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Has anyone installed fog lights on their bikes yet? Im reluctant to go with LED's because what I've read so for the early LED's were not very reliable. My bike is at the dealer now, and of coarse, honda dealers hate to put after market accessories on unless its a Honda product. The only Honda fog lights are LED's for the F6 and they run about $500, and that's not going to happen for me. So any suggestions for good realiable fog lights would surely would be appreciated.
It really depends on what YOU mean by FOG lights. If you are talking about the lower driving lights, that can be mounted into the front lower cowling...then yes...there are many, many, and...many of us that have installed lights down there.
There are several to choose from, and once again we get bacvk to...what do YOU want those lights to do?
If you are wanting to add real driving lights, to see farther down the road...to add front end lighting, so that you can see an additional m ile down the road...then it would be WRONG to add that kind of lights down LOW...into the front lower cowling. You would want to mount that kind of lighting as high as reasonably possible, such as uder the mirrors, over the mirrors, alongside the windshield, etc. You want to mounts lights as high as you can...if the intent is to see farther down the road.
Now...if you want to be seen by other vehicles, i.e., cars, trucks, etc, and want to possibly cut through some actual fog...the you want to mount the lights into the front lower cowling. The lights that get mounted INTO the front lower cowling should be used to be SEEN by other cars...and NOT used to light up the road 1 mile farther down the road.
Many of us are using either the 960 Dual LED lights from BikeMP3, or the Single Shooter LED lights from Electrical Connection. To step it up one notch higher, you would want to have a YELLOW lens on those LED lights, or in front of the actual LED light, so that the lower colwing light is a YELLOW spectrum, rather than a white light.
There are other makes and brands and models of lights that can be used for that lower cowling light, such as the Honda LED lights, but...they cost a lot more, and are not available in Yellow.
Personally, I am using the Single Shooter LED lights from EC...with a YELLOW lens, and I have never had anything better in my life. They seriously grab the attention of the cars in front of me. The yellow light stands out much more than any white light.
There are pictures on this forum of those that have installed these kinds of lights on their F6Bs', and those that have seen my lights in person have commented that they really stand out. I searched for my own pics, but to no avail.
Nothing wrong with LED's.....they are near perfect....sorry...had the same conversation last night about GPS's how they used to take you down a cow path...those days are over.....I would research other than Honda for fog lights....take out the middle man!!!
Thanks Miles, were the Shooters hard to install? I don't think Honda will be much help if any installing them.
Honda service dept. will take your money....and install anything you want!
Thank you Miles and Steve for the great suggestions, "ride like everyone is trying to kill you, because they are':bowdown:
I pretty much agree with the previous posters except maybe in one area and that is the purpose and function of having lights mounted down low. (And, BTW, LED lights are definitely the way to go. They typically don't burn out and have much lower wattage ratings than their halogen counterparts. LED's have come a really long way in the past few years.) OK, back to the question of why you want accessory lights to begin with. Here's MY reason...I want to be conspicuous and I want to light up the road right in front of me. That latter part resulted years ago from running through an open man hole at 55 mph that I didn't see. After that, I installed Motolights on every bike I bought and that served me well. Of course, those were 35 watt halogens so they definitely were a drain on the electrical system. Today, there are several choices of LED driving lights to choose from. Some of these put out an incredible amount of light (lumens), especially considering the wattage. Be prepared to pay a bit of a premium though for these efficient bulbs.
An open man hole..HOLY SHIT,.that must have hurt!!! Glad ur still able to ride. Thanks for the advice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornblower
And that right there is why I say you should mount your aux. driving lights as high as possible, if you want to see farther down the road. Lights that are mounted low, as in the lower cowling area, will skim the road surface, creating shadows that make it difficult to distinquish between open man-holes, versus bumps in the road. If you do not have lights that are mounted high...then ypur lower lighting will cause the roadway to have shadows. If you mount your aux. driving lights as high as possible, that light then sees down...into the potholes, the open man-holes, the irregular road surfaces.
Motolights are...okay...and if mounted high, they can do a decent job. But the serious hard-core long distance riders that ride 1000 mile days, and into the night, or all night long, will run much higher output HID lights, mounted as high as they can, so that they see farther down the road, and can look down into all road surfaces. Then, there will be no shadows cast onto the road surface.
Not Dr. Miles here, but I did install my "Shooters". They are plug and go. Honda prewires for the lights and switch. The most difficult part for me was re-aligning the cowling after removing it and mounting the lights. After that chore was accomplished, the rest was a breeze. While I had the glovebox removed, I went ahead and installed a 12v outlet, also plugin and go with Honda prewires. I went with the white lights and just ordered led headlights from Pete that should match the bright white color of the running lights. You should have no problem installing the cowl lights in an hour or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by RoughRider
Attachment 929
Shooters look great. Anyone care to comment on the MP3 960's
My Shooters leaked/moisture build up inside the light since day one, beware of this possibility.
Yeah, it did. This happened several years ago at Bike Week in Daytona. A few drunk guys removed a man hole cover and waited to be entertained by the unlucky soul who didn't notice the open hole. After all, a man hole cover is black and so is an open hole. I hit the hole right of center which violently full-locked the front end to the left but thankfully, I didn't go down due to the speed. The main injury was hyper-extension of the ligaments in my right arm by instinctively trying to hold the handlebars straight.Quote:
Originally Posted by RoughRider
And just to respond a bit more to Miles and his advice to mount lights up higher to see the road better right in front...he may be right in his opinion that higher mounting works best but I have used lower-mounted lights, like the Motolights mentioned earlier, and that has given me everything I needed. Usually, these lights were caliper-mounted. On the F6B, I just completed installation of the 960's in the lower cowl. I haven't tried them out at night yet but based on my past experience, I'm sure they will work fine.
I think as light manufacturers we have all had this issue I know we did on a batch of 960s and our factory addressed it I know Lewis has done the same with his productQuote:
Originally Posted by FlyinF
Pete, you are right, in that Lewis has come up with a foam gasket to install between the lerns, and the LED light itself. I had the same problem with mine, complained to him, he made the gasket, I installed the gasket, and now therer is no condensation that gets between the lens and the light.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro66
Hornblower: "And just to respond a bit more to Miles and his advice to mount lights up higher to see the road better right in front...he may be right in his opinion that higher mounting works best but I have used lower-mounted lights, like the Motolights mentioned earlier, and that has given me everything I needed. Usually, these lights were caliper-mounted. On the F6B, I just completed installation of the 960's in the lower cowl. I haven't tried them out at night yet but based on my past experience, I'm sure they will work fine. "
First, and this is meant to be funny, not a bad attitude, BUT... it is not my opinion that the higher lights seen better into the road surface potholes and bumbs...it is a fact of life. :icon_rolleyes:
Second, you will find that your new 960 dual lights from BikeMP3 work GREAT at night. They are the brighest lights I have ever seen, or been blinded by. Do not look into the lights...you will not be able to see anything for a week. At night, the dual 960's are very bright, and light up the road.:icon_cool:
[QUOTE=Hornblower. On the F6B, I just completed installation of the 960's in the lower cowl. I haven't tried them out at night yet but based on my past experience, I'm sure they will work fine.[/QUOTE]
So how did the install go? I am going to get these next month for my F6B.
Without going into all of the details, I'll just say the install was successful. No doubt, there's a lot of light output, far more than most other available lights. I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist, so the lower cowl went off and on several times as I adjusted the mounting brackets. In the end, the lights fit nicely into the irregular cowl openings and look good. In addition, the switch that comes with the kit fits perfectly into the radio panel. The entire setup is plug and play so compared to other more universal kits I've used in the past, this was quite convenient. In summary, I give this product a :yes:Quote:
Originally Posted by edgeman55
Thanks for your thoughts on them.I look foward to getting mine and installing them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hornblower