Rizoma Zero 11, LED Turn Signal Installation on Triumph Speed Triple 2006 (Rear)

So it was time to replace my OEM turn lights. They were faded and the right side lights had a cracked lens from a parking lot tip over.
 After doing some research I decided on buying a Rizoma "Avio 21" lights. However after comparing their price to Avio  "Zero 11" ($10 less per light, around $40 less for all four), I decided that Zero 11's look good enough. Next step was finding a place to buy them, hating to pay retail I looked around the internet and after asking a few questions on various motorcycle related sites was recommended PJ's Parts.

People who did business with PJ's Parts raved about the great service, fast shipping and great post sales support. So, I placed my order. Shortly after the order placement I received an e-mail telling me that the my turn signals have been shipped. I received the turn signals three days later. They were well packaged and  PJ's actually followed with an email offering to assist me if I had any problems with installation. To summarize; excellent and prompt service, competitive prices, fast shipping.  I have book marked their site and WILL do business with them again.

http://www.pjsparts.com/

Rizoma turn signals side by side:
http://www.pjsparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=642

I needed less tools to install the rear pair of the turn signals then the front pair. Front turn signal install required removal of the gas tank and removal of the airbox. Well didn't really "required", but I wanted everything to look clean and didn't want to cut wiring so close to the turn signals. 

Tools for the rear pair of Rizoma turn lights

Here is what my bike looked like with the old rear blinkers:

Old Triumph OEM rear turn signals

"Old School" look for sure.

This motorcycle has had a "tail tidy" installed by the previous owner,  and so the turn signals and license plate light wiring has been moved around an tied in behind the license plate

a bundle of wires behind the license plate

Next I removed the two bolts that kept license plate frame (and the turn signals attached to it) attached to the tail.

Removing left screw (with 5mm hex bit)

right screw

This is what the plate holder looks like, after I removed all of the wrapping and insulation tape from the bundle of wires. I could clearly see the wires going to each turn signal and to the license plate light (the little bulb that is out of it's socket in the back of the assembly.

Old wire wrapping removed

Next I removed the screws which attached the turn signals to the license plate frame and detached both signals by unplugging the plastic connectors from the main harness. Used the same 5mm hex bit and a 10mm wrench to hold the nut from rotating.

Rizoma LED Turn signals come with voltage regulator (attached to the light) and two resistors that you would plug in parallel with signal to preserve the blink rate. I did not have to mess around with resistors as I ordered a special turn signal relay that is not load sensitive.

Packaged Turn Signal

rizoma-turn-signal_025.jpg

Rizoma Zero 11 - Installation Instructions

When I attempted to install the the signals in place of the old one's, I discovered that the plastic connector which leads to the voltage regulator ("black box "as it's called in the manual) would not fit through the mounting holes.

Connector not fitting through the mounting hole

No problem, I used a paper clip to remove the pins from the plastic connector part.

Sorry, a bit out of focus

Once the plastic connector was removed it was also  time to shrink wrap the part of the wiring that exposed right next to the signal. I used this one:

shrink wrap

Here is what wring looked like before shrink wrapping with signals installed in the frame:

Before shrink wrapping the turn signal wires

And here is after I shrink wrapped both the lights wiring:

I used a hair dryer to shrink the shrink-wrapping

Next it was time to mount the voltage regulators (black boxes). I ended up cutting off the OEM connectors from the harness and the pin connectors from the regulators and soldering them together.  Polarity  is important when installing LED lights, so I verified with multi meter which wire was positive and which was negative (as I guessed black wire was the negative). I soldered the connections shrink wrapped them and then used electrical tape to wrap them as well.

"Black Box" wired in to the harness

After assembling the signal's on the license plate holder and shrink wrapping the wiring together here is what it looks like:

rizoma-turn-signal_043.jpg

It was time to connect the signals in to the sockets on the voltage regulators, but before I did that I used a drop of dialectic grease to preserve the connectors from corrosion.

Dialectric grease I used.

Dialectric grease inside the connector

Once connecting the turn signals in to voltage regulator connector , I turned on the key and tested both signals. Everything worked albeit the flash rate was a little too fast and I had a remedie for that. Original turn signal relay was designed for the incandescent lamps and when LED's were installed it blinked them at higher rate thinking that turn signal bulb is burned out (that's what the load resistors supposed to remedy) . I simply replaced the turn signal relay with the different one that preserves "normal" blinking rate with LED signals installed.

Turn Signal Relay

I replaced the OEM relay with this:

I got it from here:  http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fflashers.htm

LED friendly turn signal relay

With relay replaced the blinking rate was back to normal and I wrapped all of the wiring with electrical tape,  mounted the license plate holder back on to the motorcycle and tie wrapped the wiring bundle under the tail.

Taped and tiewrapped

rizoma-turn-signal_057.jpg

Here is what the end result looks like:

Rear pair of Rizoma LED Turn Signals INSTALLED !

That was it for the rear pair of LED turn signal lights. My next post will describe how I installed the front pair of turn signals.