Simple LED Bike Lights

This is an easy way to add light to your bike, so when your riding at night you don't get smoked by a car(If this actually saves your life, take the time to tell me =D). Also putting LED's in anything is fun, so why not?

Step 1 Materials

You'll need:

~Bike reflector
~LED, the brighter the better
~Battery pack with switch, or other smallish 3-3.6volt power supply
~Wire
~Soldering stuff
~Drill with 3/16" bit. Use 3/16" for a 5mm LED

Comments

[ambrzdad]

awesome dude i made your setup for my wifes' bike and my bike too. i used a 3 led bulb flashlight purchased at my local dollar store $1 took the bulbs out of the flashlight (battery holder and switch) some soldering and wiring and ---we have bike lites for $1---actually $2 the 2d batteries good thinking---awesome idea

[dpdonohue]

pretty cool idea ;)

[Zem]

Very simple. Nice job.

[whitewolfofnc]

When drilling into plastics,heat up the drill bit by drilling into some hardwood a few times.If the drill bit is hot enough , it will not crack plastics.gl ;-)

[JerryMopar]

GENIOUS man, Now I have a use for all those reflectors I have stuck in a box!!!

[JerryMopar]

Booyah, made a pair!!! Only cost 3 bucks (for Radioshack "project box" 3 AA's are soldered togheter inside. Plenty bright!

[geeklord]

Wait a minute....3 AA's?? Are all of them in series?

[JerryMopar]

Yes, they are in series, put the LEDS are wired in parell. Works great!! I have found though, it would be wise to glue the LEDS inside the lens. The little leads off of them dont take fatigue well. My rear-lights lead broke off.

[geeklord]

Your putting 4.5 volts into the LED's. LED's take 3.3-3.6 volts for white/blue and 2 volts for red and green. You should probably put a 68 ohm(blue gray black) resistor before the white LED and a 150 ohm (brown green brown) before the red LED.

[geeklord]

Yours look a lot better that mine! I was gonna try and use lithium watch batteries or 1 watt LEDs

[JerryMopar]

Yeah the RS :project box and the shrink tubing sure make it alot better looking. Those lithium-ion batteries can get quite expensive, yeah, LED dont use much power, but it will pull the cash right out of your pocket when it comes time to change them out. Why didnt you enter this in the Light your Ride Contest?? Wouldve been great!!

[jimbo333]

ya but with the lithium batteries you could do something like this to the reflectors on the wheels, that would be cool!

[geeklord]

DANGIT! didn't see that one :(

[geeklord]

hey,I'm commenting on a iPod touch from the apple store in the mall of America!!!!!!!!

[geeklord]

Yea, its my Dad's. But the same idea applies, he didn't go cheapo

[randomray]

Great way to let people see you , don't forget a headlight you need to see where you are going . Nice

[randomray]

Nice drill , didn't go cheap there .

[cowscankill]

I never ride at night, and realized i cant use lights on my bike xD guess ill have to finid a basket mod

[Yerboogieman]

i love riding at night :-D

[Dr. Cool]

I was actually going to do something similar like this to my bike, thanks for posting this! Doc Cool

[geeklord]

Man you are awesome posting a comment on the same day I posted the instructable! and yourwelcome for posting this :D

[Dr. Cool]

Haha, No problemo, keep up the great work! Doc Cool