issue #63 95 RB OK you have gone out and bought those LED indicators cos nobody had the sense to buy them for you at Christmas, even though you left brochures all over the place. You wire them in, invite all your buddies over to watch the unveiling, like they would be as impressive as New Year’s Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour and they start flashing like an epileptic pig is switching them on and off – Damn! The “fix” is simple and very cheap to do. You can buy a “flasher fixer” package or for around $1 to $2 plus a little bit of time. FirSTLY, wHY DOES iT HappEN? Most flsh nts deend on the totl ndcto blb tte (wtts) to contol the flsh te. Tht s hy een hen conentonl blb blos thee e less wtts connected to the flsh nt nd the flsh te nceses. Tyclly blbs e n the ne of 10 to 20 wtts, hlst LEDs ndctos e ond 0.5 to 1 wtt, deendn on ho mny LEDs thee e nsde. The lo oe consmton of the LEDs stffs the flsh te, so yo need to ncese the oe dn. Ths s done by ddn smle comonent clled essto beteen the oste nd nete es on to ech ndcto. pc one shos ht the lod on the flsh nt s th stock 10 wtt blbs, fo one LED ndcto nd to LED ndctos. Ths shos tht the LEDs t mch less wtts lod on the flsh nt nd ext s eqed, hch cn be done th esstos. wHaT vaLuE rESiSTOr? Fo ech blb yo e elcn th LED cke, he look t the blb wtte, then dde 200 by the blb wtte nd tht s the essto eqed o htee s the neest stock le. Note –yo d on’t need to by essto th the sme oe tn s the blb, becse t s stchn on nd off, so ee oe s bot hlf. So f t s 10 wtt blb, by 5 wtt essto. Fo 10 w tt blb yo need 200 dded by 10 eqls 20 Ohm essto. Fo ths t, i ent to the locl electoncs sho nd d 40 cents fo ech essto. One fo ech LED ndcto nd note – yo do ths to ech sde of the bke. wHErE DOES THE rESiSTOr gO? it doesn’t mtte jst s lon s t s n the ndcto n beteen the oste nd nete es. The essto ll et m/hot, jst lke the onl blb s hot, so lce t somehee y fom lstcs, othe cbles etc. nd ot of the ethe. Yo cn solde them n, se temnl block o een those connectos tht ct thoh the e’ s nslton. LED nd cto s nd e let c s Fitted LEDs and now they're flashing like mad? bike tech Words & PiCs: RIchARD cOLLINS tech tIpS RB LEFT: If you have gone to LEDs front and back, you can do each indicator as above or just do them in one place. NOTE: The exposed wire of red (positive) cable needs to be insulated, so wrap some insulating tape around to cover just those exposed wires. ABOVE LEFT AND RIG HT: Co nnecting in the resistor , using a terminal or solder ing. ABOVE: Cut the two wire s going to the indicator and strip them back .