GULGoTech Aux Light Brackets
 

Here's a mini review of some Aux Light Brackets that Darren (Gas_Up_Lets_Go) asked me to take a look at.

The brackets are a strong and simple design, I'll take a simple design any day over a complex creation. They fix to the lower mounting point for the headlight assembly and extend forward following the line of the headlight assembly. Then out to each side to provide a horizontal mounting point to suspend your lights from at a point of your choice. You just need to drill a hole in each side at the point you want to fix your lights.

The brackets are very secure and fit easily and neatly, there's no wiring to move etc, just remove the lower fixing bolt, offer up the brackets and fit the longer bolt thats supplied with the brackets.

I fitted a set of PIAA 60mm lights (Thanks, Jenny!) to the brackets, these fit nealty into the recess between the headlight assembly and the indicator cowels.

In summary, the brackets are very solid and hold the lights so that they don't vibrate (any more that the rest of the bike that is!!). They position the lights in just the right place and provide a level platform to work from.

Here's a few photo's:

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...ghtBracket.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...htBracket1.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...htBracket2.jpg

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...htBracket3.jpg



There's a post from Darren about the brackets here:

http://www.xt660.com/showpost.php?p=100133&postcount=20


Nick.

Yes I can recommend these brackets also. I have fitted a pair and they fit PERFECTLY with the lights I have fitted to them just in the right place.:003:

They are also very well made and sent out very well packed.

Another happy customer here. Recommended :thumbsup[1]:

Product improvement
 

I'm going to be adding a weather resistant switch and mounting bracket to the line-up. same as the one in this picture:
http://www.smokingtailpipes.com/Gall...vingLamp01.JPG


It clamps to the headlight frame, so no drilling or 'adjusting' required to the bike. You don't even notice it's there when you look at the bike. There is no price available just now, but if you are intersted then drop me a line.

Soft Luggage Exhaust Protectors are also in development, will be tested and ready for the springtime.

Anyone know who stocks these PIAA lights as I elt the last set go on my GS...madness. They cost me �50 (from USA)all in inc loom relay etc but I cant find a dealer as PIAA dont make them anymore.

Hi guys,
what bulbs are in the PIAA lamps, and how long have you been running them? As i have flattened the battery after two days of running the Micro De fogs!!!!!
Mark

Hmmmm

the MicroDE have a 55w bulb (from memory) so thats 110w load on the bike. I recall from another post that the power budget is close to that, so you need to be running your bike a while without them on (after all, legally, you should only use them in adverse weather, but it would be a brave plod who decided to do yuo for 'being seen' on a bike).

It takes around 20 minutes of riding (not ticking over) to replace the drain on the battery from starting the bike.....

Alternativly, fit an optimate/batterymiser/trickly charger thing - if I've been on a short run <20 mins the lights on the optimate are usually two bars down.... only takes an hour before the battery is tickety boo.

Perhaps some more investigations into a Stator upgrade, I mentioned it in the Ask Kev section a week or so back.

I've often heard this but I'm not sure quite how that works out.

Some typical figures seem to be around a 100-150A current draw for a CAR starter motor.
Drawing 12V and assuming you run the starter for 5 seconds (I probably run it for 2 max) you have 12*150 = 1800W and 9000J of energy used over the 5 seconds

Assuming you have an excess capacity of 50W from the charging system (must do as I'm running a 100W bulb and heated grips which draw up to 70+W over stock with no problems) that would take 9000J / 50W = 180 seconds to replace the lost charge. Even with only 25W spare you'd replace the charge in 6 minutes.

From what I've seen in Guernsey where most journeys are 5 miles or less you'd expect EVERYONE to be hooking their bike up to an optimate if 20 mins was the requirement (especialy since top speed is 35mph so the bikes won't be reving that hard) but that's certainly not the case from what I ever noticed.

I guess a loose rule of thumb would be you need to ride the bike for as many minutes as you had the starter motor running in seconds (which assumes 30W spare electrical capacity). eg Really bad start in the morning running the starter for 20 seconds requires 20 minutes of riding.

I'm not going to argue with the physics of it, but try it, you'll see what I mean.

of course a cold battery looses 'ummpf' faster than a warm one, and you have other issues around the condition of the terminal connection.

Car starters will have a much more powerfull battery and constant compression (being an inline 4) per turn, whereas the singles need to turn the engine through a high compression and low compression cycle. I don;t know the reason, I'm just throwing in some suggestions

Also, on a bike that isn't run everyday, the battery will loos charge as it stand anyway, and the less it is used the more it seams to loose charge.

I'd certainly agree that a cold battery gives less output, and leaving a battery unusued reduces it's effeciency until it has been charged to restore some of it.

I've just looked up the figures in the service manual, the starter motor is rated at 0.8kW, which if drawing 12v is about 67A (assuming 100% effeciency. Conveniently this works out at 1Hp !
The Starter itself however is rated at 180A

The Ten battery is 12v 8Ah which in THEORY gives enough power in ideal conditions and fully charged to run the starter for 2 minutes 15 seconds until completely flat (assuming a constant 180A current draw at 14v). As you say I would not expect this is practice, I'd probaly be happy with half that

Hi guys,
Bike is used mainly for commuting to work and back. Which each way is about 18 miles= about 30-40 minutes in time depending on traffic. So it should get a good charge after starting.
I was running the 100W blue bulbs that have been mentioned on here. Have been running them for a good 3-4 weeks with no problems. But with the heated grips and the fogs it seems ther is too much beiubg drwan out of the system and not enough being put back in.
I have down graded the headlight back to the stock 55W bulb. And i just wondered what bulbs are in the PIAA lamps to see if they draw less than the one in the Hella fogs( will have to have a look to see what size they are as i didnt notice when i put then in.)
If it comes to it i would rather trade cold hands against not being seen, but it would be nice to have my cake and eat it......
Mark

No point having the cake if you can't eat it, I reckon that the lights will be 55watts each :sunny:

Hi Rick,
have just been in the garage to have a look, and yes they are 55W each in the Hella fogs, If people have been running PIAA lamps for ages with no probs, do they have a lower rated bulb in them?
Need help as i have got my bike to where i want it (apart from single can) but it is no good if i kill something by loading the electric system up too much. I hear what you say about topping the battery up at night. But that means that the generator would have been working all the time i was riding the bike and STILL was not able to keep up with the current being used. Surely that is not an ideal situation is it?
Mark

These figures are not going to be totally accurate but might help you work out what you want to do.

From elsewhere on the forum we're looking at 200-215W roughly for the standard bike without the cooling fan running (260-275W ish with it running but we'll ignore that as you won't need th cooling fan much in winter!)

Uprating the main bulb to 100W will require 45W extra.
Heated grips, 3A roughly so that s 14V * 3A = 42W
2 fog lights is 2 * 55W whic his 110 W
Total extra is 197W
On top of the standard you are asking for 400-420W roughly with the alternator providing about 300W. Assuming the lower end of that (100W over what is given) you'll drain the battery completly in about 60 minutes in ideal conditions.

The 100W bulb and grips should just about be ok. Incidentaly thats what I run so far without incident but I've not needed to run the grips at full whack at the same time as having the 100W bulb yet (only gone up to 70% so far). so one option is not use the extra lights or limiting their use.

If you ran the extra lights with the standard 55W bulb and no heated grips my guess is you're still going to be 40-60W over the total output, meaning you can run it for 2 hours or so like that in ideal conditions. If you're running the lights occasionaly that should be sufficient.

I've been running a blue uprated (55W) bulb for a while and combined with a high vis and bright helmet have found the Ten's presense to be excellent. The change in colour of the bulb makes a huge difference to standing out (it was quite notacable when I changed it). I'd be tempted to have a 100W blue dip bulb with a 55W main bulb. That way you can run grips and the standard 100W bulb or you run the 55W full beam with the fogs for extra light output (but not the grips) for a while.


We still need to get some more accurate figures to confirm the Tenere's power usage in standard form, ie total current draw but it seems there is only about 70W to spare.

Thank you for the detailed reply. Roughly are you saying that there is 70W spare over and above what is generated against what is used to run the bike? I have already down graded the dip bulb from 100W down to the standard 55W ( will try to get a blue one at the same rating).
So if i got 2 35W bulbs and put them in the fogs i should be ok as long as i dont run them all the time? I could alternate between dark parts of the route then turn them off again once i got into town and it is more brightely lit.
I just wondered what people have been running electrically, for how long and in what combination.
Just seems such a ball ache after running a BMW 1150GS i had a couple og years ago with what seemed like everthing fitted and running at the same time.
Mark

Mark, For visability purposes, have you considered the BikVis LED bullet light product, at around a Tenner (there is a link somewhere on the site) they use next to no power, are very bright and can be mounted easily - you could even ditch the side lights, and run extension cables to the bullet lights from there ??? You would save a bit of power from the sidelights, and gain some extra 'presence' from the LEDs (depending on where you placed them). It would save you keeping the fogs on.

Another way to improve your presence is to vary your road possition, moving to the left when car approach, to the left wat before junctions and out to the centre whilst passing junctions, normal possition should be close to the centre with no oncoming traffic. The human eye is very good at seing things moving in a lateral plane and crap at seeing things staying on a fixed line.

Using all of the road (both sides!) lets you see much more of what is hapening ahead and the movement of the bike draws attention. Another tip, when you come up behind someone you intend to pass, a sweep into the inside then smoothly to the centre in anticipation will put the bike in all 3 mirrors, increasing your chances of being seen.

Riding in this style does get you noticed, and traffic does take note. It's all in the IAM and Roadcraft books.

:041::041:


Riding style works for me - and I'm a courier!
I just use my aux driving lights for night time high beam use so they're not on all the time. LED's are definately the way to go for extra visibility.

[quote=RickM;109478]:041::041:


- and I'm a courier!
quote]


err.......late start today!

The bottom lights on the side on my signature are Bikviz leds just tapped a wire into my sidelite

WE GET A DISCOUNT, they don't look much but they a are effective


http://www.bikevis.com/discount-xt660.html

I was thinking of replacing the H3 bulbs with H3 leds

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Xtec-H3-12v-Hi...926d62ff886976

:3chat:

I will let you know :glasses9: I have just gone and order them. So when I have fitted them I will take some pictures and you will be able to see for youself's.

They will reduce the wattage by a very large amount.

Thank you for the replies guys, lots of options to look at. Have ordered some of the LED side lights but didnt know how to get discount so i put a querie in with the paypal payment.
The LED bulbs look like some kind of satalite array tower!!! Any of the more electrically minded members have any comments on them? What watt rating would 6000k be? Would you have to run a resistor to get the loom to register it without a fault? Answers in laymans terms please as i dont know Olms law, wear an anorak or visit maplins......
Mark

Mark if you had used the link that I posted that would have taken you direct to the discount part ;)

I have ordered the H3 LEDs so I will let you know, they should not throw up a fault because I have wired through a relay direct to the battery. I will keep you posted with a update when they arrive.

Rick,
i did use the link so hopefully i will get the discount. So you bulbs you linked to are replacements for the fogs not the dip and main? I seem to remember the dip/main bulbs being H7 now i come to think of it. If they work they would be an adeal solutuion to the problem. Any idea what 6000K is in WATTS? I like the look of the bike with the fogs fitted so i dont really want to lose them, but if i carnt use them how intended i would have to look at something else.
Postie strike is going to play havock with getting goodies soon.... :(

mark

Hi,
have had a bit of a search on E-bay for H3 LED and came up with these. A bit more info on the bulbs, so if the sparkies on here would have a look and see what they think please?

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=h...w=h3&_osacat=0

Mark

DOH!!!! wrong link,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-Car-9-LED-...item3356be8237

Mark

Too much choice........ HELP!!!!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Hi Mark they are to replace the bulbs in the fog lights H3

http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/H3_11-WHP.htm

They will be similar to these but brighter

Mark, I think it will be about a maximum 4 watts (FOUR) which will be 6000k=30 watts is comparison abit like the low wattage house hold bulbs lower watts but same light output, well I will soon find out.


By the way I got my blue sidelights from Bikvis and one of them started to play up last week, I dropped him a email on Tuesday to tell him that one was not working and I have received 2 replacements in the post today Thursday, Brilliant customer service

The information given on these is a little worrying, most of the radiance (this is the meansure of lumes or LM) values are 25.

To convert LM to candle power you divide it by 12.5.

So a light with 25LM is just over 2 candle power!!! That just doesn't sound right does it ? When you consider a good set of car driving lights can deliver around 1000 candle power

In this link : -> http://www.superbrightleds.com/specs/H3_11-WHP.htm

it states "These bulbs are suitable for Daytime Running Lamps only - they do not produce enough light for useful illumination at night" which kind of backs up the physics

So these are more of a low power (and at just under 1/2 watt it's pretty good) means of providing road presence rather than illumination of the road.

The ebay links are suprisingly devoid of any usefull information, or disclaimers, although they do specify the LM. It's not very British is that, makes out they are replacement Fog bulbs when really they are DRL (daytime running lights)

With all that considerd, if you just want to be seen then these H'x' LEDs are a good way forward. Match that up with 100W main beam and you've got a reasonable setup to see. You would still have the dead area from the loss of dip beam though. The alternative is to fit some BikVis button LEDs, and change the fogs to driving lights, set one into the distance and the other to cover the dead ground in front of the bike (although, really your eyes should be looking in the distance, not what's in front of your wheel!)

The small sidelights use 5W each for a total of 10W so it's a small but still useful gain in power if you changed them to LED. Seems the led ones being suggested are bout 0.75W (12volts at 65 mA) each, so you would save about 8W.
Also as they run at 8000K the colour of them would stand out more which is good for being seen.

Crusty your suggestion of using 2x35W bulbs in the fog lights seems like it might be viable (with the 55W main bulb and no heated grips). I can't be 100% certain however as we don't know the exact power draw of the Tenere so are still running on estimates. The only way to really know would be to try it then ride the bike for 4 hours or so to see if you can make the battery go flat :)
Bear in mind that if you run very near the power capacity of the bike you are not leaving much power to recharge the battery after starting it. Should be ok with 30-40 min rides but frequent short trips to the shops would almost certainly cause problems!

On the positive side it should be adequate for lighting up the road immeadiatly in front of you, as well as aiding visibility, keeping the looks and not requiring any extra effort to fit.

From what's been suggested so far I'd go for the 35W fog bulbs and replace the side/auxiliary lights with led versions. That or have the 100W main/dip bulb with extra LED sidelights to make you more visible, you should also be albe to run the heated grips with this option.

Gulgo, if the standard Tenere sidelights only use 5W, compared to 55W with an assumed 1000LM output then you'd only expect about 100LM from them. The brighter of the replacement LEDs' mentioned gives out 40Lm at 1W so is punching at about twice it's power rating compared to a normal bulb. LED's are quite intense however so would not provide much spread of light to see with if they were made into a headlight though I suspect

Right my LEDs have arrive this morning so I am going to fit them, and come back with some photos and a report so stand by your beds :walk:

Looking forward to your findings on the "sat array" LED bulbs Rick. My bike bullets thingy`s came this morning ( great service as only ordered them Thurday evening.....).
Does anyone have a link to the LED side lights in the headlight housing?
Mark:thumbsup:

Try this thread http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=11978

read the thread to the end and then print off the info and carry with you on the bike :041:

Unfortunately it is the same place you got the bullet thingy's :icon_tongue:

http://www.bikevis.com/motorcycle-t1...sidelight.html

The right one has been changed to a LED H3 you can see that it is a different sort of light, in the second photo they have both been change and the right one seems brighter I think it is because of the angel of the bike



http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1663 http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1664




I will try them out tonight and see if I can get some more pictures, it is hard to get a good one in day time because different angels show up differently, I would say that they are on par with a 35 watt bulbs but they are only using 8 watts if that total for both

http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1665




http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1667



http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1668





http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1669


http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1665



I will give an update after I have tried them in the dark tonight :glasses2:

Hi Rick,
what dip bulb are you running? 55W or 100W?
Mark

55watts

Leds Spots at night
 

The photos of them at night well 6.30pm. They look OK, but if I was to sum them up I would say that they are very good for been seen but crap for seeing. They do not light the road up at all, but they can be seen by other road uses.


http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1671




The small ones at the bottom are Bullet lights from Bikviz



http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1670



The last one is with my dipped beam on, and I am stood a lot closer, so maybe the further away you are the more effective they are


http://www.xt660.com/gallery/display...p?imageid=1672



So in short if you want to seen and not have to worry about flatting your battery them they are great.

If you want to light the road up, they crap



This is copied from the web site ....................

They are designed for direct replacement of your spot lights or day time running lights. There is no need to modify anything just take your old bulb out and place this in it's place.

It will convert your yellow looking bulb in to a nice HID white colour. A good match if you already have HID bulbs in your car.

Specs:
13 High power SMT leds per bulb
Direct fit for standard H3 bulb
12v
2W

Note: Led bulbs are not to be used as the primary source of light, these are designed to replace auxiliary spot lights or fog lights only.
They give off about the same amount of light as a 10W halogen bulb so you will still be seen on the road but you can not used them to see where you are going. Most H3 bulbs are 55W in comparison.


So in total 4 watts usage

Hand guard lights
 

Hi guys,i just fitted a Acerbis hand guard on my tenere,also installed led lights,so have some extra visibilty.