What's with Denali Electronics?

Haven't ever had any Denali Electronics products before and am wondering how they care.
Ordered a set of lights, controller, and wiring at the 2022 National Rally and was told 2-6 weeks wait time.
I'm still waiting.
Denali has not been "proactive" in keeping me apprised of the delivery time. If I write or call they'll give me some time frame but they haven't been accurate up to this point.
Anyone else have this problem? Is this normal for Denali Electronics? Is this the "new normal"?
Thanks.

blackbill13 said:

Haven't ever had any Denali Electronics products before and am wondering how they care.
Ordered a set of lights, controller, and wiring at the 2022 National Rally and was told 2-6 weeks wait time.
I'm still waiting.
Denali has not been "proactive" in keeping me apprised of the delivery time. If I write or call they'll give me some time frame but they haven't been accurate up to this point.
Anyone else have this problem? Is this normal for Denali Electronics? Is this the "new normal"?
Thanks.

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I can't answer the question with any recent experience, but I can say that Ford Motor Company has over 45,000 partially completed pickup trucks and SUVs sitting in makeshift parking lots because of a shortage of components. We didn't know how fragile our supply chains were, but now we know. Baby formula, anybody?? I hope this isn't a new normal. But we certainly do have a lot to fix.

I ordered lights at the end of February. I took them twice as long to send them to me as they initially indicated. In all, it took them 2-3 months to get the lights. When I talked to them, I was told it was taking at long time to get the lights (getting them made, shipped and through customs). I think their lights are made in India, if my memory serves me right.

On a side note, I had also noted that this time that just about everything on their site was backordered. I don't know how a company can stay in business when all the products are backordered for weeks if not months. Patience is needed as we continue to recover. FYI, I went to the local Toyota Dealer to see what the wait is to get a Hybrid RAV4. I was told the wait is at least a year, there is a wait list; however, the wait list is closed. So, it's not just Denali, and yes, it's very frustrating.

Lights have finally arrived

Now for the install. Seems rather straightforward but I am accomplished at making things more difficult than necessary.
Here we go!

blackbill13 said:

Now for the install. Seems rather straightforward but I am accomplished at making things more difficult than necessary.
Here we go!

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You’ll be fine. They’re great quality and may last longer than us. I think I’ve installed and removed and installed a set on 3 or 4 different bikes and they’re still working perfectly.

This is the case before and after covid but I’ve told everyone, $ 4 $, Denali beats Clearwater. Cheaper, much nicer software experience (no button musical chairs to configure them, just plug in a laptop) and they are reliable and well built and integrate perfectly with CanBus (thanks to EZCan they’ve rebranded as CANSmart).

But after-sales support can’t hold a candle to Clearwater. I’ve had Glen at Clearwater (last year) mail me a set of lights on his way to the rally from a random post office in Idaho when I was leaving for a trip. I’ve had Glen and Billy call / email / text on nights, weekends and holidays. They take your old lights and refurbish them, they don’t seem to have a hard rule on the warranty. You’re basically paying 20% more than Clearwater for a team that really gives a crap about their customers.

Denali will take a week to get back to you, not pick up the phone and your warranty ends exactly 1 year after purchase and it’s “buy a new light” as their answer. Denali and Twisted Throttle is full of great people but they treat customers like future dollar signs and less like loyal customers who spend $1500 on lights.

I have a full 4 light Denali setup on my F750GS and a full Clearwater setup on my R1200GS and have worked with both companies a lot over the years. they just have a customer service issue over there.

Now, once I actually got them on the phone, they were helpful but if your lights are broken or strobing and you’re on a trip, just unplug the light because Denali won’t get back to you very fast.

adamchandler said:

But after-sales support can’t hold a candle to Clearwater. I’ve had Glen at Clearwater (last year) mail me a set of lights on his way to the rally from a random post office in Idaho when I was leaving for a trip. I’ve had Glen and Billy call / email / text on nights, weekends and holidays. They take your old lights and refurbish them, they don’t seem to have a hard rule on the warranty. You’re basically paying 20% more than Clearwater for a team that really gives a crap about their customers.

t.

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Same experience for us.
We had Clearwater Darlas and Billy brake lights on both of our R1200RSs.
Even with the higher price it was a easy decision to go with the same setup on our R1250RSs.
I don't think those two ever sleep, they're very fast to return emails.

I hope someone forwards this thread to Clearwater.
OM

Just to muddy the thread a little, I've always been pleased with the products and customer support from Cyclops.
https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com

Doug

blackbill13 said:

Haven't ever had any Denali Electronics products before and am wondering how they care.
Ordered a set of lights, controller, and wiring at the 2022 National Rally and was told 2-6 weeks wait time.
I'm still waiting.
Denali has not been "proactive" in keeping me apprised of the delivery time. If I write or call they'll give me some time frame but they haven't been accurate up to this point.
Anyone else have this problem? Is this normal for Denali Electronics? Is this the "new normal"?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

I bought a set of Denali lights from Touratech for my F800GS (at a rally). Worked good until one rainy, cool night in N GA they did not work. I tried everything I could think of but could not get them to come on. I really needed them that night and ended up hitting a small deer on the way back to camp at Two Wheels Only. The deer had come out from the edge of the road and was running the same way I was going. I did not see it until I was right up on it. I managed to miss it with my front wheel and it banged into a crashbar. Fortunately, the F800 stayed stable and I did not go down. If the deer went down, he was able to get up and keep going. I could not find him. Had those extra lights worked, I believe I would have seen that deer much sooner.

I did correspond with Touratech by e-mail back and forth, and went through various tests with the software to try to diagnose the problem. They finally decided that yes... they do not work! They admitted that they had a bad batch of the CanBus controllers and mine was likely one of those. I'm not sure, but I think they probably could have identified those by serial numbers and NOT sold them. I can't say for sure but I do wonder why there was not at least some type of recall. Maybe they were not sure just how many went out like that? There was a test with a hairdryer to heat the Canbus and see if the indicator light on the unit came back on. I tried it and it did. And the lights still did not work.

So, they said pull the CanBus wiring system off and sent it back. I did. And then I waited for months for the new part. Can't remember off-hand how many months, but I could check that if anyone really wants to know. Touratech did inform me that it would be a while-- Denali had some kind of supply issue or production issue. I started wondering if I had been forgotten but just recently they did indeed come through and a new CanBus controller appeared at my door.

So...I like the lights and I hope they will work as they are supposed to this time and be reliable. Denali did correspond with me and try to work out the problem. I think that it took longer than it should have for them to agree to replace the unit, especially with their knowing they had bad ones that went out. Great customer service would have meant their immediate encouragement to send it back so they could replace it. Once they agreed to replace it, they did--- it just took a real long time to get the new one because of their production issues.

I know Touratech is a good company and they have great stuff. And some things can't be helped. But this Denali issue was very frustrating and time-consuming.

dp

Lights up and running - now to program them

I don't know how things will work out in the future (re: the not happy customers on this thread) but the lights went on the bike easily enough and they work. Yea!
Now I need to program them and there's a situation. I download what I think I'm supposed to and it doesn't work.
Any ideas on how to get the software to work?
I've noticed the lag in response from Denali. I guess the few people working there must wear many different hats.

blackbill13 said:

Now I need to program them and there's a situation. I download what I think I'm supposed to and it doesn't work.
Any ideas on how to get the software to work?

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The Denali CANSmart is a rebadged Hex ezCAN. While the interface has different icons and colors, they seem identical in function and layout. There are how to videos on the Hex ezCAN site. You should take a look at those.

https://www.hexezcan.com/software/

I guess it will be Clearwater

I had planned on getting Denali lights for my new 2023 R1250 GSA (particularly since the bike came without LED headlights - an issue I won't get into here). I'm sure Denali is a good company based on what I've heard over time, but the comments on this thread regarding customer service have made me change my mind. I now plan to go with Clearwater. When you're buying and servicing via email and phone calls rather than being able to actually go to a vendor location to get questions and issues resolved, customer service is vital to me. Especially since I have no experience installing lights (or anything else for that matter). I really like the idea of Denali simplicity that people have noted, but I'm going to need excellent customer service when I get stuck on something and based on the comments here I'll go with Clearwater.

ITZNUTHIN said:

I had planned on getting Denali lights for my new 2023 R1250 GSA (particularly since the bike came without LED headlights - an issue I won't get into here). I'm sure Denali is a good company based on what I've heard over time, but the comments on this thread regarding customer service have made me change my mind. I now plan to go with Clearwater. When you're buying and servicing via email and phone calls rather than being able to actually go to a vendor location to get questions and issues resolved, customer service is vital to me. Especially since I have no experience installing lights (or anything else for that matter). I really like the idea of Denali simplicity that people have noted, but I'm going to need excellent customer service when I get stuck on something and based on the comments here I'll go with Clearwater.

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If you want excellent customer service try Ruby Moto (https://www.rubymoto.com). No affiliation other than being a very happy customer.

DJMeloche said:

If you want excellent customer service try Ruby Moto (https://www.rubymoto.com). No affiliation other than being a very happy customer.

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Never heard of Ruby lights. I'll check them out.