Accent Lights on your NH

[jbrady5150]

Hello all!  I am curious;  anyone ever put neon accent lights on their NH's?  Either under the bike, or woven in and around the tank, seat and frame.  I would like to add something to my '83 650 (Siren Blue) and am leaning towards the little lights, but would like some comments first.  Pics also a plus. 
Thanks for reading.

[fishmeister]

http://nighthawk-forums.com/index.php/topic,5374.msg67052.html#msg67052

[SirSeanSean]

I saw this on a 92 250cc nighthawk when I was looking into buying one. Here's a picture.http://images.craigslist.org/3nd3ob3lb5Z05S65R2a5c9f562d77add31034.jpg. Almost bought it but decided to get the 650 instead. Although I am definitely going to install some of these on mine as well.(I installed blue ones on the inside of my car.)

[muttstang]

I'd want to be sure the charging system could keep up.  Plus, don't go too crazy with it.  a few lights might be cool, but more isn't always better.

[Hangster]

I'd want to be sure the charging system could keep up.  Plus, don't go too crazy with it.  a few lights might be cool, but more isn't always better.

Actually they draw next to nothing as far a battery and the charging system goes , so go nuts and light up the night  

[JB1290]

I'd want to be sure the charging system could keep up.  Plus, don't go too crazy with it.  a few lights might be cool, but more isn't always better.

Actually they draw next to nothing as far a battery and the charging system goes , so go nuts and light up the night 

Yup...LED's don't draw much from the charging system. I have a buddy that has a crap load of LED's on his chopper. He left them on for a week and the bike started right up.

[tomb raider]

Passed a Hog the other morning, IN the dark and he had lights under his tank that lit the engine up Blue, looked Damn Cool....

[ariwhiteboy]

I kinda thinking of adding some red led's to the CB1000. Whatever you decide to do take lots of pics and document it for us!

[OhCrap]

Any other lights than the one required by law are illegal over here, luckily... 

[Hangster]

Hang on a little,  just did another lighting mod under the rear fender and i'll post a vid sometime later tonight 

[SirSeanSean]

Sweetness!

[Adam Roby]

I am sure they sell kits, but if you are at all adventurous, you can go purchase a bunch of LEDs at your local electronics store and wire them up whereever you want.  Different colors and types of LEDs take different amounts of voltage and require different current depending also on heat and amount of brightness you want.

A standard voltage for many red LEDs is 1.9 volts.  Typical currents are around 10 mA, but you can easily go to 20 mA in most applications.  The thing to remember is that you MUST limit the current using a resistor. 

Wiring the LEDs in series, you add up their voltages...  in a case where we have 1.9 volt LEDs, it would probably be 6 of them in series plus 1 resister of 36 ohms:

1.9 + 1.9 + 1.9 + 1.9 + 1.9 + 1.9 = 11.4 volts.
Put a resistor in series, taking on the 0.6 remaining volts. 
0.6 volts / 0.020 mA = ~30 ohms:  36 ohms is a standard value.

You can then put as many of these in parallel as you like.
PM me if you have different ratings and numbers of LEDs, I can walk you through the best wiring scheme (power conservationally speaking)

[Hangster]

OK ...here is what the red LED light strips look like under the rear fender .

[Adam Roby]

That looks pretty sweet.  (Not to mention your bike sounds nice too - a lot smoother running than my old jalopy).

Doh, now I am tempted to do the same.   :)

[jerjohn]

I have four on mine. I have two mounted below the carbuerators, one mounted throuth the rear fender and one under the gas tank near the front. My avatar pic was taken with the flash on so the bike could be seen. They are really pretty bright. There is a guy on ebay who sells homemade kits (where I got mine) each LED is soldered to about 10 inches of wire and wrapped in heatshrink etc. He also provides the switch and battery connection plus extra wiring. I dont think there was a resistor included...i think it has to do with the way you connect them... series vs parralel or maybe I just have 3 volt LEDS (sure Adam Roby can clarify). Any way I paid 15 bucks and it was simple to install. They guy even included little flat mounting tabs and hole mounts. I recommend this dude. If ya want I will look through my history and get you his username.

Any other lights than the one required by law are illegal over here, luckily... 

That sucks, red white and blue lights are technically illegal here in Texas if they face forwards. Apparently those colors are designated emergency colors. I would have chosen green if I had known that. I have been stopped once but the officer had me turn them off then told me how he learned to ride on an old cb400 hawk. Guess I got lucky, but I still ride with them.