[ChickenHawk]

Hi all! I'm brand new here. My wife recently won a '69 CB160 on the game show Pawnography (with Rick and the Pawn Stars). Cool, right?! We have had it a few weeks now and had to do a little work to get it going, but it is running pretty great and looks good too!


Now, we are looking for a solution to put aftermarket turn signals. I do NOT want to do too much to spoil the classic look of the bike so I'm thinking of doing the license plate frame with with the LEDs in it. I have found some chrome that I like. Then I need to find a switch and figure out how to mount it, and the wiring, and I suppose a resistor to send the right voltage to the LEDs. I know this is all very vague, but does anyone have experience doing this? Somewhere you can point me??

Thanks! I'm excited to be here.
Here's the bike:

 

[enb54]

Since LED lamps have many different configurations and possibilities, the site at Current limiting Resistor calculator for leds should assist you in getting started, but there are others, just Google "LED Bias Resistors" and you'll likely come up with more info than you really cared to read. A rule of thumb is the 1.7 Volt value across the LED plus between 20 and 30 ma of current (max) flowing through the LED (small LEDs) to calculate the value of your resistor arrangement, using either 6 volt supply (your case) or 12 volt supply (my case). Without a proper bias resistor calculation and correct wattage of the resistor(s) for your specific LED arrangement, you'll be either burning out LEDs or bias resistors. Hopefully this helps you get a bit better on track...

 

[Richard_Pitman]

You can get electronic flasher relays specifically designed to give the correct flash rate with motorcycle LED indicators (turn signals). Quite cheap, and a more elegant solution than messing about with resistors.

12v LED indicators designed for motorcycle use do not require additional resistors to correct the voltage.

Ah, just realised, your bike is 6 volt. I suspect that 12v units would still work though.

For example http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/GoffyLEDIndicators.htm

 

[enb54]

As Richard points out, if you have more money, you can buy turn signals (and flashers) ready made, but of course that just means that someone else built these up using the basic theory of LED operation, and you pay extra for that. It is of course, all up to you, I am a cheap sob and prefer to waste my money on refreshing dark coloured Irish alcoholic beverages...!!!