Driving lights for Niken

[maximNikenGT]

Has anyone actually installed driving/fog lights on a Niken GT?  Am trying to find actual examples of folks who have installed them successfully and cannot find any examples. Please post photos here if you run across any that have. I'm trying to figure out where you would mount them since I'm not sure that you can mount them on the front suspension tubes. 

UPDATE: just got off the phone with Clearwater Lights of California who indicated that it is possible to mount their smallest Darla lights on the bottom front fender bolts right in front of the silver part of the suspension. Anything larger than the Darla light will overwhelm this single bolt bracket and you would have to go to an engine protector mount. The one thing they mentioned was that because of the LED lights of the Niken, one cannot tap into the existing high beam wiring to power aftermarket driving lights because of the method used for powering high beam LEDs is different than traditional halogen high beams. One would have to purchase their dimmer  switch and run it separately to power the lights, and they confirmed I could not use an Arboreal Systems Neutrino power distribution module  to power the Darla lights. Apparently this is becoming more and more of a compatibility problem with bikes utilizing LED headlights - hence why you don't see any photos of Niken's with aftermarket lights. 

Anyone know of motorcycles with LED stock headlights that are still able to use aftermarket driving lights?

 

[maximNikenGT]

So far I've got recommendations for Denali D2.  Was also looking at the PIAA 270s and Clearwater Darla. Would help if anyone had night photos of the beam patterns for these lights please. 

[1moreroad]

I've had PIAA 270 fog lights (not driving lights) on the fender bolt mounts for about a year with no problems. I did use blue Loc tite since there's nothing besides screw torque to keep them from rotating. PIAA sells a bracket to mount the lights and reduce rotation. There's also not any protection for these lights except maybe the handlebar if you crash. 

I tried taking pictures but they don't do the illumination justice. Basically the fog lights add width, not distance. You can kind of see it on the far left side of the photos. The lights illuminate maybe an extra 10 yards to my forward right and left to see what's coming at me from the side of the road. The temperature/color of the light is very close to OE. 

 

[maximNikenGT]

6 hours ago, 1moreroad said:

I've had PIAA 270 fog lights (not driving lights) on the fender bolt mounts for about a year with no problems. I did use blue Loc tite since there's nothing besides screw torque to keep them from rotating. PIAA sells a bracket to mount the lights and reduce rotation. There's also not any protection for these lights except maybe the handlebar if you crash. 

I tried taking pictures but they don't do the illumination justice. Basically the fog lights add width, not distance. You can kind of see it on the far left side of the photos. The lights illuminate maybe an extra 10 yards to my forward right and left to see what's coming at me from the side of the road. The temperature/color of the light is very close to OE. 

 

Super helpful. Looks great! Thank you.

[maximNikenGT]

Alright, Did a  bunch of research, only option is to get a set of engine guards from SW Motech (27mm diameter) and mount the auxiliary lights to it. If I mount at the bottom front shocks, or the top shock tubes I'm too concerned with potential cornering clearance issues. by mounting to engine guards that will ensure a solid vibrating free connection with enough height to be useful. Crash guards at the time of writing are  backordered by 3-4 weeks and have to be sourced from Germany. Gives me enough time to find a good auxiliary light bracket to attach to the crash guards. 

[MrFritz86]

Sw Motech provides crash guards brackets as mounting solutions, or amazon can have cheaper options.

Last time I've ordered my Aero side cases, it took just little over a week to be delivered even if they were listed as backordered by 3-4 weeks from Germany.

You Might be lucky just like I was 😅

[maximNikenGT]

Alright, looking at a list of white LED driving/combo lights from Baja Designs (squadron R or Squadron SAE). diode dynamics (SS3), Hella Micro 70 LED, Denali D1,D2, DR2, Clearwater Krista, PIAA LP270 and Rigid D Series Pro. 

Problem is there's not a single standard that they use for measuring lighting objectively. Best I could find was charts like what Hella provides : problem is, not everyone provides these kinds of charts. 

 

Anyone know where to go to get a comprehensive list of these charts for Auxiliary lights?

[betoney]

5 hours ago, maximNikenGT said:

Alright, looking at a list of white LED driving/combo lights from Baja Designs (squadron R or Squadron SAE). diode dynamics (SS3), Hella Micro 70 LED, Denali D1,D2, DR2, Clearwater Krista, PIAA LP270 and Rigid D Series Pro. 

Problem is there's not a single standard that they use for measuring lighting objectively. Best I could find was charts like what Hella provides : problem is, not everyone provides these kinds of charts. 

 

Anyone know where to go to get a comprehensive list of these charts for Auxiliary lights?

The problem with objective comparison on motorcycle lighting is your vehicle will be that 1% since it is wider and has a bigger front end and probably different mounting options than 99% of the rest of standard motorcycles.  What works for the Tracer might not work for the Niken since we can mount in areas and not get light blockage from the 2nd front wheel and the light spread will be different. 

I have Denali DRL's mounted on the radiator guard, not for night riding but for more visibility to oncoming drivers, where mine are mounted would only illuminate the back of the forks and fender on the Niken and not be visible to oncoming traffic.

 

 

[1moreroad]

Don't think a good comparison exists. Best bet is find a website thst at least tries to illuminate the same object with different lights.  

I don't think the Baja Designs are street legal (but I could be wrong). Rigid designs used to be advertised as street legal but they didn't say yes or no when I bought my PIAAs. Non street legal lights don't have to have a cut off and can blind other drivers or at least make them flash their high beams at you. 

[pilninggas]

I've just joined and have Niken GT.

I've got SW Motech engine bars (technically mine are for an MT09, I got them cheap £55 and just made up spacers and got bolts). My daily driver (an NC700) has driving lights on the engine bars, but on the Niken it would have been even wider (and I do filter on it).

As said they cant be mounted on the fork tubes due to the likely collision with bodywork or the mechanism.

So I mounted some small lights on the mirror mounts. Pretty happy with it.

Edited November 23, 2020 by pilninggas

[pilninggas]

Driving lights.

Switch

Engine Bars (MT09 bars)

[maximNikenGT]

Welcome to the group! Your bike is literally the first Niken I've seen with auxiliary lights mounted and I've been scouring the internet for months trying to find anyone with them. 

Ok - please provide pictures of how you mounted the lights to the mirror mounts without lights on please. Close ups of the mounting mechanism would be super helpful in addition to how you routed your power cables since I'm trying to keep a clean look. 

Also is your Niken gray colored? Would love to see full pix of the bike since I've not seen that color before. 

[maximNikenGT]

On 11/20/2020 at 6:46 PM, 1moreroad said:

Don't think a good comparison exists. Best bet is find a website thst at least tries to illuminate the same object with different lights.  

I don't think the Baja Designs are street legal (but I could be wrong). Rigid designs used to be advertised as street legal but they didn't say yes or no when I bought my PIAAs. Non street legal lights don't have to have a cut off and can blind other drivers or at least make them flash their high beams at you. 

Baja Designs does make a SAE street legal version of its Squadron series lights (Squadron SAE), but I'm planning on linking them to my high beams so  the off road versions are fine. 

https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/Squadron-SAE.asp

 

[pilninggas]

I also have a second high-mount tail brake light, as the first long day i did (a 500 miler), was with a mate on his Strom 1000 and he remarked that as we rode back to Wales that tail lights are quite small and quite hard to see in dusk/twilight.

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by pilninggas

[pilninggas]

The LED lights use 250mA each (i measured this) so they are run from the same circuit as the auxilliary plug. The cables are run as hidden as i could be, with the junction under the 'nose' shroud.