Damn cheap bastard

GSXR Mirror Blinker Alternative for $10

I always loved the blinker-in-mirror feature on bikes since I saw the first Blackbird. I considered buying the Darth Bling mirrors from the fella on VFRD. Being a cheap bastard, I wandered over to eBay to see if I could score similar mirrors for less.

I purchased a pair of mirrors from seller JAGMOTORCYCLE. The dude is an a$$. I emailed the payment over to him, and did not hear back for a week. I emailed and called him several times over the course of the next five days, and got no response. I then filed a paypal dispute. It was only after the dispute that the guy emailed me to tell me that he was unable to reconcile my payment because I did not click on the checkout button. He did not say if he wished to proceed with the sale, or how the issue could be resolved. Needless to say, I canceled the purchase.

During my two weeks of frustration, I stumbled upon LED signal strips for sale by GOODS_KEEPER for $10 shipped. The LEDS can blink either in orange or in blue. I really like the blue. On Darth Bling's thread, there are instructions for wiring separately to the running lamp and to the signal wires. I wanted to have blue running lamps and orange signals. After hunting for the harness with the wires, I said "screw it," and did (+) Orange LEDs and (-) to the two wires going into each signal bulb.

I used silicone in addition to the adhesive tape that came with the strips. I used electrical tape to hold everything in place while the silicone cures. In the pics, the LEDs are marred by electrical tape. I'll take better pics tomorrow along with night shots.

I never thought I'd be so proud of being cheap, considering I never compromise on gadgets and farkles. I'll be installing them on my cages as well.

Larger pics are at Picasa Web Albums - Mike - LED Mirror Si...

All the best, everyone.

Juliani

 

It's also nice when they expect you to cancel your dispute, knowing fully well that you will be at their mercy once you do. I'm not certain you can dispute a second time with paypal. Can you? I don't trust Paypal either.

 

Sellers can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers. It does help to weed out the bad sellers.

I escalated my dispute, and told the seller that if Paypal had to resolve the dispute without his input, my feedback would be less than favorable. He gave me a refund instantly. Ebay is horse-crap anyway. I use them pretty much only for items from China. In my experience, the Chinese sellers are very, very good, and ship quickly. I have only had one bad experience in which my purchase was shipped to the wrong country.

Nevertheless, I don't take eBay seriously.

 

That crap about holding out on your buyer feedback until you left good feeback for the seller had to go, and thankfully has.
If you get my money, I'm a good buyer, enough said.

Some close ups of those mirrors would be nice. Looks good from a distance.

 

julianivfr, you have been quite busy!!!

Am waiting for mine.

 

FOTODAD! The man himself! How's your trip coming along? In what parts of Europe are you? The weather should be great, since we're in fall. Be sure to run back to your country before the snow hits. You know African people hate cold weather.

Have a safe trip, Bro.

 

Update

Okay, people. The silicone is dry, and I took more pics. Unfortunately, 3M double sided foam is hard to find, and I don't care for the weird-looking ones that are sold here in Alberta, hence the silicone.

The left side is ugly up close. I didn't know what to expect, and the leds are a little less flexible than I expected (side to side is okay, but up to down is not very effective with the included foam). I added the silicone after sticking on the strip. It'll hold just fine. Whenever I'm in the mood, I'll clean up the left install. For now, I am happy with the result.

As always, large pics may be downloaded from my Picasa gallery if anyone is interested in zooming in for better look. Picasa Web Albums - Mike.

Juliani

 

Am in cold, rainy and windy Amsterdam for the Aquatech exhibition. Can't wait to get back to hot and sunny Lagos.:smile: I will leave Europe on Friday.

For your install; you could have used a heat gun to heat the strip slightly and that way it will bend easier into shape. All the same, it looks quite nice.

 

You know, I didn't think of a heat gun. That's a great idea. Oh well, I have until the end of this month before the riding season will be over. I'll ride more and farkle less.

I just took a look at the exhibition website. WOW. There's a lot that goes into water treatment that most people, myself included, take for granted. It's full fledged engineering and science. I doff my hat to you.

At least, I understand your disappointment in having to skip the convention. For what it's worth, you and your clan can have bbq and Gulder (or is it now Heineken?) get-togethers before/after christmas. I heard of some old Oyinbo dudes working for a big company (maybe Julius Berger) who go on a ride annually on their cruisers. I believe they actually do swing through Benin and Chad. They have a mobile garage and technicians escort them the entire length of the trip.

Judging by the Naija World site, there are lots of people who are itching to get into sportbike riding. I'm sure the convention will get significantly larger within the next few years.