| Author | Message | ||
     Wardan123 |
I'd like to do something different (but cheap) for my front headlight setup on my X1. I don't want a fairing and I want the most minimal (smallest in size not intensity)lighting I can get. Does any one know how much light I legally have to be able to put out? Do I have to have a high beam? I like the look of the vertically mounted Hesa Fire Headlight but I cannot swing $260 for a headlight.  I suppose I could fab my own brackets and buy 2 cheap sets of fog lamps and rig it... I dunno- let me know what you know and what you think... Thanks in advance, Andrew | ||
| Wardan123 |
Anyone? | ||
| Spiderman |
 This is what I did and made the bracket for it. It is probably a little bigger than you want but gives you a idea for mounting. Everyone thinks you have to use the fork tubes but the clamps work pretty darn good! | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Why two sets of fog lamps? I'd think one set would do. I have these tiny fog lights:  http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/476 23/256487.html?1169051560 They put out a bunch more light than my factory headlight does! Walmart has a nice variety of small cheap fog lights. Might be worth a try before spending the $260 on that vertical one. Oh, and just running aftermarket fog lights in place of a headlight probably is not legal. | ||
| Spiderman |
Oh, and just running aftermarket fog lights in place of a headlight probably is not legal. You are correct which brings up another interesting point. There are fog lamps and projector lamps. The projector lamps should be DOT legal for lighting but your state may vary and if your state does inspections if it isn't OE it may not pass.... | ||
| Fester99 |
Warden, I have a custom after market headlight/fairing that might be what you are looking for. It is a pyramid plastics MANTIS headlight set up. Here is a pic of what it looks like, I bought it for a streetfighter project and I just went another way. It may or may not be what you want, but I am will to deal on it if it is something you may want. The one I have is all black ready to use or to be painted.  | ||
| Ratbuell |
Beam spread is as important, if not more so, than intensity. Fog lights have a low and wide pattern to cut under fog and light the road in near-field, and to light up the shoulders. "Driving" lights are a pencil-beam setup, long and narrow. Your normal headlight beam will have a pattern, if viewed from above, shaped like an L, with a tail off the bottom left corner of the L to boot. Not quite an upside down T, but close. If you look at the pattern against a wall (forward view) it will have a top cut shaped like _/ . It should ramp up on the right side for lighting the shoulder and any street signs. Be very careful selecting your lighting. You can have 150 watts of light, but if it isn't focused properly you won't be able to see at all, and you could blind oncoming traffic to boot. | ||
| Kyrocket |
I pretty much did the same thing Mikef5000 did. Although I just used the power from the license plate light that was not being used anymore and put a switch through one of the holes in the headlight bracket. The lights come with a lighted rocker switch that will snap into the oblong hole perfectly. I also modified the bracket so it would hang vertically and not horizontally. Just personal preference.    Also, it's mounted using an existing bolt for the bracket and the toggle you see is for my heated grips the rocker switch is on the other side but utilizes the same hole location. | ||
| Rick_a |
I'm using a UFO Twins headlight setup. It's supposedly offroad only but I've never been hassled about it. It used 35W lamps, the kind often used for interior spot lighting; one flood and one pencil beam, both woefully inadequate. I changed one to a 50W, and the other to a projection beam foglamp. Riding in pitch black darkness was still terrifying and I avoided the night like a plague. I love the look of the flyscreen so I've purchased a set of PIAA driving lights. These are 50W lamps and are supposed to have 80W equivalent light output. They're certainly not cheap but it'll be nice to enjoy riding at night again instead of being scared s**tless. My point...good lighting isn't cheap! It cost me one battered rim to figure that out. | ||
| Oz666 |
I really like the idea of these: HID lamp or these 4" HID lamp and I will get two of the former (spot) for myself as soon as I can figure out where/how to mount them. (I don't want to remove or destroy my S3 fairing). 2nd-ed... good lighting isn't cheap.   Oz "Nobody gets in to see the Wizard. Not nobody, not no how." |
