CoLight Aux Lights - Fitting & Thoughts

[matsmith749]

Had the 1300 gsa for about a month now - and straight away I missed the old christmas tree look of the 1250gsa that I traded in.

Went aux lights shopping - and whilst I love the look of motolights (bit less so the Denali d7pro), a thousand quid all in was a bit of a stretch after just paying for the bike.

Stumbled on the CoLight D09 pro - looks a lot like the motolight, has the amber ring round the outside & seperate cricuits for diffuse low beam / focussed high beam. A triple circuit light.

Bought the hex ezcan to control it all (£200) and bought the colight D09 pro lights (£115) with denali brackets (£80) - so all in for £400.

Taken me a few days to fit, spending an hour, then overnight to figure out next steps etc - but with everything delivered on Wednesday this week, it's now Saturday & everything is done.

Thoughts?

Fitting is simple, but takes longer than you think. Had to take apart most of the back end of the bike to fit the ezcan - nothing difficult - just took an hour or so.

The lights same story - the colights come with a harness & waterproof cables - you just cut off the primary wire to each light & then make up new ends to connect to the ezcan. I mounted on the crashbars, and wire routing was not the menace I was expecting - nice easy route through with existing wiring bundle, pops out through a hole where the seat adjusters are at the base of the tank.

Configured as Amber ring DRLs (on all the time the engine is on), doubling up as indicators. Diffuse beam & high beam aligned with the main lights on the bike. This does use all 4 hex ezcan circuits, but I have no immediate plans to add anything else, so all good.

Fit & finish of the colights seems identical to the motolights my pal has - and with the ezcan you have full individual control of all 3 functions - brilliant.

They are incredibly bright at full whack - absolutely love them.

Other than perhaps half an hour less hassle with the denalis / motolights when fitting, I see no difference at all.

Whilst £400 isn't cheap, it feels a lot better than £1000! 100% recommend these to anyone thinking of adding aux lights.

 

[richardbd]

 

[Edventure]

Interested to see this setup.
Can't quite bring myself to cough up for the Motolights so if this is a more reasonable alternative......

 

[matsmith749]

Added some pics - but if I'm honest, I think the actual value here is nothing to do with pics to look at.

The value is that I'm a materials scientist (not an influencer, not a youtuber, not a dealer). I don't sell these things, or have any interest in anyone else buying them. But I am super fussy, and completely understand what quality looks & feels like. That's my day job.

I've compared these colight d09 pro lights directly in the real world with my own previous Denail d7 lights (non pro), and my pal's brand new motolights. In real life.

My final thoughts are that I see no difference in quality of materials (none - these are 100% up the physical build of the premium brands), and light output is also much the same (I didn't measure lumens - but they are all idiot levels of brightness).

Just like the motolights, I think the amber ring DRL isn;t really bright enough to be anything other than a 'pretty gimmick' TBH - I will run the DRL as amber ring + low beam (as seen in photo 4). The amber ring is virtually an exact match for brightness to the handguard indicators - likely what they were aiming for when designing these. But to my eye - it's just not enough to stand out as a daytime running light. My mate (on a multistrada v4s) feels the exact same about the motolight DRL - just not bright enough during the daytime.

All features / multiple brightness / strobing with horns etc is determined by the hex ezcan - so the colights can do all the fancy stuff.

Amber ring is seperately controllable / in low beam only the bottm 4 LEDS light up with diffuse spread / high beam you get the top 4 TIR LEDS, plus a central projector.

I think the main step up is the fact you have 3x seperate circuits - so you can make your own mind up about low beam / high beam / DRL / indicators etc - I think the motolight is the only other light out there that gives this flexibility.

There is always that question mark about reliability I guess - they are Chinesium. But, I'm pretty certain that the working parts of every single premium light out there is also Chinesium, and colight has been selling aux lights for cars & bikes 10+ years with a decent reputation & I cannot find anyone complaining about failures - so I'm happy enough.

At this point I just don't see what you get for the extra money. Light pods alone these are £115 delivered. The Denali's something like £700, same for the motolights. All will need brackets & a controller - so that's moot.

So - I've taken the chance on them, you can make your own choices

They are fantastic IMHO.

 

[richardbd]

Added some pics - but if I'm honest, I think the actual value here is nothing to do with pics to look at.

The value is that I'm a materials scientist (not an influencer, not a youtuber, not a dealer). I don't sell these things, or have any interest in anyone else buying them. But I am super fussy, and completely understand what quality looks & feels like. That's my day job.

I've compared these colight d09 pro lights directly in the real world with my own previous Denail d7 lights (non pro), and my pal's brand new motolights. In real life.

My final thoughts are that I see no difference in quality of materials (none - these are 100% up the physical build of the premium brands), and light output is also much the same (I didn't measure lumens - but they are all idiot levels of brightness).

Just like the motolights, I think the amber ring DRL isn;t really bright enough to be anything other than a 'pretty gimmick' TBH - I will run the DRL as amber ring + low beam (as seen in photo 4). The amber ring is virtually an exact match for brightness to the handguard indicators - likely what they were aiming for when designing these. But to my eye - it's just not enough to stand out as a daytime running light.

All features / multiple brightness / strobing with horns etc is determined by the hex ezcan - so the colights can do all the fancy stuff.

Amber ring is seperately controllable / in low beam only the bottm 4 LEDS light up with diffuse spread / high beam you get the top 4 TIR LEDS, plus a central projector.

I think the main step up is the fact you have 3x seperate circuits - so you can make your own mind up about low beam / high beam / DRL / indicators etc - I think the motolight is the only other light out there that gives this flexibility.

There is always that question mark about reliability I guess - they are Chinesium. But, I'm pretty certain that the working parts of every single premium light out there is also Chinesium, and colight has been selling aux lights for cars & bikes 10+ years with a decent reputation & I cannot find anyone complaining about failures - so I'm happy enough.

At this point I just don't see what you get for the extra money. Light pods alone these are £115 delivered. The Denali's something like £700, same for the motolights. All will need brackets & a controller - so that's moot.

So - I've taken the chance on them, you can make your own choices

They are fantastic IMHO.

The6 look the part. Now we wait and see a) how good they are in the dark and b) how well they last

 

[matsmith749]

I took them out for a test ride last night (after an aiming session at the garage door).

They are impressive.

 

[matsmith749]

It's been a few weeks since I fitted these - worthy of a quick update.

They remain phenomenal.

I settled on the config as shown in photo 4 for daytime - but did have a slight issue with the standard BMW lights & the manual - I could not figure out how to turn on the low beam!

So - you have the centre projector (high & low beam), and then the X shaped surround lights, plus the 2 small aux lights either side of the headlight.

The centre projector low beam light comes on when you start the bike (no manual switches possible) - unless you have selected 'auto daytime running lights' in the menus. If you do that, during the day you just get the X surround lights & no low beam. At night it will add in the low beam.

Doesn;t help that the manual calls the X section of the light 2 different things. Sometimes it is the sidelights, sometimes daytime running lights.

The fix is to turn off the auto daytime running lights in the menu.

That way the X lights up, and you get low beam during the day.

You need this figured out if you are using the low beam as a trigger for the newly fitted aux lights - hope that makes sense!

 

[Edventure]

It's been a few weeks since I fitted these - worthy of a quick update.

They remain phenomenal.

I settled on the config as shown in photo 4 for daytime - but did have a slight issue with the standard BMW lights & the manual - I could not figure out how to turn on the low beam!

So - you have the centre projector (high & low beam), and then the X shaped surround lights, plus the 2 small aux lights either side of the headlight.

The centre projector low beam light comes on when you start the bike (no manual switches possible) - unless you have selected 'auto daytime running lights' in the menus. If you do that, during the day you just get the X surround lights & no low beam. At night it will add in the low beam.

Doesn;t help that the manual calls the X section of the light 2 different things. Sometimes it is the sidelights, sometimes daytime running lights.

The fix is to turn off the auto daytime running lights in the menu.

That way the X lights up, and you get low beam during the day.

You need this figured out if you are using the low beam as a trigger for the newly fitted aux lights - hope that makes sense!

I've now got a set of the Colights and a Hex Ezcan. Do you need to use all 4 circuits for the eEzcan?

 

[matsmith749]

I did use all 4 circuits - but I would not recommend you do the same, instead I would do the below:

Circuit #1 - both lights low beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #2 - both lights high beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #3 - both lights amber ring (max draw is 1A)

I set mine up with amber ring on 2 circuits, so I could use as indicators - but I wouldn't bother if doing it again. The amber light looks nice, so I leave it on all the time along with the low beam as daytime running lights.

Obviously only relevant if you bought the same D09 pro lights, with 3x different channels.

 

[Edventure]

I did use all 4 circuits - but I would not recommend you do the same, instead I would do the below:

Circuit #1 - both lights low beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #2 - both lights high beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #3 - both lights amber ring (max draw is 1A)

I set mine up with amber ring on 2 circuits, so I could use as indicators - but I wouldn't bother if doing it again. The amber light looks nice, so I leave it on all the time along with the low beam as daytime running lights.

Obviously only relevant if you bought the same D09 pro lights, with 3x different channels.

Thank you, that's very helpful

 

[Lostapot]

It's been a few weeks since I fitted these - worthy of a quick update.

They remain phenomenal.

I settled on the config as shown in photo 4 for daytime - but did have a slight issue with the standard BMW lights & the manual - I could not figure out how to turn on the low beam!

So - you have the centre projector (high & low beam), and then the X shaped surround lights, plus the 2 small aux lights either side of the headlight.

The centre projector low beam light comes on when you start the bike (no manual switches possible) - unless you have selected 'auto daytime running lights' in the menus. If you do that, during the day you just get the X surround lights & no low beam. At night it will add in the low beam.

Doesn;t help that the manual calls the X section of the light 2 different things. Sometimes it is the sidelights, sometimes daytime running lights.

The fix is to turn off the auto daytime running lights in the menu.

That way the X lights up, and you get low beam during the day.

You need this figured out if you are using the low beam as a trigger for the newly fitted aux lights - hope that makes sense!

I was also put off by the price of the Lone Rider and Denali lights so am going to give these a try too. Some great info there thanks. I will probably mount them under the nose though as I am not putting crashbars on.

 

[Lostapot]

I did use all 4 circuits - but I would not recommend you do the same, instead I would do the below:

Circuit #1 - both lights low beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #2 - both lights high beam (max draw is 8A)
Circuit #3 - both lights amber ring (max draw is 1A)

I set mine up with amber ring on 2 circuits, so I could use as indicators - but I wouldn't bother if doing it again. The amber light looks nice, so I leave it on all the time along with the low beam as daytime running lights.

Obviously only relevant if you bought the same D09 pro lights, with 3x different channels.

Can these lights be connected using 2 circuits on the Ezcan as I also have a camera system and am looking to add a rear brake light. I am new to all this stuff and assumed I could use 1 circuit for each light 1 for camera and one for brake light...

 

[matsmith749]

The colight d09 pro is a 3 channel light (per light) - low beam / high beam / amber ring.

You can wire this up to an ezcan any way that you like, as you have 2 lights per set, the maximum number of individually controllable channels is 6 (you get 4 circuits on a ezcan, you to have individual control over everything you would need 2x ezcans).

But the choice is completely yours as to how you set it up, remembering that the limit per ezcan circuit is 10A continuous.

On 100% brightness, the d09 pro low beam draws 4A per light - same again for the high beam - it's a fcking bright light!

So - you could wire the amber ring to the low beam, and tie each side together. That would be circuit #1 at 9A.
Then you could have the high beam (both sides tied together) - that would be circuit #2 at 8A.

This way you wouldn't have individual control of left / right sides, but it's actually pretty much how mine are set up - so yes - you can do it this way.

I don;t want to represent myself as some of kind of wiring or ezcan guru - I literally just figured all this out in the last couple of weeks. I'm sure there will be someone along that knows a lot more than I do that can correct me / help further.

Or get googling - there is a ton of info I relied on from youtube & the hex forums.

The bottom line is you can do anything you want - the d09 pro just gives you choices.

 

[Lostapot]

The colight d09 pro is a 3 channel light (per light) - low beam / high beam / amber ring.

You can wire this up to an ezcan any way that you like, as you have 2 lights per set, the maximum number of individually controllable channels is 6 (you get 4 circuits on a ezcan, you to have individual control over everything you would need 2x ezcans).

But the choice is completely yours as to how you set it up, remembering that the limit per ezcan circuit is 10A continuous.

On 100% brightness, the d09 pro low beam draws 4A per light - same again for the high beam - it's a fcking bright light!

So - you could wire the amber ring to the low beam, and tie each side together. That would be circuit #1 at 9A.
Then you could have the high beam (both sides tied together) - that would be circuit #2 at 8A.

This way you wouldn't have individual control of left / right sides, but it's actually pretty much how mine are set up - so yes - you can do it this way.

I don;t want to represent myself as some of kind of wiring or ezcan guru - I literally just figured all this out in the last couple of weeks. I'm sure there will be someone along that knows a lot more than I do that can correct me / help further.

Or get googling - there is a ton of info I relied on from youtube & the hex forums.

The bottom line is you can do anything you want - the d09 pro just gives you choices.

Perfect ...thankjs for that very helpful. I will give them a try like that and see how it goes with maybe the option of adding another Ezcan at a later date.

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

I’ll be fitting the D09’s to my R1300GS as they are sending me them review having tested the D07’s previously.

I found them quite straight forward to install as I already had the EzCan installed anyway but curious to see if the D09’s are any good. The D07’s were obscenely bright on full chat

 

[Edventure]

I’ll be sitting the D09’s to my R1300GS as they are sending me them review having tested the D07’s previously.

I found them quite straight forward to install as I already had the EzCan installed anyway but curious to see if the D09’s are any good. The D07’s were obscenely bright on full chat

I'll be interested to know how you plan to wire them up to the ezecan

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

I'll be interested to know how you plan to wire them up to the ezecan

Depending on if it’s the same 3 wire setup as the D07’s I’ll probably wire it the same. I did this wiring diagram on the video review I did so hoping to do the same thing with these. I can’t use all 4 circuits so I’ll have to make do just using 2, if the D09’s have 4 wires then I have a problem lol

 

[matsmith749]

Yep - it's not the same wiring setup, as the d09 pro is 3 channel. The d09 is simpler I think - guess it depends what you have coming.

the d09 is single function long throw high beam + white drl (2 channel light)
the d09 pro is diffuse low beam / long throw high beam / amber drl (3 channel light)

This conversation is about the d09 pro.

1 wire - high beam (white)
1 wire - low beam (red)
1 skinny wire - amber ring (yellow)
1 wire - ground (black)

It's very easy to figure out TBH, and when you have it all in front of you it will make sense very quickly.

They do have 4 wires - but you can pair the functions as I describe above & get it working on 2 circuits.

Who are you on youtube?

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Yep - it's not the same wiring setup, as the d09 pro is 3 channel. The d09 is simpler I think - guess it depends what you have coming.

the d09 is single function long throw high beam + white drl (2 channel light)
the d09 pro is diffuse low beam / long throw high beam / amber drl (3 channel light)

This conversation is about the d09 pro.

1 wire - high beam (white)
1 wire - low beam (red)
1 skinny wire - amber ring (yellow)
1 wire - ground (black)

It's very easy to figure out TBH, and when you have it all in front of you it will make sense very quickly.

They do have 4 wires - but you can pair the functions as I describe above & get it working on 2 circuits.

Who are you on youtube?

Yeah it’s the D09 Pro I have coming, forgot to add the Pro bit

 

[TheStammeringBiker]

Yep - it's not the same wiring setup, as the d09 pro is 3 channel. The d09 is simpler I think - guess it depends what you have coming.

the d09 is single function long throw high beam + white drl (2 channel light)
the d09 pro is diffuse low beam / long throw high beam / amber drl (3 channel light)

This conversation is about the d09 pro.

1 wire - high beam (white)
1 wire - low beam (red)
1 skinny wire - amber ring (yellow)
1 wire - ground (black)

It's very easy to figure out TBH, and when you have it all in front of you it will make sense very quickly.

They do have 4 wires - but you can pair the functions as I describe above & get it working on 2 circuits.

Who are you on youtube?

The Stammering Biker

I think I’ll probably have to reduce the functionality of the lights for my testing as I only have 2 spare circuits, other 2 are being used by the permanent feed for the CHIGEE AIO-6 and the other for the Denali B6 brake light although I reckon I could probably pinch the 3rd circuit for the CHIGEE just for the testing stage.

I’m tempted by the MotoLights as they only use 1 circuit on the EzCan but the price is tasty