I want to make the stock front flasher pods into DRLs

Daytime Running Lamps increase the frontal visibility of the bike during the day. At night, they also help by placing an amber light on each side of the headlight, making it obvious that a motorcycle is approaching, and not a car with all but one headlight out.

To make a set of your own, go to Radio Shack and get a few #275-248A 12V relays (blue base); pick up a few feet of light gauge wire while you're there. If you don't have a soldering iron, you can pick up a soldering kit for $5-10 as well.

Here's a diagram of what the bottom of the relay will look like.

Go to this site to read about how relays work.

You'll want to solder four wires of about 3" to each of four of the pins above; these will then be attached to wires on the bike to complete the circuit. Soldering them directly to the bike is more solid, but more difficult; use the short wire method if you haven't soldered before so you can easily access your workspace. Use different color wires to make it easier.

• The stock flasher hot wire coming from the battery side goes to the red pin.
• A constant wire that you'll have to run yourself will be connected to the blue pin (such as the tail light harness; you need to pick one that is on when the ignition is in 'on' or 'park' positions).
• Connect the yellow terminal to the hot wire coming from the bulb unit.
• Remove a bit of insulation from the stock ground wire and connect it to the black pin; this will ground the relay without having to cut the ground wire for the bulb.
• The white pin is not used.

It works like this: Normally, current will flow through the blue and yellow terminals to the light from the constant wire, keeping it lit. When you activate the signal switch, the voltage coming from the battery induces an electomagnetic current in the coil between the red and black pins, causing the relay to remove voltage from the constant wire and apply it to the white pin, to which nothing is attached. This will make the bulb up front flash off/on while the bulb in the rear flashes on/off.

Note: The relays will not draw nearly as much current as the stock lamps, which will upset the thermal flasher that makes them blink. You'll need to remove the thermal flasher and replace it with an electric flasher from any auto parts store, which is load independent.

One of our members followed these instructions and did a write-up, complete with pictures.