Rear light on 08 rsvr

Hi all

I haven't really looked at it yet. Thought that I would get some ideas from everyone before I take a look at it.

Front lights work fine. Indicators work fine. Brake light works fine.

When I put the lights on the rear light is not very bright and when I put the brake on it goes even dimmer. This is with engine off. I have not tried it with engine on yet. Battery charged. Bike not been running for a while. Thought it could be an imbalance of voltages

Any ideas? Thank you

They aren’t mega bright generally but being leds, the viewing angle is important as the light is brightest viewed directly from behind at car level. worth trying with the engine running as well to see what difference it makes. If you think it’s not up to snuff, then other than checking the earth is good and the connectors are clean, there isn’t much to fix as it’s a sealed unit

Hi Andrew very long time!

As above if its gone its gone only known a few to fail. I've got a couple of rear lights if you need one.

I started out with nothing and I've still got most of it left

Incidentally, while everyone is here.

I put a lithium battery in it. The KTM also has a lithium battery in it. They are really good. Except in winter. Although I have not had a problem with either of them something keeps nagging me as even LiFePO batteries, as stable as they are could still catch fire.

I have a nice AGM battery for the KTM already. Anyone got any thoughts about getting rid of the lithium in the Aprilia

albrown001 wrote:

What are peoples thoughts on stripping the paint off the top fork clamp and getting it polished?

It's just a thought. If I can get one of them aprilia badges to stick back on it I reckon it might look really good in silver.

What do you think?

Very 80's Streetfighter! LOL

Seriously though, it can look good but two things I would consider:

- To keep it looking good requires regular polishing unless lacquered over

- The sun reflection (When we get some) can cause massive glare

Cheers for comment on Lithium battery. I know LifePO are very stable but I have seen many LiPo go up many times. It doesn't take much.

I just think that the top triple clamp looks out of place now. Since I polished the frame.

No haven't done anything to it yet. Just getting peoples thoughts to see if anyone else has done it and what their thoughts were. My one is a sort of brown colour. It would look better in black I think when they anodised it instead of brown.

I was thinking of stripping it. I think it would be hard to polish as it's cast and rough. You would have to sand it first. The bottom clamp is already shiny but not polished. So I was thinking of just stripping the coloured anodising off. Chemically brightening it and then clear anodising. It would match the bottom one then.

Tell you what now, I will buy one off eBay instead of doing it to mine and see what it comes out like

I ran the bike today. With the engine on…

Sidelights - rear light bright

Headlights - rear light not so bright. About half what it was

Headlights / brake lights - rear light goes even dimmer.

Brake light is fine regardless

This is the same when engine is off. Engine on made no difference.

The connection on the battery must be good otherwise the bike would not start.

I will Google where all the earths are (unless someone can point me in the right direction) and give them and all the connections a good clean and see what happens Thumbs Up

I have only just noticed this. Anyone else got a gen2? Does it do the same?

What is the voltage at the battery engine running ?

Without having someone else test their light reactions for comparison, I’m not sure you have a fault. But if anything maybe the rear light itself. I wouldn’t throw any parts at it without a comparison.

The rear light has got some components in there that can fail. There is a regulator, a diode and a few other bits that can fail. The regulator holds the LEDs at about half voltage as a tail light and applies the full 12v when the brake is applied. It could be the regulator is less than 100% or the solder joints are failing etc etc.