Newbie needing light advice

[paganman]

Hi, got my 1st gs this weekend, a 2007 adventure.
Loving it so much at the moment, only criticism is the lights aren't very good. I'll be commuting daily on it, and on the road at 05:00 so want a better main beam.
Is it a bulb upgrade, or fit aftermarket lights?
Seen the cost of Touratech HID light, which is scary, but I quite fancy something that looks like the standard BMW fog light arrangement with 1 HID wired to main beam and 1 fog wired to dip, is this possible ? My bike hasn't got the optional BMW fog lights on so would wiring all this up be a nightmare too?
Any recommendations on what's good and what's not ,
much appreciated
Many thanks

 

[Dainese Brave]

Les Wassel from Hid50.com, who's a member on here, is the man you want for all things HID!

He does a kit for a range of bikes, including a HID kit that fits to the OE fog lamps.

Top bloke, top service, great price.

 

[Mistacat]

A good effective budget set up.
50w HID in dip beam.
Hella micro DE fogs for fog or as a standby if you ever lose the dip beam.
Hella FF-50 spots to come on with main beam.
Works for me.

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

A good effective budget set up.
50w HID in dip beam.
Hella micro DE fogs for fog or as a standby if you ever lose the dip beam.
Hella FF-50 spots to come on with main beam.
Works for me.

Yup, perfect - exactly as the set up on my bike, below.

The main beam can be improved with HID but the reflector is of such a poor design that the most effective solution as as per above.

Andres

 

[GAJA]

http://www.motorbikeadventures.co.uk/category.php?id_category=38

These guys look great!

 

[Fanum]

Hi, got my 1st gs this weekend, a 2007 adventure.
Loving it so much at the moment, only criticism is the lights aren't very good. I'll be commuting daily on it, and on the road at 05:00 so want a better main beam.
Is it a bulb upgrade, or fit aftermarket lights?
Seen the cost of Touratech HID light, which is scary, but I quite fancy something that looks like the standard BMW fog light arrangement with 1 HID wired to main beam and 1 fog wired to dip, is this possible ? My bike hasn't got the optional BMW fog lights on so would wiring all this up be a nightmare too?
Any recommendations on what's good and what's not ,
much appreciated
Many thanks

THIS thread may be of interest to you......We do various combinations of superbright LED Aux lights

As mentioned above, the biggest problem with the GS lights is the reflector design.....to some degree you can overcome that by literally throwing more light at the reflector and fitting a Les Wassel kit.....there are cheaper, but you do get what you pay for and Les deserves all the recomendations he gets

Don't ever go for the BMW lights....they are ridiculously expensive and they use a shitty plastic tab that mounts to the metal bracket....it's intrinsically weak and although the lights themselves are pretty good quality, the brackets can break under the weight of the light itself if/when you drop the bike.....they certainly don't often survive the first knock on a proper drop.

I have a Les HID on my dip beam (not on main, because they do take a few seconds to prime up to full brightness) and some of our own superbright LED kit for running lights, as well as some FF50 spots (soon to be replaced by Cree 10w superbright spots which we're expecting in stock in the next fortnight )

use common sense.....don't go to the low extreme of cheapo Halfords chav lights, but also don't go to the expensive extreme with flawed OEM kit......other than that, it's personal choice based on your own needs really

EDIT.......Don't go for a 'bulb upgrade'.....most are a little bit better initially, but fail a LOT faster than 'normal' bulbs.
The ones to avoid at all costs are the ones that have 'HID' on the packaging, or try to imply that they are HIDs in some way....those ones are usually cheap as chips Chinese imported bulbs that look good, cost little but will fail in days.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

I put in the Phillips H7 Extreme Power. A modest but noticeable improvement, and it's still going strong after three years.

But, yup, decent HIDs are the way to go.

 

[NAB]

1st photo is 50W 5000K HiD on the dip beam (Les Wassell) and Halogen on the fogs
2nd photo is 50W 5000K HiD on the dip and 50W 6000K HiD on the fogs (Motorbike Adventures via 2 Wheel Humvee)
Awesome lights although they do say the HiD on the dip can eventually cause damage to the reflector.
Well worth it IMHO

 

[GAJA]

1st photo is 50W 5000K HiD on the dip beam (Les Wassell) and Halogen on the fogs
2nd photo is 50W 5000K HiD on the dip and 50W 6000K HiD on the fogs (Motorbike Adventures via 2 Wheel Humvee)
Awesome lights although they do say the HiD on the dip can eventually cause damage to the reflector.
Well worth it IMHO

Hi, Looking mighty fine! did you do the high beam too?

 

[NAB]

Hi, Looking mighty fine! did you do the high beam too?

I did the main beam as well 55W 6000K but not a slimline ballast, bought from the for sale section on here, it is very slow to start but when up to brightness it is excellent, cant find the photos at the moment.