A while back a friend and I were high tailing it back up Interstate 5 after a NorCal club meeting, trying to get home at a reasonable hour. It was just past dark when we pulled into a little valley town for dinner, and Patrick remarked how dark the back of my bike was. I was riding a K1200RS at the time, but it struck me how dim and easy to miss (or hit) any motorcycle with just a single tail light was. Friend Patrick had installed Lite Buddies on his R1100RS, and they made a significant difference in his visibility. I made plans that night to upgrade the lighting on all my bikes in a similar fashion.

A quick trip to the web led me to the site of Run'N'Lites, which had recently acquired the assets and production rights for Lite Buddies. Run'N'Lites use incandescent bulbs to add light, where Lite Buddies take a high tech route and use LEDs. The amount of light produced is about the same, but the LEDs draw much less current, something that was important to me with the limited output of the R100GS alternator. As an added benefit, the Lite Buddies came in red that was bright enough to show red through the yellow rear turn signal lenses. Best of all, they fit right into the existing turn signal housings with only slight modification.

Installation is the same as with the front Lite Buddies, except that the power is tapped off a wire in the tail light housing. I'll describe the process for one side, just repeat it for the other to complete the job. Start by removing the turn signal lens (the lens makes a nice place to store the screws) and set it aside somewhere where it won't get kicked or stepped on. Pop out the reflector and mark the location of the brown and blue wires with a marking pen so you won't have to guess which wire goes where. Remove the wires and the bulb. The Lite Buddy is made up of an array of eight diodes embedded in epoxy that is molded to fit the inside of the turn signal reflector. Double faced tape is provided to hold the 'Buddy in place, but a healthy dose of silicon sealant guarantees that the tape will hold. I like to get as much distance between the two lights as possible, and so mounted them toward the outside of the reflector. You do what you want. Either way, use some alcohol to clean the surface of the reflector to which you'll be adhering the tape. Then stick the 'Buddy to the reflector, making sure it ends up bottomed against the side of the housing.

Right about now you'll start wondering how the wire gets from the 'Buddy to the back of the reflector, and then on to the power back at the tail light. The answer takes the shape of a hole, an oblong hole you're about to drill through the reflector. I used a Dremmel tool for this with a nice carbide burr about 1/8" across, but you could also drill two holes next to each other and file out the plastic between them. Put the hole next to where the wire comes out of the Lite Buddy epoxy, but far enough away that the wire doesn't have to kink to make the bend.

For some reason my Lite Buddies came with the connectors already installed, and there was no way to get them through the hole. Fortunately extra connectors were provided and it was a simple matter to clip off the end of the wire and pass it through the hole. Trim the brown wire to a length that lets it easily reach the ground terminal of the lamp socket, then crimp the piggy back connector to the brown ground wire. Push the piggy back connector onto the ground terminal, then the brown factory wire onto the piggy back terminal. Install the blue turn signal lead to the other terminal, and put the turn signal bulb back in place.

Now we need to get the Lite Buddy power lead from the turn signal housing into the tail light housing where we're going to tap into the tail lamp lead. To do this you might want to remove the turn signal stalks from your bike, but you really don't have to. Find some stiff wire (safety wire works great), make a half inch loop at the end, and then flatten it so it will fit into the turn signal stalk. Push the wire through the stalk until it comes out at the turn signal housing end. You may have to loosen the clamp that holds the signal housing to the stalk to get the wire through. When it's sticking into the housing, loop the 'Buddy power lead through the little eye you made and pull the wire back through the turn signal stalk. Work carefully and pull gently to avoid damaging any of the other wires in the stalk. Route the wire along the luggage rack, perhaps feeding it through the same zip ties that hold the turn signal lead. You'll have to extend the wire before it will reach the tail light, so you need to decide if you want to splice it as it runs along the luggage rack or back in the cramped confines of the turn signal housing. I elected to do a solder splice covered with shrink tube along the length of the luggage rack. Perhaps one day the Lite Buddies will come with an extra foot or so of wire to avoid the splice.

With the wire routed, we need to get it into the tail light housing. If you used a light enough wire, you'll be able to snake it through the rubber grommet along with the rest of the tail light wires. Remember you'll have two wires coming through the grommet, so plan accordingly.

OK, you're about half done. Repeat all of the above for the other side. You should have two wires inside the tail light housing at this point. Cut them to a length that lets them easily reach the back of the tail light bulb, then strip off a bit of insulation from each one. Twist them together and crimp on one of the piggy back connectors that came with the kit.

Now you've got a decision to make. You can rig the Lite Buddies to be on all the time, or to come on only with the brake lights. I like the idea of full time visibility improvement, and so opted to wire them as running lights. For running lights, use the gray wire. The green one gets you brake lights. If you're doing this on something other than a '93 R100GS, just turn on the ignition and touch either of the wires going to the tail light. When the Lite Buddy comes on, that's your connection point. If you want to rig them as a brake light, it's the other powered lead. Pull the lead you selected, attach the Lite Buddy lead, and connect the factory lead to the piggy back terminal on the Lite Buddy connector. Just to make sure you got it right, pump the brake and make sure the Lite Buddies come on (or not, depending on what you decided). If something's not quite right, go over your connections again and make sure nothing is loose or connected improperly. If you mistakenly routed one of the power leads inside the turn signal to ground, you may also need to replace a fuse.

With the smoke check successfully completed, push the turn signal reflectors back into their housings and load the lens on top. You may need to bend the leads around on the back of the reflector to get enough clearance to let the reflector to sit all the way into the housing. Install the screws into the lens and snug them just enough to fully seat the lens. The lens is brittle and will break if you make the screws too tight. Repeat for the other side, and the tail light lens as well. Waller! You now stick out like a sore thumb in the fast lane, or what ever lane you find yourself in while you're riding in the dark.