High Level Brake Lights

Having installed a Givi E350 Flow top box , I noticed that this particular model had the facility to incorporate a high level brake light, which I thought was quite a good idea. The offering from Givi did not look quite right though, as it appeared that only the centre section would illuminate. I would have preferred some high-intensity LED's right across the entire red plastic area.

Whilst doing some research I came across the website Ultraleds and ordered a strip of white LED's.

To install these, I firstly separated the top box lid from the bottom section, then removed the red reflective plastic. It's held in place by four screws:

The white plastic sheet will not be re-used. I have another plan for reflecting the light. I then marked out and drilled the holes for the led's using a 5.5mm diameter drill.

The recessed section of the top box lid was then painted silver.

Inside the reflector is a white plastic cap; presumably designed to hold the Givi brake light.

This is not being refitted, which meant I had to drill two extra holes and use longer screws in order to retain the reflector.

The led's were then fitted from the inside of the top box, and are held in place with a small drop of superglue. I cut the flexible strip into smaller sections in order to follow the curve of the top box and linked the sections together with connectors.

Finally I soldered the connecting wires together. Small brackets (actually cable clips) to hold the wiring in place were fixed to the top box lid with small screws. The Givi brake light kit comes with a special connector which clips onto the inside of the top box; I could have made something similar but decided not to bother. The lid was then reattached to the bottom section and the wiring connected to a 12v battery for testing. The led's worked fine.

To give even more visibility, I also acquired two high-intensity LED bulbs which I fitted to the central section. I then soldered on a connector to the wiring running to the brake light, connected the wire to the high-level brake lights, and the earth wire to the common earth connector.

Here's a photo of both brake lights in operation:

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