Need some input about drive lights

[nomagnashn]

I just got back from a ~2000 mile trip to the Ozarks.  During my time there, I drove at night twice.  That's some scary shit right there on this bike.  I REALLY need to invest in some driving lights.

Anybody got some good feedback/suggestions?  I'm trying to stay away from the $300+ kits.  I've seen the Hella FF50 kits for around $100....

Also, what are the mounting options?  I'm thinking the best place would be around the caliper area.  Are those types of mounts universal?

Thanks for the input folks.

[lionlady]

After pricing lighting, and checking out what some folks had on their bikes, I went with the "ghetto" option:

A pair of small "off road use only" driving lights from AutoZone ($16) and angle brackets from Home Depot. Radio Shack has this black plastic coil stuff that I used to carry the wires from the lights up to the switch.

Cheap to replace, very bright.

P

[Andrew]

Getto lights    Cost per candle power  

Mount them as high as you can, it will throw the light further and wider. Unless you are using LED lights do not mount them on the unsprung parts of the bike (down by the wheels) the vibration will kill the bulbs rather quickly compared to having the lights in a place with less vibrations.  

Over on ADV there is a vendor who has low cost LED driving lamps, but the mounting hardware sucks (better hardware coming soon -from china supplier)

On the whole look for wide angle lights. Pencil beans might give a long view but unless you are going real fast on a straight road  

For about $100 you can convert most "getto lights" into HID with a bit of time and effort. Although the HID conversion may have some drawbacks (scattered light, ect)

Might be leery of too much light as well. I have found that on a back road in the middle of the night with all photon cannons running I can see better than daylight, but if I have to tone it down to normal lighting (oncoming car) I am almost blind for a few seconds   and that just is not cool.

[sleazy rider]

Hella Optilux 4" HIDs up as high as you can get them.  They ran me $230 off Ebay and are fan-fricckin-tastic lasers.  Then again, I upgraded the regular headlights to HID also.  

[nomagnashn]

I've upgraded my lights to HIDs too but that doesn't do anything to help with the cutoff (of course, you know that already).  I still need to upgrade the high beam though....

I may have to look into that ghetto option.  For around $20, it's worth it even if it doesn't ultimately work out for me.

Thanks folks.

[lionlady]

My "ghetto lights" are mounted down on the front forks, using longer bolts for the fender attachment, so they get a pretty good shaking. I'm on my second pair, in 3 years. The second pair has lasted a lot longer than the first pair did. Not bad $ to miles. I'm actually delighted they've lasted as well as they have.

P

[RBEmerson]

If you're serious about lighting the way, this is the way to go:  DDM Tuning

I put an H3 and an H7 replacement in my BMW K1200RS - I don't fear the night, I own the night!  

[nomagnashn]

If you're serious about lighting the way, this is the way to go:  DDM Tuning

I put an H3 and an H7 replacement in my BMW K1200RS - I don't fear the night, I own the night!  

That's the exact kit I bought for my Sprint.  I love them.  But again, I need to upgrade the high beam too because it looks kinda stupid when I turn on the high beam and it's got that sickly yellow color compared to the bright white HIDs.  

[RBEmerson]

Color schmolor... what matters is the brightness.  The stock H3 and H7 were simply so dim I outran them at posted speed limits.  Traveling briskly at night was out of the question.  With the HID's, I see what's in the road.  FWIW, I had FF50 driving (not fog) lamps on my Concours - they were quite bright but the lenses and pattern made them an issue with on-coming (and overtaken) traffic.  In the crowded east, they just aren't all that practical.  But for folks with some open road and no traffic...  

[bomber]

you are correct when you say that HID will do nada for the truly abyssmal patterns that Triumph projectors throw down the road -- I've been using some LED floods from ADVMonster this year that are aces . . . . . .

http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/hstrial-QualiRegResou/StoreFront.bok

yeah, they are Chinese, and, yeah, that makes some folk's heads explode -- but the price/performance ratio is good, and the guy stands behind the products .  . . . . the markups that some companies (coughPIAAcough) get for rebranding small HIDs from other companies are insane -- beware the small HIDs with internal ballasts -- they have a poor record of lasting for maybe months, though they WILL be cheerfully replaced -- during the replacement boogy, they will not be lighting your way.

Whatever you purchase mount em as high as you can to throw more light down the road, or low, to increase conspicuousnessosity.

[Yankee Dog]

After pricing lighting, and checking out what some folks had on their bikes, I went with the "ghetto" option:

A pair of small "off road use only" driving lights from AutoZone ($16) and angle brackets from Home Depot. Radio Shack has this black plastic coil stuff that I used to carry the wires from the lights up to the switch.

Cheap to replace, very bright.

P

I think unless you need to go with low wattage LEDs, this is the way to go. I have had a couple of sets of $20 Wally World lights and in MNSHO they put out just as much light as any of the higher prices options.  


Spend your money as you like.

[RBEmerson]

They look like Wally-world, they work like Wally-world, and they're barely worth Wally-world prices.  On a bike that's not Wally-world?    Indeed, you get what you pay for...

[Yankee Dog]

I will give you the fact that they dont look so fancy, but they put out as much light as any I have seen. I guess I am not so much into form as function.

Mileage varies of course.

YD

[ConPilot1]

A sidekick of mine and I did a night time bike-to-bike comparison of his 250$ PIAAs and my 35$ Optiluxes.

The PIAAs were a tad brighter, but not 200$ brighter by any means.

[RBEmerson]

Well, I agree that PIAA sells an awful lot of sizzle with their steaks.  I guess they're the exception that proves the rule, eh?  

[Imapilot]

I have been playing with using CREE XML-T6 leds to make some small driving lights.  they pull 3amps at 7.4 volts.  so two of them should run off a 12v system i think at just under 6amps.  problem is my prototype has got a dead link in it somewhere and it stopped working.  But two of em light the road nicely and there small as a mag lights head.    

[dietDrThunder]

Optilux 88189 jobbers are the best bang/buck IMO. I too have a buddy with a pair of high dollar PIAA lights on his bike, and side-by-side, it took us about 10 minutes of careful observation and discussion to decide that his $300+ lights were better than my $40 solution. this, to me, pretty much answered the question of 'was it worth it for me to trash the Optiluxes and spend $$$ on the PIAA's.'

This is not to say that PIAA lights aren't great, but just to point out that it's silly to assume that it's vastly superior just because it's more expensive (see: oil, tires, BMW's, etc. ).

[02Tac]

Just a thought; as I understand it, putting HIDs in stock housings can sometime aggravate a lighting issue because the housing is designed for a specific type bulb and HID bulbs can have a different "light center" than a standard bulb which can reduce the benefit of going to HIDs in the first place.

 With that said, have you considered upgrading the headlight harness and trying regular bulbs again?  I ask this because I have recently done the harness upgrade on my Bandit and the lighting difference is huge.  I used a harness from Easternbeaver.com.  Light output is easily doubled from what the stock harness provided. Down road visability is almost as far now on teh low beam as it was on high before! This is a result of the light actually receiving full system voltage.  On my Bandit, the stock harness was only allowing 10.5v at the headlight connector and this was with no load (bulb disconnected) applied! This voltage drop corresponds to more than a 50% drop in light out put.  The new harness was showing battery voltage with no load and only .2v less with the bulb installed.

I used the kit at the bottom of this page - http://easternbeaver.com/Main/Bike_Specific/Bandit/bandit.html

http://easternbeaver.com/Main/Bike_Specific/Bandit/bandit.html

This chart of light output vs voltage is sourced from Hella


13.8V nominal Operating Voltage (12V system)
  voltage %            Light Output %
 @ 100 %  = 13.8 volts  100 % Great!
  @  95 %  =  13.1 volts  83 % Poor  
 @  90 %  =  12.4 volts  67 % Bad  
 @  85 %  =  11.7 volts  53 % VERY BAD!!!!

[Wildcatfan]

I've got the Motolights on my FJR. I put some aftermarket LED bulbs in them and they work pretty good. Not as good as some HID's I've seen but draws a lot less.

[Drif10]

Stock lighting on my GSA sucked donkey balls. So I swapped out the low and high beams for HID's from www.vvme.com

That was three years ago, and never a problem, even with that stoopit Canbus electrical system on the new BMWs.

Got a used set of PIAA 910s, and converted those to HID as well. They're mounted above the factory fogs, and aimed so that the 'uphill' light points up the corner. This mix is pretty good, as the OEM high beam with the HID does a good job of lighting up the straights. I went from 2200 lumens of light to 12,400. 5 times the light, drawing 140w all on vice 120w with halogens.

That was worth the $200 all total it cost me.