Light Bars - an off road disaster?

[Mike F]

Hi

Am looking at better lighting, and some Aux lights seem a good idea.

Looked at Migsel and TT light bars and they seem to position them exactly where they will get smashed in an off road topple (I do that a lot).

Has anyone cunningly mounted lights to avoid off road spills.

I am not running crash bars, just TT head protectors.

Sadly at my age learning to ride better isnt really an option.

Thanks, Mike

PS has anyone got lights, recommend lights, also HID rig needed. Its a 2002 1150 GSA.

 

[Deleted account 231002001]

I had Migsel bar and fell off loads of times, never broke a light.

 

[Canuck]

Like trippy, I've toppled over a few time with a migsel bar on the 1150GSA and no problems. The pheasants however, were another matter!

 

[Fanum]

If you fall off enough, particularly on rocks, the first thing to go will be the bar itself, after multiple straightenings.

DAMHIK

For the aggravation of mounting them somewhere novel, against the amount of damage they will take before they break, its probably not worth it though

 

[Mike F]

OK I'm converted. I'll give em a go.

Reason why I thought this was first outing I had I went down and broke front indicator. Problem round here is its ruts, and if you ride the usually shallower middle rut in a lane if you do go down its all perfectly spaced so the bars go into the outer rut and the bake takes the impact on its side.

But hey ho, whats broke can usually be fixed. Gaffer tapes my friend!

 

[ducatiparts.110mb]

Just mount the lights on one side and make sure you fall the other way.

 

[Fanum]

Reason why I thought this was first outing I had I went down and broke front indicator.

But hey ho, whats broke can usually be fixed. Gaffer tapes my friend!

Indicators DO get a bashing......

Get a bit of carpet or find a grassy bank and lay your bike down, then give it a bit of a rocking (motion, not Islamic punishment)

You'll see that the indcators do indeed make contact with the ground very quickly (as the bike tilts over the balance point on the valve covers) , and although the stalks rarely get damaged, the lenses break into 35 little pieces immediately.


I always had at least a couple of spares in a box in the Moto Morocco truck, and half a dozen useable spares that were the glued together remnants from previous trips.

Unless you have those extra special BMW OEM foglights , the ones with the brackets made of crispy cheese that they charge you almost as much as a set of nice HID spots for, aux lights on proper brackets are highly unlikely to get damaged in the same way.

 

[Mike F]

Thanks, sounds like worth a go. Got dibs on a Migsel bar so I'll grab it.

I have also Duct taped the lights to the bodies, just leaving the face and a bit of the side showing. If they break they might hold together till I get a replacement.

 

[ELIMINATOR]

I made my own light bar. Then I made one for a friend, his one, I made two halves, one bolt in each, tie wrapped them together to stop them moving. The idea was that if the bike was dropped, the tie wrap would snap, letting the light bar rotate.