Daniel Meyer this is all your fault (thank you for your inzane tech classes)

[mark81]

It's a little after 2:00 am why aren't honda parts departments open?  It all started when I bought my bike and went for my first evening ride.  I noticed my backlight was out on my tach. Well I finally decided to fix it today. Normally not a big deal, It's not like you need to pull the tank to replace a tach light.  But my speakers are mounted to my windshield and the wiring is integral to the speaker housing and run under the tank to the radio under the seat. No wonder it took me almost 5 months to replace a bulb.

My day started around noon when my sister dropped off my 12 year old nephew, Caleb for me to physically and mentally abuse (She may have said "keep out of trouble") since he has been misbehaving (She may have said "being a little asshole") at home. I decided that was best done today by swapping out my rear fender bib for the pillion seat and feeling some wind while we ran some errands. When we got back I decided since I have a helper today that needs to be put to work he can fetch tools since I'm too lazy to walk 15 feet from the back porch to my toolbox in the basement.



 All was going well until I found out the only bulb I had that fit the socket was a 5 watt bulb, I installed it anyway and checked everything out before reassembly. It was much brighter than the speedo light, it put off much more heat also. No go, not going to melt my tach housing with that bulb and I wasn't fond of the different brightness on the gauges but by this time it was already 11:00pm. Not to worry AutoZone is open till midnight and it's only 20 minutes away.  Of course, they only have the same bulb I already had at home. I did find some led bulbs that are 0.7 watts, however, they only had one white, one red, but there were two blue. SOLD!



 I head back to the house with my former tool fetcher, current flashlight holder falling asleep in the passenger seat. As we pull in the drive I dish out some of that physical and mental abuse that only an uncle can by waking Caleb up with a wet willy and a slap to the chest. We promptly get to work installing the new tach light and tearing into the speedo housing to replace that light as well. They're bright. Not sure if I'm gonna like it or not. I think I like the blue tint though.



Whether I like it or not it's getting put back together. I re-run my audio and USB wires to my phone mount on my handlebars from the charger and radio under the seat. By this time Caleb has asked if he can go to sleep about a dozen times and his persistence on the matter is starting to become mentally abusive toward me and I know the physical payback is about to start as well. With the level of irritation, i have had today with replacing just one simple bulb I give and let him go to bed. So I mount the windshield and run the speaker wires with no help. I test everything, phone charger works, aux audio cable is giving input to radio, right speaker check left speaker check. All that's left is throwing the tank on and bolt it down with the tank bib.......or is it? This is where ignorance is bliss. A few months ago before I met Daniel Meyer at the Inzane tech sessions I knew nothing about the petcock other than if I ran out of gas I put it on reserve and filled up asap. A few weeks ago I replaced my air filter and didn't check my petcock due to a friend borrowing my mighty vac. This time with the tank off and knowing I had the tools to do the job right I grabbed the mighty vac and attempted to pull a vacuum and see if it held. Nope, it bled off just as fast as I could pump it up. I couldn't even get fuel to flow with the petcock turned on and pumping as fast as i could. How was this bike even running? I remembered Danny saying that a bad petcock restricting fuel can actually make your mileage drop and I only got 85 miles out of my previous tank of gas when I had to switch to reserve. I looked into the petcock and found a torn diaphragm. My bike is sitting disassembled on my back porch and honda doesnt open till 9:00am. Rain is coming in at 7:00am and not stopping in the foreseeable future.



Looks like Caleb is trading a flashlight for an umbrella in the morning.

[Fazer]

Good story Mark--hope you get your petcock kit OK.  Have you desmogged?  If you decide to, you might consider the Dan Marc fuel shut off that fits nicely where all the valves and bits were before desmogging.  If I can put one on, anyone can.  I have plenty of fuel line if you decide to do this.

greg

[mark81]

Thanks for the offer Greg desmog and dan marc is on the list of projects I would like to do this winter. Along with cleaning up some wiring for the extra lighting and trailer. Gotta get rid of the scotchlock connectors before they break more wires. Would also like to switch from 5 wire to 4 wire trailer connector and add a power wire for a light and power outlet in the trailer.  Its only time and money. The problem is when i have one of those things the other is not available and on the rare occasion i have both the only thing on my mind is road trip.

[Jopson]

I like the blue lights mark, be interesting to see how you like them for nighttime riding.
I just desmogged mine and added a Dan Marc too, I also modified the OEM petcock from vaccum to manual valve, dead easy to do. So far so good!!

[mark81]

I like the blue lights mark, be interesting to see how you like them for nighttime riding.
I just desmogged mine and added a Dan Marc too, I also modified the OEM petcock from vaccum to manual valve, dead easy to do. So far so good!!

I thought about modifying the petcock as it was only the vacuum diapgragm that was bad, not the fuel but i never turn it off and know that I wont remember. One more reason to use the dan marc as backup. Im eager to see if they're annoyingly bright at night. It seems as though they may be. However i always felt they were a bit dim before. Gotta get my ass in the saddle and give a review after a good ride at night. Gotta let the back mend a bit first though.

[mark81]

UPDATE:  I went for a short ride today, heavy cloud cover but still daylight the gauges weren't lit up like they would be at night but the light is bright enough that the blue light was illuminating the numbers and they appeared blue instead of the normal black. I think the visibility issue at dusk is solved. I will update next ride I get when dark. I also rotated my bars down 1 notch while I was working on it to see if I could lessen the reach to get to them. They're going back up where they were. Going to be looking into some risers as another winter project that wont get done

[mark81]

It's bright but not obnoxiously bright. no worse than the indicator lights in the headlight bucket

	powered by Aeva

[MarkT]

Mark81, I have done everything you mentioned on your plate at least twice, and have tips on best methods.  Some I've posted.  i.e., Get the bigger Dan-Marc esp if you are pulling a trailer.  I had fuel starvation pulling a trailer to Inzane with the smaller one.  On the desmog, you can save effort by crimping the pair tubes to close them off; no need to remove and that will cut your time for the mod to less than half. My popup camper has a power socket and plugin ability. On the instrument LED's, I bought very bright ones, in all colors available from superbrightleds.com and tested them - The white ones were best by far, and I installed a pot to control their brightness.  Blue makes it harder to see, insufficient contrast though it looks pretty at first.  I installed 6 inch harley risers to pull the bars back and rotate them down so my wrists are straight - great for comfort, minimizing numbness.  You'll need to reroute the throttle cables; don't have to replace them - worth it.  I also have forward controls, the shifter support mod, and belly tank plumbed as large reserve, hi-power headlight mod (same as BonS' Smartswitch), tipped windshield, rear markers rewired as run-brake-turn; many more I'm forgetting. Some of these are on my tech tips pages, but I haven't edited there for awhile; most of these mentioned here are newer mods done on Jade; documented on tech threads here but not so much on my web site.  Ask me if you don't find my tips in a thread or on my website - you can save effort and avoid mistakes.

[mark81]

UPDATE:  since the petcock repair I'm back to 100+ miles before reserve. 30-32mpg over the last 600 miles.  Not much night riding so i cant say long term but i still dont hate the blue led gauges.

MarkT I've read several of your tech docs over the last year and saw first hand how handy your extra petcock with the belly tank is for lighting charcoal. (Thanks again for dinner)

my intention wasn't to replace with blue leds but was the only option i had at the time. Not as happy as with the stock incandescent bulbs but not completely displeased with them and they cost a pretty penny compared to planning out and purchasing in advance online so i think ill keep them a while longer before making a decision to change to white/clear.

[MarkT]

Hey Bud.  Forgot you camped by us and were at the campfire at Cooper's Rock.   Sometimes I don't equate online connections with real ones.  Gettin old - it's not for sissies... 

Yep I didn't have lighting charcoal in mind when I installed the extra petcock - more for making the bike an "oiler" (think WWII refueler ships) or draining the tank to pull it for service underneath. But it came in handy when we had no lighter fluid or a charcoal chimney, huh?  Except for calming the S.O.'s certainty that I was going to blow us up. That's another issue I will apparently never stop in spite of my abundance of experience she disses. BTW I replaced the R&M bung with one w/o the inside tube so now I can drain ALL the gas in both tanks. Incidently the "oiler" fn was needed immediately after it's install on the ride to the GOTF - one of our guys ran himself outta fuel even on an Interstate - but the rest of us all had belly tanks.  He thought I was about to stop for gas when he saw me reach for the reserve - but I was just transferring fuel. So he forgot about it - even after he hit reserve - ran out in the middle of nowhere in the desert of N. New Mexico. Had to rescue him with my "oiler".

OK to the point.  Here's a couple shots of my white LED instrument lights from superbrightleds.com.  Shop lights out to simulate night, first shot full brightness, 2nd shot with pot dialing it down. 3rd the pot.

[Mtn Valk]

MarkT, for the instrument L.E.D. bulbs, did you choose White (Cool), or White (Natural), from www.superbriteleds.com
Thanks.......

[MarkT]

MarkT, for the instrument L.E.D. bulbs, did you choose White (Cool), or White (Natural), from www.superbriteleds.com
Thanks.......

194-CWHP5: Cool White

[Mtn Valk]

I appreciate that info! My backlights are about shot, & can hardly read them at night.

[hueco]

MarkT, for the instrument L.E.D. bulbs, did you choose White (Cool), or White (Natural), from www.superbriteleds.com
Thanks.......

194-CWHP5: Cool White

MarkT. In another thread you said that the CWHP5 was actually too bright. Why did you decide to go with it instead of the CW5?

[MarkT]

MarkT, for the instrument L.E.D. bulbs, did you choose White (Cool), or White (Natural), from www.superbriteleds.com
Thanks.......

194-CWHP5: Cool White

MarkT. In another thread you said that the CWHP5 was actually too bright. Why did you decide to go with it instead of the CW5?

I don't recall that other thread or the decision but in any case with a dimmer I can set the brightness any amount I need.

[hueco]

MarkT. I regret that I can not find it either. It was a very good thread. Very detailed with different colors and brightness critique . I wish I could find it. Could you possibly check your profile and see if you can find it? Maybe make a stickie. Thanks.

[Bone]

Could this be the thread ? I don't save many but saw this link in a folder.


http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,40568.0/topicseen.html

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,34551.msg320539.html#msg320539

[Mtn Valk]

Following MarkT's reply to my post, reading "between the lines" in his previous posts, having installed a turn pot to control the brightness, I went with the 194 CW5 (LED 5) bulb. It was exactly the right choice for me, as I don't have a way to control the brightness.
While the CWHP5 would have been too bright, I ordered 2 of them to replace my back-up lights on my 2004 Tacoma. They are a great product!

[mark81]

Well since this thread has been resurrected I’ll chime in and give an update. It’s been 2 1/2 years with the sylvania blue led bulbs in the guages. They are still in and working great. If I had to do over again with all the research others have done and issues with some being too bright or dim and color washing out the faces I’m glad I have what I have. It just works. Not too bright and requiring a potentiometer or resistor to dim and still fully legible gauge faces in all conditions especially at dusk.

[hueco]

, I went with the 194 CW5 (LED 5) bulb. It was exactly the right choice for me, as I don't have a way to control the brightness.
While the CWHP5 would have been too bright, I ordered 2 of them to replace my back-up lights on my 2004 Tacoma. They are a great product!

Since we cannot seem to find the very detailed thread of MarkT's. I am going to go with the CW5. As that is what he preferred instead of the CWHP5. Which was too bright in his opinion.

[MarkT]

I disagree with your memory.  This has to be the thread since it covers the beginning thru the end of my install.  My link is to the cool whites, CWHP5.  Note I dim them with a pot so they go from too bright to just right to off. The too bright is OK early in the evening.  You must be recalling someone else's post.

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,82521.msg811307.html#msg811307