Driving Lights Advice Please

[ShinySideUp]

I also have FF50's. Mounted on H&B crashbars. I mounted them with some kind of chrome clamps I found in a Harley shop. I like the big triangle they form and seem to get a lot of respect in city traffic where I ride every day all day long on the job.

I found the lights on eBay, converted to HID. I mounted the ballasts just inside the front of the fuel tank, one on each side.

I've put about 30,000 miles on them without problem. Having no filament makes sense to me, allowing me not worry about the vibration of the engine mount..

I wired them so they come on when the headlight comes on (after the engine starts) and they stay on all the time. Since I like all the conspicuity I can get, I just couldn't think of a reason to install a switch to shut them down. If I had a daytime low-battery situation, I can just pull their fuses, along with the headlight.

I have the Hella's aimed fairly low to avoid blinding oncoming cars and find they do a great job at throwing shadows on roadway irregularities.

I also hung a pair of Piaa 73294 driving lights with a 25 deg. beam from my GS handguards. These are switched and I use them for higher-speed highway driving. I have them aimed just a bit further than the highbeam and to either side. I also turn them on when I'm lane-splitting, along with a modulated highbeam.

[redwing]

gezerbike... I am a big fan of piaa lights. What is the model number for that light you mentioned?
Piaa has a good product but I could not find that lamp at thier web sight

Robert

Maybe there was some confusion. I had mentioned Piaa light mounts, like the ones below. They will attach nicely to round crash bars.

Well said gezerbike ... so, nevermind.

Robert

[Caroanbill]

Anyone know aything about these? 10 watt LEDS available with a 15degree ["Eurobeam"] or 35 degree [foglight]spread
http://www.motorradgarage.com.au/catalo ... cts_id=996

The speil suggests they'd cope with vibration very well and only draw 0.75amps ... interesting!

[stogiepuffer]

I run LightForce 140s mounted to my crashbars. Depending lense cover, bulb, etc you can use them for marker lights all he way out to flamethrower status. I put the clear fog lenses on and how I have them adjusted is so that I have a sheet of light out as far as my low beam out to the roadside on both sides but still low enough that I haven't been flashed by oncoming cars yet and they stay on all the time. They are routed through an aftermarket fuse box.

[rtallent]

Thanks to everybody for all the great advice/suggestions.

At this point I have purchased a set of FF50s and have all the wiring plans worked out. I was all ready to buy a Trail Tech handlebar switch but I have saved so much money getting FF50s for cheap on ebay as opposed to SCMR16s that I'm considering going extravagant and using a GS switch as Don did (I don't know whether to thank you or not, Don! ). Also, I'm still am working out how I want to mount the lights. I've talked to Randall at LumaLink about what I'd need and it's certainly do-able, but I'm still not sure I want to fork mount the lights if I can avoid it. As soon as the weather permits (hopefully later this week), I'm going to see a guy I know who is a great general bike mechanic and builder of cranks for motorcycle drag racing to see if together we can up with something. It might involve some, hopefully simple, fabrication that I suspect he could do. I'll wait to share it until I see if it pans out or not. Stay tuned and thanks again!

[thepeacebullgrunt]

FF50's with Lumalink bracket's mounted on fork !

They rock ! even the dogs look at me with more respect
when I pass their owner car.


Thanks to Don post/reviews about them
who convinced me to choose these instead of the HID's
A year ago !

[rtallent]

OK. Things are falling into place. I will be using LumaLink brackets and am ready to order.

I have switch parts on order. I also ordered the BMW repair plug for the GPS connector, although it isn't completely clear that I'll need it. I did install the Can-bus adapter from Electrical Connections since I already had it and left the wire hanging from the weep hole rather than complete connections from it while I determined whether or not it would be able to supply dependable power. On my first ride, within a mile from my house, the bulb went out. I got to my destination, did my business, got on the bike and had no problem until about two miles from home. I wondered if the end of the wire had contacted the bike somewhere and made the Can-bus system think there was a short and cut power to it (can it do that?). So today I electrical-taped the end of the wire and tucked it between the brake hoses and went for a short ride and had no problem. I will continue testing before making final connections. If it's good, then I'll keep it but at the next sign of undependability it goes to the landfill.

[rtallent]

Thanks again to everyone who contributed answers. Here's how it finally worked out:

The Electrical Connections Can-bus adapter has worked well for me so far with no failures in over a 1000 miles of testing, so I am going ahead and using it for switched power to the relay for my fuse block as well as for the driving lights relay. I found a set of FF50s on eBay for only about $60. The lights were so cheap (especially after being ready to really shell out the clams, so to speak, on HID lamps) that I went with the BMW GS fog lamp switch, which looks good and works really well. The LumaLink brackets came in this past Thursday. Yesterday I put it all together (after finally wiring up the fuse block) and it looks good and, most important, works I can't wait for darkness so I can really try them out!

[gezerbike]

Very nice. Thanks for posting your final results, and you won't be disapointed with the FF 50's.....they throw a ton of light.

[deilenberger]

I can't wait for darkness so I can really try them out!

Looks very nice.. sorta the same as mine (my Lumalinks are a bit lower on the fork sliders.. or my reflectors are higher..) and glad to hear the GS switch worked out.

[rtallent]

Mike and Don: thanks

Don: I think you're right about mounting height. I went as high as I felt I could so as not to block the reflectors too much with the bottom-mounted lights. (I was shooting for a good compromise between a large triangle for daytime visibility and reasonable height for nighttime coverage. According to Randall at LumaLink, bottom mounts are easier to make for FF50s, too, for some reason I forget.) As it is, I'll be adding little stick-on reflectors to the ends of the brackets to make up for what I've lost due to the light covering the originals. BTW, Randall was really helpful in advising me on length (XL), end-of-bracket machining (smooth like split links, not boxy like most conrods) and location of of light mounting hole; all specific to the FF50s so they look better. Big "Thanks' to Randall.

[deilenberger]

Bob,

The reflectors are stuck to the forks with foam 2-face mounting tape (high-tech eh?).. might be possible to simply move them above the Lumalink brackets.

I do recall that part of my concern with the mounting position was to make it impossible for the brackets to hit anything, like the telelever wishbone on full compression and full lock. I think I got it right.. Glad to hear Randall is working out the kinks, they are a really nice company to deal with.