L.E.D. brake light bars from SDC

[sprint_st]

Most of us like to protect our butts. Flashing brake LED's are a pretty common gismo added to help us from getting rear ended. I've installed them on the last three or four bikes I've owned.

Last year I had a short in a Signal Dynamics (SDC) LED license bracket leave me stranded on US460 near Narrows, Va, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. How does a light kill the bike???? It's a Triumph thing, but basically if the light fuse keeps blowing because you can't find the source of the short, the bike won't start or keep running. Well Signal Dynamics "fixed" the LED.  Last Saturday, I start the bike and see the LED smoking, same problem but I knew the fix and got back on the road. Had a similar LED on my FJR a while back, it had to be replaced. That's three Signal Dynamics LED brackets of two different types fail on two motorcycles in less than four years. Moral of this story, think twice before you buy any LED device from Signal Dynamics.

[TuffguyF4i]

I have had great luck with their stuff.  It is usually not cheao chinese crap.  Most is made by radiantz for them.  

I normally buy their raw led boards and make them into my own 3rd brake lights.  

Could it be that your bike's RR is frying them?  

[sprint_st]

I have had great luck with their stuff.  It is usually not cheao chinese crap.  Most is made by radiantz for them.  

I normally buy their raw led boards and make them into my own 3rd brake lights.  

Could it be that your bike's RR is frying them?  

Two bikes makes that theory a bit suspect.  On this last board I think water is the culprit.  When they returned it the last time they did not put the board in the frame.  It didn't want to seat easily.  They probably have a tool to do that.  I packed it full of silicon seal but it poured the night before it toasted.  The led board is down stream of a lot other fragile electronics as well and Tigers have a led brake/running light.  No problem with anything else. The first one I had that went bad had two boards, one above and one below the license plate.  The one below had some leds on high and others low when the brake was actuated.  That is totally board related.  Maybe I just have bad karma, but this is well beyond statistical coincidence.

[zer0netgain]

Wow.  You STILL having problems with that?  It messed up last year's national for you as well.  

[sprint_st]

Wow.  You STILL having problems with that?  It messed up last year's national for you as well.  

Yep, almost a year to the day.  Good news is I knew exactly which wires to disconnect.  Last year they sent me back my old bracket with a separate, new LED board.  You could actually see the bottom of the board behind the LED's.  My guess is that water got in there and shorted it out, probably both times.  I had a couple of their switching modules which were totally enclosed and sealed.  They worked fine.

[sprint_st]

Got an email from Mike Johnson, VP of SDC.  "I would first like to make sure I fully understand the issue(s), and -----------see what I can do to make the situation right."

I replied and never heard a word back.  You can make your own conclusions from that.  I'm looking into Hyper-Lites.