Driving lights for Niken

[maximNikenGT]

1 hour ago, piotrek said:

Okay... so it's a stud that is part of the light assembly. I take it back then. I don't know that it's #7 though (one below I think, which isn't shown for some reason)... and looking at torque values on these fasteners around 5 lb-ft... 😬

 

I'll take a closer look when I start running cables back there to see if that's an option. If the bolt isn't already coming out of #7 and exists as a separate bolt for #8 I'll at least know if that's feasible in the future. 

[piotrek]

16 minutes ago, maximNikenGT said:

I'll take a closer look when I start running cables back there to see if that's an option. If the bolt isn't already coming out of #7 and exists as a separate bolt for #8 I'll at least know if that's feasible in the future. 

What I am seeing is that the bracket isn't fastened to #7, but rather this...

[maximNikenGT]

1 hour ago, piotrek said:

I think the bottom looks better, but watch fork travel vs. clearance from fender... maybe it's just the angle that makes it look like there could be contact.

Agreed. It has to pass this suspension test from Fortnine with no contact with the lights for position to be viable. 

[maximNikenGT]

2 minutes ago, piotrek said:

What I am seeing is that the bracket isn't fastened to #7, but rather this...

Got it. Will have a better look with upper cowling disassembled. 

[maximNikenGT]

Neighbor brought over his automotive ramps. Put one side of the Niken on two ramps stuck together and this is how close lights  mounted from the bottom came to hitting the top of the wheel fenders. 

I didn't feel as though I was at maximum deflection either on the automotive ramps,and the shocks weren't even under compression so The suspension absolutely could still go higher. 

No choice but to flip the lights to mounting only from the top of the bracket to be safe. 

[betoney]

7 minutes ago, maximNikenGT said:

Neighbor brought over his automotive ramps. Put one side of the Niken on two ramps stuck together and this is how close lights  mounted from the bottom came to hitting the top of the wheel fenders. 

I didn't feel as though I was at maximum deflection either on the automotive ramps so i assume that it could still go even higher.

Does that measurement include fork compression?  While the wheel is up on the ramp, hold the front brake and press down as hard as you can and see how much clearance you have between the bracket and the fender when the fork compresses.

[maximNikenGT]

2 minutes ago, betoney said:

Does that measurement include fork compression?  While the wheel is up on the ramp, hold the front brake and press down as hard as you can and see how much clearance you have between the bracket and the fender when the fork compresses.

Very good point betoney. No fork compression at the top. So no bueno to bottom mounting full size auxiliary lights. At least that takes one option off the table. 

[betoney]

9 minutes ago, maximNikenGT said:

Very good point betoney. No fork compression at the top. So no bueno to bottom mounting full size auxiliary lights. At least that takes one option off the table. 

Better to find that out now in the driveway than out on the road when the lights gets crunched by the front wheel. 😲

[maximNikenGT]

Ok - finally got the lights wired up correctly and trimmed to length. Hardest part was actually wire routing. Total time took me almost 5 hours including disassembly, reassembly, adjusting, testing and securing all cables. 

Part of the reason for such a lengthy install time was due to the challenges I had with cable routing. Originally I was planning on running the cables up over the snout of the Niken and utilizing the same electrical pathways that the headlights use. Only problem is that Yamaha left very little space remaining in the existing channels and holes up over the snout. If your cables are 16 gauge or smaller then you'll be ok, anything larger means you have to go another route or be open to drilling some holes (which I was not comfortable doing because of potential concerns with moisture). So I had to reroute the cables utilizing the same paths as the hydraulic brake lines. Now while the light cable sheathing is rated to some very high temperatures, I'm not worried about the electrical lines melting or anything like that, however I'm currently using velcro straps to keep the electrical cables secured to the hydraulic brake lines. While this is fine temporarily, I need to find a better solution immediately that can withstand the higher temperatures that will be encountered with hot brake lines as spring gets closer. 

I also connected the lights to my Aurora electronic switch from Arboreal Systems. Thus save some weight by eliminating the need for additional fuses,  a mechanical switch and associated wiring for the mechanical switch. 

First reactions - on the lowest setting with my amber fog light covers they're pretty good. Much more visible in traffic now with the auxiliary lighting. Crank up the power to max lighting and wow. Just completely blows away my stock headlights even with amber lenses. Not even close. I turned my settings to half power and then hit my high beams and couldn't significantly tell a huge difference in lighting. Dialed everything back to its lowest possible intensity setting and aimed the headlights downward to not offend oncoming traffic. Interestingly enough I could make out an upper hard light cutoff pattern with the Baja Design Squadron Sports and as such it was pretty easy to aim them down. 

The bracket does just fine and although I can notice a flickering in the light pattern at the nearest edges of the light to me due to vibration it occurs only on the lowest light intensity setting at slow speeds. Turn up the speed and I don't even notice it since my additional light is now doing a much better job at lighting up my periphery in addition to filling in the dark spots. 

Max settings is only usable if I'm riding in the middle of nowhere for extended distances, or in snowy conditions with the amber lens covers on. 

And just for fun I took off the amber lenses to see what clear lighting looked like and the light output at max was just awesome. Could never use anything close to max intensity in everyday riding but I'm very pleased that I finally have decent auxiliary lights on my Niken GT and cannot wait to do some long distance riding. 

 

[maximNikenGT]

Next project is to set the lighting to be in its lowest setting during regular riding and then have it switchable to max power on high beams, which I confirmed with Arboreal Systems owner Dan Grasseti that the Aurora Black Box actually allows. Here's how. 

You'll actually have to bi-wire the lights using two available circuits on the Aurora Black Box. So you'll start by posi tapping into the high beam wire and running that to the relay switched terminal located between the two ground ports on the Aurora. 

You'll then run one of the auxiliary lighting  wires to the circuit you want to set for regular daytime use. A lot of folks actually set this circuit to take advantage of the pulsing functionality to have the lights flash intermittently. I plan on just leaving the lights on their lowest setting. 

You'll then run the second auxiliary lighting wire to a different circuit that you'll have controlled by the relay switched terminal,and that's it. 

Will post results to see if this works. 

[maximNikenGT]

On 3/5/2021 at 4:34 PM, maximNikenGT said:

I'll take a closer look when I start running cables back there to see if that's an option. If the bolt isn't already coming out of #7 and exists as a separate bolt for #8 I'll at least know if that's feasible in the future. 

Confirming that the  bolts are part of the sealed headlight unit. Was not going to go through all the work needed to take the headlight out and separate the seals to swap two bolts with longer bolts. 

[maximNikenGT]

Trying to make sense of the high beam wiring. I found the wiring diagram that indicates color coding at the highbeam/lowbeam handlebar switch. I follow where the headlight control unit is (#79) along with the wiring for the highbeam (#82).

My challenge is where should I tap into the high beam to run it to my electronic distribution module. I would like to tap into it further away from the actual handlebar switch if possible but I cannot tell where the other end of the handlebar high beam wiring connects to from the diagram. Anyone have experience reading these kinds of charts that can help please? 

 

 

 

 

 

[biggo]

I had a quick look for the wires on my Niken could not find it but will re visit in the future. I think the l/h switches connect at the left hand junction box .

I had a Yamaha Tracer before this which is very similar in many ways the connection I made on that was under the left hand panel. 

From memory the high beam switching wire was yellow/ black and it was also negatively switched meaning you cant get a power trigger from it you need to run it through a relay. Once I worked it out it worked great  

I know the Niken is differant but I will try and find thread discussing it on tracer forum ,may be of some use.

 

[biggo]

 

[maximNikenGT]

On 3/11/2021 at 1:27 AM, biggo said:

 

Ok - had to get a basic understanding of what the heck negative/ground switching was. Best example video I saw was this one:

(2) Automotive Electrical Power Side and Ground Side Switches - YouTube

Now that I understand what a negative/ground  side switch is, that helps a lot in terms of trying to identify the wires that activate during high beam. 

Was thinking I may be able to tap into the wires under the snout of the Niken once I identify the wires or I find where the actual fuse is and use a special fuse connector like this: