knary
looking for a coal mine
I've joined the ranks of the brilliant. I've just installed a pair of Hella FF50 driving lights and a Micatech light-bar on my GS. These were birthday purchases (translation: someone else was paying). Why the lights? the price was right ($70 shipped), they're not too huge, I thought their looks would blend nicely with the GS and I've heard good things about them. I don't doubt that lights twice or more expensive are 10% better. Why this bar? the price was fine, and they had a few mounting options for different kinds of lights. I considered making my own bar, but as I am currently without anything resembling quality workspace, it would probably take me hours of frustration to make something that I was satisfied with. Given a choice between someone else buying me a $136 (shipped to PDX) light-bar or hours of me getting irritated and possibly never liking the results, I went for the light-bar.
Installation was mostly easy. The Hella's come with a nice harness w/relay, fuse, etc. The only problems with the harness is a too short ground wire from the lights and too much wire everywhere else. I hooked up a switch ala Rubbercow (with the most expensive piece of bent metal - $15!!!). It ties into the parking light so that I can run the lights whenever I want. And if I wish to swap out driving for fog or whatever, I'm not committed to running a particular light with either the high or low beam.
The only notable source of aggravation was the hour+ it took me to remove the bolt in the positive terminal on the battery. The PO had decided that f-ing tight wasn't tight enough. And, to make it more annoying, I couldn't find any of my 8-mm sockets or wrenches (see comment above about work space).
Below are some photos of the setup. Please note the lack of photos of the wiring. I'm going to clean up the wiring this week.
I haven't put any real time on the bike since installing the lights. So far, little to no jiggle over bumps, good conspicuity (as though I can tell?), and they seem to light up the road admirably well for lights of their size and cost.
(yes, I did post this over at ADVrider as well)
Installation was mostly easy. The Hella's come with a nice harness w/relay, fuse, etc. The only problems with the harness is a too short ground wire from the lights and too much wire everywhere else. I hooked up a switch ala Rubbercow (with the most expensive piece of bent metal - $15!!!). It ties into the parking light so that I can run the lights whenever I want. And if I wish to swap out driving for fog or whatever, I'm not committed to running a particular light with either the high or low beam.
The only notable source of aggravation was the hour+ it took me to remove the bolt in the positive terminal on the battery. The PO had decided that f-ing tight wasn't tight enough. And, to make it more annoying, I couldn't find any of my 8-mm sockets or wrenches (see comment above about work space).
Below are some photos of the setup. Please note the lack of photos of the wiring. I'm going to clean up the wiring this week.
I haven't put any real time on the bike since installing the lights. So far, little to no jiggle over bumps, good conspicuity (as though I can tell?), and they seem to light up the road admirably well for lights of their size and cost.
(yes, I did post this over at ADVrider as well)
