Help! Dead bike.

[rubyscube]

 Stupid, stupid stupid...

Finally got my bike to work after lots of little problems.

Last piece of the puzzle was getting my blinkers working. Tracked the issue down to being the blinker relay, so I bought a new one. Put it in, and it worked perfectly... but I couldn't just leave it alone.

Reading around on forums I saw many people recommend using a LED-blinker instead of the standard one, citing things like more stability in the blinkers flashing etc.. So I tried a 12v LED relay.

Short story, put relay in.. turned on the ignition and turned blinker switch to the left, loud humming sound coming from the area of the relay, then the sound of something electrical dying, then nothing. Now nothing works.. none of the dash lights, electrical starter, lights.. nothing.

Hopefully I just blew a fuse. What do you guys think, and what fuse should I go about changing if my deduction seems probable?

Thanks 

[tom400f]

Well a LED indicator relay drives LED indicators, not filament bulbs, which I assume you still have? These draw many more watts than LEDs so you've likely fried the relay and blown the main fuse.

I guess put back the old relay and replace the fuse...

[rubyscube]

Well a LED indicator relay drives LED indicators, not filament bulbs, which I assume you still have? These draw many more watts than LEDs so you've likely fried the relay and blown the main fuse.

I guess put back the old relay and replace the fuse...

Yep, still got the filament bulbs.

What strength is the main fuse?

[Nurse Julie]

Well a LED indicator relay drives LED indicators, not filament bulbs, which I assume you still have? These draw many more watts than LEDs so you've likely fried the relay and blown the main fuse.

I guess put back the old relay and replace the fuse...

As you know Tom, I'm no expert but we put a LED relay on one of our bikes to cure a problem, as suggested by Hairygit (there is a post on here somewhere) and the standard filament bulbs were left in situ. It cured the problem and has been working fine since.
rubescube, the fuses are usually found in the fuse box  What bike is it?

[hairygit]

Some led relays are much better than others, the ones I use are rated load of up to 250watts, more than enough for any bike, which is normally 45watts (2x 21watt main bulbs plus 3watt dash/warning lamp.

[Chris400F]

What strength is the main fuse?

Main fuses generally seem to be 15A looking at info for a few different models.
It should probably be marked on the fuse anyway, when you remove it.

[deltarider]

If it's a 500 they only have one fuse running the whole thing, blow that and nothing works. If it was a 550 they have 3 fuses so blowing one fuse at least means something still works so I suspect it's a 500 and it's blown the fuse.

The models CB500K2 (ED, F, G) and the CB500K3 have three fuses: 7A headlight, 5A taillight and 15A for the rest. I don't understand that so many are drawn to replacement by LEDS. If I read all these posts almost nobody seems to get it right the first time.
Then a little more on bulbs and LEDs. As far as safety, in particular attention value, I favour ordinary bulbs over leds. It may sound strange but LED brake- and indicatorlights do not draw as much attention as bulbs do. The reason is that ordinary bulbs glow on and off, where Leds are either on or off. In other words: with glowbulbs there is more chance you'll see something is changing. Do not forget that our brain is programmed to detect changes. Now we all blink our eyes from time to time. In such a blink a led can be switched on, where with conventional bulbs after you've blinked you can still see the lamp coming on. Some time ago I almost ran into a bus in front of me. I had missed glowing brakelights in my eyesight and the clean Leds had not alarmed me at all. And this was not the first time...  Led lights could be a good thing for taillights and daylight running lights but I don't want them in my blinkers and certainly not as a brakelight. If other drivers are like me, I must fear I would run a higher risk being rearended.

[AshimotoK0]

If it's a 500 they only have one fuse running the whole thing, blow that and nothing works. If it was a 550 they have 3 fuses so blowing one fuse at least means something still works so I suspect it's a 500 and it's blown the fuse.

The models CB500K2 (ED, F, G) and the CB500K3 have three fuses: 7A headlight, 5A taillight and 15A for the rest. I don't understand that so many are drawn to replacement by LEDS. If I read all these posts almost nobody seems to get it right the first time.
Then a little more on bulbs and LEDs. As far as safety, in particular attention value, I favour ordinary bulbs over leds. It may sound strange but LED brake- and indicatorlights do not draw as much attention as bulbs do. The reason is that ordinary bulbs glow on and off, where Leds are either on or off. In other words: with glowbulbs there is more chance you'll see something is changing. Do not forget that our brain is programmed to detect changes. Now we all blink our eyes from time to time. In such a blink a led can be switched on, where with conventional bulbs after you've blinked you can still see the lamp coming on. Some time ago I almost ran into a bus in front of me. I had missed glowing brakelights in my eyesight and the clean Leds had not alarmed me at all. And this was not the first time...  Led lights could be a good thing for taillights and daylight running lights but I don't want them in my blinkers and certainly not as a brakelight. If other drivers are like me, I must fear I would run a higher risk being rearended.

Brilliant reply, totally agree   ... look out for NOS Stanley bulbs (in orange packaging) at auto-jumbles .... a lot of modern made bulbs are sh*te

[florence]

I agree too, old style bulbs are safer in my opinion and after all, the bike was not designed to run LEDs.  Keep things simple I say.

[tom400f]

As you know Tom, I'm no expert but we put a LED relay on one of our bikes to cure a problem, as suggested by Hairygit (there is a post on here somewhere) and the standard filament bulbs were left in situ. It cured the problem and has been working fine since.
rubescube, the fuses are usually found in the fuse box  What bike is it?

Interesting what you say Julie. I tried (quickly) to find out the electrical specs for LED relays, didn't find any so I assumed they can't switch much. Seems the attraction is that the flash rate doesn't vary with the load, which can still be filament levels, unlike the old flasher units. Agree with Ash's comments about the perception of LEDs.

[rubyscube]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

It's a CB500 K1, and it was just the main fuse that blew sorry for being such a fish out of water, but I'm learning something new about my bike every day..

[deltarider]

If it's a 500 they only have one fuse running the whole thing, blow that and nothing works.

That's the statement I reacted to, but I'm too lazy to detect who ever wrote it . Anyway with our friends in Scandinavia we always have the chance it's about one of the 4200 C500K3s that were mainly shipped to them.

[Green1]

My Guzzi has LED Stop/Tail lights and indicators as standard and I'm not a fan they are either on or off and unlike conventional bulbs they don't throw there light outwards so are not visable from the sides

[Chris400F]

I have an LED stop/tail bulb fitted to my 400/4, not because I have any inherent dislike of ordinary bulbs but because there is only one bulb and I suspect (without any proof) that an LED bulb should be less likely to fail. Mine has radial LEDs as well as the rear facing cluster (25 LEDs in total) so does put light outwards as well (needed for number plate illumination as well as visibility from the side). The bulb looks pretty much like this one, shown in a holder.

[mike the bike]

I'm not a big fan of LED indicators but led stop lights have the advantage of being visible around 300mS sooner than incandescent bulbs, giving the following driver more notice of your braking.