Skene Lights Installation on the BMW CE-04

[triangletom]

Before allowing my kids to ride on the back of my BMW CE 04, I wanted to drastically improve its visibility. It turns out that there is a company that specializes in doing just that: skenelights.com

The lights they sell have a unique conspicuity filter, which uses the motion-detecting characteristics of human vision to enhance visibility. It's difficult to accurately capture the appearance with a cell phone camera due to the rolling shutter, but this is what it looks like before sunset and at night:

These lights can also work as an extra set of blinkers, and in the case of the rear lights, they will also light up if I hit the brakes or through deceleration if I even just let off the throttle.
The biggest problem with installing 3rd party lights is knowing how and where to plug them in. As BMW has chosen not to publish an electrical diagram, it took me a full day to figure it out. This was my first time using Posi-Tap connectors, which was easier than I thought: after watching a Posi-Tap install video, I only had one wire that required multiple taps: the 12V+ lead on the license plate light.

This guide is meant to capitalize on my misery and for your use as a time-saving CE-04-specific supplement to the official Skene installation guides. Now, let’s go take things apart!

 

[triangletom]

Photon Blaster-TS Front Lights Installation​

• Time: 2 hours if this is your first time installing lights
• Tools: T30 wrench, T25 wrench
• My wiring suggestion:
  • Switched +12V –> Green alarm wire
  • Ground –> Brown alarm wire
  • Left Turn Signal –> Red left turn signal wire
  • Right Turn Signal –> Red right turn signal wire

1. Remove the front panel​

The front panel on the CE-04 slides down – no tools required.

Underneath this panel are the headlight adjusters, an emergency T25 wrench, and an ODB-II port.

2. Remove the windscreen.​

This is held by 4 T25 screws. If you have the high windscreen, you may have more screws than this, but you only need to remove the bottom 4 for this project.

3. Remove the relay and indicator panel​

There are 4 T30 screws underneath the windscreen and behind the display.

Once unscrewed, you can access all the wires you need to install auxiliary lights for the BMW CE 04. First, we are going to use the alarm for 12V switched power and ground – highlighted below:

4. Tap the alarm connector​

I don't have an alarm, so my scooter came with this 120-ohm resistor (BMW part 7668405 01) installed. Either way, the idea is the same: install the larger blue Posi-Tap's on the brown (ground) and green (12V switched power) wires.

Once you've done that, connect the wires up to your Photon Blasters and power up the CE 04 to confirm basic operations:

If your taps were successful, the lights should now work when you turn your scooter on. If not, check that you successfully pierced the cable, as it is easy to miss the center of the plug you are tapping into – DAMHIK.

5. Tap the turn signals​

If you have the turn-signal variety of the Photon Blasters (-TS suffix), tap into the red wires on the turn signal cables too. Thankfully they are straightforward to access:

6. Secure the controller​

Try your turn signals, and if they work, you can move on to placing the velcro for the controller on the flat area between the alarm and the screen:

7. Route the LED cables​

Before you clean up your cable mess, I suggest screwing the Skene lights into their eventual home at the bottom of the wheels. You can drape them across the front of the fairing on either side. I experimented with several ideas, such as removing the panels and using the gaps between them, but in the end, I went with a simple approach (no additional unscrewing required):

The installation guide suggests a drip loop so water does not drip down the cable and into the lights.

I found that introducing this bend into the cable revealed wires on the right side light, so I added some reinforcement electrical tape to protect it:

I routed the cable up the fork protector and added a zip tie to the fork boots to make sure that the cable didn't pop out from behind the protector:

Now get the bike on the center stand, and push the wheel full lock in either direction to ensure that the wires are not run so tightly that they interfere with steering.

8. Clean up​

Then go ahead and wrap all of your connectors with electrical tape and use every twist tie you can to make things look nice. Here is what things looked like under the hood for me before I put the panels back on:

I was able to hide all of the wires beneath the turn signal panel so that you couldn't even tell that evil things had been done below:

Now slide the front panel back into place, put the screen on, and level out the LEDs. If your lights aren't pulsing, you may need to enable the conspicuity mode – see the manual for programming notes.

 

[triangletom]

P3 Rear Lights (IQ-260 Series) Installation​

• Time: 2 hours
• Tools: T25 wrench, multi-tool, scissors
• Suggested wiring:
  • Switched +12V –> white/grey wire to the license plate light
  • Ground –> brown wire to the license plate light
  • Left Turn Signal –> white wire to the indicator cluster
  • Right Turn Signal –> blue/green wire to the indicator cluster
  • Brake – one of the two lavender/red wires to the indicator cluster

On the CE-04, the rear lights are more challenging to install than the front lights. Having removed the rear wheel before to replace a broken indicator light, I opted to write up installation instructions that do not require wheel removal – even if doing so does provide a slightly cleaner install.

1. Remove panels​

First, remove the 3 T25 bolts holding the belt cover. The arrow points to where we will be tapping the wires:

Remove the white panels on both sides for more room – both have one T25 bolt to remove before you can pull them out.

2. Tap the power leads​

You will need to strip the fabric from two cables: the 2-wire license plate light cable with a quick connector and a 6-wire indicator cluster cable. I suggest carefully removing the license plate light cable using the quick connector and a small flat-head screwdriver for easier access.

If you end up breaking the safety latch on it, no big deal – I broke mine on the second go around. Once detected, install PosiTaps on these two wires for the ground (brown) and 12V switched power (silver/black).

Once you do this, perform a power-on test of the lights.

3. Tap the signal leads​

The 6-wire indicator cluster cable is behind the license plate light and is slightly more difficult to unwrap. I used a small pocket knife and pair of scissors to cut into the section where the thick translucent plastic protector part ends, careful not to cut into the wires:

You'll need to install Posi-Taps onto the white wire (left turn signal), blue/green wire (right turn signal), and one of the lavender/red wires (brake). The result looks somewhat like a rainbow snake exploded:

4. Wrap the taps​

I wrapped the cables up in electrical tape (I regret using purple), and then removed the back panel (T25 screws) to cleverly hide the tapped cables and route the controller to its final resting space above the 12V battery.

5. Secure the controller​

I could have hidden the controller below, but since I had the decelerometer version, I needed a level surface, so I chose the space just above the 12V battery.

As the manual suggested, I installed a zip tie to the cables, and then I used some duct tape to keep it from rattling around.

6. Route the LED cables​

Once I knew how long I needed the wires to run, I installed the rear lights, running the wires beneath the swing arm until they could join the standard indicator wires. If you remove the rear wheel, you can instead access the small channel underneath the plastic:

Once you put humpty dumpty back together again, it will look something like this:

While I don’t love the visible tie wraps on the mudguard holder, I also don’t love removing and reinstalling the rear wheel.

I suspect I could have likely gotten a cleaner install by tapping closer to the fuse blocks, but I was trying to stay out of the high-voltage area of the bike.

---

In Closing​

The Skene lights were a pain to install but well worth the added visibility. If I was to criticize anything, it'd be the wire boot on the Photon Blaster LED lights and the fact that when the turn signal is on, both the Photon Blasters will display an alternate flashing pattern.

 

[wspollack]

@triangletom:

Superb write-up, very beneficial to the CE-04 community.

In my first year of C 400 GT ownership, I put Skene P3-TS out back and Skene Photon Boosters up front. Very bright lights. (I describe the work on that scoot in a somewhat similar manner to your work in my gallery https://billanddot.com/C400GT/ .)

 

[rongrimes]

You should buy a Harley, since you like working on bikes so much.

 

[mzflorida]

I add the photon blasters to all of my bikes. After installing them drivers pulling out in front of me from either the left or right were virtually eliminated. No way to definitively say that the photon blasters contributed to this but pretty good anecdotal evidence. Others claim the same. Anyhow, great write up and great choice on the Skene.

 

[standy]

@triangletom:

Thank you so much for detailed instructions, I was able to install AdmoreLighting Givi V56 Top Led Kit into my Givi V48 Top Case and connect everything to my moto in just 3 hours

 

[standy]

Here is the result -

 

[performanceguy]

Going to buy these. Thanks.

Which bracket/spacer/screw combo did you buy @triangletom? https://skenelights.com/photon-blaster-mounts.html

 

[wspollack]

Going to buy these. Thanks.

Which bracket/spacer/screw combo did you buy @triangletom? https://skenelights.com/photon-blaster-mounts.html

I'm obviously not @triangletom, but I have some thoughts for you, based on my experience.

I put Skene's Photon Boosters (those are LED modules only, no controller) on the front of my C 400 GT and on the front of my Royal Enfield Meteor 350. And I put Skene's P3-TS (LED modules plus controller) on the rear of the C 400 GT.

You can see pics, with captions and links, in my C 400 GT gallery starting with the image in the Booster install at https://billanddot.com/C400GT/#S-74 and in my Meteor gallery at https://billanddot.com/Meteor350/#S-33 . My P3-TS install description starts at the image https://billanddot.com/C400GT/#S-38 .

I want to point out to you two things:

1) It looks to me like Tom -- at least on the FRONT installation pics (see the pics in his post #2) -- used simple right-angle L brackets. When you go to buy these lighting products from Skene, you're presented with a drop-down list of optional bracketry, e.g.:



So, once you determine the bolt size -- e.g., M5, M6, what have you -- on your bike, you can pretty much see what bracket-hole size you need. And you can also see what length spacer you'll need, by, for instance, how far out a fender sticks.

You have a bolt-hole size gauge lying around in your toolbox? If not, go to a big-box store with your bolt, and see what size it is.

2) There's nothing magical about getting the brackets from Skene.

At the start of this year, I had my local RE shop do some work on my Meteor. This involved dropping the fork tubes, so to make life easier for the tech, before I dropped off the bike I removed the Boosters up front and all their associated wiring.

I mention this because when I got the bike back, I decided to replace the unfinished metal brackets and bolts that I had on the Meteor's Skene setup with black ones, to match the fender, the rest of the bike, etc.

And to accomplish this I wound up buying some products on Amazon, that were cheaper and more suited to my preferences. These worked fine (and now I have gobs of spares). This is the sort of thing I'm talking about:

Amazon.com: 50 PCS Black Corner Brace 1x1x0.6 Inch, CertBuy L Shaped Bracket Small Angle Joint Bracket Fastener for Wood Shelf, Cabinet, Chair, Table, Door - Black : Industrial & Scientific

Buy 50 PCS Black Corner Brace 1x1x0.6 Inch, CertBuy L Shaped Bracket Small Angle Joint Bracket Fastener for Wood Shelf, Cabinet, Chair, Table, Door - Black: Brackets - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

PATIKIL M6 Aluminum Spacers, 5 Pcs Metal Spacer Aluminum M6 x 1/2" OD x 1-1/2" L Aluminum Spacer Screw Standoff Round for 1/4" or M6 Screw Bolts: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

PATIKIL M6 Aluminum Spacers, 5 Pcs Metal Spacer Aluminum M6 x 1/2" OD x 1-1/2" L Aluminum Spacer Screw Standoff Round for 1/4" or M6 Screw Bolts: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

Bivethoi 150pcs M4 Nylon Flat Washers, 4mm ID 10mm OD 1mm Thickness Plastic Spacer for Water Hose Faucet Pipe: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Bivethoi 150pcs M4 Nylon Flat Washers, 4mm ID 10mm OD 1mm Thickness Plastic Spacer for Water Hose Faucet Pipe: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

Here's a pic from my Meteor gallery that shows the old, Skene-based, setup, and then the new, Amazon-based, setup (and those shiny fork tubes are also now covered with black rubber gaiters, which was part of the work that I had done):



(Oh, and you can see that I added a few inches of heat-shrink tubing, such that the junction is better enclosed, where the wires come out of the plastic cover of the LED module. This is for better weather-proofing; I'm not sure that this is needed, but I did that for all my Skene modules, and it makes me feel better.)

On a CE-04, you may, of course need different pieces -- different gauge, different length, etc. -- but I just wanted to give folks an idea of the sort of products that will do the trick, if you don't see exactly what you want in Skene's drop-down selections, or if you want to black-out the mounts (to match the black plastic of the LED modules, to match black on a bike, etc.).

Good luck on the project. And of course we'll see what @triangletom has to say, too.

 

[performanceguy]

Thanks @wspollack.

I have bought the skenes and some other stuff. I'll post once installed.