Uh... strike my post above. In the link from Naga, there it is in BRIGHT RED LETTERS "MINIMUM ORDER IS $20 - shipping will be very high until the minimum order is met.".
I'm blind
Uh... strike my post above. In the link from Naga, there it is in BRIGHT RED LETTERS "MINIMUM ORDER IS $20 - shipping will be very high until the minimum order is met.".
I'm blind
Thanks for posting the PIAA mounts.Originally Posted by srt8-in-largo
...
The new PIAA mounts are their 74008 which was made for their 1100 series lights. The Baja Squadron Pros are only slightly bigger then these lights so I *think* this setup should work fine; I'll know shortly.
PIAA also make some crash bar mounts:
PIAA L Bracket Bar Clamps
I received the lights today and hooked them up to a 12V power supply to check them out. As a comparison light source I pulled my car up to the edge of my carport and placed the Squadrons on a stand directly adjacent to and at the same level as my left headlight.
I checked the current draw of each light and each registered around 3.6A. At 12V this is a little over 43W so I know these puppies are running at full power.
The fence in my yard is about 56 feet away. I aimed the center of both Squadrons as close as I could to be centered on a black light fixture hanging on the fence about midway up; the red arrow in the first pic points to this.
My little Sony Cybershot is trying hard to take good pictures but, alas, it just doesn't have the horsepower of a more expensive camera. Taking good pictures at night requires the ability to manually adjust three things: aperture size, shutter speed, and light sensitivity (ISO setting). I can't adjust all of these on my camera but I did my best to make the pictures as close as possible to what my eyes are seeing.
The illumination of the three trees, the beam spread, and the light spill on the ground near the fence are accurate representations. The light intensity on the ground right in front of the camera is quite a bit over exposed; it's not quite that bright in real life.
I needed a high ISO setting and this introduced a lot of noise in the pictures; so if some parts don't look crisp, your eyes are good, the picture is just at a reduced quality.
Sooo.... with all of that setup and background info out of the way, how about the lights?
The build and finish are perfect. The pics you see on the Baja website are exactly what you get so I won't rehash this. I have to comment on the lens though; the lenses covering the front of the lights are polished to an INCREDIBLE extent. I've never seen anything quite like this... they're literally invisible. Usually there's *something* that can be seen in a light cover, but not here. I think this speaks to the care that Baja takes in their optics. Even after touching the lens several times, I KNOW it's there, but it's so clear that my brain is fooled into thinking I can reach into the light and touch the LEDs in there. This part of the lights is amazing.
After seeing the lights turned on, I was struck by how similar the spot and combo light patterns are... at least at short distances. It may be hard to tell the difference but looking at the oak trees on the left and right shows it; the combo light definitely illuminates these trees more than the spot. I'm thinking this difference will become more pronounced at longer distances.
I'm also struck by how similar the hotspot appears to be which makes me wonder how much further down the road the spot light can go over the combo, if at all. I need to test these over several hundred feet to be sure, but at the moment I'm kinda thinking I shoulda got two combo lights instead of one combo and one spot. The cool thing with Baja is you can buy the different lenses and turn a spot light into a combo or vice-versa.
The HID's in my car are an amazing system and really gives these Squadrons a run for the money. I mean look at that cutoff line, the crisp step in the middle of the pattern, and the incredibly wide throw. As far as road legal lights go, nothing still beats a proper HID system; this isn't an HID bulb in a halogen reflector. This is where LED technology needs to grow. We're at a point where LED's can produce a lot of light, but not at the point where it can be formed and shaped like HID lighting.
When I turn the Squadrons on with my HID's, the Squadrons are bright enough to wash out the HID's which is amazing coming from little bitty 3 inch lights. I *think* they have good long distance potential but I need to reserve the rest of my comments until I get these on the bike and find some space for long range tests.
Squadron Pro - Spot, 5000K
Squadron Pro - Driving Combo, 5000K
2006 Chrysler 300 OEM HID, Low Beams, 4100K
Hey Tim, I thought I'd bring our conversation out of PM so others may benefit.
My PIAA 74008 mounts came early. Got them today and took a good look at them. They did come with instructions which are pretty good actually. Apparently PIAA updated this kit to work with both pre- and post- 2012 Goldwings; there are extra mounting holes in the brackets and extra hardware to accommodate all bikes. For us, these will bolt directly to the bike with no cutting, drilling, trimming, or anything like that.
I'll get some pictures up tomorrow.
Good to hear. I am anxious to see where the other mounting point(s) are. If it is not prohibited, please post your supplier.
I got them right from the source: http://www.piaa.com/store/p/396-Hond...acket-Kit.aspx
The other mounting point is the top push-pin location on the side of the fairing. The push-pin is replaced with what PIAA calls a Tuflok anchor; it's a screw mount that gets pushed into the hole and when you tighten a screw in it, it spreads open so that it can't be pulled out. I'm not sure how much I like this... but I guess it'll hold; besides, this location is only big enough for a small, lightweight set of lights anyway.
I'm gonna be working on this first thing in the AM and the picture will explain it all. The fitment of the supplied screws is not good btw; you'll want to get some washers and a longer screw from Home Depot for 1 or 2 $.
BikeMP3 sells a kit with similar mounts, but I have no idea if they'll sell them separately, and idk if the mounting is any different.
http://wingstuff.com/products/34391-...driving_lights
If you have to take the Tupperware apart, how will you get that spreader-anchor out ?
This picture didn't come out as good as I thought. It's hard to see but the anchors are shown in the upper left and upper right, next to the big rubber washers. These anchors go in and come out as easy as the push pins do; the only time they "hold" is when the screw is in them.
Those two little black screws are what came with the kit. The head is too small and they pull right through the bracket, fail #1. Also they are not long enough to cause the anchor to open; fail #2. A longer screw with a washer solves both problems.
There are two threaded inserts attached to the center of the brackets and two machine screws that are used for attaching lights. These seemed a little wimpy so I drilled out the brackets to be able to use a 3/8" nut and bolt.
The lights seem to be sturdy enough on the bike. I ended up wiring them directly to the battery but added an inline 5A fuse and a relay tied into the high beams. I'm hoping to do a little testing tonight.
Dudes... my quest for more light is OVER! I got some good road testing tonight and I'm back with two thumbs uptwo big toes up
I have to admit I wasn't impressed with the backyard testing as shown in the pics above, but out on the road where they have the space and distance to shine, they do just that. SHINE.
I was concerned that the beams were too narrow and that there would be dead spots or dark patches between the beams but that just isn't the case. With each light adjusted *slightly* outward, the spill from each light is enough to overlap with each other and completely cover a two lane road and deep into BOTH shoulders. For perspective, if you were driving down the center of a four lane road, you could easily have all four lanes lit up.
As for distance, well, how good is your eye sight? I have no doubt at all about the published lux charts and believe that you can indeed read a newspaper from these at 500 feet! These things are literally throwing light as FAR as you can see.
I was also concerned about the lack of a cutoff in the light pattern; these things throw light in the vertical as well as horizontal. After driving with them, I now see this as a benefit. When going around dark curves, the light being thrown vertically works to light up the curve.
The lack of a cutoff, of course, means you shouldn't run these at full power in traffic but a Skene dimmer running at 10 or 20 % should allow these to perform double duty as conspicuity lights that can be on with the low beams.
My last concern was that the foreground lighting would be too bright... but I don't see that as an issue either. On a pitch black road the lighting looks quite uniform actually; everything and everywhere in front of the bike looks like it's in daylight and the bikes OEM lights look like night lights lol.
Are they worth $220 per light?I don't have other auxiliary lights to compare to. I'll just say this... I haven't seen anything anywhere from anybody offering 4300 lumens from a 3 inch cube. The lumen rating is just the starting point; anybody can buy the Cree LED's and generate this light output... BUT... not everyone can design the required thermal management to keep things from frying. Additionally, the real measure of a light is how efficiently the optics project the light down the road. From what I see, Baja Designs has done some excellent engineering here and stand behind it all with a lifetime warranty.
These were well worth the money to me.
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