Fog lights or driving lights???

[PlasticxxHead]

Looking to upgrade the lighting, and have been toying with which to buy..

Fogs..... Wide flat beam, could be good for cornering in the dark..

Driving lights.. concentrated bright ass center focus... Good long distance view...

Which to get..

Thinking about mounting them on the brackets on the lower forks.. where the amber reflectors were....

Any ideas??

ps NNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

[JB4XX]

H

I

D

[PlasticxxHead]

ALL

READY

HAVE

IT

Thanks JOsh

[Guest rockmeupto125]

And

you

want

more

light?

Dude...

slow

down.

[pug]

Get rid

of the

tinted

visor

[Cossi]

2 words--- MOTO LIGHTS!!!!

:allhail: :D/

Well worth the $$$

[Redbird]

If you're already HID equipped, I'd say trying to improve your center/long distance illumination with standard halogen bulbs is going to be a waste of time and money.

If you're set on spending additional money on lighting, focus on the sides.

[porterb123]

It's

Kinda

hard

to

see

when

your

headlights

are

laying

on

the

asphalt

nitin

but

luv

Porter

[UncleJake]

How about some more HIDs??

http://www.trailtech.net/motorcycle_hid_parts.htm

I don't have them myself, but I saw a couple write-ups on ADVrider. People seem to like them.

-UJ

[arcticflipper]

I recently did a bit of investigation obout the same subject.

Living in South Africa, we don't get all the nice products over here as you get in the States.

There is some nice info regarding lights and types on various websites, and I've found that

a. If the headlights form a triangle, it is easier for cars to judge the distance to the bike.

b. The cars notice you much faster.

c. The fog/driving lights need to be brighter than the headlamp, to attract attention quicker.

d. adding driving lights instead of fog lights does help in lighting up roadsigns a lot further than the headlights can do.

e. Driving lights also fills in the dark spots.

I mounted my driving lights on the front forks, with a small flat steel bracket. It is connected to the front fender bolts, and then extends to the bottom of the front fender where the lights sit.

I managed to find black round car spots at a auto dealer, at a very good price - compared to what I would've paid to import the bike spots.

Slotted in 2 x 55w Bosch Halogen lamps, and connected them straight to the headlights Bright's. These do not draw too much power, and has not yet burned the regulator.

It lights up roadsigns and markings 1.6 km = 1 mile ahead of me, and also fills in the dark sareas on the normal headlight.

The total setup cost me +- R380.00

It was well worth it. AND it does look like it was fitted OEM. Have had a lot off comments about these, and have already installed a couple on various bikes. The added bonus of attaching them to the front forks is that you can now also see when you turn at slow speeds, when the fairing normally takes a bit of time to come around the corner.

The Bosch Halogen lights are focused where the other types are not focused, thus you can either have a beam light that does not spray too much, but shines a narrow long light ahead of the bike, or you can also have a variety of spreading lights. The focused lights does give you a much better light spread and a longer distance that the light will shine, before it vanishes into darkness. The HID lights are just too damn expensive in South Africa, and there might be a chance that those will burn the regulator.

Even the Wing Riders Club (Goldwings) are now fitting the same spots. So they can't be all that bad.

After a recent night trip down to Baberton - Lowveld area - I got moaned at by a wingrider that whenever I hit the brights, which does happen regularly on in the mountain passes, he can't see fuckall. The spots blinded him in the corners. He was +- 30m ahead of me, I thought that he wouldn't be affected by the lights, as he was already in the turn.

This setup worked really well for me.

[Squareman357]

Hey Artic...

:needpics:

Sounds trick, I'd like to see what the setup looks like...

[Northman]

The HID lights are just too damn expensive in South Africa, and there might be a chance that those will burn the regulator.

How the hell would something that draws less power burn out the regulator? :headscratch:

[HERBXX]

My hid low lights up both side of the road and the high seem to have greate range. Im thinking unless you were to get hid driving lights your would be disapointed .

If you found some driving lights that take h7 bulbs then converted them to hid it might be cool !!!

Herb

[2equis]

...What everyone else said.

Your not going to find any halogen auxillary lights that will burn brighter than your HID. You can either do an HID high beam or mount a set of HID aux lights a-la Warchild.

[arcticflipper]

Northman - we've never been able to afford these to try out.

Like I said - Might burn not will burn.

Have seen this happen on some other smaller bikes, but have to add in there that they added a lot of extra lights.

Newest craze in South Africa under the younger drivers are to fit LED lights every where, and also those coloured lights the guys normally have under their cars.

So a combination of all these added lights was a result of the regulator burn.

Too be honest, I am too scared to try and reach the regulator's limit. They are pretty damn expensive to replace here in South Africa....

[bonox]

(taken from one of my posts on ozblackbird.net. I have HID low and high beams, but I use a pair of Narva driving lights to fill in the holes left by the main beam cutoff once you barrel into a corner. They are very yellow in contrast to the mains, and it takes a little getting used to, but an HID pair of the same would be quite extraordinary I think.)

sorry for out of focus - damn camera only focuses on contrast and there is too much of the wrong contrast here! Mounted pointing outwards and upwards, so when you bank into a corner they stop illuminating the possums and koalas in the trees and let you see through the corner.

Switchgear on left bar controls each HID and the spots. Means I can leave main beam off while starting to avoid a load cycle each time, and can run either or both main high and spots. Rocker switch is an auxilliary override for the cruise acc/res functions, and is much easier to get to than the current pad location. I need a better mount for everything (although the clamp works well it's a little hick. Anyone got an idea?

The voltmeter is also a useful addition when running heaps of gear. Perhaps I should have bought the bmw after all! (hmmm, 850 watt alternator - *drool*)

One relay mounted under front screen controls the driving lights, two more under tail control direct feed to each of the HID ballasts. Quick scan with a 'scope reveals they draw 15amps for about 4 seconds on hot startup - a bit less on cold start. 10 amp fuses should be ok (seeing as they'll take 15 amps for a couple of minutes before burning) and 8ga wire everywhere!

In practise, they do this, meaning you can see through corners when you are in them.

[2equis]

Sorry Dale.... I think we may of found the new "Farkle King" :poke:

[arcticflipper]

please take a look at my photo album. I will post pictures here about the spot lights that I've fitted.

I asked the same type of question not too long ago, and was shown a similar setup on a current users bike.

Thanks too him, it works great.

My initial concern was that the light would annoy me by bouncing up and down, this did not happen. I was also scared after reading about burning regulators etc, that this might happen too me.

As of yet no problems. Have not had any wind noise from the lights, or any charging problems or even any vibration problems.

Even driving at 295 kp/h there was no problems with this. Hard thunder storms and pleanty of water has also not affected the lights. It did however dull them a bit due to road debris and dirt being picked up by the front tyre.

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...12157&pos=-1939

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=0

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=1

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=2

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=3

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=4

http://www.cbr1100xxforums.org/photos/disp...cat=12157&pos=5

[bhanxx]

Artic, that's how I have my fogs mounted. Works great! Gives a unique 5 star light pattern for conspicuity and ez to route wiring up into XX.

My lights r smaller and tucked in closer to rotors, nothing breaks on tipovers, don't ask how i know this :roll:

[arcticflipper]

I couldn't find any smaller lights that I liked, without ordering them online made for bikes specific, so I had to make do with these. They didn't come out too badly.

I'm happy with these, would've liked the bullet proof lights available in the States @ $330... I think that's the price..

But well these do the job pretty well.

I now also have an option to switch to fog globes if need be.

I also installed a hazard switch and 3 way relay for the hazards to work.

The switch is located on the throttle grip, there is a blank space that I used there. used a switch from a Johnway scooter. little push in switch.

This comes in very handy in fog and accidents..

[PlasticxxHead]

Great looking lights... Are the housings metal or plastic?

I had a pair of hella optilux on my car that worked great.. Full metal housing and I swapped the 55m h4 for a 115w...

Where did you get those round globe lights?

ps I am embarassed that the rest of you didn't catch on to this sooner:

"TIRES CUPPED"

[arcticflipper]

The housings are unfortunately made from a very hard type of plastic. It is also a little bit flexible - this helps with any possible vibrations.

The tires are brand new, can't be cupped... they are only 1 week old.

There is metal ones available, but I wasn't going to pay the price they were asking for them. The front is 4mm thick glass.

I found them at a auto-spares outlet called Midas. They have a couple available in various sizes and colours.

The metal casings was only available in silver. This was going to stand out too much and I found them very week, flimsey compared to these.

I am a bit scared to put in higher watt bulbs, not sure if it will damage anything else on the bike....

The 55w Bosch bulbs seem to do it for me now. I might upgrade at a later stage, when one of them blow?

[bhanxx]

I had 55w fogs on previously, if u r caught in stop'n'go, etc. i would turn them off, the alternator can't keep up, don't ask how i know this too :roll:

It's also true if tooling around in an ERC course all day. Had to bump start that wench XX in a front of a bunch of hardlys, most embarrassing day of my life :oops: But my payback was when 2 of dose hardlys roll over during the stopping exercise, the MSF instructor made them use the front brake and they had never done that b4 :naughtydance: :ohshit: :ohshit:

Funny stuff...

[brianmacza]

I just bought an HID upgrade kit - 2 x ballasts and 2 x H7 pattern bulbs

total cost is ZAR2300 (or about US$350) - will install this weekend and see what the result is. Arctic - you SURE you don't wanna try a HID main beam? I only wanted a single ballast+bulb for low beam as my high beam is a Hella 80w that seems ok. If not, will do both and hope the delay on main beam switch doesn't piss me off too much.

The big question here is - how many farkles CAN you put on a '97 bird without flatlining the electrical system? I'm wary of putting dual 55w lamps on main beam in addition to my 80w because my battery (tho' it is new - 4 months old) seems to lose charge while the systems appears to be charging properly.

[arcticflipper]

Would love to try these, just a bit strapped for cash at the moment.

I'm trying to get hold of the OEM Blackbird Panniers from Honda. This is so that I can make a mold and reshape them or strenghten then where need be.

I'm getting Silverline to make the mold for me. The panniers are coming in at R3000.00 for the set, but this excludes VAT and also the price of the mounting brackets.

Well as soon as I get these, I can get them made for a lot less, and also ensure that they are water tight. The Honda uk website says that you must also purchase the water proof inner bags for the panniers???

Strange.

From pictures that I have seen so far, the panniers look like they are a copy of the VFR (Intercepter) Panniers, with a little change on the rear to accomodate the OEM indicators.

I did not like the rear of the panniers that much, and this is what I'll change in the mold. Just need to key hold of Keyless or decent locks for the panniers. Have not yet tried Honda for replacement locks for the OEM Panniers.

What is the delay on the main beam?

Does this mean that if you use them both, and switch ove rto highbeam that you might end up with no light for a period?

Does these HID units need to warm up before they start working or what might cause the delay? If it draws too much power, I've read somewhere here that a R1 regulator was installed on a Bird, and this apparently resolved the regulator problems. I am wondering if a GL1800 or 1500 regulator would work???