F800GS - show us your lights

Who's mount are you using?

I'm upgrading from TT SCMR16's

To some hopefully lasting led's. Looking for a stronger mount too.

Light bar is from Kildala, he is one of the vendors

After a 'did you see those kangaroos's ' event - when we broke our never travel at night in Australia rule as we had made a Motel booking paid credit card and then dinner a a resturant took forever etc

I bought a pair of Baja Designs Halogen Soltek 4 inch lights - they just arrived and I see they are 100 watters .... The website only mentions 55watts for the halogen -so I was surprised to see the option ......anyway

Do the F800/650 produce enough juice for lowbeam / highbeam / taillight / parking light and ignition to run a pair of 100 watters ? The book says they have a 400watt alternator ?

( + heated vest for her goodself ?)

and using a Kildas light bar

Preview of new light kit.

Clearwater Kristas on top of Rigid Duallys. That's a bunch of LED lumens for the draw.

Can't light 'em up though, waiting on Shorai due in next week.

CANT WAIT TO SEE THAT ALL LIT UP!!!

anyone add only a single light instead of pairs? some of those LED ones might be small enough to mount under the beak or on top of the fender without getting in the way of fork compression.

If you have, post a picture of how you mounted it.

Here's a mounting idea for small LED's even if not on my f8gs.

I used some depot grade aluminum angle, chop to size and sand away sharp edges. I mounted them up sandwich style - no hardware mods needed.

The lights are Vision X (also sold as Denali by TwistedThrottle) 10 watts (.75 amps) and 900 lumens each; they are skinny and bright.

Me too! Still waiting on electric pieces from Nippon....

Running 55w in the in middle as my lowbeam, then the two hids as my highbeam....

OK now... that looks bitchin'!!

Looks great.. can't fit one between the lights on my f650gs though.

Anyone else mount up Clearwater Kristas to an f8gs?

Wondering where you chose to put the relay with special connectors. It's a bit limiting with shortish special connector wires.

Completed install of Rigid Dually (amber) and Clear Water Kristas. I mounted the Kirsta on an EZ mount (having removed my POS TT SCMR 16s after 3rd) and Dually's hanging off the crash bars.

I'm generally pleased but haven't done night ride and need to stand the test of time. Both kits could use a couple of improvements.

Most troublesome for me was the connector box on the Kristas as short leads were very limiting in its placement. The 'volume' control for dimming is conveniently located on the left mirror mount but both lights and volume have to connect to the relay box and there's no lengthening the set up. I tried several places but ultimately ended up in the maelstrom that exists under the beak. It should be in the upper fairing on the left side.

There are a bunch of wires on the Kristas - which adds nice capability but lots of routing. As the connector box is under the beak, I ran the power source to the right side of the bike and everything else on the left (flash, horn, volume, switched x 2)

The Dually kit was good save the switch. The switch has a very thin concealment ring and rather than use a nut on back to fasten relies on a pinch mechanism - I solved the jiggle with a couple of extra zip ties. Both switches seem a bit aggressive with their LED 'On' indicators. Each is blazing red and seem brighter than some stock head lamps. Might be a bit distracting at night. I'd prefer happy green and half the lumens.

I took the time to wrap all wires with extra sleeve for abrasion, heat and to avoid the high school science fair look.

As part of this install, I added an Eastern Beaver PC8 with 30 amp shorty kit and canbus resistror I was hoping to tidy up the rats nest I had on the battery but may have made it worse. :eek1 The box gives me 6 switched and 2 un-switched circuits. It seems well made but placement on the f8gs was sub optimal - not much space to work with. I'm running a Shorai battery and without its small footprint not sure I could have fit it. And now, if I need a replacement battery and Shorai is not available I'm going to need to make several adjustments.

Edit 4/11/12 - > Might want to read Wisman's Shorai test if you are considering this battery.

How about some pics.

Bench full of wires, wrap, heat shrink, connectors etc.



Playing with layout



Switch upgrade wanted on the Dually



FN Krista connector box with short leads and no options



Third placement has the reach, stormy real estate though



Special



Where it ought to be (and final wiring from the top)



Dimmer just right of ABS kill



Feeding the PC8



Everything I needed except for


the toilet plunger I used to jam in the relay for the PC8



Dually only



Dually & Krista's ignited at 80% (no stock lamp burning)



Krista on minimum setting



Full frontal probably shortened the life of my pas sensor



PS - 8/18/11

A couple of things I wanted to add but didn't have pics or bits for:

1st is power to relay charging the switched circuits on the PC8. I used the f8gs special connector (white plug to yellow wire / posi connect at center of pic,) found the hot and clipped the other wires. Ran positive into PC8 which means the switched circuits cut out a minute or few (I've never timed it) after the bike is shut off. The PC8 has un-switched circuits which I use for GPS - more better.



Also -

Clearwater Kristas dim but can be connected to horn / brights to instant up to 100%. I skipped the horn because I didn't like wire set up with steering range - could be worked around if you planned for it but the way my wires were fixed it wasn't worth it to me.

I did want brights to fire Kristas to 100%. This is a nice feature as you can run them as night markers @20% then when alone hit the brights and cook the critters stalking you. Kill the brights and drop from 100% back to dimmer setting. Perfect.

I ran the wire (white) up through the vent for the bright and used a posi tap to connect hots. It's tight in there but works.

wow!!!!

Less than $20 at Auto zone.

Has anyone installed HIDs in their driving lights (such as PIAA 510's)? I'm thinking about putting in some 3000k yellow HIDs in my PIAA 510's. HIDs use 70watts total compared to the 110w I'm currently using with the stock bulbs.

$18.89 @ Walmart. Dual 55 watt halogens mounted on the SW motech bars. Fused and hardwired to the battery with a rocker switch mounted on the handlebars. 10 minute install. Running them is like having a high beam down low. Lights grounded to the crash bars. Switch grounded to the dash mount. Only wire that needed running was the positive one. And I didn't need to cut into the stock wiring system at all.

Sealed impact resistant weather proof housing but it doesn't matter if they break. Cost was less than a meal out. Swamped em in mud and threw rocks at em this weekend on the Uwharrie ORV area. They work like a champ. Actually needed them to stay visible for oncoming ATVs/Buggies on some of the faster dustier roads.



I also changed out my stock Canbuss accessory outlet with a fused replacement from Gerbing at the same time. Found out the hard way on the side of the road that the stock Canbuss adapter aint worth sh#t. Pardon my french. But it won't run any of the portable air pumps that BMW sells as accessories for their bikes. :huh It's under-engineered to trip out @ like 8 amps draw and left me stranded with a flat tire. POS. Replaced it as soon as I got home from that ride. Why in the world would BMW put that crappy adapter on their bike when doing it right adds almost no weight and costs near nothing???

Looks almost identical to the stocker but it'll run anything I want to put on it...

Lights are nice ... esp. for < $20 ...

Are they in the automotive accessory section?
Do you recall the name/brand?

Thanks!

It's the cheap option but they aren't too bad and with proper angling they really light things up. I'm much more comfortable driving back roads at night now that I can spot Bambi.

Optronics Platinum Burners Series. Cheesy name but whatever. 3.5 inch round 55W each. Item model # QH-85CD. Found with the other vehicle accessory lights in the automotive section. Interestingly this particular Walmart was also stocking Hella lights.

Manufacturer Website:

http://www.optronicsinc.com/driving2-new.html

Webbikeworld review of their predecessor here:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/platinum-burner-driving-lights/

Thanks Flashback - I'm going to get myself a set!