HA!  I can picture it. 

I'm famous for the posters but proudest of that mod.  It makes such a huge difference at a stoplight.  You're gonna love it.

Nice job guys.  Gives me a warm fuzzy on a cool fall day.

It's ironic that the trunk for the Cross Bikes comes pre-wired with plug-n-play brake lights and turn signals (LED no less!) but the Vision still doesn't.  Kind of pisses me off thay they still haven't upgraded the flagship/starship.  Maybe 2012.

For you new guys, here's the history behind why I did the mod (and am so passionate about it). 

On your stock Vision, when you hit the brakes, the bottom 4 bulbs of the "V" light up.  No prob.  When you are going down the road and you want to change lanes, the top 2 bulbs of the "V" are the turn signals.  No prob.  The problem comes at an intersection.  When you roll up to an intersection, you hit the brakes and the bottom 4 light up.  While you are braking, if you turn your blinker on, the middle 2 bulbs dim (back to running mode) and only the bottom 2 brake lights stay lit.  Victory did this on purpose to create more contrast when the turn signals come on.

Not a big deal until you are at an intersection with a car/truck right on your butt.  Lets say you pull up to an intersection and stop.  You decide to turn right and the car behind you is also going to turn right.  You're looking left and he's looking left for a gap in the traffic.  He is creeping up on you and your bottom 2 lights disappear under his hood.  You turn your blinker on and your middle 2 lights go out at the same time.  It looks like you just came off the brakes.  He looks left again and continues to creep up (thinking you are pulling out) but you haven't moved....crunch.  This has happened to several people here (including VaRyder) and I can see why. 

Another simple mod is to disable the dimming feature of the middle lights when you have the brakes and a turn signal on at the same time.  The middle brake bulbs stay fully lit, screw the contrast.  KansasGuardsman wrote up this simple mod here:  http://www.vision-riders.com/bb/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2680&posts=1&start=1  and Radioteacher made a great video of it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QPAMpVmhw  (They are both geniuses, by the way.)

Do what you have to do to get a brake light up on your trunk at eye level with the driver behind you.  You will feel a lot safer when they come barrelling up behind you.

I took it a step further....

I had the Kury 4710 already on my ride, making the trunk lights

perform as brake and turn signals. I took 2, 30 LED strings, and

wired them into the trunk lights, so now I have:

60 leds at eye level + 4 lower & 2 trunk for brake lights,

30 leds at eye level + trunk & top of "V" for signals,

People have said they can see me a mile away... which to mwe is a GREAT Thing...

If they can see me, hopefully they will not hit me!

The Kuryakyn 4710 mod is by far the best way to go but definitely not for someone who is intimidated by wiring stuff.  I tried to make mine as simple as I could so that as many people as possible would at least give it a try.  I could have done it with a lot fewer LEDs but hey, go big or go home. 

Here are a couple of other videos with aux trunk lighting.  All are great ideas.  Just do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQC0yk1JX0&feature=related 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmn-J0tooo4&feature=related  This is the Kuryakyn 4710 mod.  Other guys have added red/amber LEDs plus tied it into their stock trunk lights for maximum effect.

Thanks for the updates Adolf and Tony.  Tying the two wires together into that spade is a great idea if you don't plan on removing the trunk.  (It sounds like the LED wire is permanently attached (crimped) to the white/pink wire, right?)  The genius of the PosiTaps is the ability to just unscrew the small cap, pull the wires out and put the caps back on.  It's a one-shot sealed-up pinhole in your wires that is always ready to go either way.  I would not have done this mod with the old style 3M wire taps that shred your insulation and are not weather proof.  If I were BMW anal about it I would put dielectric grease in the large cap surrounding the wire.  But I'm not, so I didn't. 

I have the Muth LED signal mirrors (Thanks again to devilboy for being the prototype Vision on that!) and soldered/shrinkwrapped those connections because I knew they would be permanent.  Having the Muth mirrors is the main reason that I went brake-light only on the trunk.  If I didn't have the Muths, I would have gone Kuryakyn 4710 on the trunk. 

When I'm sitting at a stoplight and have the 99 LEDs and the Muth turn signal all going at the same time, I can feel the jaws dropping in the cars around/behind me.  Cars in the lanes next to me used to pull up even with my dash.  Now they stop a car-length back and just creep up.  It is frickin awesome.

Great Jim! 

Funny you should mention the 4710.  I dropped my bike off for an oil change, new battery and new headlight bulb replacement (PIAA Anti-Vibration) at my dealer yesterday and they had a 75% off clearance table with a bunch of random stuff on it.  I flipped over a small packet and it was a Kuryakyn 4710 kit for Metric bikes for $17. 00!  I snagged it, slapped a 20 on the counter and took it home.  It will probably take me months to finally pull the trigger and install it.  I have a Stebel Air horn kit that I got Christmas of '08 that is still in the box.  I have to play it in my head a hundred times before I get enough confidence to cut into the wiring.  The 4710 has lots of options and I have to decide whether the main brake lights will flash or just the 99 LEDs and trunk running lights.   Plus running the new wire to split the trunk lights into left/right.  If you smell something burning, it's probably my brain trying to figure all this stuff out.

My next big "simple" project is to take two 12" strings of white Stingerz (30 LEDs each) and curve them around the outside edge of the mirrors and under the lower edge of the fairing to make it look like Audi running lights.  (Mounted in black Stingerz covers that are bent to follow that curve.)  They will be 'tap and play" just like the 99 LEDs.  Just have to get out the wiring schematic and find the color of the front running light wires.  I think that will make the front end look absolutely wicked.

DesertJim - 2010-11-23 6:01 PM Go Tom Go! If you can make it in a "paint by numbers" I will give it a try. You had me excited for a short second about your 4710 purchase that I would have jumped on. Nice buy, do they have any more? I will be on watch for the next project. Have a nice Thanksgiving.

Hey Jim, they only had one set of the 4710's or I would have bought them all up and posted it here. 

Arkainzeye - 2010-11-23 6:01 PM i think the audi type lights are cool, just make sure you get super bright leds. i only say this because i see alot of these honda kids with their Aftermarket headlights with the audi style lighting. and they in no way look even close to as bright as the audi style leds.. (btw kia is doing this now on the sportage!) the honda kids led setup looks like a after thought. i cant wait to see your project!

Hey Chris, I'd love to do high-powered LEDs but they are pretty big, expensive and not usually strung together.  The Stingerz are not latest generation high-powered LEDs but they are really thin, flexible and waterproof.  I'd be using them to just outline the lines of the batwing more than anything else.  If they look cheesy I'll take them off but if they make the Vision look even more outrageous I'll probably keep them on.  The reason I'm even thinking of doing this is because I color-matched all of the aluminum pieces.  After I painted the bike, VisionTex made a great observation.  "Tom, I love the paint job but your front end looks really small now.  You went from being four feet wide with the aluminum pieces to only being as wide as your turn signals."  Look at head-on pictures of a regular Vision with the aluminum pieces and an 8-Ball Vision.  The regular Vision looks twice as wide coming at you compared to the blacked-out 8-Ball.  The LED strips on those outer edges should give me that 4-foot width back and still blend in with the bike.

Stand by for news.......

Love it or hate it, that giant aluminum (or chrome) flying V, B-2 bomber panel really stands out in traffic.

sfalexi - 2010-12-13 7:16 PM Has anyone done this install and retained the ability to take the trunk off?

If you follow the directions and use the Posi-Taps, all you have to do is unscrew the caps where the two wires go in, pull the wires, screw the caps back on and pull the trunk.  The LED wires will stay with the trunk. 

UH OH!  I got down to the splice-wires part and there is NO white/pink wire in the bundle.  I thought maybe I somehow had the wrong branch of the bundle, so I split the shorter one also and still no white/pink.  The bundle that appears to be the one in the instructions has the 3 black, along with several other colors and the only odd one is a WHITE/GREEN.  I can't find a reference to it in the manual so far.  I am attaching 2 photos of the bundles split open after the big plug.  These are facing the trunk from the front to back.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

Here's Songfans 99 led lights on our Grand Canyon trip .... part of the SOUTHWEST RALLEY in Torrey, Utah

DSC01938.jpg (72KB - 5 downloads)

SongFan - 2011-09-15 4:50 PM Three cheers across the Pond Nessie!  Custom Dynamics is my candy store.  Great company.

Where can you purchase this item and what is the cost ?