Clear tails for red lens bikes

[nathank]

Hello all!!

I searched but couldn't find any information on this.

Is there someone who sells clear lenses for the 03-05 (or whatever years came with red tails instead of clear)?

I would like clear tails and rear turn signals if possible.

Thanks in advance!

 

[quicksilver]

That would moderize to look a little.

I have never seen this asked for or offered before.

 

[monk69]

I don't know of any myself.

I just thought I'd highjack this thread for a sec.

Does anyone see what I see(or don't see)?

I find it harder to tell(see)when the clear lins lights are used.Is it just me or .....?

 

[nathank]

I don't know of any myself.I just thought I'd highjack this thread for a sec.

Does anyone see what I see(or don't see)?

I find it harder to tell(see)when the clear lins lights are used.Is it just me or .....?

It all depends on what you put behind the clear lens. They make some pretty bright LEDs these days.

 

[PhilMills]

I don't know of any myself.I just thought I'd highjack this thread for a sec.

Does anyone see what I see(or don't see)?

I find it harder to tell(see)when the clear lins lights are used.Is it just me or .....?

I don't think it's just you.

When a lamp lights up an opaque red lens (conventional tail light) the entire lens lights up.

When a lamp lights up a clear lens, the lens itself doesn't light up - all you see is the area that's occupied by the lamp itself.

Area lit is probably more important than lamp brightness in my opinion.

That said, I wouldn't mind going through and LED-ing the brake and turn signals just for grins. The 3 and 5W Luxeons are pretty darn good.

 

[monk69]

I don't know of any myself.I just thought I'd highjack this thread for a sec.

Does anyone see what I see(or don't see)?

I find it harder to tell(see)when the clear lins lights are used.Is it just me or .....?

I don't think it's just you.

When a lamp lights up an opaque red lens (conventional tail light) the entire lens lights up.

When a lamp lights up a clear lens, the lens itself doesn't light up - all you see is the area that's occupied by the lamp itself.

Area lit is probably more important than lamp brightness in my opinion.

That said, I wouldn't mind going through and LED-ing the brake and turn signals just for grins. The 3 and 5W Luxeons are pretty darn good.

I agree with you on led lights as well(keeping the coloured globes).

 

[Knifemaker]

.......When a lamp lights up an opaque red lens (conventional tail light) the entire lens lights up...

If the lens is opaque, then no light would go through it.

https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opaque

What you perhaps are looking for is translucent..

https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/translucent

All objects are either transparent, translucent or opaque.

Anyway...if you had a clear (transparent) lens, but had a reflector that maximized the reflection of the light sourse, you could still "light up" the entire area of the lens. (Think of a flashlight you can focus the beam on) You could in fact have a red bulb covered by a clear lens that throws more light than a clear bulb with a red translucent lens.

What then matters is what kind of reflector is behind the Gen I 's red lens.

KM

 

[PhilMills]

I don't think any OEM reflector assembly is going to do the job.

Theory:

OEM reflectors are designed to take a point-source and spread the backwards-reflected light out as wide as possible to hit as much of the lens as is practical (go back to your trigonometry with ellipses).
 
If you've got a transparent lens, then another driver is going to see the original point source and one, maybe two reflections of the point source. If you've got a translutcent "clear" lens, then the other driver's going to see a faint pinkish glow.
 
Add to the problem the fact that most LEDs are very, very directional and aren't going to throw much light at the reflector to begin with.
Practice:

Think back to every riced-out Civic you've ever seen and every squidded-up crotch rocket that's had clear taillight lenses fitted. To my eyes, NONE of them is more than about a fifth as noticeable as they'd be with the stock red lenses.
 
...at night. In bright daylight, they may as well not have taillights at all from what I can (completely not) see.
When the squiddley types go and change their bike's turn signals into the pencil-eraser sized clear-lensed LED bullets or micro-flush-mounts, it's even worse. Why not just tape a sign to your t-shirt that says "Please run me over!"

The only effective-ish setup I've seen with a clear lens was one where the entire reflector was replaced with a circuit board COVERED in surface-mount LEDs.

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

<snip>The only effective-ish setup I've seen with a clear lens was one where the entire reflector was replaced with a circuit board COVERED in surface-mount LEDs.

Isn't that what the commercial trucking industry uses? They seem very effective, to me.

As to the FJR's rear lights: I've been told a couple times by following riders that the Gen I's rear lights aren't too bright -- could be better.

But, I'm sure they're way better than some others? Specifically older BMWs with one small bulb for a taillight (a bigger bulb for a stop-light) and a small lens -- non of which appears to be very visible to me.

I've never followed my bike (duh...) -- but, am concientous about what bulbs are in there and if they're working.

 

[FJRIDER56]

For what its worth-I converted my previous Honda Sabre to a clear lens and a red bulb. Had a trucker tell me he could not see my brake light come on when low sunlight was firing directly on the back end of the bike. Went home ran a comparitive test and concluded that the clear lens/red bulb was definitely more difficult to see compared to the stock red lense at least in bright sunlight. I think the red LED "arrays" behind the clear lense would have been OK but a single bulb -fagetaboutit !