For a while now, I've been looking at ways to perform an attractive looking nip and tuck for the PCX's rear fender, but none of the plate frames I could find seemed the right shape, nor would they sufficiently replace the rear reflector. By chance, I ran into the Vololight product on Revzilla and it seemed exactly the right shape for my purposes and offered an alternative to the rear reflector so a fender reduction can be performed.
The first impression of the Vololights plate frame is simplicity. Opening the box revealed the frame with a pair of wires coming out of it, an cartoon style instruction sheet, and a tiny ziplock bag with a minuscule rectangular magnet inside.
Per the instruction booklet, the screws on the The wires are capped with screw on connectors, which you can connect directly to wires on your bike or scooter. The connectors seemed flimsy to me, so I snipped them off in favor of a more durable and weather resistant bullet style connector.
The frame has a plate illumination light built in, so it was unnecessary to keep the stock light. I gutted the stock housing and snipped off the stock bulb, using the plate light wires to power the frame. After connecting the frame and plate light wires, they were tucked up into the old plate light housing, out of the way of the rear tire. The wires from the plate frame threaded easily through a small opening in the old plate light housing. The connection looks fairly clean, and was quickly completed in about 15 minutes or so.
Following the instructions in the box, the frame was easily calibrated and ready to go. It should be noted that this may have been a "blind squirrel" moment for me. Allow me to explain. To calibrate the device, or to change the sensitivity or blink/no blink, one is required to touch the small magnet (mentioned above), to a specific spot on the lower LED strip. The calibration part really isn't that hard, you just pull the magnet away after the first blink. Setting sensitivity or blink modes was a bit more of a catch-if-catch-can scenario as I had to place the magnet exactly in the right place or it just re-calibrated. This was a little frustrating, especially since even on the most sensitive setting, the lights would only work when the brakes were applied.
On the other hand, I found that for actual braking the Vololight works very well, but the engine braking on the PCX isn't very abrupt, so it doesn't set off the sensor reliably. Just the same, I'll take it. It basically gives me a brake modulator and allows for fender reduction, which will probably happen this weekend.
As briefly mentioned, the lights can be set to either flash, or light up steadily when activated. This makes sense for areas where law enforcement might take issue with brake light modulation and a steady braking alert would be preferred.
So, for the money, If you want something that senses engine braking and you ride a PCX, you'll be disappointed, but from what I can tell, it would work fine on just about any other motorbike or scooter and others who have reviewed it have had high praise for the product. For braking urgency and letting the cager behind you know that you're making a quick stop, I think this is a good product.
UPDATE: I sent a comment to the Vololights folks on their website asking for verification as to whether their system was sensitive enough for engine braking on the PCX. I got a reply by this morning from a Faizal Ali, explaining that the engine braking on the PCX is indeed not abrupt enough to set off the accelerometer in the frame. The most sensitive mode detects deceleration at 1M/s^2. So that explains that. still, an extra indicator for regular and panic braking is still worthwhile.
ADDITIONAL UPDATE: See newer blogpost for addendum and fender reduction photo! <---link nbsp="" p="">
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