wan37
MBc Member

well, yeah, if you hook anything to the white wire it will kill the engine because it draws too much power away from the ignition. I did this on my first build and fought it trying to figure out why my engine wouldn't run. as soon as I unhooked the headlight, it fired right up and has been running fine ever since.
so, hooking a light to the white wire is a bad idea.
The headlight on my chopper is one that I modified internally. The light itself was bought off e-bay and it originally ran on 3 AA batteries and had a single incadesent bulb. It was more for looks than anything because the single bulb wasn't bright at all.
So i bought a cheap flashlight that had 3 l.e.d.'s in it and I gutted the flashlight.
Then, i drilled 3 small holes in the headlight reflector for the l.e.d.'s to fit into and epoxied them into place.
I used the whole internal assembly from the flashlight because it has a tiny circuit bard inside that the l.e.d.'s are soldered to. I had to make a small plug to cover the hole in the reflector where the original incadesent bulb was at. I used a chrome wheel back from a model car because it was the exact same size as the hole that was in the reflector. (by reflector, I mean the chrome part inside the light where the bulb comes through.) The l.e.d.'s are still battery powered, but the flashlight i bought had a nice little battery holder inside of it, that holds 4 AAA batteries, and the holder fits inside of the headlight housing, so there are no visible wires going to or coming out of the headlight. The hardest part was wiring everything up to the original switch that's on the headlight to turn it on and off. but really all i needed to do was solder the switch to the wires in between the battery holder, and the circuit board.
But to be honest, it isn't as bright as I wanted it to be. I mean, it works but it's only good for riding when it's pitch black and there are no other lights around. It's really more for looks than anything.
I made a similar headlight for my lowrider bike which also has l.e.d.'s in it and everything is contained within the headlight, so there are no visible wires.
basically, i put l.e.d. flashlight guts into nice headlight housings.
I also made an l.e.d. tail light for my chopper which is powered by 4 tiny watch type batteries stacked (that give something like 6.2 volts). I used an on/off switch from an r/c car and hid it under the seat. It's pretty bright, and can be seen from quite a ways away. The tail light assembly is a nice, small housing with a small red bullet shaped red lens. I bought kit off e-bay that had the headlight, the tail light, and a generator that is ran off of the bike wheel. The headlight from this kit is on my lowrider, and the tail light from this kit is on my chopper. The wheel driven generator did not last more than 5 minutes (yes, I originally tried it) because the wheel was turing way too fast at high speeds, and it burned out the wheel driven generator.
I made a tail light for my lowrider bike too, but I did it a lot different. I used a red reflector, and i drilled a hole in the back of the reflector, careful not to go through the red part of the reflector. Then, using l.e.d. flashlight parts, I epoxied a single l.e.d. into the back of the reflector. when it's on, the reflector lights up pretty bright. It's powered by 4 small watch type batteries and uses an r/c car on/off switch hidden under the seat.