Clearwater Krista Install

**NOTE: I've since moved the Kristas to my '15ES. Not much different than the '07, but here are a few photos in post #21 of this thread.

I recently bought a set of Clearwater Krista aux lights for my '07. While the provided installation instructions are good, I thought I'd document and post my install as a guide for others. There's really no major wiring skills required; the lights come with plug 'n' play clips for connecting each light and the dimmer switch to the Krista relay and wiring harness. A series of wires attached to the relay get connected to the on/off switch; switched power (from the low beam wire); the high beam; and the horn to flash the lights full bright when you hit the horn. (These last two connections are optional.)

First order of business was finding a location for the on/off switch and dimmer. I put blue tape on the left fairing and traced around the switches. This was my first layout:




To check that I had sufficient room behind the panel for the dimmer, I cut a block of wood about the same size and tucked it under the panel to confirm it would fit. (I ended up removing the metal bracket shown around the switch in the photo.)




After drilling the hole for the dimmer, I temporarily installed the dimmer and tried working it with my heaviest gloves on. As a result, I moved the location for the on/off switch further back to allow more finger room around the dimmer.




The wires from the Krista relay weren’t long enough to reach the on/off switch, so I soldered 16”-long leads to the switch. Then I discovered it wouldn't fit through the round hole. Some filing elongated the hole.






I cut a gasket from an old inner tube to go under the on/off switch, then mounted the switch, but didn’t solder the wires to the relay wires yet.

Mounting the brackets was easy, they fit right between the mirror brackets and the fairing. Note that I have the FZ1 mirrors.




However, the thickness of the brackets reduced the exposed length of the threaded studs on the mirrors, and there was just barely enough stud to thread on the lock nuts. So I ground down the collar around each stud to gain about another 1/8" of stud length.




After attaching the lights to the brackets, I fed the cables through the vents in the front fairing.










The Krista relay needed a home and I found the area behind the speedo to be just large enough. The windshield mechanism just grazes it in the fully raised position:







I ran the wires for the on/off switch and the cable for the dimmer through a wiring loom to protect them and fed the loom through the bracing under the dash:




The Krista fuse lead (attached to the orange wire) found a home in the fairing just above and behind the battery. The provided power and ground lead was much longer than needed so I clipped off the excess and crimped on new (provided) ring terminals.




Now we need switched power to the Krista relay. That comes from the low beam wire. Tapping into the high beam wire with a second lead allows switching the Kristas to full-on when throwing the hi-beam switch. As mentioned earlier, the high-beam switching is optional and you don’t have to hook it up if you don’t want to. Here's the relay with the necessary wires:




The relay just lifts up to remove it from its mounting post. I cut back the flexible plastic shroud that covers the wire bundle to allow access to the wires.







The Posi-taps supplied with the Kristas were too small for the 16-gauge wire here, so I bought T-taps from the auto parts store. Here they are in place:




And here are the leads from the Krista relay attached to the taps with the headlight relay mounted back in place:



I also wired up the horn option which turns the Kristas on full bright when sounding the horn. Sorry, no pics of that, but it’s simply attaching the wire to a post on the horn relay.

With everything in place, I soldered the switch wires to the relay leads, attached the positive and negative cables to the battery posts, and tested things out. It works great. As soon as the weather allows, I'll get night-time photos and videos to show the results.

Thanks for the write-up and pictures, Craig. I just picked up the Krista kit a couple of days ago and plan on doing the install soon. From the instructions the install looked fairly straight forward, but this is sure to be helpful.

Thanks for the great post and for taking time to annotate the photos. It's people like you taking the time and effort to document installations that make this forum such a great resource. Great job!!

Great write up !

Although the toggle ( on/ Off ) switch would be better placed by the left handgrip. It can be a PITA when taking the hand off the bars to kill the lights for oncoming traffic.

Great write-up and pictures!

mr.paul

Peter Murray said:

Although the toggle ( on/ Off ) switch would be better placed by the left handgrip. It can be a PITA when taking the hand off the bars to kill the lights for oncoming traffic.

Click to expand...

Agree about removing the hand to adjust lights, though it's a done deal for the OP. But others may want to heed.

I had my Kristas installed by Clearwater--the first on any FJR, in fact--and they used a 3-way switch I already had mounted on the right side of the plastic (just to the right of panel D in this pic--on the blue plastic. And no, this silver Gen I shown isn't my lovely blue '05).



The 3 choices are: all aux lights off, aux lights on only with high beams, and aux lights always on. The brightness adjustment is a separate knob. At first we decided to put that knob up on panel C, since there was room there (and behind the panel), and panel C was much more easily removed on my Gen I than panel B, opposite. Bad choice. It was immediately obvious that it was awkward reaching the button, especially with the throttle hand. I could have lived with it, but it became obvious later that another wire or set of wires connecting panel C to the bike made disassembly a total PITA for any under-panel work. Too much stress on the wires as well. I went back to Clearwater and they kindly re-did the wiring of the brightness adjustment knob to the left handlebar (first on an FJR, remember, so we were all experimenting). They went into the odd-parts bin and came up with this little housing and attaching setup.







One important point I wanted to make, though, in addition to the value of having the knob in a more accessible place, is this: I do NOT kill the lights for oncoming traffic! If I'm riding in traffic at night, I simply adjust the Kristas to their lowest setting and leave 'em there. I do NOT get flashed by oncoming traffic, and I've used these and ridden at night frequently for over two years. The big Kristas, even at minimum power, offer INCREDIBLE conspicuity for me, but are not blinding to other drivers. Yep, they're very bright, but not blinding, and you KNOW somebody would have flashed me if they were offensive. For anybody considering auxiliary lights, I think this benefit alone makes these big LEDs stand out over any other option.

And of course, for real dark-road riding, the high beam switch gives me full brightness on the aux lights along with the standard high beams--and just as easily clicks back down (to whatever brightness is selected with the knob) along with the low beams, when a car approaches. And the 3-way control I mentioned gives me the option of having the LEDs completely "off" when the low beams are on, but come on only with the highs.

I agree with the others - great write up. Also nice to know that they

will work with the FZ1 mirrors. I still have the stock mirrors and didn't

have to do any grinding. I was on the fence with the FZ1's, not sure

if they'd work with the Krista's. Glad you mentioned it. Also, as others

have mentioned, when on low you don't get flashed by oncoming traffic. It

is great to just hit the high beam and have them come on at 100%. They are the

best of both worlds: Having a driving light to be seen, and a set of aux lights

to see. All in one package. I mounted my control box under and to the left of

the instrument cluster. The right light wouldn't reach, had to solder in a additional

length of wire. No biggie.

That's a nice write-up. I do have to say that the most ingenious thing I see is that you ground down the collars on those mirror mounts. I have the same mirrors on my '07 and they are definately shorter than the OEMs. Grinding down the collars never even crossed my mind. That makes you my hero for the day. :yahoo:

Nice job!

SacramentoMike said:

Peter Murray said:

Although the toggle ( on/ Off ) switch would be better placed by the left handgrip. It can be a PITA when taking the hand off the bars to kill the lights for oncoming traffic.

Click to expand...

One important point I wanted to make, though, in addition to the value of having the knob in a more accessible place, is this: I do NOT kill the lights for oncoming traffic! If I'm riding in traffic at night, I simply adjust the Kristas to their lowest setting and leave 'em there. I do NOT get flashed by oncoming traffic, and I've used these and ridden at night frequently for over two years. The big Kristas, even at minimum power, offer INCREDIBLE conspicuity for me, but are not blinding to other drivers. Yep, they're very bright, but not blinding, and you KNOW somebody would have flashed me if they were offensive. For anybody considering auxiliary lights, I think this benefit alone makes these big LEDs stand out over any other option.

And of course, for real dark-road riding, the high beam switch gives me full brightness on the aux lights along with the standard high beams--and just as easily clicks back down (to whatever brightness is selected with the knob) along with the low beams, when a car approaches. And the 3-way control I mentioned gives me the option of having the LEDs completely "off" when the low beams are on, but come on only with the highs.

Click to expand...

I plan to run them as Mike does, always on, so I think the switch position will be fine. But a good point for others to consider.

Ok, finally got some decent photos of what the Kristas can do in the dark. My brother shot these with his Canon 7D, f8@2 seconds, ISO2000. Non-pertinent, but somewhat-entertaining side note: The building in the distance is the transmitter building for WHO-AM/Des Moines. The tower to the right (red lights) is spitting out 50,000 watts of clear channel radio, "border to border, coast to coast and then some".

Factory low-beam only. Two telephone poles visible on right:



Low beam with Kristas at about 20%. Third pole barely visible:



Factory high-beam only. You can see the fourth telephone pole on the right:



And high-beam with Kristas full-blast light up the fifth phone pole:



Here's the stills back-to-back in a video so you can see the differences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kr8hQo-_Hw

Pretty good demo. Last week we finished in the dark, and I had 2-FJRs hot on my heels staying in the wall of light. These are BRIGHT and illuminate ahead as you show, but they also give great peripheral vision for when the road turns.

Looks like an interesting camera mount on the left. What is going on there?

TomInCA said:

Pretty good demo. Last week we finished in the dark, and I had 2-FJRs hot on my heels staying in the wall of light. These are BRIGHT and illuminate ahead as you show, but they also give great peripheral vision for when the road turns.

Looks like an interesting camera mount on the left. What is going on there?

Click to expand...

That's my GoPro. I was hoping to get some decent video of the lights as I rode, but it's not a good low-light camera, plus it's auto-iris, so the results kinda sucked. I've got a RAM ball with a pivot (the mount is vertical, the pivot is horizontal in the photo). That's screwed into the unused mirror mount on the clutch reservoir, and the cam is mounted on a RAM plate w/ a 1/4-20 stud. 2" arm connects the two.

I use the same mount, but without the extra swivel. I like how that gets it around the windshield.

BTW, when my camera is not on the RAM plate, I use it to hold the Radar Detector (Escort 8500-X50). It puts the RD in an ideal location. I just put grip-Velcro on the plate, remove the stud and stick the RD there. The RD can be moved to the brake cylinder when a camera is mounted. I need to look into that additional swivel.

Nice write-up. I hate this friggin' forum. Has cost me nothin' but money!

Excellent write-up, Craig! Thanks for taking the time to put this together and share it with us.

I'd convinced myself there was no way the Krista plugs would go through the front vent until I read this and was contemplating holes in the edges of panels C and D. The wires are now routed through the vents so I'm very grateful for your write-up Craig, thank you.

I only want the Kristas to come on on high beam and then on full so I'm guessing I just need to connect the 'turn on' and high beam' wires to the full beam hot.

Kevin

Awesome set of lights, have installed and extremly happy with performance!!!!

CraigRegs said:

I also wired up the horn option which turns the Kristas on full bright when sounding the horn. Sorry, no pics of that, but it’s simply attaching the wire to a post on the horn relay.

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread, but have a question - I am installing a set of Kristas on an '08 and called Clearwater for clarification on the wiring. While I had them on the phone, they told me that on FJRs the horn doesn't put out enough volts and you need to tie in a solenoid using the bike horn wire as a trigger, then solenoid output to the white Clearwater horn wire.

So - is yours OK hooking it up direct? Any issues? You've had it installed long enough so curious how it's working out.

Thanks for the great writeup, it made install much easier!

EDIT I am installing Ericas, not Kristas!

What he is really saying is that the FJR horn always has current in it, and the horns are activated by the button sending the current to ground. It does not work to activate the high beam bypass because the current is always on enough to trigger the Clearwater control bypass relay.

My solution was to incorporate a relay inline with the horns. Get a normal Bosch or simialr 4 or 5 spade relay. You need any wire from the horn to conect to Terminal 85 then route the terminal 86 back to the OEM horn or horn button. Put current from the battery through an inline fuse or fuzeblock circuit and bond that to terminal 30, then the load goes from terminal 87 to the white horn bypass wire on the Krista/Erica/Glenda. You can also split that wire from 87 to power an airhorn or aftermarket horn.

Basically the horn wire on the FJR is always hot, but it won't trip your relay without a ground completing the circuit. If the relay is wired in series with your horns, the horns will still work, and a separate 12-14 volt current will be sent to the light bypass circuit only when the horn button is pressed and the 85/86 circuit is completed. The relay switch adds no appreciable load to the horn circuit and is safe for the relatively small wire and horn button contacts. You don't need a high amperage fuse in the circuit going to term 30 unless you also have an airhorn. All you're doing is sending enough current to trigger another relay in the Clearwater controller.