The FedEx guy dropped off my parts just as the girl child was heading out--the wife's already gone, which meant I had time to install them!

Three turn signals, one brake lever, and two brake lights, just like I ordered. The turn signals were amazingly bright; chrome had never seen the dirt on the road. The brake lever was particularly devoid of anything mechanical. The LED brake lights were just plain cool. I could hardly contain myself as I waited for the girl-child and her friend to leave so I could duck into the garage and start getting dirty.

I wrestled the motorcycle into the middle of the garage so I'd have plenty of room all the way around. I laid out the parts on the table, and made sure I had some wrenches and a decent screwdriver (with multiple heads). I had more tools than I would need.

Because they were the easiest, I started with the brake lights. I unscrewed the brake light housing with ease, swapped the LED lights for the good-old 1157s that were in there (the standard dual-element bulb in nearly every 12-volt vehicle). I turned the ignition on, and was happily greeted with a wash of red light from the LED. I was surprised, in fact, 'cause there was no indication of the color of the LEDs on the packing or bulbs; I had noticed a red sticker on the side, but made no connection with the emitted color. I pulled the brake lever and was happy to see the brightness of the bulbs double. I don't believe there's any more light coming from the LEDs than the old-fashioned lights, but that wasn't the purpose of the purchase; I wanted the cool look of the LEDs (granted it's a bit obscured by the cover), and I wanted the longer life over the elements (I've already replaced the old bulbs once). I screwed the cover back on and called that job well-done.

I started with the turn signals on the one that was broken in the accident. I got three signals to replace the completely broken one, one that's not the right color, and one that has a wierdly separted head and stalk. It turns out that the new signals are a different length (about a half-inch or so shorter) than all but the separated one. I decided instead to replace the other three (still two that I intended, but leaving one I thought was fine), so they'd all end up the same length, and all chrome with clear amber lenses.

I noticed that the new signals were single-wire, while the old ones (well, the tails anyway) are two-wire. This didn't concern me too much as I figured they grounded through the mounting screw. I pulled some electrical tape from the wires on the broken lamp and turned on the signal. Through a little trial and error positioning the wire and the mounting screw I was able to get the lamp to flash. Good enough.

I looked then at the length of the new wire. It's pretty long, but didn't seem like it would be long enough to reach the wire bundle into which the other tail lamp was connected; that, no doubt, was why the buddy from whom I purchased the bike added the extra bit of wire. I decided I'd replace the extra bit if I needed to, but I would try to string the wire well enough to not need anything extra. I pulled the old lens from the bike and thread the new one on. I got a little extra dirty reaching under the rear fender (lots of chain-oil and road grime---ick), but managed to get the wire stretched and plugged in without adding any. There was even barely enough slack to hook the wire to one of the mounts beneath the fender to help keep it from catching on the tire. I fired up the signal again. No flash.

I checked the mount and made sure that everything was tight. After a little poking and prodding, I found that if I shorted between the mounting bolt and bike frame that the flash occurred. There are some rubber mounts meant to help reduce vibration to the lenses, and it must just be the case that they're too thick to let the metal of the mount (washers of sorts) touch the frame. I loosened the mounting bolt and turned the egg-shaped washer so it touched the frame; the flashing resumed. I held it there as I tightened the bolt again, with the signal on the whole time, and it worked.

I did essentially the same to the left side tail signal, too. I also found and removed a few wires that were cut above and below the fender, but not removed 'cause they were tied to the wire bundle going to the license light with a zip strip. In the end there are now four fewer wires going through the fender, and a much cleaner run to the places they need to go. All went well, with just a little tweaking.

Replacing the front signal meant pulling the headlamp. No biggie there. The front signals mount right to the side of the lamp housing, which is mounted with rubber dampers to the front fork. I was briefly concerned that the single-wire wouldn't work. As I worked the wires clear of the signals I was relieved to discover that not only did the old ones have two wires into the bundle (one grounded, of course), but that there was a second ground wire to the mounting bolt! Five minutes later the old, beat-up signal was off, and the new shiny one was on.

All of the lights worked!

The only thing remaining was the brake lever. The old brake lever was bent from a couple of occasions that the bike had tipped onto it, as well as getting dragged on the ground in the accident. I was fearful that there would be spring-loaded cables that I would loose into their housings if I wasn't careful. Instead, it turns out that the lever simply bolts into its mount--on one side is a spring-loaded lever that turns off the brake light (and onto which the lever normally rests), and on the other side were a spring (to push it away from the brake and onto the light switch) and a screw (that pushed into the hydraulic brake). This was all covered by a rubber housing that was still in pretty good shape. I pulled the housing off and squeezed it over the ball on the new lever; this is when I realized that the brake lever didn't match the clutch lever--the new one did, but the old one didn't. The spring in the old lever didn't fit into the hole in the new one. I tried a few different things, but eventually just hit it with a hammer, flattening out one side enough to fit into the hole. I cut off a little bit, and got it to work. I screwed in the screw and got it to feel mostly like it had, and all seemed good.

I gave it a little test run, and all was well! I'm back on the road with two wheels again.