Modern Vespa

Hey guys, I did a euro turn signal conversion kit on my own Vespa... kinda.

I just ran some wire from the turn signal connectors (by the headlight), down the steering column, to the back of the running light. Then I swapped my running lights with my turn signals.

Obviously this will only work as a turn signal, no running light, but hey, it didn't cost me anything and I needed to do it (new headlight cover I got didn't have the holes).

So for now at least, I have working signals, though I've lost my running lights

Does anyone have any ideas from here or is my project done?

I was thinking I could get one two of these pieces, maybe modify them a bit to fit.



Then get some Switchback LEDs (Switchback LEDs replace your parking or daytime running front lights. When you turn them on, they are white, but once you activate a turn signal, they'll change to an amber color. As soon as your turn signal switches off, they return to their original white color.)

The trick is to somehow make the mount play ball with this...

I have switchback LED's mounted on the front of my 150 and they work great. They mount where the pods used to be. They are a "shimmering" white all the time unless that indicator is on, and then they switch to yellow.

Thanks billrush. Do they just have the turn signal wiring going to them, or do you have anything special going on?

Any link to the bulb by any chance?

My front extra lights are made by Skene.
https://www.skenelights.com/online-store
Mine are called photon blasters. I waited a long time to order these because they are so expensive. The wiring diagrams are on their site and I think specific to their units.

But these are bright and I believe make my bike more visible from the front. They are DRL's until I turn on the indicator light. Then they turn yellow and blink. Very nice IMO

But others make switchback lights.

Is your goal now to add back running lights for the front. I have a suggestion if so.

They make bau16/bsu16s switchback LEDs that fit the Vespa socket. Google it. Maybe start there?

What puzzles me is how you supply flasher and separate power on a two pin connector .


I just put on a set of front and back smoke lens lights from China. They required a bit of modification to run fronts and backs, but I have it all up and running. I had to remove the original 33ohm resistors and put in some 6ohm. Total price front and backs plus 6ohm resistors and SAE connectors was $142. These plug into the original harness. For running light power, I tapped the add a circuit line that I put in for the kneepad electronics. The resistor plate is mounted to one of the empty relay slots behind the horn cover. The resistors COULD get hot if one left the blinker on for an extended period of time. You could hold it in my hand fir about a minute of blinking before it got too hot to hold. The resistors plug into the LED harness via an SAE connector so that any part of the assembly can be removed at any time without cutting anything.

You guys have some really sweet looking setups!

Billrush's post this morning inspired me to look into this with fresh eyes instead of last night's after midnight Adrian eyes... I may have found something...

For now I've ordered up one, it should arrive in a few days... I'll take advantage of things being taken apart to bleed brakes... Will let you guys know when it gets in.

Any suggestions/thoughts/links welcome!

Ah, yeah! I just ordered a kit from ebay for $17 shipped. I'm going to put on the white vespa in the background of my pic... I'll let you know in month how it went...

Hi Adri,

Sorry but what Vespa S? What year and what engine please? Where will the LED bulb you've ordered be placed? Cheers

They would be going in the euro turn signal / north american running light.

I'll send you a DM with more details

please enlighten me....why does tha US require blinkers other than the originals???

Who said anyone requires anything?

Vespas imported into the US are required to have a minimum distance between blinkers (aka turn signals, indicators ). The blinkers in the body of Vespas are not far enough apart to meet US specs. So Vespa adds two front and two rear blinker pods extending from each side of the body. It's cumbersome but meets the specs. The standard, in the body, rear blinkers of my Vespa Sprint 150 came disconnected. Many folks in the US take pleasure in removing the US pods and connecting the European blinkers.

Adri,

After all these lighting discussions I started to wonder which scooter you had but couldn't google it without additional model detail. I just don't have as much experience as others on the Vespa model range. When I look yours up, I see a nice looking scoot with square headlight. Out of the many photos I saw, only a few had North American indicator pods and only in the front. I saw no pictures of any with rear pods. So which pods did your have? Both my Sprint nd primavera had 4 pods. Now they have none!

You refer to a "North American running light". What and where is that?

Everything you said is bang on. Just for added context, for those interested, it also applies to Canada.

We use a lot of the same (american) standards (EPA for example) here in Canada, as it helps to keep everything simplified between the two countries. There is a lot of automotive production shared between the two countries, and import and distribution as well, so it helps keep everything simple at a federal and international level.

Used to work for the Canadian arm of big companies like Goodyear/Dunlop, Harley-Davidson, KYMCO, etc.

I have no idea if this is what they're really called, but this is what I call them.

Dear Adri,
The drawing really helps.

In your first post of this thread, you say you ran wires down to the running light. You don't say you removed the right and left signals(you label just the left signal).
1. Did you remove the signals? (AKA PODS)

2. Did your scooter have rear signal pods?

My primavera 50 came with working running lights (4 led bulbs) but the light fixture also had an empty hole where you can snap in another bulb holder. That bulb is for the blinker light. I believe European versions of my 50 ship without signal pods (these are just for U.S.specs) and the running light (aka DRL FOR DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT) had the blinker bulb wired in.

My 50 had right and left rear signal pods too.

3. Where is your rear running light located originally.

Sorry for the laborious explanation but we have many labels and the U.S. version and rest of world version. It gets confusing! (To me anyway)

And to add... a GTS does not have the pods, and the turn signals are far enough apart. But, they only act as turn signals when they could also be running lights. There is no legal issue,:just want more light, smoked lens.

Just trade yours in for a 2022 GTS. Front right and left lights are both DRL and indicator lights.

No promises, but if my mod works, I may have a solution for you that doesn't involve trading in your bike...

If it doesn't work, I'm with billrush, just get a new one!

Little update... I was originally supposed to get my parts in tomorrow evening... it has been delayed until Wednesday...

Stay tuned...

Hey Adri,

Can we have the link or searchable name to that light you ordered?

Parts arrived tonight, it's 2:30 am, just got in from the garage, time for a little update...

Bad news first. The parts I got were functionally good, but the application wasn't relevant to our Vespe so I needed to cut one part of the factory harness. Bummer. I really didn't want to do that but oh well.

Good news now... It works! I have no more pods, and what were my DRL (day light running lights) are now both DRLs UNTIL I hit the turn signal. THEN one stays a white running light while the other flashes amber.

When I started doing this I wanted to create a shopping list like I do for most of my how-to content ("here's what you need, here's how to use it"), or if I could find the connectors Piaggio uses I thought I could even premake little wiring harnesses for people that would work out to a lot less than what scooter west charges. Unfortunately this turned out not to be plug play after all.

I was really excited when I came in. Now I'm just exhausted. I'll give more detail in the next couple days and some basic instructions, and then I'll do a detailed how to with a detailed article and a video after that.

First, sleep.

I like the good news. That's great Adri! Thanks for the initial update. Can't wait to see more.

I just got this ebay kit in: switchback bulbs/ resistors/ ba connector plus a fused power cord for running light power. The bulb fits good (see pic). I'm going to install this weekend or next and I'll let you know how it went.

Your kit has even more than mine (I don't have the extra wire and 1156s on the far right).

Mine required me to do some splicing, which was a bummer because I wanted to make something really easy that anybody wouldn't be afraid to do and I know that will turn some people off... but I also lost the "pods".

It looks like with your kit your might be keeping not have to splice anything if you can run the wiring out of the way.

I'll take some pics or shoot a quick video if I can motivate myself to put some shorts on and go to the garage later.

And here it is installed one pic with running lights, the other with one blinker on...of course you can't see that, but I caught it in the "on" portion of the cycle. BTW, I tapped into the power that I ran for the knee pad, no splicing into the original harness. This was the Item I purchased, it was $17.73 when I ordered
https://www.ebay.com/itm/283950567935?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=JnXzYf4WSCa&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=5hcLMq5XR1C&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=SMS


If I can get the same kit in amber/red, I'm going to do the rear lights.

I'm psyched this worked for you! I'm glad even though I couldn't figure out a cheap plug and play alternative to the expensive Scooter West options, someone else did!

Mine works identical to yours but came with less parts and wasn't plug and play though it cost about the same so yours is a better solution.

I was not able to find a good, cheap red/amber kit for the rears on either ebay or Amazon. There are very few red/amber kits, and they were all $40+.

There are plenty of red/amber switchback bulbs, but they have both the + lead for amber flashers and + lead for red running lights on the tip, unlike a BAU15S which has a single + lead for the amber flashers. I think that someone in this group thread posted the proper socket for these bulbs (T20, I think), but those aren't going to fit nicely in the standard GTS light, and it really means (for this project to go smoothly) you need a BAU15s kit that builds the bulb into a rubber boot that fits and seals nicely in the standard GTS light. Those kits are all $40, except straight from China.

So, I purchased a kit from AliExpress, about $13 shipped, and we will see what we get. When I get this in, I will also do a little write up on the Vespa flasher circuit and resistance matching.

Friday, on a whim, I decided to blindly purchase an LED compatible relay on Amazon. I chose one with high rating/high number of ratings:

DEWHEL 12V 0.02A-10A 2-Pin CF-12 Electronic LED Flasher Relay Fix for Turn Signal Light Fast Hyper Flash https://a.co/d/5plvEbW

It was $8.

It works and blinks the bulb/LED kit on both bikes. I'm persuaded now to dump the load resistors and just go with a flasher. You can get flashers for even less than this one.... there is no sense dealing with heat/resistor mounting when for $8 you can achieve perfection. The flasher was right behind the left kneepad on a GTS, and took less than 5 minutes to install

When my red/amber kit comes, I won't be installing the resistors.


A BTW about resistors: on flashers on a GTS, ot takes about about a minute of blinking to get too hot to hold. It woukd take minutes... or tens of minutes to get hot enough to melt something, and even longer if the resistor has some circulation. If you left your flasher on for 30 minutes in a tight area with other wires, it could melt something. Mostly, the heavy duty warnings are for when an LED replaces a running light or headlamp or tail lamp... lights that are on continuously.

I installed the ScooterWest kit for front running lights and amber turn signals.
Worked great but the amount of light was poor.
Bought switchback bulbs from Amazon---MUCH better

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M26IHAR?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I also replaced the flasher, makes it much easier.

Amazon bulb looks so much better and more full. What do you mean by "easier"?

Does anyone know where to get the rear clear lenses for the EU turn signals? I saw them for $50 a piece but am hoping to find them a bunch cheaper.

He means exactly what I wrote above. An LED flasher relay is about $8 or LESS. If you deal with power resistors, you have to isolate them and put them on something that will absorb heat. That is a MAJOR PITA. It is FAR easier to forgo the power resistors for an $8 flasher which can be changed in 5 minutes (literally... I time it). In fact I have cut off and removed my power resistors as it saves energy AND is safer. It shortens installation time by an hour.

The smoke lens kit that I have is EXACTLY like the Scooterwest kit... except the Scooterwest kit comes with an LED flasher relay. That's why theirs worked out-of-the-box without adding power resistors, and I had to add power resistors to mine (I have since replaced the relay and removed the resistors).

Now, replacing the LED flasher relay might not be easy on other models of Piaggio scooters, but on a 2014 and 2016 GTS, it is right behind the left kneepad and VERY EASY to replace.

On the kit I got (pic somewhere several posts above) the resistors are already wired into the harness right out of the box, so you don't have to replace a relay or wire a restrictor in

If it's the one that you posted earlier, try holding it for a couple of minutes while the flasher is flashing. Getting pretty toasty, isn't it? That means two things: if you forget your flasher is on, you could melt something, and you are wasting huge amounts of power (about 40watts per power resistor). An LED flasher solves both of those negative aspects of resistors.

p.s. I'm serious about holding one while operating the flasher. If you don't do something to ameliorate the heat, you run the risk of melting something. You can't just shove that in the area behind the light and forget it. Done properly, those resistors need to be mounted to metal.

I get what you're saying. I currently just have it zip tied to some piece of metal under the cover, so that it has space all around it and nothing that will rub against it (in case it heats up).

I'm not really the forget my signals on type. More of the compulsively constantly turning them on and off type.

Will keep an eye on it and see what happens. Already put the Vespa back together and have already torn the BMW apart... can't have two bikes torn apart at the same time, too messy. I'll see how the Vespa holds up like this, and maybe give it a check to see how things are holding up when I'm done with the BMW.

If you have a link to the LED flasher relay that would be compatible with a Vespa LX on Amazon I'd appreciate it!

Okay. The rear kit is in and installed. Power resistors have been removed. This wasn't completely plug and play...

The rear lights have an amber dome built in so that the user can use an amber or clear bulb. In order to remove the amber dome, I took a Dremel and sanding drum and took out just enough plastic to allow the dome to drop out. I left a lip for the LED bulb to grab. I soldered and taped the power connection, and tie wrapped it in.

So, to do the whole bike,

Front kit was $17
Rear kit was $13
LED flasher was $8
I had to irreversibly modify the rear lights. I had a spare from the smoke lens kit that I installed on my other GTS, so it didn't bother me to take s Dremel to them. Go slow, and grind in little bits. You want to leave as much lip as possible. The dome should barely slide out.

just installed led turn indicator bulbs and new relay in my supertech (australian - doesn't have those funny US pods).

all cheap from aliexpress
front https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002664281392.html
rear https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32833851193.html
led relay https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002982539917.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009496330264.html

bulbs I used are the 120 degree BAY9S with one pin filed like somebody else here mentioned. (instead of the correct BAZ9S)

why different front and rear? cause I couldn't make up my mind the front turned out to be definitely brighter than standard and rear similar / slightly brighter to standard.


getting at the relay was a pain as it's tucked behind the pmp2 (bluetooth) module so had to take the glovebox half off and then swear and curse a bit while squeezing my hand in

These will fit a 2021 gts turn signals. At least the housing fits. I'll get around to wiring it when the weather cools and I find where the relay is located. [/img]