Givi brake light option, or ... ?

[jimbemotumbo]

I ordered my givi trunk without the brakelight option due to several reports here that it is a flimsy piece of work. I like the idea of the extra visibility though and also the quick-disconnect feature.

Is there any aftermarket solution (aside from sticking on some hyperlights), or a way to "improve" the givi hardware? Couldn't come up with anything on a search for this.

Thanks!

 

[Woodstock]

I have the Givi brake light ("stop light" I think they call it). The lights themselves, once you get them installed (which is a bit of a hassle, but not too bad) work fine.

The problem is the conductor connector where the box closes (and to a lesser extent where the box connects to the mounting plate/rack). I plan on just running seperate wires around the inside of the back of the case so that I don't need the first. It's rather silly that Givi runs the wires on the front (opening end - back of bike) of the case, rather than tape it down the read (near the hinges) where it would be just as invisible. I rarely take my Givi case off (I just find it really convienent) so the case/rack connector has worked pretty well.

 

[jimbemotumbo]

Very helpful woodstock ... I figured I can always order the setup as an afterthought. Since I plan to leave the top case on most of the time, I'll probably be fine, as you suggest.

Thanks!

 

[Woodstock]

And remember, as with all Givi products, the instructions absolutely suck. :grrr:

 

[floridafeeger]

Over a year ago on the "other old forum" someone had made a custom homemade setup for the GIVI trunk which had both the turn signals and brake lights in the GIVI. It was cool but at the time I didn't have my trunk yet so I let it pass.......now I cannot find the thread nor have I been lucky to find something other than the factory solution for lighting.

I will probably end up making my own which I will post on this forum when completed.

 

[Shane]

The GIVI brake light is a touchy piece of work, but when it's all sorted, works very well.

Some of the "sorting" I have had to do has included:

1. Trimming off the pre-tinned ends of the wires because they are brittle, and will leave you scratching your head as to why the contacts stop working after a while. This resulted in the broken off ends (inside the contact housings) getting caught up and holding against the spring-loaded contacts, making one pole of the contact sit higher than the other.

2. Re-soldering one of the light bulb contacts because it came poorly soldered. A little heat and it re-flowed nicely.

3. Putting an o-ring under the contact that comes through the bottom of the rack so that it sits up and makes good contact with the box, rather than settle down into the recess lazily.

4. Figuring out the orientation of the contact housings inside the box such that they all fit properly. It's not particularly obvious at first.

Basically, the ends of the wires are twisted and tinned, to facilitate routing through grommets and such, but this leaves the ends succeptible to breakage later, because they must move a little every time the contacts are pressed together by the closing of the lid or the mounting of the box. This was nice of them to do, but in practice, not so much help.

Shane

 

[Woodstock]

One other thing if you're using the Givi suplied parts, make sure you follow the order of assembly, specifically with threading and assembling the connectors/wires inside the case. If you push together the pieces before threading them through the hole you punch in the bottom, it's a real royal pain to disconnect them. Word.

 

[TucsonFJR]

Does anybody know if I can just get the light part for my trunk. One of the bulbs already burned out and I just installed this about 3 months ago. I use the bike about 4 times a week to work. What a cheap piece of junk. When I got the kit in the mail one of the bulbs was bent a little so I had to realign it to fit in the housing. It's been working fine til now. I would be real interested in a homemade way to light the back end up with some kind of LEDs in the original housing for the trunk. I will be watching.

 

[pawtracks]

I have a Givi 46 with the brake light kit.

I also have the reflective kit on my side bags, but since I ride with the side bags off quite a bit I wanted more rear visibilty while they are off the bike.

I took the two large red lenses off and lined the inside of the lens with 3M reflective tape.

Now more than 90% of the back of the trunk lights up when headlights hit it.

The Givi brake light kit only lights up the 4 small red circles on top.

It was about $5 worth of 3M tape at most.

In addition to these items I also have the Kisan Tailblazer kit

Seems to be a good combination for safety.

 

[JimE]

I recently installed the GIVI light kit and am mostly pleased with it. The installation is a little more tedious than it needs to be, but I am quite a ham-fisted mechanic and I managed OK; so I don't think most folks will have too much trouble.

The lights look good at night, but are pretty dim in the daylight.

I wanted more, so I took a shot at Warchild's

GIVI Rack LED Bar w/ Signal Dynamics BackOff Module

(Thanks, Warchild!)

I'm really happy with the way it works. For the brackets I used junction plates for wood fences that I found at Home Depot. They're strong enough for the job, but are thin enough to be easily cut and bent with a jigsaw and a pair of lineman's pliers. I sprayed them black. It's not as nice an installation as Warchild's, but I think it looks fine.

Here's a picture and little movie. The movie quality is poor, but I think you'll get the idea. The bar shows up a lot better in real life than it looks like in the movie...it's really bright and its visibility holds up well in the daylight. Again, it's hard to tell in the movie because of the video compression smearing, but the LED bar is hooked up through the BackOFF module (along with the GIVI lights), but the stock taillights are left unchanged. This ensures that if the BackOFF module were to fail open-circuit, I would still have brake lights. I used both the running light and brake light connections on the LED bar...I think you can see that in the movie.

Photo of LED bar

Mpeg movie of BackOFF module in operation