strobe on my pickup.
While there is state regulations on lights - I really doubt any officer would pull you over if you choose the slow flash of the running lights, even though its supposed to be flashing from low to high beam. I’ve seen a number of bike flashing the fogs, so I don’t think it will be an issue. I mean it’s for safety reasons right?.
I included a Youtube video (below) showing just a few of the strobe sequences available with the Twin Strobz light set. Certainly if you broke down on the highway some of these quick flashing light sequences would be very valuable.
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/Z8VqNAIkYo8
Enjoy - Mike Mas
Regarding the legality of using the lights, The state requirements are:
25251.2. Any motorcycle may be equipped with a means of modulating
the upper beam of the headlamp between a high and a lower brightness
at a rate of 200 to 280 flashes per minute. Such headlamps shall not
be so modulated during darkness.
Being Visual - to others is possibly one of the most important features we can have with our bikes. As we approach an intersection at night, our single “yellow” headlight could easily be mistaken for just a porch light on someones home!
While The Lights - On our NC700's are minimally adequate for driving, we lack good visibility to others. With this in mind, I decided to go on a LED project to help other drivers see me better by installing some additional lighting on my machine. Hopefully the forum Moderators will leave this in the discussion category so we can all contribute different ways to become more visual to others.
I’ll put up two projects; this one for the “Front” of our NC’s and a following article for rear lighting. As we all know, with the one small bulb in the rear, our NC’s is near impossible to see to approaching cars.
After Spending Hours - on Ebay looking at different lights at prices up to $500 and brackets with questions if they would fit. I visited my local Advance Auto parts store in town and spent 30 minutes looking over the different LED light sets and found what I thought would be a good choice.
I wanted a set of lights that gave me the opportunity to flash the lights in a sequence, to be more noticeable to other drivers, so I bought a set of LED’s called the “Twin Strobz” which comes with a “Led Stack” light with a truck load of Led’s, and a controller. This set is super bright and would make a good set of lights if you choose to use them. The set comes with two lights sets and a each light had around 6 feet of cord plus a connector. The lights plug into a small digital controller which allows the operator to select from a variety of different flash sequences that range from being on all the time - fast flashing - slow flashing and alternating flash from light to light.
Next, I went down to my local China-Mart and bought a set of 2.75” LED running lights ($24.95) I re-wired them to the Twin Strobe controller and presto I had a set of good looking running / Fog lights that looks really good on my NC and I could sequence them in any manner I choose.
Installation - Here where I ran into some difficulty, as we all know, our NC is a pretty slick designed bike which means there is really is no part on the bike that is really 90 degrees the road except by the engine which is not were I wanted them to be mounted. I also wanted them as high as possible so the LED’s are facing forward to focus their light on other drivers. I also wanted them to be spread apart as far as possible so they don’t blend in with the headlight.
Lucky For Me -I just installed my Madstad windshield, which included two side wings and mounts, that provided a perfect place to mount my lights. After a little wire routing planning, I ran the wires back in the steering opening and into an interior air channel on the left side which enters the battery compartment so there was no drilling. Next, I cut some 3M double stick tape to hold the bracket in place and used just one screw with large plastic washers to hold the bracket in place.
Wiring - Wiring the lights was straight forward thanks to the easy access to the battery compartment and fuse panel. One of my own requirements was I would be able to turn the lights on with the motor off, this way if I wanted to park the bike close to a road or parking lot at night she would remain visual, somewhat like parking lights on a car. In order to get full time power, I wired it on the fused side (7.5 amp) of lighter fuse that provides power to an the optional 12 volt receptacle. For those of you who would prefer to have them on with the lights, there is plenty of fuse opportunities in the fuse panel.
Since I was already there at the battery panel, I figured this would be a good opportunity to install my 12 volt lighter receptacle. I did not want it exposed or on the bars so I drilled my battery cover and installed it on the right side where there is a void behind to accommodate the depth and wiring. I found the mating connector and wired the lighter plug.
Light Controller - I mounted my controller right close to the forward top portion of the trunk where I would have easy access. The control module has two lighted buttons; (red & blue) one for power, and the other for the light sequence. As the lights flash - it matches the flash sequence on the lighted buttons, so you don't have to get off the bike to see which sequence is active. The system also has an eprom memory since it remembers your last sequence setting, even when powered off.
In Conclusion - the “Twin Strobz” controller LED light set which was $36.99 and the two LED running light set for $24.98 gives me everything I wanted which is a small price to pay considering some fog lamp sets run up to $500. Most important, they provide additional safety making us more visual to other drivers. I’ll be installing the two unused LEDs that came with the Twin Strobe on my pickup.
While there is state regulations on lights - I really doubt any officer would pull you over if you choose the slow flash of the running lights, even though its supposed to be flashing from low to high beam. I’ve seen a number of bike flashing the fogs, so I don’t think it will be an issue. I mean it’s for safety reasons right?.
I included a Youtube video (below) showing just a few of the strobe sequences available with the Twin Strobz light set. Certainly if you broke down on the highway some of these quick flashing light sequences would be very valuable.
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/Z8VqNAIkYo8
Enjoy - Mike Mas
Regarding the legality of using the lights, The state requirements are:
25251.2. Any motorcycle may be equipped with a means of modulating
the upper beam of the headlamp between a high and a lower brightness
at a rate of 200 to 280 flashes per minute. Such headlamps shall not
be so modulated during darkness.
