I recently upgraded the LED strips that I was using in my top box with thinner and brighter ones. As a result I ended up with three aditional bright red LED strips on my hand.
I decided to put them to good use by adding them as additional brake light bars to the back of my scoot as they were waterproof red LED bars and would make a great addition as an attention getter for those not so attentive drivers.
For my project, the process was rather simple, I already had saddle bag mounts on the scoot, so all I had to do was to run an additional power line from the tapped brake line source to power these three bars.
I opted to install one, vertically, on either side of the scoot, left / right, on the inside of the saddlebag mounts. I installed the third one horizontally on my top box support bar.
I routed the wires for all three bars to a single location inside of a waterproof box and connected them all together.
Qty | Parts List / Description | 3 | Waterproof LED Strips
- I purchased my LED strips from Harbor Freight for a previous project which I repurposed for this project. They were red LEDs which turned out to be perfect, especially for daylight viewing.
  
| 1 | Waterproof Box.
- I used a small waterproof small box to house the additional unused wires from the strips and to hold the connector for all three strips.
| 1 | Two position Power Connector
- I used a two position power connector to tie all the wires together.
| 1 | Feet of two sided adhesive strip.
- I used two sided commercial strength adhesive strip to attach the LED strips to the saddlebag bars.
| 6 | Medium / Small Zip ties
- I used a few zip ties and additional support for the LED strips.
- I used smaller zip ties to attach the LED wires to the subframe on the scoot.
| 1 | 12 inch piece of ⅛ inch flat metal bar
- I used the metal bar for the top bar installation as additional support for the LED strip.
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| - Electrical wires, red and black
- Heat shrink ⅛ inch worked best for those thin wires
| 4 | Christmas Light Clips or equivalent
- I used a few light clips to hold the LED bar wires in place.
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Step | Installation | 1. | Heat Shrink the LED Bar wires
- Do a quick mock-up install by holding the LED strips to either side, left/right and top, and measure the distance to the junction box where they will all end up.
- Mark each LED bar’s wire and heat shrink it to the entrance point
- This is important as the wires will be exposed and you don’t want them to get brittle and dry up
| 2. | Install the Left / Right LED Bars
- Clean the surfaces where the LED bars will be mounted with rubbing alcohol.
- Clean the side of the LED bar that will receive the two sided tape
- Measure and cut the two sided tape and apply it to the LED bar.
- Attach the LED bar to its intended location and push on it firmly to make it stick.
- Use zip ties to reinforce the setup if necessary
 
| 3. | Route the cable for the Left / Right, Top Bars
- Route the Left / Right LED bar wires to the junction box.
- Use anchors if necessary to hold the wires in place.
- Zip tie the wires to the sub-frame.
- Insert the extra wires into the junction box.
 
- Route the wires for the top LED Bar and insert it into the junction box.
- Below is a picture of how my Top LED bar was installed in the end:
| 4. | Add power cable to tapped brake light source
- Add a power line to the tapped power source for the brake light
- I simply added an extra red and black wire to each source and routed the cables to the junction box.
 
| 5. | Connect all the wires together 
- Bundle all the red (+) wires together
- Bundle all the black (-) wires together
- Connect the bundled red wires to the red power source wire using the wire connector.
- Connect the bundled black wires to the black power source wire using the wire connector.
- Bundle up the unused LED Bar wires and zip tie them together inside the junction box
| 6. | Close the junction box
- I screwed the junction box shut with all the wires in it.
- Zip tie the juction box to the sub-frame so it won’t move around
| 7. | Test your setup
- Turn on the bike and pull on one of the brake levers and observe the LED bars to make sure that they all operate accordingly.
| 8. | The final result
- Below are pictures of my setup in conjuction with the lights on my top box. The video shows it much better than the pictures as I have a dynami LED strip behind the top box lens that flashes and changes patterns, did that just for fun.
Farkle - Brake Light Bars  
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