Auxiliary lights ?

The headlight on the CRF is not too bad ( a major improvement on the one on my old KE100 ) but on long-distance trials more light is always useful... Anyone fitted auxiliary lights ? Is there a good place to mount them ? And can the alternator cope with extra load ?

 

Great topic. Haven't seen pics of aux lights, but hope there is some info out there on this.

 

Hmmm...You might want to search for info on this topic on BMW forums or ADVRiders. Those folks are wack-a-do's and put all kinds of stuff on their bikes. I know a bunch of them and they aren't happy unless they put 300 lbs of gear on their 600lb bikes.

 

(guilty).

But my RT has hundreds of free watts to play with, having an oversized alternator/generator. I'm not sure that a dual-sport single is spec'd like that.

 

I've seen all sorts of things being used on classic trials. A lot of the older bikes (most of them are 6v electrics) use mountain bike lights with a battery pack for when they are in off-road sections, and just rely on the bike's lights for the road sections. Looking at the front end of the CRF, I reckon the biggest problem is finding somewhere to mount the lights - there's nowhere obvious.

 

Well ... being a mountain biker who rides at night ... The aux lights mtbers use are awesome for low speeds. Anything more than 30mph (50kph?) I'd recommend something else. BUT! MTB lights should mount nicely to your helmet or handlebars. And the MTB lights are SUPER intense for anything over 750 lumens. Also, IMO not knowing anything about aftermarket mcycle lights for off road, I would still mount them to the handlebars (yeah, it will block the instrument panel) - think rally lights .. big ol' driving lights. Actually, I would get one driving light and one "fog" light so I have one for long distance and one for wide-angle. Of course, as was mentioned, you will have to figure out if the wire harness can support that kind of drain.

The BMW riders have cool lights they mount to the front axle bolts that are useful on the street. All the off-road guys use bigger lights.

 

To be fair - in the off-road sections the bike would never be travelling above 30mph, so MB lights could well be the answer...

 

Saerch Ebay, lots of better bulbs or go to LED, mayny make better replacements, just look!

 

As I said, the OE headlight is pretty good (and plenty bright enough) for ordinary road use, so brightness is not the issue. It's more a case of getting a good spread of light so that the edges of the tracks can bee seen in the dark. I reckon LED mountain bike lights could well be the way ahead...

 

I agree about the factor y headlight. Much better than I expected it would be. I think you are right about the MTB lights... Mount one on your helmet and forget about the darkness. My favorite is the niterider lumina 700 but anything with 700 lumens or greater should do you well. A friend has 1200 lumens and it is awesome!

 

Hey ... so there's this thing called YouTube, and I stumbled on a channel with some motard guys in the Dallas area. One of them has an auxiliary light as his primary light. It looks awesome, and until last night I had no idea what it was. This is it:

http://www.rallylights.com/all/ligh...bar-twelve-12-led-off-road-driving-light.html

These look like exactly what you may be looking for. If not, poke around that site a bit. I've been using it for years for aftermarket lights and horns.

 

Cheers Thomas... I'll have a look...

 

Oh, I also came across this site ... the LED lights look great, but they seem very expensive:

http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/dirt-bike-lights-led.html

 

There is some interesting stuff on there... But if I started spending that sort of money I have the feeling Mrs JR might go very slightly mental !

 

What!? Does Mrs JR know Mrs TTO?

 

Not sure. I suspect they may be very similar though.
I have no doubt the conversation would go something along the lines of "you said that bike was perfect for what you wanted it for - so why do you need to buy more stuff for it ?"

 

Oh NO! We must be dating the same woman. That's exactly what she said to me when I bought new wheels. LOL!

 

At the risk of appearing sexist - in my experience it's pretty much what all women say...

 

No worries. Though I would qualify it further as this "pretty much what all significant others say when their other half spends money". 'Cause I have been on the other end where my significant other spends money that I don't agree with. For example ... "You spend HOW MUCH on toys/food/medical for our dogs???"

 

Dogs I don't have a problem with...
SHOES, on the other hand...