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My auxiliary light obsession 2010 RT

To Revive This Thread...

No pics on the thread yet. Does that mean the rtp brackets did NOT work?

Time to revive this thread and answer your question... they in fact work great! I added a set of LED Denali D2 lights from Twisted Throttle using the RT-P brackets. I am pleased with the amount of light that they put out for both conspicuity and night driving. I have found that they basically wash out the standard H7 low beams and produce light that is just slightly blue... I think they're rated at about 5000k which makes sense. They don't quite have the throw of the H7 high beam, but definitely make a big difference at night. I've had a few cars flash their lights at me, but hey, that means they saw me, right? I try to run them on secondary roadways and will shut them off when in traffic to be courteous to the cars that I am behind.

If you want to do this type of install, here is what you will need:

Lights - again, these are Denali D2 LEDs, but you could use anything that is compatible with the U-shaped bracket of the RT-P mounts. You can see in the photo looking down from behind the light that I used the supplied U mount as a spacer inside the RT-P bracket. As it worked out, using the bracket as a spacer also prevents the lights from ever pointing up past the horizontal position (you can still tip them down a bit).

RT-P Upper Light Brackets - 51 16 7 693 207 & 208

M5x16 Screws & M5 Washers - 07 12 9 905 120 and 46 63 7 658 638 (4x each)

Mirror Housings - The light bracket pops up through the outer mirror housing. You can solve this by using your existing housings and using a Dremel tool to open up a hole for each mount, or you can replace your standard housings with RT-P housings, which come from Das Motherland with the holes already cut :german I wanted my set-up to look factory so I used the RT-P housings:

46 63 7 714 537 for the left, 51 16 7 714 538 for the right. All you need is a Phillips head screwdriver to make the swap and a little hand strength to separate the housing from the rest of the mirror.

Wiring the lights is very easy. Follow the plastic removal and nacelle removal in the Hexhead Tech Subforum. I ended up taking off all of the plastic which makes running the wires easy.

The Denali lights come with a push button switch that I mounted on the audio control blank just above the 12V power outlet on the clutch side. It's easy to drop your left hand from the left grip to hit the switch when needed in this position. Here's the final product:

LightsFront.jpg


LightTop.jpg


LightBottom.jpg


Oh yeah, they're kinda bright ;) My three 100W garage lights are on and the parking lights are on just for reference.

LightsOn.jpg


In a local school parking lot during their maiden voyage. My cell phone camera doesn't do them justice.

LightsOn2.jpg


Hope this helps anyone who has been following this thread since it's beginning.
 
Last edited:
RT-P light bars are the way to go if you want high-mount auxiliary lighting. I have PIAA 910s that I never use - but they have blue reflectors, so they look like cop lights when turned off, so I keep them bolted to the bike.

My PIAA 1100Xs mounted to the front crash bars are always on, and provide all the illumination I'll ever need. My 2002 RT-P with PIAA 1100Xs throws way more light down the road than does my 2012 GSA with the factory auxiliary lights.

I like mounting the auxiliary lights as low as possible to the ground. When driving in fog or rain or mist, the lights will better illuminate the road. Lights mounted higher up will bounce more light off the fog/rain/mist back in to the rider's eyes. There is a reason why cages have fog/driving lights located low on the front bumper.

The higher the driving light location, the less effective the lights will be the worse the visibility. Mount them on the turn signal/mirror RT-P mounts and you'll do more harm than good to your ability to see the road in marginal visibility. Everyone will still be able to see you, but you won't be able to see the fog line, or the pothole, or the tar snake, or the line of gravel, etc.

20080328-002.jpg
 
I like mounting the auxiliary lights as low as possible to the ground. When driving in fog or rain or mist, the lights will better illuminate the road. Lights mounted higher up will bounce more light off the fog/rain/mist back in to the rider's eyes. There is a reason why cages have fog/driving lights located low on the front bumper.

That's a very valid point, but a lot of my night riding is usually in dry, clear weather late at night, so the ability to have some extra deer-spotting light down the road outweighs the effects of high mounted lights in rain or fog.
 
Yeah, me too. I usually won't start out in rain and fog since I mainly ride for enjoyment. And if I get caught in it after already being out, I can just turn off the high mounted lights and just use the normal headlights.

As I said above, I had my PIAAs adjusted very slightly downward to not blind anyone, but they are very easily adjusted if I wanted to throw the light further down the road when I was in deer country.
 
Time to revive this thread and answer your question... they in fact work great! I added a set of LED Denali D2 lights from Twisted Throttle using the RT-P brackets. I am pleased with the amount of light that they put out for both conspicuity and night driving. I have found that they basically wash out the standard H7 low beams and produce light that is just slightly blue... I think they're rated at about 5000k which makes sense. They don't quite have the throw of the H7 high beam, but definitely make a big difference at night. I've had a few cars flash their lights at me, but hey, that means they saw me, right? I try to run them on secondary roadways and will shut them off when in traffic to be courteous to the cars that I am behind.

If you want to do this type of install, here is what you will need:

Lights - again, these are Denali D2 LEDs, but you could use anything that is compatible with the U-shaped bracket of the RT-P mounts. You can see in the photo looking down from behind the light that I used the supplied U mount as a spacer inside the RT-P bracket. As it worked out, using the bracket as a spacer also prevents the lights from ever pointing up past the horizontal position (you can still tip them down a bit).

RT-P Upper Light Brackets - 51 16 7 693 207 & 208

M5x16 Screws & M5 Washers - 07 12 9 905 120 and 46 63 7 658 638 (4x each)

Mirror Housings - The light bracket pops up through the outer mirror housing. You can solve this by using your existing housings and using a Dremel tool to open up a hole for each mount, or you can replace your standard housings with RT-P housings, which come from Das Motherland with the holes already cut :german I wanted my set-up to look factory so I used the RT-P housings:

46 63 7 714 537 for the left, 51 16 7 714 538 for the right. All you need is a Phillips head screwdriver to make the swap and a little hand strength to separate the housing from the rest of the mirror.

Wiring the lights is very easy. Follow the plastic removal and nacelle removal in the Hexhead Tech Subforum. I ended up taking off all of the plastic which makes running the wires easy.

The Denali lights come with a push button switch that I mounted on the audio control blank just above the 12V power outlet on the clutch side. It's easy to drop your left hand from the left grip to hit the switch when needed in this position. Here's the final product:

LightsFront.jpg


LightTop.jpg


LightBottom.jpg


Oh yeah, they're kinda bright ;) My three 100W garage lights are on and the parking lights are on just for reference.

LightsOn.jpg


In a local school parking lot during their maiden voyage. My cell phone camera doesn't do them justice.

LightsOn2.jpg


Hope this helps anyone who has been following this thread since it's beginning.

Hi Stig,

Thanks for going the extra mile to add your 2cw to this thread. I'm very impressed with your work and the lights look factory installed! Would it be possible to take a pic or two from the cockpit instead of looking into the lights? I'd like to see how those D2's light up the raod ahead.
 
Thanks Brian! I was very pleased with the outcome as well. I'll try to take some pics looking forward for you, weather depending. I would also recommend checking out YouTube. There are a few good videos showing the dramatic difference between standard halogen headlights and these LEDs. Like I said in my installation post, they are definitely bright enough to basically wipe out the dual low beams, but don't have quite the amount of throw as the high beam. I think they're great for spotting road hazards in the traffic lane and light up the shoulder as well, which is great in the Northeast for spotting deer and other wild critters.
 
I like P3's for the rear aux brake light but if I'm spending that kind of money for lights on the front, they might as well actually cast some useful light down range.

I believe that you are mixing apples & oranges here, Nighttime lighting often is in need of enhancement specifically for daytime use. Lights for seeing often have different characteristics than lights used for being seen.

The Skeene Photon blasters on my bike are adjusted as much as possible so as to hit oncoming drivers directly in their eyes. With the flicker, amber color and this adjustment they seem to work very well. They do not blind oncoming drivers, but they do get attention. While the Skeene lights are good at night I believe that the daytime is where they excel.

Fog lights, pencil beam lights headlights & whatever should not be aimed into the eyes of oncoming drivers day or night. When aimed as they should be (low) by virtue of this they don't have the eye catching conspicuity (hope I spelled that right) of the Skene LED's particularly in the day season.

Old time thought was that mounting fog lights as low as possible below the driver's eye level avoided (as much as possible) the straight back reflection of the beam from the water molecule bearing fog. Higher mounting for other situations seems to be a big advantage.
 
Those high mounted LEDs are an ill thought out and inappropriate installation. I hope most readers of this thread can see the problems and not be tempted to replicate this setup, as cute as it looks. At best, it is suitable for moderate increases in distance lighting only in places where oncoming taffic is rare. That pretty much restricts its nightime suitability to rural areas in the east or more generally to places out west where traffic density is less. Using an installation like this routinely at night for ones own vision where there is traffic is simply displaying lack of regard and courtesy for other road users- while also getting a far less than optimal result for yourself.

First, LEDs in general are a tremendous glare source to oncoming drivers- which is of course made worse by the high (and illegal at least in some states) lighting position. The reason for the glare problem is the fact that an LED is an unblocked (by an opaque cover like the tip of a halogen bulb uses) intense point source. I suggest that if you doubt LEDs are a glare problem to oncoming drivers at night that you simply stand in front of any such setup and compare it for yourself to the other lighting sources on the same vehicle. Glare is even worse for those who wear glasses or are older- the effect increases with every bit of reflection within the surfaces of av glass / plastic lens or scatter within a slightly cloudy human lens that may not yet have reached the stage where it needs replacment.
Glare is also exacerbated by the color temperature of the LED type. There is a reason true fog lamps inteneded to minimize glare are cooler temp (yellower).

Second, the specific lights have only moderate output (900 lumens approx vs, for example, 3200 for a std 35W HID or 1500 for a 55W halogen bulb).
So the actual reach increase provided by these lamps is not as much as a more traditional halogen lamp, for example the Hella FF50, which will also have a lot less glare. Unless the bike has a very low output alternator, this is the wrong light for that mounting position.

Third, it has long been recognized by off road racers who developed the first decent accessory lights many years ago and continue to drive many of the improvments that on average, the high mount positions are best reserved for long range lights and that moderate and fill lights should be mounted lower, both to put more light on the road surface and to minimize reflected glare from fog, mists, signs, etc.
 
Those high mounted LEDs are an ill thought out and inappropriate installation. I hope most readers of this thread can see the problems and not be tempted to replicate this setup, as cute as it looks. At best, it is suitable for moderate increases in distance lighting only in places where oncoming taffic is rare. That pretty much restricts its nightime suitability to rural areas in the east or more generally to places out west where traffic density is less. Using an installation like this routinely at night for ones own vision where there is traffic is simply displaying lack of regard and courtesy for other road users- while also getting a far less than optimal result for yourself.

First, LEDs in general are a tremendous glare source to oncoming drivers- which is of course made worse by the high (and illegal at least in some states) lighting position. The reason for the glare problem is the fact that an LED is an unblocked (by an opaque cover like the tip of a halogen bulb uses) intense point source. I suggest that if you doubt LEDs are a glare problem to oncoming drivers at night that you simply stand in front of any such setup and compare it for yourself to the other lighting sources on the same vehicle. Glare is even worse for those who wear glasses or are older- the effect increases with every bit of reflection within the surfaces of av glass / plastic lens or scatter within a slightly cloudy human lens that may not yet have reached the stage where it needs replacment.
Glare is also exacerbated by the color temperature of the LED type. There is a reason true fog lamps inteneded to minimize glare are cooler temp (yellower).

Second, the specific lights have only moderate output (900 lumens approx vs, for example, 3200 for a std 35W HID or 1500 for a 55W halogen bulb).
So the actual reach increase provided by these lamps is not as much as a more traditional halogen lamp, for example the Hella FF50, which will also have a lot less glare. Unless the bike has a very low output alternator, this is the wrong light for that mounting position.

Third, it has long been recognized by off road racers who developed the first decent accessory lights many years ago and continue to drive many of the improvments that on average, the high mount positions are best reserved for long range lights and that moderate and fill lights should be mounted lower, both to put more light on the road surface and to minimize reflected glare from fog, mists, signs, etc.

Unfortunately, I appreciate your comments. I installed Clearwater LED lights on my 2011 RT a couple of months ago. I have no complaints about the products, company, quality, etc. But, but... I am very frustrated because in order for my lights to be effective, I find that I am aggravating oncoming drivers. If I angle my lights down to where I don't blind people, then the lights are not doing me any good from a standpoint of seeing farther down the road. And I really hate blinding other drivers... I don't like it done to me and I don't want to do it to others. I mounted the smaller Glenda's down on the front forks. They don't seem to bother people but they don't seem to increase my sight distance, either. The Krista's, on the other hand, are mounted under the mirrors, and are very bright but I am not getting the distance I expected. It lights up everything close but aggravates the hell out of oncoming traffic.

So, like Racer7 said, the problem seems to be the big LED lights under the mirrors. Yes, they are great for conspicuity, but I am not willing to continue blinding other people.

FWIW, I also have the P3 Lights and the Photon Blasters, which are excellent for being seen by other drivers. The LED lighting was simply for increase range of sight at dark.

Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board. I will probably keep the small Glenda LED's on the forks but get rid of the LED Krista's.

Sorry for the rant!

Any comments are appreciated...
 
Just to be clear, I don't advocate lighting up your bike with any type of light... halogen, HID, LED, whatever... at the expense of blinding on-coming traffic. My interest in adding these lights was for the same reason that Brian-NC mentioned when he started this thread... adding more light on backroads at O'dark-thirty when traffic is minimal or non-existent. If you're a typical commuter riding home at 5:30 PM (it's completely dark here by then in the Northeast this time of year, just FYI) then I wouldn't recommend using a super bright auxiliary light system on your way home because of the glare issues. But like Brian-NC, I end up riding home between midnight and 0400 hrs. on a fairly regular basis. Many nights I can count the number of cars I see on one hand during my half hour commute.

So to each his own. That's the great thing about this forum, we can share our opinions and experiences of what works well for us in our specific situations. These lights combined with my standard high beam produce a substantial increase in visibility for me and I feel comfortable using them. Like everything else in motorcycling life, there's a balance that needs to be struck. Obviously, anytime you add auxiliary lights for anything more than conspicuity you run the risk of causing glare and blinding other motorists. Tailor your lighting needs around the conditions in which you typically ride and try to be courteous to other motorists.

Merry Christmas and safe riding to all in 2013!
 
Unfortunately, I appreciate your comments. I installed Clearwater LED lights on my 2011 RT a couple of months ago. I have no complaints about the products, company, quality, etc. But, but... I am very frustrated because in order for my lights to be effective, I find that I am aggravating oncoming drivers. If I angle my lights down to where I don't blind people, then the lights are not doing me any good from a standpoint of seeing farther down the road. And I really hate blinding other drivers... I don't like it done to me and I don't want to do it to others. I mounted the smaller Glenda's down on the front forks. They don't seem to bother people but they don't seem to increase my sight distance, either. The Krista's, on the other hand, are mounted under the mirrors, and are very bright but I am not getting the distance I expected. It lights up everything close but aggravates the hell out of oncoming traffic.

So, like Racer7 said, the problem seems to be the big LED lights under the mirrors. Yes, they are great for conspicuity, but I am not willing to continue blinding other people.

FWIW, I also have the P3 Lights and the Photon Blasters, which are excellent for being seen by other drivers. The LED lighting was simply for increase range of sight at dark.

Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board. I will probably keep the small Glenda LED's on the forks but get rid of the LED Krista's.

Sorry for the rant!

Any comments are appreciated...
2 Words: HID Conversion:stick
 
3 Words: Out of business, as in I was all set to buy the 1offmotorsports dual HID conversion kit. Any other reputable companies making BMW compatible conversions?
 
How about these: Outstanding lights from Clearwater. These are the Krista's and the Clearwater brackets for the RT. There is no turbulence from mounting under the mirrors, and the light pattern is outstanding. Well worth the money.

RT11.jpg


RT10.jpg
 
Hi everybody and Happy New Year!

I'd just like to say that I'm enjoying all of the information popping up on this thread. The various opinions are all good but lets not get carried away. I'm sure that we can all agree that more useful light projected down range is a good thing, no matter the source. Wether it's HID, LED, 65W Osrams, or Hell FF50's. Rest assured that no matter how much light I end up adding to my RT, I will be thoughtful of other motorists and either dim them or turn them off in dense traffic so as not to offend.

I plan on having a set of lights down low on the calipers/forks (most likely amber) and another set up higher either under or over the mirrors. I'm digging the mounts specifically for the RT from www.twistedthrottle.com and I'm considering their Denali LED's. I purchased some LEDs from www.advmonster.com last year and plan on mounting these down low with the amber lens covers supplied by xpel. These will be primarily for daytime conspicuity and some fog lighting.

I've also considered the very well made (USA) hi power LED's from Rigid. As before, I welcome all comments, suggestions, and PICS !
 
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