Aux lighting - RGLBs

Decided to move my PIAA 1100X lights from the current fork mounts up to a mirror mounted configuration. Then in place of the PIAAs on the fork I wanted to add HyperWhites. This way I would have routine triangulated lighting for on coming drivers and have my driving lights up high for night time riding where they project the best beamage.

I had bought some Garauld lighting brackets (GLBs) back when I got my bike in '08. But I never mounted any lights on them since the smallish PIAA lights I have looked kind of silly cantilevered on the bike the way the brackets were designed (I think they were designed for Hella FF50s which are wider type lights). I tossed the brackets in my future farkeling parts bin.

So I started the project and when I looked at the brackets as I dusted them off I still was not sure if they would be workable for my lights and my 'form and fit' obsession when ever I work on farkeling my bikes.

I thought about drilling the GLBs so I could move my PIAAs inward and then trimming the extra steel and painting over the powder coating of the GLBs. But that seemed like a lot of work and I was not sure how the paint would work with the powder coating of the GLBs.

So I was not sure what I was going to do at that point. I thought I could make some aluminum brackets and hang the light off the mirror mounts. But I worried I’d never get both sides the same.

I had the bike apart and the mirrors off and the GLBs on the floor in front of the bike. Somehow my brain did a weird thing… I looked at the brackets and decided to try the right one on the left side and the left one on the right side.

Hmmm, man I liked it. The reversed GLBs place the lights quite wide on the bike and I liked the way the bracket is vertical where the light mounts and the bracket angles back from the front of the bike. They look like light pod hardpoints if I could be so indulgent.

I then constructed two mounts for the HyperWhites (HWs) out of aluminum stock and hung these off the front fender mounts. I repurposed the bushing from the original PIAA fender mount brackets and this spaced the HWs out a bit to give even more off a frontal light print for on coming cagers. I drilled some silly holes in the brackets to lighten them up and give them a ‘custom’ look. Then I sanded the aluminum to scratch the surface and painted the brackets with zinc oxide primer and gloss black paint.

I am very pleased with the entire set up and it met my requirements 100% for getting my PIAA lights up high and wide, adding some conspicuity lighting and looking well designed and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

Cheers Mates.

PS: Here I am flaunting my creativity for flipping the brackets – but I may not be the first one to do this. But searching the board for flipped or reversed Garauld brackets didn’t turn anything up. :smilingsmiley:

Nice work!

Looks great all lit up! I have the same brackets and now a set of the Hellas (thanks AuburnFJR) so I'll be setting mine up shorlty...though mine will remain as intended, no fancy bracket flipping for me...

Do the LEDs put out any useable light, or are they mostly so others can see you better? These look sweet and I like the fact that they are low profile.

Has anyone mounted anything directly on the back of the mirror? LEDs, rectangular profile lights etc? I'd like to get more light on the road as well as presenting more of a presence to oncoming drivers, but without changing the frontal profile of the bike (without adding "frog-eyes").

Thanks.

That's pretty creative Zenwhipper, the only thing I would worry about is having the PIAAs so far inboard might cause too much light refraction at night messing up your night vision. I mention this because my SOLTEKs with the acrylic covers used cause this problem even though they were mounted way out in front on the Skyway mirror mounts, I ended up wrapping some black electrical tape around the edge/side of the rock covers to resolve the problem.

JamesK said:

That's pretty creative Zenwhipper, the only thing I would worry about is having the PIAAs so far inboard might cause too much light refraction at night messing up your night vision. I mention this because my SOLTEKs with the acrylic covers used cause this problem even though they were mounted way out in front on the Skyway mirror mounts, I ended up wrapping some black electrical tape around the edge/side of the rock covers to resolve the problem.

Click to expand...

I thought about that when I was putting it together. But I rode the bike in the am early light (80% dark) and I did not notice any appreciable glare. I'm sure PIAAs don't put out as much candle power as the SOLTEKs.

Good thought.

Scott

I've been looking at these from Streetglow:

https://www.streetglow.com/s.nl/c.460445/n.1/it.A/id.2257/.f

Not sure how far they project, LEDs are notoriously shortsighted.

mferriter said:

I've been looking at these from Streetglow:
https://www.streetglow.com/s.nl/c.460445/n.1/it.A/id.2257/.f

Not sure how far they project, LEDs are notoriously shortsighted.

Click to expand...

The Hyper-Whites are only for being seen by other cagers. I keep them on all the time. At the Hyperlites website is a good vid on their Hyper-Whites LED conspicuity lights. I know LEDs are now creaping into the driving/fog light world (the Clearwater lights come to mind), but I don't know what inherent limitations they have in terms of illumination and projection.

Scott

Nice work! These lights look very similar to ones someone recommended recently from martinfabrication.com

How bright would you describe these PIAAs to be and what kind of a throw do they have, i.e. wide or narrow, spot or flood? Do you get any glare from around the lens or frame? Are they 35r watt or 55?

For my money, there ARE no "bad" aux lights. The more light the better, LED or anything else. If that guy sees you, it's better than if he doesn't. I was talking to (another FJR owner)* who described his accident. The guy saw his lights--it was almost full dark--but later said he thought the two m/c lights on the approaching FJR were two CAR lights farther back. Pulled right out in front of him. First thing on the replacement bike was a pair of nice bright Clearwater Kristas. An FJR sporting those will never be mistaken for an oncoming car in the dark.

Not everybody wants to spend that much, and there are plenty of other solutions. I hope any of you get lights you can run with all the time, like the LEDs. It would be a shame to get smacked at a time when you're not running your lights. Like I always say, "bright lights save lives."

*not named because it's his story, not mine. But it's true.

Don't drop that FJR! The results will not be kind to your lights where they are mounted.