N8sVFR

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 1:18 AM, Grum said:

Hey Variable.

Does this help, check out the location of Item 2. Straight from the 6gen owners booklet. As mentioned I just found it easier to place it where I showed you with the Yellow arrow, your choice.

Cheers

 

BINGO -- that's the spot.  It's actually more under the side panel, as you can see from the image, but obviously you have to remove the seat to get to it.  Not sure if yours will be there or not, but that's where it belongs!!  :)

13 hours ago, VARIABLE9 said:

That’s right in line with my Q&A, thanks everyone ( @Grum j. I didn’t want to purchase another if Honda hid it somewhere ‘special’. And especially now that I have it, stuffing the tool kit into the well between the subframe rails and undertray seems a ‘tight fit’ to put it mildly. 

No, Variable. I understood your question, and was trying to tell you the specific location where the spanner handle is stored. I’ll have to take a pic of my 6th gen tomorrow and post it. There IS a specific location where the handle is stored, and it’s not in or with the rest of the tool kit.....

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 9:56 AM, VARIABLE9 said:

@Grum can you advise where is this part stored on the bike?  Is it usually in the tool kit?  Or is there a dedicated location to 'clip' it in elsewhere?  

There's a dedicated little spot that it goes in under the seat, I believe on the left side.  Held in by something akin to very large o-ring rubber band typ thing.  Check your bike. . . .might still be there!!

That's the ticket right there, Greg. Those will be sweet, and I may even be interested in upgrading my originals to this version. Looking forward to seeing the updates in the near future and the photos of the mock-ups.

-Nate

Like Marooncobra said above. The belleville washers are on the underside of the OEM GSXR mount. The stacking order from top to bottom is:

top of riveted 'bolt' (machined end)

mirror stalk

mount

4 belleville washers

1 flat washer

bottom of riveted 'bolt' (this is the actual riveted end)

Photos of dis-assembly below.

Bingo -- those are the washers. And yes, there are four of them in the GSXR OEM mount. I took some apart last night and will post some photos later.

Nope. . . NOT lock washers. I'm pretty familiar with my hardware terminology. :) These 'spring washers' are things that I have never seen before. . . still trying to locate my 'new' (not dis-assembled) GSXR mirrors. Then I can tell you precisely where they were located in the assembly.

Believe it or not, sadly, I DO have the original parts from the first set of GSXR mirrors I pulled apart!! I looked at them this morning. The spring washers are black; they look like a regular flat washer at first, but if you look closely, they are actually slightly conical -- if you set them on a flat surface, the center of the washer is about 1/64" higher than the edge. I believe that there were 4 in the OEM assembly, but I'm not sure where they were located relative to the OEM 'rivit' that attached the stalk to the base. When my left mirror broke, I managed to find another set or GSXR OEM mirrors on EBay that I have laying around somewhere. I'll try to find them, drill them apart, and take photos, or let you know where the spring washers were originally. Then you can do as you wish with the new batch of adapter mounts. . . .who knows. It might not even be feasible to incorporate them. But I think it would be great if you could.

Take apart the OEM GSXR mirrors. You will find the spring washers that I am talking about. The detents aren't the spring washers. They just provide the engagement for the mount and the arm (obviously). I must not be explaining the assembly of the OEM mirrors very well. . . .

Anyway, just my suggestions for some potential improvements . . .if no one else is having any problems with the adapters, then maybe it was just my issue.

Ok guys. . . here are the photos that should help.

First image: snapped off stock GSXR mirror stalk at the base. . . .note the flat head Phillips bolt. If you google 'flat head phillips' you will see that this type of bolt or screw actually has a flared bottom. It's not flat on the bottom. . . .it's flat on the top!!!! You have to know your bolts. . . .you should be able to see how tightening the bolt further, essentially results in you forcing a funnel shape into a cylindrical hole. . . .the tighter you make it, the more outward pressure on the cast metal until. . . .SNAP. And then you are left with this:

Next image: bolt unscrewed so that you can see the flare on the bottom of the bolt, and the detents on the bottom of the GSXR mirror stalk. . . more on that in a minute.

I'll have to be more specific. . . .I'll try to get some photos tonight. Yes, mine were just like that, and yes, mine had the phillips countersunk screw / bolt. That was the problem. Pictures will speak 1,000 words. . . .

The detents I'm recommending would be at third points in the bottom of the circular recess already milled into the mount. The stock GSXR mirror stalks have protrusions that keep them in a relative position. . . .like I said, more when I have some pictures.

-Nate

Seb - simply beautiful. Marvelous machine work, glass and carbon fiber work. You've managed to merge all of the stock bits along with your custom fabricated parts into a GORGEOUS machine. I tip my hat to you, Sir. :)

Greg -- not sure if this will be helpful or not, but I have a set of the original production run of the GSXR mirror adapter mounts installed on my '02. One of the problems that I've had with them over the years was the approach of using a flat head phillips bolt for attaching the mirror to the new mount. The problem with a flat head bolt is that it puts outward (not downward) pressure on the cast aluminum GSXR mirror stalk. A bit of over-tightening and . . . . .snap!! The mirror stalk will split or break in a couple places at the mounting hole, rendering it useless (which has happened to me). I was also not a fan of the fact that the aluminum adapter mounts did not include detents in the recess where the GSXR mirror stalk actually mates up with the mount. There is essentially nothing keeping the mirror stalk from rotating on the base with the exception of the friction created between the stalk and the mount by the flat head bolt. . . . .and I already pointed out the problem with that design above. When you try to tighten the bolt to ensure no rotation, the hole in the mirror stalk cracks. So, in short, you might consider utilizing a different type of bolt that won't put outward pressure on the cast aluminum stalk, and ideally, adding detents in the new adapter mount to mate up with the mirror stalk. Just my $.02. I can take some photos tonight if that would be helpful. . . .not trying to be a downer AT ALL (I love the GSXR mirrors on my bike) but I think that these minor changes would make a significant difference.

-Nate

Hey guys - glad to see that this old post is still getting some mileage!! Awesome to see what others have done to improve visibility and safety. If I had it to do over again, which I might some day. . . .I would probably go with a slightly different system utilizing relays instead of the diode and resistor technique. I believe that I've gotten some loss of power over time due to natural decay of the performance of the electronics that I chose to use when doing the original build. The LED's aren't quite as bright as they were originally, either due to natural reduction in performance over time of the LED's themselves, or the resistors and diodes.

I need to look more into this myself. I made my own using regular LED, but turned sideways. Surface mount LED are not very bright generally, and my setup was more of a Proof of Concept. It works, as proven I guess....but not nearly as bright as I would like.

I love the connectors, and will certainly look into them...I opted for a Cat5 cable so I could use a M/M connector and easily unplug.

As far as making them run, blink, etc...a chip would be the way to do it, and would make it a bit more complex...the worst part is there are so many different trunk styles that each one would be a custom design, and most don't want to spend $200 for parts + custom labor.

Tightwad -

The SMLED's that I used were the brightest that I could find in a red SMLED that would fit behind the reflectors. I was actually pretty pleased with the brightness - easily visible even in full sunlight. Perhaps the video's and photos don't do the lights justice. I'll have to work on that. The reflectors also help to spread the light from the LED's over a greater area as well.

Binder connectors rock. Great quality, selection, and super service. Couldn't ask anything more from them.

My limited understanding of wiring for control of the LED's would require individual wiring to each LED or groups of LED's that were to be controlled separately. That would be a ton of wires to pack into the topcase, and coule be great for looks, but would defeat the purpose of the topcase for me -- room to take stuff with me!! My setup is obviously specific to the OEM topcase. You are absolutely right that other cases would require specific / custom installation and fabrication. Honestly, I was shocked that I couldn't find anything out there that was already being manufactured and I just wanted to put this out there for anyone who has an OEM case so that they would know that it was possible. It's not a cheap proposition, but definitely worth it for me. When I was first fabricating my lights, I was thinking about going into production if there was enough interest. It has taken forever for this topic to even reach two pages, so that idea went out the window pretty quick. There are economies of scale of course - buying in bulk would bring the cost of the parts down, but not that significantly (I was thinking 15%).

I'm assuming you used a reduced feed to run the running lights and a full feed for the turn signals. I'm curious what ohm-rating of resistors you used to make this happen.

Thanks!

While I'm thinking about it, do you happen to have a complete parts list? I know, I'm asking the nearly impossible for a home-engineer, but I figure I'll be picky, worst case is I don't get it

I did use a reduced feed or the running lights, in-line resistors, as you suspected. I ran the calculation and came up with the ohm-rating that I needed. I'll post that up later. I can get you a pretty complete parts list too, but it will take a bit of time. I can probably pull it all together sometime this weekend.

Yup, they are a little short, and you'd have to surface mount the ones from Knight Riderz too . . .they wouldn't fit behind the red reflectors on an OEM topcase (unless you were willing to cut a hole all the way through the case, which I didn't want to do for weathertightness reasons). They might look good installed to the lower black portion of the OEM topcase (right below the reflectors) if someone was just looking to add turn signals.

I've been thinking of doing something like this for quite awhile now, thanks for the write up.

My top case is in the way when the bike is in the garage so I take it off frequently. I may have to ponder the alternatives to the plugin route.

A big thumbs up for the clean install!

EDIT:

Y'all remember the Mercury Cougar sequential turn signals? how cool would it be to setup the rear-facing portion of the turn signals to blink in sequence to the outside edge when the turn signal is on. It'd be a whole lot more work, but it'd be darn cool.

Another thought, what's the legality of having red lights flashing to the side? I doubt you'll have any LEO issues, unless you find a particularly anal one, but its some thing to think about.

I'll do some research on the TXDOT statues on this for reference.

Sequential blinking LED's in there would be a lot of work. The strips that I used were pre-wired . . .you would have to either build your own bank and a custom controller to sequentially light the LED's or find one that would suit your needs. There's probably something out there, but it wouldn't be that complicated to make one yourself. Probably the hardest part would be finding a way to route all of the wiring within the reflector.

I did a bunch of research regarding color. . . .I never came across anything that stated that turn signals could not be partially on the side of a vehicle. . . .if you think about it, both the front and rear stock signals are visibile from the side anyway. ONe thing that I intend to do is change the rear combination light to the clear version from the '06 and later model years and install red LED turn signal bulbs in that unit as well. Then all of my rear facing lights will be red, which as far as I have determined, is completely legal. Amber must be used for forward facing turn signals.

tx,

There are other options or ways to make the top case more 'quick disconnect' friendly. The screw in connector that I used is heavy duty and works really well at keeping moisture out of the connection. However, Binder, the company that I sourced all of my connections from, has others that are 'snap-in' that have IP (or weather-tightness) ratings that are just as high. I just liked the idea of a mechanical, threaded means of cable attachment. And for me, it takes less than 5 seconds to unscrew the connector and the top case is free.

I should also post an update sometime (your comment was a good reminder). The only issue that I have had is the way that I connected the wiring harness inside of the top case to the surface mounted connector. The way that the wires were connected, there was no strain relief for the soldered connections. Over the period of about 3 months, repeatedly dropping in and taking out my briefcase ended up loosening the soldered connections. The simple fix was to install a boot from an RCA connector that you can pick up at any Radio Shack. We'll see how it holds up. . . .I am thinking about beefing that up somehow too.

Anyway, thanks for the compliment, and good luck if you take a stab at this!! Make sure that you post up pictures too!!

-Nate

Thanks for the compliments guys. In my 14 years of riding, I have found that doing everything possible to increase our visibility to other vehicles is key to our survival!! (Plus, it looks cool and give me a continual source of projects to work on!!)

And Jon28, sorry, but I'm not heading to Floridy anytime soon!! :laugh:

Essentially, yes. The LED's and the incandescent bulbs receive the signal at the same time, from the same source, but what you are seeing is that the LED's essentially come on immediately. Incandescent bulbs have to heat up the filament before reaching full brightness, which takes a few milliseconds -- long enough for the human eye to tell a difference beweeen the two. When I get around to changing out the rear combination lens to the clear from the '06 and later models, I intend to change to LED bulbs there as well (brakes and turn signals).

Videos can be found here:

Vid 1

Vid 2

Vid 3

Enjoy!! :huh:

Ok. They are .avi files (windows). I'll get them up on here tonight, hopefully.

Ok, good idea about the vids. I took a couple videos, but how do I add them to the post? Can I host them on VFRD or do they need to have another home. . . .as soon as you guys help me figure out this part, they will get added to the topic!! :laugh:

Joe - Yea, I had considered the GIVI connection technique, but determined that the manufacturing of the Honda OEM rack and top case were not really suited for that application. There is not a pre-formed 'knock-out' in the case or in the rack that allows for easy installation, unlike the GIVI cases and racks. Plus, for me, I rarely remove my top case. I guess if I do forget to disconnect the cable, I won't get too far!! I intentionally have the cable fairly tight for just that reason.