What began as a casual interest in slimming the profile of my bike turned into a week long project... Typical right? You can buy pre-made lighting kits but that limits you to the options available from whomever you're buying the kit from. There are plenty of great pre-assembled kits out there, but I wanted to see how inexpensively I could complete a full-bike turn signal project with decent parts.

As you know with projects like this, you sometimes end up spending more money in the acquisition of tools, materials, etc. because of the "trial and error" nature of DIY projects. Tools and all, at the time of this writeup, I spent under $100. Hopefully this either helps you decide if you want to DIY or just get a pre-made kit, improves your DIY experience, or at minimum saves you some of the time and expense that comes along with starting a project like this from nothing.

Since this is a DIY Project, the typical disclaimers apply:

• Read the service manual for wiring guides.

• Don't attempt if you're not confident in your ability to perform the tasks.

• Make sure the parts you choose are compatible with your project.

• Proceed at your own risk: I'm not responsible for what you do with this information.

Mount plates: (Click here to download my files from Thingiverse)

Once you remove the stock turn signals you'll see that you need adapter to mount aftermarket lights. For this you either need a 3D printer, or a friend with one. You can buy these from the usual vendors but that's going to raise the cost of your project significantly.

Note to vendors: It would be really nice if more companies offered their pre-made parts files for purchase (as a low-cost option) so we can print our own. This could be easily achieved by hosting files on Cults3d or something similar. Please consider it.

LED Flasher Relay: (Click here for one I used)

You will absolutely need to change your flasher relay if you swap all your turn signals to LED pods. With the stock relay installed, the lights would come on, but they were dim and wouldn't blink. Cheaper relays can be had on Amazon for around $10, but i already had one of these TST modules, and the TST module is a near exact copy of the stock honda one for the monkey, so no creative mounting solutions are required.

Lights: (Click here for the ones I used)

I'm usually a "buy genuine parts" sort of person, but alot of LED lights are just re-branded chinese goods anyway, so I figure I didn't care so much about whose logo was laser etched on something someone else made.

The lights i linked have an 8mm threaded stem, which is pretty universal. If you end up buying lights that have a 10mm mount, you can still use the mounts i designed, just print them with 100% infill and drill the hole out a bit.

Wiring Connectors: (Click here for the ones I used)

This step isn't completely necessary if you're willing to cut the connectors that are already on your bike. The turn signal connectors that Honda uses on the monkey are 3.5mm bullet connectors. I wasn't able to find anything comparable at the local hardware store other than a 4mm connector, which would work if you're willing to force the connectors together, but I wasn't.

Watch some install videos to get an idea of what you need to be doing:

• Front lights

• Rear Lights - This is for an integrated light, but the concept is basically the same.

  • The stock bracket works, you just have to drill out the center light mounting hole on each side.

• Flasher Relay