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Mounting lights through front fairing panel.


Smoky

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I recall a post, a long time ago, about somebody who took off the round BMW plate on the front of the fairing, and drilled through for small driving lights.

 

There are new HID lights with built-in ballasts, and they would nicely fit here, with a large backing plate.

 

So does anyone have first-hand experience with this? How have they held up to long term use? Any problems with cracking the fairing, or other troubles?

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Stan Walker

I have PIAA 1200's on both of my RT's mounted this way.

 

About 70,000 miles on each set up, and a few parking tip overs on the '96 RT. No faring or light damage to date on either bike.

 

I used a soft plastic backing plate (electrical box cover) with #8 hardware for mounting on the thory that the hardware would fail or rip out of the backing plate before damaging the bikes tupperware. Theory is so far untested.

 

Mounting this way did require both a center hole for the electrical wiring and two curved slots for the mounting hardware (to allow rotation for aiming the lights). All the holes would be covered up by re-installing the BMW Roundel.

 

The PIAA 1200's are not HID and your mounting would be different.

 

Stan

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I have these light on another bike and they are terrific.

 

I have been thinking of mounting a set in the same way you are describing on the RT as well.

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Eckhard Grohe

I'm thinking about attaching a set of lights to the plastic cylinder head protectors. These might just be the ones. Thanks for the link.

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...took off the round BMW plate on the front of the fairing, and drilled through for small driving lights.

 

I've been following this thread hoping someone would post a picture of this mounting system. No matter how much I look at my bike, I can't fathom what we are talking about here... "round BMW plate on front of the fairing..." confused.gifconfused.gif

What BMW vehicle are we talking about here???

 

I must be missing something. As usual...

(I have chosen my avatar for a reason)

 

--

Mikko

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Mikko,

 

I mean on the front of the side panel of the fairing. There are BMW roundels on each side, and they are forward of the gas tank. So you can remove the roundels, drill through the fairing, back it up with what-ever is required, and bolt up some lights. Put a plug in the wiring, for future fairing removal, and tada, let there be light!

 

I ordered the HID's today, will post pics upon completion. cool.gif

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Ahhh, now I got it.

Somehow I was thinking driving lights installed through the fairing, not just the mounts.

And mounting the lights to point through (the location of)those side roundels didn't seem to make much sense dopeslap.gif

 

--

Mikko

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Eckhard Grohe

Fernando Belair has this setup. Look in the lighting section of the pictures and in the lights FAQ for a write up. He put those on years ago.

 

Send him an email and ask him about it. I am sure he'll oblige with whatever info you need.

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I also presume that they will be installed with plugs so that they and the tupperware can be removed for services etc.

 

Mine are not mounted through the BMW logo locations, but where my RT-P crash bars used to attach through the side of the fairings. A nice mounting point, but they are a little extra hassle to remove and re-aim each time the sides come off. I found using "banana" plugs (light) and sockets (bike) work well since they are easy to remove and reconnect.

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I have the piaas mounted where the bmw logo was on the side fairings of my r1150rt. Looks great. Can I put a 100 watt H3 in as my highbeam bulb and not have a melt down. Also what is the correct bulb used in the foglights? thanks

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Stan Walker

I have the piaas mounted where the bmw logo was on the side fairings of my r1150rt. Looks great. Can I put a 100 watt H3 in as my highbeam bulb and not have a melt down.

 

Yes, a 100 watt high beam bulb is OK. I've been using them for years. The high beam reflector is metal and will be able to take the heat.

 

The wiring is another story. It's large enough for it's designed load. High beam (55w) + low beam (55w) plus fog lights (2 * 55w) = 220 watts. I wouldn't go over that figure without rewiring the headlight assembly.

 

One way around this is to always turn off the fog lights when the high beam is on. With a little work this can be implemented using a relay.

 

On my '02 the PIAA 1200's (wired directly from the battery) turn on with the high beam. At the same time the BMW fog lights turn off with the high beam. Thus when I flash my lights I get a wig-wag pattern up front.

 

On high, headlight assembly wattage is high (100w) + low (55w) = 155w, well below the 220w that the stock bike can support. Plus the 2 55w PIAA's on a separate run.

 

On low, headlight assembly wattage is low (55w) + fogs (2 * 55w) = 165w, also below the 220w that the stock bike can do.

 

Stan

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Lights arrived today, look very nice, started to install, but ran out of bits. Going to NAPA tomorrow for more bits and pieces. Hope I'm riding in bright light tomorrow night.

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Okay!

 

These are seriously white, bright, lights. I got the floods, not the spots, and I'm not sure that was the best choice. However, I am delighted with the lights. They throw a lot of clean, white light. Did I say they are white?

 

I headed for the country, and found some nice dark roads, with lots of good old BC trees on both sides. They are lit up wide and bright, and when you turn 'em off, there's just a blurry puddle of feeble yellow light. That's the stock light in my 1100 RT. I didn't know how poor it was.

 

These are really going to make it easier to spot deer at night.

 

I came home all excited about the lights, and the wife jumped on the back and away we went again. She was impressed too.

 

Oncoming cars flash me, so they are bright in traffic. I will play around with the aiming. But I think they are just too bright to use in traffic.

 

They come on slowly, with a little flickering, and then glow brighter and go full bright in about 3 seconds. Quicker if they have been on a while.

 

I can take some pics tomorrow, but I don't have a web-site to post'em to.

 

And then there was light...

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