note April 2019 , this guy still makes these at reasonable cost; http://stores.advmonster.com/
I've posted quite a few times on here about my issues with having the driving lights I have. I finally picked up a set on the driving lights available from a guy from advrider.com here. They were $182.00 shipped for the 1500 lumen 24w flood with 3 setting dimmer. I just posted on the ADVrider forum my install but I thought I'd share it with you guys.
Summary: These things rock!!! Here's my full post:
I've got the same bike as JakeKV above, but set up for commuting rather than adventure riding. Thought I'd give you guys a run down of my install of these lights and my thoughts so far.
I'd been watching this thread for over a month after deciding to pick up a set of the lights. I had to wait a couple weeks till the stock came back in, but finally ordered my 24w 3 level dimming floods last Saturday. Received them via USPS on Wednesday in California. Came with no instructions and in a small well packed box. No worries on the instructions since I have some level of experience with this stuff. The only thing was, I decided to ditch the amp connectors. They look great, but I'm not great at soldering and didn't feel like learning.
I had been using a cheap ($20) set of driving lights from Wally World but after several months of using them sparingly, I knew I needed something that wouldn't kill my charging system as those lights pulled 110w (as opposed to the LED's 48w). These lights fit the bill perfectly and were SO much cheaper than any other options I saw out there. The build quality is great, nice and solid.
I had already wired in my previous lights to either side of my front fender. I decided to keep them in that location and keep the same wiring and switch and not mess working something else up. The lights are wired through a relay that is triggered when my low-beam comes on. Then on my dash, I had already installed a simple toggle on/off switch from Kragen which I'm still using. I am using these on my Kawi Versys strictly as driving lights/running lights so the mount height shouldn't be an issue.
I decided to flip the mount that comes pre-installed so that the lights are "over" the mount not ahead of it. For my install this looked the cleanest I think. I also swapped out the dual nuts on the inside of the bracket for an aluminum spacer. This just seemed like an easier way to mount them to me. I think it will be easier to make adjustments on the bike this way. I ran the wires up my brake line hoses just as my previous lights and tied them into the previous harness behind the rightside fairing.
I mounted them to the fender using a 10mm (30mm long) bolt. I also used blue loctite on everything to keep them in place.
The hardest part about mounting these were getting the aim right. On my previous lights, I only had the up/down adjustment to worry about. Adding in the side/side made it a little tricky, but I think I've got it.
Another note: I have the dimming model. As previously mentioned, it's a good idea to check the "sync" of the two lights before you button everything up. I did and I'm glad I did, cause the lights were out of sync the first time I fired up the bike. No biggie though, I just unplugged one and cycled the other to match the one that was plugged in. The only problem with this was on my test ride when I accidentally killed the bike by putting the kickstand down. Somehow, by doing this and starting it back up right away, one of the lights got out of sync again, which required me to unbutton everything and reset them. Again, no biggie, but another 15 minutes I didn't want to spend on it.
Now for the fun stuff...THESE THINGS ARE BRIGHT!!! Holy crap they're bright. I live on a dead end street. The end of the street is about 75 yards away so I had my wife stand in the street as I rode to the end and turned around. With the lights on the brightest setting, I drove towards here. As I reached about 40 yards away, I could see here like daylight and she covered her face until I got up to her. She looked at me and said "Holy crap!" The lights were aimed just slightly lower than level so I cycled them down to medium and did it again. She said they were perfect.
This pic doesn't show it justice, but just to give you an idea of where they're aimed. The wood on the right has a dark spot which is why the light on the right looks different.
Again, doesn't do it justice, but they're on high here.
Just for fun, I decided to adjust the aim way down so that they acted more like fog lights. The beam on the LED's reached just a tad farther than my stock headlight, but filled in everything. With the lights on high, she said they were again perfect. She wasn't blinded, but couldn't miss me! I then took the bike for a test ride in traffic. I didn't get flashed at all and also noticed that i could see a TON more detail in the road at night than I did before.
All in all, as long as these things last, I will remain 110% satisfied. Only time will tell if these will indeed last but right now I have no reason to believe they won't. Props to John for getting this product at this price!
I've posted quite a few times on here about my issues with having the driving lights I have. I finally picked up a set on the driving lights available from a guy from advrider.com here. They were $182.00 shipped for the 1500 lumen 24w flood with 3 setting dimmer. I just posted on the ADVrider forum my install but I thought I'd share it with you guys.
Summary: These things rock!!! Here's my full post:
I've got the same bike as JakeKV above, but set up for commuting rather than adventure riding. Thought I'd give you guys a run down of my install of these lights and my thoughts so far.
I'd been watching this thread for over a month after deciding to pick up a set of the lights. I had to wait a couple weeks till the stock came back in, but finally ordered my 24w 3 level dimming floods last Saturday. Received them via USPS on Wednesday in California. Came with no instructions and in a small well packed box. No worries on the instructions since I have some level of experience with this stuff. The only thing was, I decided to ditch the amp connectors. They look great, but I'm not great at soldering and didn't feel like learning.
I had been using a cheap ($20) set of driving lights from Wally World but after several months of using them sparingly, I knew I needed something that wouldn't kill my charging system as those lights pulled 110w (as opposed to the LED's 48w). These lights fit the bill perfectly and were SO much cheaper than any other options I saw out there. The build quality is great, nice and solid.
I had already wired in my previous lights to either side of my front fender. I decided to keep them in that location and keep the same wiring and switch and not mess working something else up. The lights are wired through a relay that is triggered when my low-beam comes on. Then on my dash, I had already installed a simple toggle on/off switch from Kragen which I'm still using. I am using these on my Kawi Versys strictly as driving lights/running lights so the mount height shouldn't be an issue.
I decided to flip the mount that comes pre-installed so that the lights are "over" the mount not ahead of it. For my install this looked the cleanest I think. I also swapped out the dual nuts on the inside of the bracket for an aluminum spacer. This just seemed like an easier way to mount them to me. I think it will be easier to make adjustments on the bike this way. I ran the wires up my brake line hoses just as my previous lights and tied them into the previous harness behind the rightside fairing.
I mounted them to the fender using a 10mm (30mm long) bolt. I also used blue loctite on everything to keep them in place.
The hardest part about mounting these were getting the aim right. On my previous lights, I only had the up/down adjustment to worry about. Adding in the side/side made it a little tricky, but I think I've got it.
Another note: I have the dimming model. As previously mentioned, it's a good idea to check the "sync" of the two lights before you button everything up. I did and I'm glad I did, cause the lights were out of sync the first time I fired up the bike. No biggie though, I just unplugged one and cycled the other to match the one that was plugged in. The only problem with this was on my test ride when I accidentally killed the bike by putting the kickstand down. Somehow, by doing this and starting it back up right away, one of the lights got out of sync again, which required me to unbutton everything and reset them. Again, no biggie, but another 15 minutes I didn't want to spend on it.
Now for the fun stuff...THESE THINGS ARE BRIGHT!!! Holy crap they're bright. I live on a dead end street. The end of the street is about 75 yards away so I had my wife stand in the street as I rode to the end and turned around. With the lights on the brightest setting, I drove towards here. As I reached about 40 yards away, I could see here like daylight and she covered her face until I got up to her. She looked at me and said "Holy crap!" The lights were aimed just slightly lower than level so I cycled them down to medium and did it again. She said they were perfect.
This pic doesn't show it justice, but just to give you an idea of where they're aimed. The wood on the right has a dark spot which is why the light on the right looks different.
Again, doesn't do it justice, but they're on high here.
Just for fun, I decided to adjust the aim way down so that they acted more like fog lights. The beam on the LED's reached just a tad farther than my stock headlight, but filled in everything. With the lights on high, she said they were again perfect. She wasn't blinded, but couldn't miss me! I then took the bike for a test ride in traffic. I didn't get flashed at all and also noticed that i could see a TON more detail in the road at night than I did before.
All in all, as long as these things last, I will remain 110% satisfied. Only time will tell if these will indeed last but right now I have no reason to believe they won't. Props to John for getting this product at this price!