This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Custom LED aux lights installed

great. with the kind of quality in the posted photos, denali-based (d2) pricing is competitive enough and i will pick yours over that. let us know if you're selling

i wish i had the capability in my garage to fabricate stuff for personal use
 
Monstard said:
great. with the kind of quality in the posted photos, denali-based (d2) pricing is competitive enough and i will pick yours over that. let us know if you're selling

i wish i had the capability in my garage to fabricate stuff for personal use
Click to expand...

Cool :) I am already planning on building them.

I've always liked making things. Didn't always have the right tools. It's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.

I made these by hand using a hack saw and file!
IaU5U0l.jpg
 
So the install requires 2 holes.

A hole in the fender carriage thing - for the wire to pass through.
565447.jpg


A hole in the headlight housing - for the wires to enter and connect to the headlight. Added a water-tight fitting.
117171.jpg
 
Definitely some pro-level fabrication work there. But before anyone spends money on an LED headlamp "replacement" you should remember that they are in no way legal (DOT or EU) as they do not maintain the stock, certified photometrics (beam pattern). I note that Cree and Superbright do not sell them as anything more than daytime running lights. The ones you see on fleabay are mostly Chinese crap. Anyone can buy LEDs, even from Cree, and then call them whatever they want.

If I were an insurance claims adjuster I'd go after that before I worried about some CF wheels...
 
zippy49 said:
Definitely some pro-level fabrication work there. But before anyone spends money on an LED headlamp "replacement" you should remember that they are in no way legal (DOT or EU) as they do not maintain the stock, certified photometrics (beam pattern). I note that Cree and Superbright do not sell them as anything more than daytime running lights. The ones you see on fleabay are mostly Chinese crap. Anyone can buy LEDs, even from Cree, and then call them whatever they want.

If I were an insurance claims adjuster I'd go after that before I worried about some CF wheels...
Click to expand...

Oh yes. There are no LED bulb replacements that are legal, plain and simple. No matter what the seller says about DOT approval, they are not.

These auxiliary lights are not legal either, technically. I think you are only allowed 2 or 3 light sources (depends on state), and each of these LEDs since they have their own lenses count as one light source each.

The reason I think it's acceptable is because the "low" mode is quite dim. You can stare directly into it (briefly) with no issues. It's no brighter than the stock headlight, so you can run them at night without blinding anyone. The "high" mode must be reserved for off-road, or country roads with no traffic.

But, there are plenty of adventure guys who put 20,000 lumens on their bike on full power all the time and no one seems to care, so there's that :D
 
Nothing about this setup or any other I've seen on this forum says "give me a ticket". Coming from someone who got an exorbitant amount of speeding tickets growing up, you really do have to give them a reason to pull you over (most of the time).

They look very OEM. I doubt your average trooper would give thm a second glance unless you were pulled for blinding traffic in the first place.
 
This is one place I'd prefer a uniform set of requirements. For example, OR and WA (among others) require all motorcycles regardless of age to run a headlight during the day. This makes life tough for some of the guys with pre-WWII bikes on various cross-country rides like Cannonball. I don't run my headlamp on any of my Velocettes here in Cali but next year I'll be in Ory-gun so I am going to try an LED in the "city" lamp holder in the headlight reflector. You UK types will know what this is. It is super bright and only draws 4W, but the color is very white, unlike the yellow glow from the main bulb. These bikes have magneto ignition so they don't need their ancient 6V generators (and mechanical regulator) to run.

But as for multiple light sources, have you looked at the front of the new Alfa Romeo 4C? The headlights look like the eyes of a spider. :eek:
 
Good conversation, Zippy. What's the distinction between running lights and driving lamps anymore? It's like a contest to have the most LED strips or patterns and some, like the newer Audi's, are very bright. Granted, I can't really say they project very far.
 
gatdammit said:
Good conversation, Zippy. What's the distinction between running lights and driving lamps anymore? It's like a contest to have the most LED strips or patterns and some, like the newer Audi's, are very bright. Granted, I can't really say they project very far.
Click to expand...

Kind of like the running lights on our bikes. There are 3-4 LEDs on each side of the headlight making up a strip. They don't project any light useable. The headlight is always on, so they are kind of hard to see when riding, and they don't match the headlight tint. I guess they look cool when you put it in parking light mode though!
 
gatdammit said:
Good conversation, Zippy. What's the distinction between running lights and driving lamps anymore? It's like a contest to have the most LED strips or patterns and some, like the newer Audi's, are very bright. Granted, I can't really say they project very far.
Click to expand...

There are national standards for vehicle lighting, contained in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. FMVSS 108 covers vehicle lighting. Each lamp has to meet a photometric requirement as installed, meaning that the lamp must produce a certain light output at specified angles and distances. Only recently has this standard addressed maximums, due to the proliferation of headlamps etc. that are too bright and interfere with oncoming drivers' vision.

These standards are certified by each manufacturer, typically with the marking "DOT". However, enforcement is left up to the states and other local jurisdictions so it varies a lot. The only enforcement method that is available to the Feds is a Safety Recall, and we all know how popular those are. I dealt with these issues in my previous life.

As always, there is a big difference here in what is truly "legal" and what you can get away with. I think that's a good thing, up to a limit.
 
Hi Monstard...considering how the weather has been where you live, you probably need these more than I do...but I still want a set! :D
 
I was delayed for a few weeks because I got a bad batch of electronics in the mail, but I made good progress on another set last night. I hope to have it done this week, and start work on the 3rd and final set.

The installed light is so far so good, no issues! They are definitely bright and got me through a rain storm at night.
 
gatdammit said:
kuksul08 said:
I hope to have it done this week, and start work on the 3rd and final set.
Aww, man. 3 and out? You could sell way more than that. My comments were simply out of my cash-poor state.
Click to expand...

Yeah for now, 1 for me, 2 for others. I would like to get some feedback/reviews on them and also improve the assembly process. If there is further interest, I will start a list and do a small production run. :)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
hey guys,

there's quite some interest in these lights and it's "limited edition" and i needed them badly. so promptly, i have been exchanging PMs with patrick (kuksul08) regarding purchase of the light. since he ran into some problems in the quality of parts he ordered, he offered me the set that was mounted on his bike, the one pictured, for a lesser cost. i am in a hurry to get a set so i took the offer... i'm getting the numero uno set :D, number 1 in the production run

so if you haven't already, PM him and make arrangements
 

Similar threads

F
LED Headlight Upgrade for Hyperstrada 939
Replies
8
Views
562
EricTostes
EricTostes
ematerpy
Hyperstrada 821 2013 "Christmas tree dash" problem
Replies
9
Views
413
appliance821
A
Steven
Immobilizer Anti-Theft Light on Hypermotard 939 No Longer Flashes - Though Not Burnt Out
Replies
0
Views
201
Steven
Steven
A
Stop Light Error Hypermotard 821 2014
Replies
0
Views
174
Arjanmobin
A
0
2015 Hypermotard 821 SP IRC Quickshifter
Replies
2
Views
248
nickwst4
N