[CALEBNDAD]

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Thefuse to my headlight failed on me the other night. I would like to install a set of lights that are on a separate circuit to prevent being in total darkness if this should happen again! It would be nice to install a switch as well. OH, I'm a little concerned about putting too much draw on the elect system. I don't want the system taxed out when I turn on the extra lights. What is your two cents?

 

[1-Shot]

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LOL - When I saw "Backup Lights" on the topic I thought "I've never had a problem seeing behind me when backing up...."



I just installed a set of Piaa 1100X on my bike. I like them as they are nice and small so look ok but have a very big full light patern. 55 watts each so you'd need to decide if that was too much.



Also, the wiring harnes is really good. Was like it was built for the bike, which I guess as this is their powersport line, it was. Everything seemed to be the almost perfect length.

Picture shows them on the front of our 1500.

 

[GSMacLean]

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Several of us have put a small set of Wal-Mart lights on our bikes (myself included). In my case, I mounted them right under the fairing (in the same spot as in the picture above on the 1500).

Because most accessory driving lights meant for cars use 55-watt H3 bulbs, and there's two of them, I removed the 55 watt bulbs and replaced them with these 35 watt H3 bulbs - just as bright, but 70 watts in total instead of 110. 110 was too much for my GL1100, but it has no problem supplying 70.

I ran a separate fused wire to the battery, and put a relay in, that is powered from the accessory terminal, and through a switch. This means it only turns the lights on when the bike is turned on, and the switch is turned on.

Later, I added a second SPDT relay in series with the first one, and wired one side of the coil to the accessory terminal, and the other side to the neutral switch. The relay was wired so the lights went through the NC part of the relay. This meant that my driving lights automatically turned off whenever I shifted the bike into neutral - but when I shifted into gear, the lights turned back on.

I did this because I noticed that when I was sitting idling, with the bike in neutral, the stator was not producing enough power to run the lights AND charge the battery, and as a result the lights were drawing the battery down. This solved that problem, and I've had it like this for a couple of years now with no complaints.

 

[AndyB]

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I had a similar, but not quite the same, set up on my Bandit as GSMaclean describes above. Mine was a bit more simple in that I did not wire in the relay from the neutral switch. If you are willing to do without the neutral switch, I could give you a hand with the set up. Just let me know. At some point, I plan to do this myself but I have not gotten around to buying the lights again (I broke one of them when I wrecked my Bandit.

If you have not replaced your brake and signal lights with LED's, I suggest you do that as well.