Where to mount auxiliary lights

Gone in 60

Road warrior
Thread starter
Hi all, getting to know my new (to me) 2013. One thing I do with all of my bikes is mount small LED spotlights to give myself more visibility to traffic. Looking at the bike, I'm not seeing some obvious mounting locations, and am wondering what other people have done.

Looking for ideas! Thanks
 
Beware of auxillary lights. I took mine off and they are sitting useless in a box on my tool bench. I bought the Twisted Throttle Denali DM 2.0 lights and installed on my bike last summer with the fork mounts (level with top of fender) ... whole kit cost $300. The ad stated that they increase illumnation and had supporting specs that stated the "spot beam lense" illuminated up to 400ft. Well, the ad lied ! I tried to use these at 3am in the morning between New Mexico and Arizona ... my PIA headlight beam worked better than the Denali lights. I stopped several times and adjusted these up/down, but nothing helped. Very disappointed. I believe the Denalis may serve ok a "visibilty lights" so others can see you from 400ft away, but they don't improve the rider's visibility. I am on the hunt for a "flood" type light system ... looks like Clearwater Lights may do what I want but they cost $600++.
 
bflint_imp said:
Beware of auxillary lights. I took mine off and they are sitting useless in a box on my tool bench. I bought the Twisted Throttle Denali DM 2.0 lights and installed on my bike last summer with the fork mounts (level with top of fender) ... whole kit cost $300. The ad stated that they increase illumnation and had supporting specs that stated the "spot beam lense" illuminated up to 400ft. Well, the ad lied ! I tried to use these at 3am in the morning between New Mexico and Arizona ... my PIA headlight beam worked better than the Denali lights. I stopped several times and adjusted these up/down, but nothing helped. Very disappointed. I believe the Denalis may serve ok a "visibilty lights" so others can see you from 400ft away, but they don't improve the rider's visibility. I am on the hunt for a "flood" type light system ... looks like Clearwater Lights may do what I want but they cost $600++.
That does sound like a lunchbox letdown. Was the set even good enough as "driving lights", that is, illuminating the area immediately in front of the vehicle?
 
GoldOxide_imp said:
bflint_imp said:
Beware of auxillary lights. I took mine off and they are sitting useless in a box on my tool bench. I bought the Twisted Throttle Denali DM 2.0 lights and installed on my bike last summer with the fork mounts (level with top of fender) ... whole kit cost $300. The ad stated that they increase illumnation and had supporting specs that stated the "spot beam lense" illuminated up to 400ft. Well, the ad lied ! I tried to use these at 3am in the morning between New Mexico and Arizona ... my PIA headlight beam worked better than the Denali lights. I stopped several times and adjusted these up/down, but nothing helped. Very disappointed. I believe the Denalis may serve ok a "visibilty lights" so others can see you from 400ft away, but they don't improve the rider's visibility. I am on the hunt for a "flood" type light system ... looks like Clearwater Lights may do what I want but they cost $600++.
That does sound like a lunchbox letdown. Was the set even good enough as "driving lights", that is, illuminating the area immediately in front of the vehicle?
Yes, for immediate area. Strangely, after installing them I tested them from a side road area with the light beams toward a hillside about 175 ft away. The hillside did illmuniate ok. But the light beams didn't illuminate very far on the dark open highway space ... maybe need something to reflect off. I want them for the dark open spaces so I don't get wiped out by rabbits, snakes, dear, mustangs, etc which tend wander around on/near the road at night.
 
bflint_imp said:
GoldOxide_imp said:
bflint_imp said:
Beware of auxillary lights. I took mine off and they are sitting useless in a box on my tool bench. I bought the Twisted Throttle Denali DM 2.0 lights and installed on my bike last summer with the fork mounts (level with top of fender) ... whole kit cost $300. The ad stated that they increase illumnation and had supporting specs that stated the "spot beam lense" illuminated up to 400ft. Well, the ad lied ! I tried to use these at 3am in the morning between New Mexico and Arizona ... my PIA headlight beam worked better than the Denali lights. I stopped several times and adjusted these up/down, but nothing helped. Very disappointed. I believe the Denalis may serve ok a "visibilty lights" so others can see you from 400ft away, but they don't improve the rider's visibility. I am on the hunt for a "flood" type light system ... looks like Clearwater Lights may do what I want but they cost $600++.
That does sound like a lunchbox letdown. Was the set even good enough as "driving lights", that is, illuminating the area immediately in front of the vehicle?
Yes, for immediate area. Strangely, after installing them I tested them from a side road area with the light beams toward a hillside about 175 ft away. The hillside did illmuniate ok. But the light beams didn't illuminate very far on the dark open highway space ... maybe need something to reflect off. I want them for the dark open spaces so I don't get wiped out by rabbits, snakes, dear, mustangs, etc which tend wander around on/near the road at night.
Yes, for immediate area. Strangely, after installing them I tested them from a side road area with the light beams toward a hillside about 175 ft away. The hillside did illmuniate ok. But the light beams didn't illuminate very far on the dark open highway space ... maybe need something to reflect off. I want them for the dark open spaces so I don't get wiped out by rabbits, snakes, dear, mustangs, etc which tend wander around on/near the road at night.
Understood. Those rabbits tend to muck up the exhaust headers and lunchbox.
 
Thread starter
Thanks, guys. The bike has sliders at the mounting point on the frame where that engine cage would be, I'm eyeing the sliders as a possible mounting location.
As for light brightness, not so much concerned about how far they throw light down the road as I am with having added visibility up front. 99% of my riding is cut-and-thrust in L.A. freeway traffic with lots of lane splitting. A driver glancing in his mirror before a lane change will recognize three lights coming toward him as something other than half of a car more easily. I have a good collection of small, single LED lights. The better quality ones (better than $15 Ebay) actually throw decent light at night as well.
 
That slider mount idea is interesting. I have sliders too and never considered them as a light mount point. Hummm.
 
Thread starter
I ain’t paying $300 for a light kit. My BMW had EBay lights on home made brackets fashioned from closet door hangers. A little wrinkle black spray paint and they looked like the nice ones.
 
$300? A set of Darla lights is close to $600. I ain’t paying that either!!
 
I looked at mine this morning and though maybe the top frame engine hanger bolt might be an idea. Not sure if the exhaust would be a problem.
 
GoldOxide_imp said:
Gee, incredible price. The demonstration illumination example appears quite strong.
They are pretty darn good for the money. In case of further interest, here's an installation overview of advmonster.com Model 30 LED spots on my F800GT.

While the ADVmonster Model 30 lights look good, I wasn't completely sold on their wiring kits due to poor documentation and tech support when I asked for assistance in selecting the proper harness. So I decided to use a [url=https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_155517088409914&key=6e3add1c248ed967a7b78de325215f48&libId=jufokg7m01001khl000DAex32vzmn&loc=https%3A%2F%2Ff800riders.org%2Fforum%2Fshowthread.php%2F278233-ADVMonster-Model-30-LED-Spotlights%3Fhighlight%3DModel&v=1&opt=true&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.revzilla.com%2Fmotorcycle%2Fdenali-d1-wiring-harness&ref=https%3A%2F%2Ff800riders.org%2Fforum%2Fsearch.php%3Fsearchid%3D14807871&title=ADVMonster%20Model%2030%20LED%20Spotlights%20-%20BMW%20F800%20Riders%20Forum%20%26%20Registry&txt=%3Cfont%20color%3D%22%230000ff%22%3EDenali%20D1%20wiring%20harness%3C%2F​font%3E]Denali D1 wiring harness, which comes complete with a pilot relay, lighted* on/off switch (*lighted in the on position only) and two leads heading out to the spot lights. I didn't have matching connectors on the Model 30 flying leads, so I clipped off the ones at the ends of the Denali switched legs and crimped on insulated spade terminals. I made them male/female and female/male on the Pos and Neg wires to avoid backwards re-connections in the future. Rather than pilot the relay with a running light wire, I connected the pilot wire to the high beam wire on the bike. It's nice to be able to dip these spots at night by using the high beam switch vs. the on/off button.



Appearance of Denali switch:


Mounting height of LED spots:


Beam pattern, low beam only, no LED spots:


Beam pattern, high beam + low beam, no LED spots:


Beam pattern, high beam + low beam + LED spots:


Low beam only, no LED spots, outdoors at night:


High beam + low beam, no LED spots, outdoors at night:


High beam + low beam + LED spots, outdoors at night (sorry out of focus).
Note deer-finding power to the left and right of the road:


LED spots only, lighting up both rights-of-way for enhanced deer detection:
 
Thread starter
I noticed two holes on the lower triple tree that don't have anything in them. I'm considering fabricating a bracket for these holes that will loop around the back side of the fork tubes and putting the lights on either side of the forks.

Or, making a mount that can be attached to the two horn mounting screws. I'd like to keep the lights on the forks to avoid running wires near the exhaust pipes.
 
Thread starter
Actually, looking at the lower triple, guess there are bosses for holes, but they're not drilled through. Huh. Maybe fork tube mounts.
 
Gone in 60_imp said:
I ain’t paying $300 for a light kit. My BMW had EBay lights on home made brackets fashioned from closet door hangers. A little wrinkle black spray paint and they looked like the nice ones.
If I wanted extra lights, this is what I would do too. I'm all about redneck engineering. Function is more important than price.
 
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