F800GS - show us your lights

Just looked at Amazon. A pair of the Hella micro DE halogens: 115 bucks. Micro DE in xenon for pair are 580. Not bad prices for either. 1/4 the price of TT for the non xenon and half the price of TT for the Xenon. But then again, it's damn hard to argue against the perfect TT mounts the lights come with... (but that's a REALLY high upcharge for some pretty housings)

You mean like this? Without having to use another picture server, right click on the pic you have at Google, click properties, copy the url address, click on the icon in the editing box when typing here, the one with the little mountain and sun, paste the url into the box that popped up and voila!

Now for the real question, how the heck did you make a bracket like that out of a cooking pan? cheers

I removed the beak with the four screws. I used the beak to trace on a piece of cardboard the shape of the bracket. Then I changed the shape to provide arms to mount the lights. I then traced the shape to the cooking pan. Drilled 1/2" holes at all the corners. Used a saber saw with a metal blade to cut the shape. Filled the bracket to get rid of the saw marks and sanded the edge. It took longer to get the pan than to cut and shape. I did make the cardboard pattern first and take it to the store to find a pan large enought.




Here is a picture of what was left of the cooking pan after I cut the bracket out.

That is pure genius. Some manufacturer is going to copy that design for sure. You should start making and selling those things pronto. Get a local shop to start cutting those out for you by the dozen.

+1. If you get the itch to make another I'll send some dollars your direction!

Seriously, that is brilliant.

Was it non-stick?

Rob in Seattle

PS if you powdercoat it black (for the 800) I'd buy one too.

Rather than go through the hassle of making more of these for the vultures that are circling right now, just scan the pattern, turn it into a PDF and post it.

[quote='Flagger]Rather than go through the hassle of making more of these for the vultures that are circling right now, just scan the pattern, turn it into a PDF and post it.[/quote]

+1 on the scan

TIA

Not to rain on the parade... But isn't this the same bracket that Touratech makes? I took a photo of the TT part (found in their installation instructions online) and cut the same pattern out of sheet metal from the hardware store. Works like a charm, but I'm not so sure about selling these things! Wouldn't there be some kind of patent issue?

So... uhhhh... not that I'd be interested in doing the same thing, but can you maybe send me a link to the picture you used to make the pattern? Or I can PM you my email address if you have a picture saved and could email it to me. Thanks.

Go here:

http://www.touratech-usa.com/shop/s...ession=touratech:466AEE22059192735Epml2067B45

and up in the right-hand corner click on "English installation instructions."

This is a big ole PDF you can open, and page down to see how the bracket fits and works. You can zoom way the hell in to get a good look. I did what the other guy did, and just took the front fender off to see the shape. Not that anyone would want to do this, but once the bracket was made, I bought a relay from the auto parts store and threw a wiring harness together, switched it off the Powerlet, and sat back to await my Trail Tech HID's. Should be sweet.

Now this is embarrassing. After all that excitement, one of my Trailtech HID's went out. I was loving them for almost a month, and then I took a ride in the rain yesterday and got sprayed pretty mightily by a couple semi's coming the other direction. One light went out, and I could never get it to re-ignite. I could see water inside the bulb, and found quite a bit of water inside the housing. I swapped the bulbs to narrow it down to the bulbs and ruled out the ballasts, and called Trailtech to see what could be done. They told me that they would only look at them if I sent the entire light back, meaning that I'd have to tear out all the wiring I've done. They offered to sell me a new bulb for $75, but even if I sent them the old one they wouldn't cover it by warrenty. I loved the lights while they worked, but I can't do any adventure touring with unreliable lights that can't be fixed without two weeks of downtime and complete dissassembly. I'm seriously considering begging for my money back and getting a set of PIAA 510 driving lights to go on my sweet-ass brackets. I've never had a problem with a halogen that I couldn't fix, and at the VERY worst I can pick up a replacement bulb at ANY store in the world for about ten bucks. No downtime, and no more warrenty headache. I've heard several other horror stories about these lights crapping out in the rain, now that I've done more research. Anyone have any opinions, advice, anything? I'm planning a few long trips this summer and don't want to ever have to deal with this again.

I have been considering the TrailTech HIDs but am concerned about this rain problem that several riders have reported. Do you have any ideas about how the water gets in? Is the wiring entrance well sealed? Please let us know what the mfg says. I think someone posted that they said they had changed the design to "eliminate" this problem.

Are you running two spots? I was considering one spot and one flood. Plus buying some yellow covers incase I run into fog. Comments?

Well, here's what I found:

A tiny amount of water seeped in through the wire "inlet" to the light housing. I mounted the lights stem down, but it seems that the wind was able to force a little water all the way up the wire lead (which appeared to be sealed with adhesive-lined shrink tubing.) But the large amount of water that came into the housing must have gone through the silicone seal around the bezel. This seal appears to be well constructed, and seals around the light bulb as well as between the bezel and the housing. It's a mystery to me how this seal failed, but more than that - how did the sealed bulb manage to suck up so much water? Here are some facts to work with:

- the ballast has indeed been improved/upgraded according to the tech guys at the company.
- the ballast is epoxied into the housing, effectively sealing it in.
- The wires coming into the housing could easily be sealed with some silicone caulk.
- The silicone rubber seal at the bezel should be effective, but could be augmented with some dielectric grease or something to help keep moisture out.
- There are flexible clear covers included with the lights which would go a long way toward making them more waterproof. I wish I had known I needed them!
- When water gets into the bulbs, they seem to fail easily and the shiny reflector coating begins to flake off.

I am using two spot beams. They throw enough light forward and are wide enough for me. I would not wish to have the floods, as it would lessen the amount of long-distance lighting. I have played with the aiming of these lights quite a bit, and still get flashed quite often by oncoming traffic so apparently I don't have it right yet, but they are great on the deer-covered backroads. Even though I have a switch mounted on my handguards I'm not fond of flicking the HID's off and on a lot (it takes a minute for them to get bright again) so I avoid doing so unless cars are really flashing a lot, but I don't want to blind people so I'm trying to find a happy-medium between good lighting and safe lighting. I'm not sure about fog lenses. I would say the HID's make poor fog lights, though. Too much glare and the wrong color to help you see through dense fog.

I would assume that for the price of these lights the company would stand behind them and replace them. I am sure that they are not "shocked" to find out that they leak. All one needs to do is put them in a bucket of water...attach wiring..and turn them on and leave them for a few days.
A week in a bucket of water should tell them if they leak..or not!

Sent you a PM

I just discovered a F800GS light bar from Best Rest:
http://www.bestrestproducts.com/p-214-f800gs-bestrest-lightbar.aspx

Looks similar to the Touratech and the homemade one on this thread. Has anyone tried one of these? I attaches to the plastic so it doesn't seem to have much support strength. I'm concerned about vibrations and plastic damage if you smack the lights.


Disclaimer: I have no association with this company other than possible future customer.

Fireman: Did you get your product fixed? If not, please call and ask for Jeremiah or Travis.

TT halogens installed. FInally got a picture site.

Worth the ginormous price tag?