Auxiliary driving lights

[Shaun2007]

After a fair amount of messing about, Ebay led daytime running lights finally fitted. Quite bright, yellow and white depending on which beam you use on the bike. Really clever for what they cost, two led chips inside positioned to give a dip/high position on the road. My clever brother made the brackets on his home-built cnc machine

 

[Ceesie76]

Can you share what you bought Shaun2007? I am considering putting same on my two bikes as I believe they will help with my lane-splitting on the California I-405.

 

[Shaun2007]

yes of course, two minutes mate.

 

[Shaun2007]

Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out!
￡4.92 64%OFF | 1Box Mini Driving Light Spot Light Waterproof Hi&Low for Motorcycle Headlight LED Bulbs

Mini Spot lumineux de conduite étanche, 1 boîte, haut et bas pour phares de moto, ampoules LED - AliExpress 201355758

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

This is as cheap as you can get them but they are really bright. Your going to have to mount them of course, I chose where I did because I didn't fancy drilling holes. If you do go this route mate I'll try and help you as best I can with regards to powering them

 

[Ceesie76]

Thanks for that - I just placed my (first ever) order on AliExpress and because it was my first, I received a 'welcome gift' and the total cost delivered was only $1.50. I tried ordering two sets but was limited to 1 per order so we'll see how they do and if I like them I will order a second set for my second motorcycle.
Although I am getting them mainly for the low yellow beams to be more visible when lane splitting, part of my weekly commute ride is 7 miles in the pitchblack dark on a very twist canyon road and I think I will also greatly benefit from the extra high beam light. Will try taking some video of my weekly travels and upload to youtube so we can all see what I am talking about!

 

[Shaun2007]

nice one mate. I've just tried to upload another pic but it says too big. If necessary please send me an email address or WhatsApp number and I'll drone on at length, my poor mrs hates me for it.

 

[wspollack]

nice one mate. I've just tried to upload another pic but it says too big. If necessary please send me an email address or WhatsApp number and I'll drone on at length, my poor mrs hates me for it.

I'm not an admin or anything like that, but over the past two years I've put up a lot of pics here ... and so have discovered, through trial and error, that this forum limits pic size to right around 1 MB. That's incredibly small these days, and certainly smaller than any other forum I'm a member of (but OTOH, I'm not paying for the server or the storage here, either).

It turns out that I have a fair amount of photo-editing software on my desktop computer, and can easily resize photos -- something almost all such apps can do these days -- to less than or equal to 1 MB without making them look like something out of the 1980s. So it's not much of an issue for me, but it is a bit of a nuisance each time I want to post a pic. So that's the rest of the story.

 

[Ceesie76]

Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out!
￡4.92 64%OFF | 1Box Mini Driving Light Spot Light Waterproof Hi&Low for Motorcycle Headlight LED Bulbs

Mini Spot lumineux de conduite étanche, 1 boîte, haut et bas pour phares de moto, ampoules LED - AliExpress 201355758

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

This is as cheap as you can get them but they are really bright. Your going to have to mount them of course, I chose where I did because I didn't fancy drilling holes. If you do go this route mate I'll try and help you as best I can with regards to powering them

So I installed one of the two lights in this set on my F800ST first. The plan is to mount the other one on the C650 Sport.



Installation was relatively straightforward and yesterday I was able to for the first time test them out on my early morning commute. The lights have two colors: white and yellow, also aimed differently (higher and lower, you can choose which one is the higher and which the lower. I chose the white to be the higher one). The white one I aimed at approximately the level of the main beam and boy does it add an amount of welcome light! Better than the high beam even. So a great success at night on dark roads for sure. The yellow one I turned on on my ride back from LA to San Diego, to make me more visible while lane splitting. I could not tell a difference with when I only had my regular main beam on, in terms of cars noticing me more or earlier, but it does give me peace of mind that I am more visible.

In the photos the lights don't seem that bright for some reason but in real life they really are.

When I returned home last night, I noticed that the white beam had already failed, after only an hour of operation. On closer inspection, it turned out that the power wire to that beam had already come loose from the circuit board inside the lamp housing, due to the grommet plug that seals the unit having worked its way out from the housing (was not installed properly from the factory in China). I re-soldered the wire onto the circuit board and re-fitted the grommet now more securely, and both beams work again. So except for that manufacturing flaw that I hopefully addressed, this $15 set of auxiliary lights has worked out quite well for me. Next I will install the other one of the set onto the maxi scooter.

 

[Shaun2007]

beautiful pics dude and an interesting write up too. Looks great on the bike and I'm glad your using these. Really bright and clever the way the beam changes position and the colour as well.
If your cool with this I'm going to attach a couple of YouTube links, it's a car project that's now complete and works really well. See what you think and I'd be happy to answer any questions at all

 

[Riding Foo]

Thanks for that - I just placed my (first ever) order on AliExpress and because it was my first, I received a 'welcome gift' and the total cost delivered was only $1.50. I tried ordering two sets but was limited to 1 per order so we'll see how they do and if I like them I will order a second set for my second motorcycle.
Although I am getting them mainly for the low yellow beams to be more visible when lane splitting, part of my weekly commute ride is 7 miles in the pitchblack dark on a very twist canyon road and I think I will also greatly benefit from the extra high beam light. Will try taking some video of my weekly travels and upload to youtube so we can all see what I am talking about!

Hi Ceesie,
When you get them set up I'd really like to know if you like them. I'm just down the road from you (means I'd have to take the 405) and I know that more visibility of me is always a plus. If there's also nighttime improved vision for me as rider that's big plus too.

 

[Ceesie76]

Hi Riding Foo - glance two posts up, you will find my report on the installation and some pictures. Bottom line, I am happy I got and installed them. It's a bit of work and the quality isn't the best, but I do really like them.
Especially since the alternative name brands can cost hundreds, I think the bang-for-the-buck of these AliExpress ones is phenomenal. Time will tall how long they last, but now that it's all installed, replacing them every couple of years let's say would even be worth it and still much cheaper than those name-brand ones.

 

[byee]

Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out!
￡4.92 64%OFF | 1Box Mini Driving Light Spot Light Waterproof Hi&Low for Motorcycle Headlight LED Bulbs

Mini Spot lumineux de conduite étanche, 1 boîte, haut et bas pour phares de moto, ampoules LED - AliExpress 201355758

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

This is as cheap as you can get them but they are really bright. Your going to have to mount them of course, I chose where I did because I didn't fancy drilling holes. If you do go this route mate I'll try and help you as best I can with regards to powering them

What are the physical dimensions of the lights - diameter and length? Any ideas how much current it draws for each mode?

I currently have a set of Rigid Ignites on my C400GT but looking for something brighter. The hi/lo function is definitely smart!

Thank you!

 

[byee]

I just found the information on eBay for the exact same lights.

Here are the details just in case others are curious

 

[Ceesie76]

These are them. It says 'built in relays' and '20 watt' but I looked inside the case and saw nothing like a relay. Plus, a relay would require additional wires to be installed but the instructions don't call for any. I also doubt these are 20 watts, the wires they come with are really thin so I think that's more marketing speak, and the reason they don't require a real relay is they don't consume all that much power. The light beam is horizontal and very concentrated and from experience with other LED lights, I deduce from all of this that they just put out a LOT of light for not that much power input - and the focused horizontal beam also helps a lot. Maybe they are 20 watts all combined: both white ones + both yellow ones. But you can only light one set (yellow or white) at a time.
My experience from last week's 120 mile commute to LA: as I set off before 4 AM (really dark, and we live in a canyon and the first 7 miles are on unlit twisty roads) I found my main beam had given up the ghost. I turned on the white auxiliary light and it did just fine the whole way, where I could not run the high beams as I would blind oncoming traffic. That's how good these little lights are, I had no problem riding the whole way with just that one little auxiliary light (I only installed one of the two from the set, see pictures above).

 

[byee]

These are them. It says 'built in relays' and '20 watt' but I looked inside the case and saw nothing like a relay. Plus, a relay would require additional wires to be installed but the instructions don't call for any. I also doubt these are 20 watts, the wires they come with are really thin so I think that's more marketing speak, and the reason they don't require a real relay is they don't consume all that much power. The light beam is horizontal and very concentrated and from experience with other LED lights, I deduce from all of this that they just put out a LOT of light for not that much power input - and the focused horizontal beam also helps a lot. Maybe they are 20 watts all combined: both white ones + both yellow ones. But you can only light one set (yellow or white) at a time.
My experience from last week's 120 mile commute to LA: as I set off before 4 AM (really dark, and we live in a canyon and the first 7 miles are on unlit twisty roads) I found my main beam had given up the ghost. I turned on the white auxiliary light and it did just fine the whole way, where I could not run the high beams as I would blind oncoming traffic. That's how good these little lights are, I had no problem riding the whole way with just that one little auxiliary light (I only installed one of the two from the set, see pictures above).

I currently have a pair of Rigid Ignites flood pattern lights connected to an IQ275 controller. The controller can programmed for 3 brightness settings but I have mine set for 50% and 100%.

It’s not uncommon for me to start my ride in daylight and ride home at night on dark country roads. The Ignites are adequate but I do wish the 100% setting could project more light further out vs just brighter light in front of my motorbike.

I was not aware there were aux lights available which have a high/low function similar to headlights till I came across this post.

I definitely like the high / low functionality where the light can projected further forward. The horizontal pattern beam is also a positive for a wider light spread. Do both high / low light settings have the same horizontal light pattern?

Your comment regarding the ‘main beam pattern giving up the ghost’….I think you simply repaired the light by re-soldering the broken wire.

I’m definitely going to give these inexpensive lights a try for $13 from AliExpress.

Thank you for telling us about the lights as well as sharing your experience with them.

 

[Ceesie76]

Sure - with 'main beam giving up the ghost' I was actually referring to my bike's regular, original BMW headlight! So I was without the regular headlight. The high beams still worked, but I did not want to use it when there was oncoming traffic, not wanting to blind anyone. So for most of my 120 mile ride I just used the white beam of the auxiliary light. The yellow one I chose as the 'low beam' pointing closer to the bike, and the white one is aimed similar to the normal main beam. You can choose which of the two (yellow or white) is the 'upper' and which is the 'lower' one, just by flipping the housing 180 degrees and securing it back in its bracket. Don't expect miracles from these, as in a flood of light, but for my modest needs they work a treat, especially as 'assists' to the regular headlight.