F800GS - show us your lights

[Sutherngintelmen]

Originally Posted by alexcorral

The PIAA 1100X cost $270. I'm thinking of getting these mounts for the TrailTech HID lights

Beware the Trail Tech SCMR 16's. Many of us have had these lights fail. I read the forums, held off purchase until I started to see '2nd generation' improvements then purchased. Failed after a couple of months and now in 6th week of waiting for warranty.

Great light output / amp and nice install with internal ballast. You might consider ordering 4 lights and mounting with quick connects. That way you'll be able to run one pair whilst the other is being repaired.

Yes, I'm a little bitter.

Search on Trail Tech SCMR 16's for other folks' experiences. Make sure you read the complete post. Many start very positive and end up in failure.

[TexasMule]

So MuleWife comes home last night and a box from Trail Tech is waiting for her (after more than a month).

She opens the box and what does she see, the same crummy anodized bronze light that she sent them.

One of hers had blown on our trip this summer after a grand total of being on for MAYBE 4 hours, AND the black powdercoating had turned bronze.

Contacted Trail Tech, and they admitted that their first batch of lights had defective powder coating but promised the new lights are much better.

I had ASSUMED, they were going to replace the defective lights with new ones.

NOOOO, let's just replace the bad ballast and send them back.

No way in hell will I ever put Trail Techs on my bike.

Unbelievable crappy customer service.

[YetiGS]

I installed my Twalcom foglights today. Overall, I am very impressed and highly recommend them. The lights themselves are Hella DE's (i.e. quality) and the mounts, light bar and kit are top notch.

I had two minor gripes: 1) the switch mount just wouldn't fit. I ended up cutting it and trimming it to fit. Not a big deal. 2) the instructions were in Italian and the pictures weren't the best. Again, no big deal. The Hella instructions were in the kit and they were in English and I also downloaded Touratech's instructions for their similar (but more expensive) kit.

I have a Centech AP-2 so I wired the lights through that. You can see the lights' relay in front of the Centech.



Two views of the lights:





Here's the switch and the problematic mount:



And the lights turned on:



I'll get a much better idea how they work during my commute tomorrow. I bought them mainly for conspicuity in traffic and they definitely look like they'll work great for that.

So far, I give the lights (and F800 Depot)


Oh, and please excuse the garage mess, I had a pipe burst on Friday which flooded the garage.

[bomber60015]

looks really good, bud -- for 300 cash dollars amurican, I'd hope that the instructions would approach being in English, and that you'd not have to rework the switch mount . . . . .

course, most of the stuff we buy from Europe makes the "Engrish" we get from Asia read pretty well ;-}

[TexasMule]

I have to give credit where credit is due.

I previously stated I was extremely disappointed with TrailTech's customer service.

Well, Justin from TrailTech just called my wife, and apologized for the way she was treated. They are sending her an entirely new set of lights, and told her that this should have been resolved in 5 days instead of 5 weeks.

I didn't want to leave it that TrailTech doesn't provide good customer service.

I'm not sure what happened before, but that's water under the bridge now.

[Sutherngintelmen]

Came yesterday. Look great. Haze is gone. They are black again. Look like they are ready to light an abyss.

I hope they last.

Quit on me 8/9 - long time ago.

[TexasMule]

Originally Posted by YetiGS

I wasn't given the "YETI" option on my bike. Is this only offered in California?

Luv the sticker...

[TexasMule]

Originally Posted by Sutherngintelmen

Came yesterday. Look great. Haze is gone. They are black again. Look like they are ready to light an abyss.

I hope they last.

Quit on me 8/9 - long time ago.

Wife's quit on her in late July. Glad you got yours too.

[YetiGS]

Originally Posted by TexasMule

I wasn't given the "YETI" option on my bike. Is this only offered in California?

Luv the sticker...

Yeah, I had to go to Colorado to pick it up.

[F800 Rob]

Originally Posted by YetiGS

I installed my Twalcom foglights today. Overall, I am very impressed and highly recommend them. The lights themselves are Hella DE's (i.e. quality) and the mounts, light bar and kit are top notch.

I had two minor gripes: 1) the switch mount just wouldn't fit. I ended up cutting it and trimming it to fit. Not a big deal. 2) the instructions were in Italian and the pictures weren't the best. Again, no big deal. The Hella instructions were in the kit and they were in English and I also downloaded Touratech's instructions for their similar (but more expensive) kit.

...

So far, I give the lights (and F800 Depot)

Thanks Scott, appreciate the praise.

Just to follow up here, and from our email exchanges, Twalcom is now in the process of producing English language instructions for all products, including these lights. (in fact, I have a English PDF for these now) They just started selling into North America in June, and we were their first English language market. I'm actually reviewing the instructions for each product with them to ensure we don't have any Engrish. :)

The bracket has also been updated for future shipments based on your feedback.

[YetiGS]

Originally Posted by F800 Rob

Thanks Scott, appreciate the praise.

Just to follow up here, and from our email exchanges, Twalcom is now in the process of producing English language instructions for all products, including these lights. (in fact, I have a English PDF for these now) They just started selling into North America in June, and we were their first English language market. I'm actually reviewing the instructions for each product with them to ensure we don't have any Engrish. :)

The bracket has also been updated for future shipments based on your feedback.

Cool, glad to hear it. Honestly, with the Hella instructions the install was so simple anyone could do it. Even me!! Usually, when I try to install something on my bike this ---> happens at least once. Not so on this one.

The only thing I don't like is that I need to find a trigger wire that allows the lights to be on any time the key is on (i.e. with high and/or low beams) but turns them off when the key is off. Where I have it now, triggered by the Aux. plug, they'll run for a few minutes after I turn the key off if I forget. That drains the battery.

[alexcorral]

The bracket has also been updated for future shipments based on your feedback.

I looked them up on F800 Depot and Twalcom sites. They show as out of stock

[Bartron]

Have any of you hooked up lights via the CANbus GPS connector?

I have installed the LED lights like in one of the previous posts and hooked them up to the GPS connector via the BMW repair connector (used for hooking your GPS into the available accessory CANbus outlet) and now although they work marvelously, the darn things don't want to turn off.

So, could it be that the LED lights (which draw 66mA per side, 132mA total being 1.6w at 12v) are simply not pulling enough juice for the CANbus to notice?

Is there something I'm missing? I'd rather not have to put a switch on them. The whole idea was for this to be brainless. Can I wire them somehow into the low beam headlight with CANbus not freaking out?

Thanks in advance.

[Sutherngintelmen]

Got a pair of these in the mail last week and the hole for light post is too small - anyone else run into that? I'm mounting up TT SCMR 16s. Suppose I can take a drill to it but for $20 you'd think they'd be proper size.

Originally Posted by alexcorral

Has anyone tried these



They mount on the side bolts that hold the main light

[Sutherngintelmen]

Hey,

Knowledgeable parts guy at my local shop wouldn't sell this piece to me. Said they had issues getting it to function properly. I tried several times over the course of 6 months just to see if there had been an update fixing the issue (which we never got into the details of.)

I ended up going with toggle switch - not as clean but works.

Good luck, if you get it sorted please follow up with details.

Originally Posted by Bartron

Have any of you hooked up lights via the CANbus GPS connector?

Thanks in advance.