Ducati Monster Forum

anyone ever put LEDS under windowed/cut belt covers?

ive got some ideas brewing and for the first time ever am considering effect lighting on a bike :o

I haven't done it but I did think about it when I got my 2nd Monster.
Couldn't decide if it would look kitch or cool.

Nah....  not my idea of tasteful....  But if you do.... be sure to post up pics  [popcorn]

nor mine as a general rule. my plans are more subtle than what ive seen on other bikes

I actually like the look of the hiden LED's. I know it's some-what squid-ish, but if it's not over done it can look cool. I'm thinking of doing a couple under the tank for a little mood-lighting. Ive also seen lighted plug wires. Jury still out on them.

Wasn't there an sbk a while ago that had some in the dry clutch?  It was cool cause when the clutch went faster you could see the light more so you got a sense of speed.

I remember seeing the video on youtube for that SBK.  Kinda cool I think.  I've thought about those neon plug wires a while back.  Never seen either the plug wires or LED lighted belts done on a monster but would like to see what it would look like.

Ducati 1198 lighting- AVIBoston (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95KS6FbrJQ#normal)

Ummm... yeah.....  [puke]

+1    [puke]

Not my cup of tea, but I don't hate it either.

I don't think that's the video I saw.  I don't remember the bike covered in lights like that.  Just in the clutch.

Whats up with the lights fading in and out?

thats....yeah. not...my plan...

I can kind of see it as a crazy ass tron alarm system

a little less lighting but the clutch and the tail vents looked great I think.

Fully sick mate.

 [puke]

It's your bike, but it isn't for me.

Back in the 80's I was building a cutom bike.  Wanted a set of those plug wires with the in-line neon lightning bolts that flash in time with the ignition.

Bought them one day, installed them, fired up the bike, shut off the bike, took them off and threw them in the shit can.

LED accent lighting on bikes?  Not my bag man.

Somehow I don't think those belong on ducatis...I see that kind of stuff on stretched out Hayabusas and Gixxers all the time...along with chrome wheels and panels

still just looking for somone thats found a way to cram LEDs under the belt covers to give me a bit of guidance.

I just want a subtle red glow, not a bloody two wheeled UFO that most people associate with accessory lighting.

A tron alarm system would be truly dangerous. lolz

I was thinking of putting some at the base of my helmet mohawk.  Subtle, of course....I do ride a Ducati, after all.

Just like anything else, there are tasteful and less tasteful executions. Every time I see a bike (cruiser or sportbike) that makes me feel like I am at a rave, I just shake my head in disbelief.

soopa ghey

I put the new covers on and decided im not going to cut them after all so the lighting is moot.

still, all the bashing of an idea before any of you have even seen it is pretty dumb and not very constructive.

neon is dumb on any vehicle.  fast and the furious called. they are making another sequel, perhaps we'll get to live our lives a quarter mile at a time once more, and see vehicles with neon that can also pull highway speeds in reverse.

never said anything about neon. specifically mentioned LEDs.

when you start your bike at night and your running lights are more visible, do you think your bike looks like some tacky rave? the amount of lighting I had planned was going to be less than what the brake light puts out (and also red). perhaps It would have come out more garish than I had planned, it would have gone on and off the bike in a single evening and put to rest. not a big deal. but maybe it would come out as I intended it to be, subtle and understated and we would have another DIY on the boards for everyone to use to personalize their bikes rather than throwing a set of CF or speedymoto covers.

you people are so quick to piss on IDEAS that dont follow the current trends. If I was talking about adding a grand of blinged out anodizing nobody would say anything but  [thumbsup].

^^ Well then, stick with your original idea. Give it a shot and see how it comes out. You can always take it off. 

As said above.

Prove people wrong, and make it look good.

also, if your feelings are really easily hurt, the internet is not going to be fun place for you.

tell you what, since i don't think the idea will look good ... to me... I will choose to not put them on my bike. If it floats your boat, more power to you. Happy boat paddlin' to all.

Did your cornflakes taste a little funny this morning?  :D

Well, for one thing, people are quick to piss on shitty ideas.  Accent lighting is cool for certain types in the Harley and Busa crowd, but Ducatisti tend to think it's a shitty idea.

Additionally, accent lighting IS a current trend (or at best, a fading trend).

it wont flow with this bike and I dont know how to wire it cleanly enough that I wont worry about it falling into the belts (which is why I made this thread)

 im not upset that people dont like the idea, its just frustrating that when I asked for technical advice all I got was design input. I know 99% of light up bikes look like shit, I know that ANY mod done to excess or poorly executed can look like shit.  

this kind of attitude is spouted in just about every circle of motorcycle/scooter community and its always stupidly elitist.

no bike community has a singular taste, nor should it.  

sorry I brought up something different, if a mod wants to lock this thread we can all get back to buying up Rizoma and speedymoto bits in order to make our bikes unique.

anyone know where I can get a CF cup holder? keep spilling my espresso [roll]

I hate that word almost as much as twisties.

 [laugh]

Good point.

With skin as thin as yours I would hold off on the cup holder and invest in a good set of leathers.

+1

1 ning
2 ducatisti
3 twisties
 [puke]

let the guy do his shit.   

now, I do love me some twisties and titties too  [evil]

[roll]

Dude, I say go for it!  If it sucks, easy to reverse.  Look up Celli's bike if you want to see some wild shit.

I wouldnt mind doing it to my old plastic covers just as an experiment but I dont know how. Maybe I should start a thread asking how... [laugh]

Okay, here's the deal.

Seems to me that getting the wiring and bulbs etc. INSIDE the thing might be a bit tight and clunky.

Cobble together your light source in some kind of small box/container; put the container under the tank or where ever it fits out of sight.

Run from your light source a long piece of fiber optics (maybe run it through some heat shrink tubing to hide and protect it.

Run the fiber optics to your covers.  You can drill a very small hole in the base of the cover and attach the fiber optic, which will then illuminate the inside with minimal "hardware" at the cover.

[clap] I knew there was a good reason not to delete this thread.[thumbsup]

I looked into that a little but sideglow needs a huge amount of power to glow bright enough to light up the area without being seen directly. but then again Ive never used the stuff and dont know crap about it...

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
- Albert Einstein -

Never-been-done doesn't mean that it-can't-be-done.  Of all the collective knowlege on this board, nobody can say that they've seen LED lights under the cover.  I am curious to how it turns out.

www.customdynamics.com (http://www.customdynamics.com) should have something that would fit. The biggest issue I see would just be clearance between the cover and the belt. If it was too tight, I suppose it might be possible to put some spacers between the engine case and the covers.

Once the LED's themselves were mounted (double-sided tape?), I'd consider RTVing the leads to the inside of the covers to keep them from getting eaten by the belts. Then it's just a matter of routing them out of the covers and hooking them up to a switched power source that turns on with the key. Relay tied into the headlight? I'd also probably use some sort of quick disconnect to make taking the covers back off later a little easier.

looking at this picture;
(http://www.belmontcycle.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Ducati_Monster_Belt_Service_1.257114614_large.jpg)

it looks as though there are some big gaps that could fit 4 or 5  wide angle LEDs in an arc that would light up the middle area of the belts and depending on how close the belts get to the covers I think it might be able to light up the whole thing. one of my bigger challenges is the math involved in wiring together LEDs to work off the battery.


what is "RTVing"? double stick tape in there scares the be-jesus out of me. with the holes in the covers its going to be really exposed to the rain and mess portland gets in the winter.

I think I would want the lights hooked up on a separate circuit to the battery with an inline switch so I can turn it on and off whenever I want, id like to put the key inline there too so I dont have strangers coming by and playing with the lights but that might not be so easy. I had not thought of the quick disconnect though, definitely necessary.

Dude. You're nuking this, making it way harder than it has to be.


RTVing = applying silicone RTV.
(http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/ProductImages/300/0000_Permatex_Blue_RTV_Silicone_--.jpg)


What about super glue or some sort of epoxy to mount the LED board/strip? To keep out water, again, I'd consider some sort of clear silicone. You could completely encase the LEDs and the leads from the mounting point all the way to the exit notch, sealing out the rain and mess and keeping your wires from getting eaten.


Again, if you run a relay off of something connected to the ignition switch, like the headlight, it'll only have power when the ignition is on. You could put a simple switch in-line after the relay allowing you to turn them on and off, but they would shut off when you turn off the key.

Here ya go.  Sticky tape these on.

(http://solarilluminations.com/acatalog/XP01_solar_string_light_popup.jpg)

The solar panel means you won't even need to start a "my bike won't start" thread.   [laugh]

However you decide to mount them, just make sure there isn't a chance they could get scooped up into the belts should they fall off. There was a guy with a Sportclassic with open belts that was wiping his engine off while warming it up for a ride. A bit of the towel he was holding was caught by one of the belts and he ended up bending a valve.