Application of brake levers and lights

[Oysterville]

I'm so close to having my first motored bicycle, but I need to resolve this issue before I take it to the road.

There's those cheap China **** brake lights available on Amazon and ebay that appear by all accounts to be utter ****, so I don't wanna throw money away like that. Then I found the brake lever with switch over at Electric Scooter Parts, and figure that is what I need along with the requisite battery, wiring, and brake/tail light at the back.

However, electrical isn't exactly my strong suit. Therefore, I need to turn to the wiring gurus here and ask how I would wire these two items (switch and brake light) into the mix. Is it as easy as 12 volt battery-->one end of switch wiring-->other end of switch wiring-->brake light? Obviously I will in time also have a head light and signal lights in sequence in there, but is it really that easy?

Thanks in advance for the help. The engine arrives in two days, and I wanna have this baby rolling soon.

 

[Stan4d]

Is it as easy as 12 volt battery-->one end of switch wiring-->other end of switch wiring-->brake light? Obviously I will in time also have a head light and signal lights in sequence in there, but is it really that easy?

You pretty much have it except for one thing. You need to complete the circut by running from the light back to the battery. If you want an isolated system. If not then hook battery negative to frame and ground one leg of the light to the frame. The advantage of using the frame is that only one wire needs to run to the componant and a short wire from the componant to the frame....saves space and wiring. The disadvantage is that your negative circut is not insulated and it only takes one wire to short the system.
Running 2 wires for positive and negative not only isolates the electrical from the engine electrical it also makes it so that 2 or more wires must short to cause problems.

On another note. Welcome to MBc! In the future it would be more benificial to all to find the fourm most closely matching your questions or posts. This particular thread belongs in the lighting and electrical section. If you also search that section you will find mountains of info. Some guys even post schematics. Otherwise you end up with guys that know a little trying to help (Like me) while the real experts are in the other forum.
Let me know how your bike comes out.....you are going to love it!

 

[AussieSteve]

Stan said it all. Just one thing to add - a fuse. Then if you do have a short-circuit for one reason or another, no fire.
Whatever maximum current your lights use, a fuse of about double that rating should be fine.
(I'm assuming that you're using incandescent bulbs and an SLA battery.)

 

[Stan4d]

Stan said it all. Just one thing to add - a fuse. Then if you do have a short-circuit for one reason or another, no fire.
Whatever maximum current your lights use, a fuse of about double that rating should be fine.
(I'm assuming that you're using incandescent bulbs and an SLA battery.)

DOH! I knew I forgot something important and simple....Thanks Steve!

 

[AussieSteve]

You did a pretty good job of the rest, Stan, and if the batts are only a small bank of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH, then a fuse isn't critical.
Regarding single or double wiring, I prefer to ignore earth for lights etc and stick to two wires. To rely on an earth connection, generally you need to scrape paint etc to keep a good connection between, for example, the engine and the handlebars.

 

[arkives1]

I discovered something interesting and seems odd to me. When I was installing all the lights and turn signals on one of my bikes, I tried to use a common negative wire for all the turn signals. That didn't work, the right signal wanted to work along with the left. I grounded each light individually to the frame and Voila! Works perfectly. Now the odd thing here is that the frame is common to all the lights just a wire would be so what gives? Finally, I realized that the power follows this path: battery to fuse, to electronic flash module to 3 way switch for turn signals. From the turn signal switch I had a red wire, and a green wire going to the turn lights. I forget which wire was which. The important thing is that they all had a common connection at the switch. When I connected all the lights (negative side of bulb) I was in effect completing the circuit with the negative wire going to all the bulbs. I removed that wire and grounded each light to the frame and it works like its supposed to. Still sounds weird to me but thats how it worked out.
Woody

 

[AussieSteve]

Woody, the electronic flash module probably switches the ground to flash. ie The positive is permanently connected and the electronic switching connects ground to negative. I think that you needed to double-check the polarity of the lights. One was wired in reverse polarity is my guess. Then, when one switches on/off, it connects both negatives to ground.

 

[arkives1]

Hi Steve, I'll take a look and see if that's the case but seriously doubt it as they are color coded. They are working correctly. It's a neater solution to use only one wire going the lights anyway. I just use the frame as a negative connection on each light. The headlight is a Harley fog light converted to a 12v 4 watt LED. It's not a focused beam but is quite bright and I use it for visibility mainly. The brake and tail light are also LED so only the turn signals are incandescent bulbs, they are 4 watts each and quite bright despite the low wattage. With this set up I can run about 20 hours on an 8ah battery before recharging. I just plug in the battery maintainer when the bike is not in use. I need to neaten up the wiring further and encase it in flexible conduit for a cleaner look.

 

[arkives1]

application of brakelevers and lights

AND Thanks Steve!
Woody

 

[AussieSteve]

I was only guessing, but I've seen similar situations to the one I described.
Interesting, but if it works fine now there's no worries.

I'm still working on my charging system and lighting when I get a chance. The generator works well and I have a decent headlight, (twin 18/18W, 12V bulbs), I'm just working on the regulator, then I need to buy a 12V 5Ah battey and it's pretty well done.

The bike's looking pretty good. Those turn signals remind me of the ones on my old XL175 Honda, hundreds of years ago.
Did you make that jacksaft yourself?