Steerable & Stealthy Driving Lights

[Guest RRW]

In anticipation of my upcoming road trip to Las Vegas, almost half of it in the dark to beat the heat, I bought a set of small driving lights. I found a pretty spiffy way of mounting them without any permanent mods to the bike and they are practically invisible until you turn them on. Another plus is they are attached to the lower triple tree, so they point where the wheel does, unlike the stock lights in the fairing.

Using a relay and tapping into the HI beam switched wire, the driving lights only come on when the HI beams are on. I plan on installing a toggle switch later to allow me the option of disabling them completely if I want to. The electrical wiring configuration described is temporary until my BlueSea fuse box and weatherproof toggle switch arrive.

If you plan on using this configuration permanently, I recommend you seal all the connections with silicone sealer to weather proof them.

Materials:

12 inches of 1 1/4" x 1/8" steel (Home improvement or hardware store)

1 Set Platinum Burners Series 55W halogen driving light kit: Model QH-88CD (Wal-Mart)

1 ea 30 Amp Auto Relay (Radio Shack PN: 275-226)

6 ea bolts with nuts and washers 6mm threads

1 ea 1/4" bolt with Nylock nut and washers

Blue Lock-Tite

Spray paint (optional)

3 small zip ties

1. I fabricated a simple bracket from 1 1/4" x 1/8" steel. It's available at any home improvement or hardware store. I cut two pieces. Each is 5 1/4" long.

One piece is bent into a Z shape. Bend the piece at 1" and bend it in the opposite direction 1 3/4" from the other end. The short end has one hole drilled in it to attach it to the hole in the brake line bracket attached to the bottom of the lower triple tree. The long end of the bracket has two holes drilled in it. They are to attach second piece of the brace at a 90 degree angle.

2. The second part of the brace is just a straight piece with six holes drilled in it. Drill two holes in the middle to attach it to the long end of the Z brace. I placed the light brackets on each end, marked their location, and drilled two holes for each light.

3. Assemble the bracket you made and the brackets that come with the light kit. Put the lights in their brackets with the wires pointing up. You will have more adjustability if you have the wires pointing up.

4. Now the fun part. While standing on your head, look up into the darkness above the front fender in the middle of the brake lines and you will see a hole looking for a purpose in life. Place the bracket against bottom of the triple tree and put the 7/16" bolt through the hole. Now with your slender and dainty fingers, start the nylock nut from the top side and tighten everything up snug. Using an adjustable wrench, grab the bracket and bend and twist until the lights are level from left to right. Bend the bracket down in the front to ensure it doesn't hit the oil cooler.

Be sure you turn the wheel from lock to lock to make sure nothing is rubbing.

When you are satisfied that the lights are straight, level and not hitting anything , remove the bracket from the bike.

5. Disassemble everything and paint the bracket pieces you made. After the paint has dried, reassemble the bracket using blue Lock-Tite on the bracket bolts as well as the bolts that attach the kit brackets. Do not use Lock-Tite on the screws that attach the lights to their brackets or you won't be able to adjust them later.

6. Reattach the bracket on the bike as you did in Step 4.

7. Remove the left side main fairing to provide access for the electrical work to be performed.

8. The light kit comes with enough wire to wire the space shuttle. I cut the wire to length and used the factory supplied connectors on the uncut end.

9. The relay will be used to provide switched 12V via the HI beam light switch.

I mounted the relay using the screw on the left side front turn signal.

10. The voltage to switch the relay on/off was obtained using an in line tap connector on the blue wire located in the middle of the plug coming from the handle bar Hi/Low beam switch. The voltage on the blue wire is switched on and off by the handle bar switch. The other end of the wire goes to the relay terminal 86 (on/off switch.)

11. The light kit comes with a white wire with a Y connector on one end. Plug the white wire from each light into the Y. The other end goes to the relay terminal 30/51 (12V out) This will provide 12V to the lights.

12. I used a couple of the black wires in the kit to extend the black ground wires on the lights back to the bolt on the left side of the frame where the fairing bracket and wire loom are attached. I ran both white wires into one ring terminal and attached it to the frame.

13. I used the provided fused red wire from the light kit. I ran it from the positive battery terminal to the relay terminal 87 (12V in)

14. I ran a ground wire from the same place on the frame as Step 12 and the other end was attached to the relay terminal 85 (ground)

Here's what it all looks like when finished.

Edited July 27, 2008 by RRW

[ShayneJack]

VERY NICE! but do they come in alternating flashing red and blue? :fing02:

:fing02:

[SEBSPEED]

VERY NICE! but do they come in alternating flashing red and blue? :goofy:

:fing02:

I'm sure you could drill holes in the housings and wire in some colored LED's and a flasher/strobe module... :goofy:

RRW, nice job on the install! I know how bright those lights are, I bought a set of the exact same ones a while back and put one on the track plastic of my F4i, it actually works pretty well by itself!! :fing02:

I wonder if there's enough room to mount them vertically, one per side, off the lower fender mount bolt on the fork leg?

[SEBSPEED]

ps - let us know if they hit your fender while riding...

[VFR4Lee]

Nice. I wonder if the hole looking for a purpose in life is the one where the front stand goes.

If so, I guess you can remove the lights if you need to use it. :fing02:

[Guest RRW]

I don't think the hole looking for a purpose is for a stand. It's in the stamped steel bracket the brake hoses are all bolted to. It's only about a 3/16" hole too.

The lights don't hit the fender, but I have adjusted the bracket some since I took the pictures. The lights are higher and a little farther back than the picture.

But the lights shine through the space between the gauges and the handle bars somewhat. I think that may be annoying at night. I'll have to shield or paint the top of the lenses if it's a distraction.

Edited July 27, 2008 by RRW

[AussieinUSA]

Not long before ya gunna be testing em, looking forward to hearing and seeing how they worked out.

Be careful of aircraft looking for somewhere to land :angry:

[turtlecreek]

ps - let us know if they hit your fender while riding...

my concern exactly! great idea, but no matter what i do, my forks dive to with about 1/2" to 3/4" from hardstop, so i think i would hit those lights.. :fing02:

[Auspanglish]

Nice stuff!! As far as the front fairing hitting the lights when braking (nose-diving hehehe), in the picture they don't seem to poke further forward then the front edge of the oil cooler/radiator, and since then it would appear he's located then even further back, so... but do be sure to be sure and let us know. As far as the light shining up a nd annoying you, you could always run some duct tape along the top if you've no time to pull them off and paint the top of the lenses.

[soichiro]

Nice. Beware of wal-mart fog lights. I went thru 4 sets and gave up on them. You get what you pay for.

Thanks for the write up. I am thinking of adding some piaa's.

[snoman181]

ps - let us know if they hit your fender while riding...

my concern exactly! great idea, but no matter what i do, my forks dive to with about 1/2" to 3/4" from hardstop, so i think i would hit those lights.. :fing02:

I agree. I have a set of HID lights that I was planning on mounting in the same fashion, but after taking some measurements with styrofoam and twist ties for safety, I realized that they would be crushed on the first hard stop. Worse, I would probably lose my lights and my fender.

I decided to mount them off the front fender bolts instead. I have all the hardware, just waiting until I get time to mount everything.