Driving spots on a M800ie

anyone have advice, recommendations or experience w fitting a set of driving/spots on a M800ie? I'm considering fitting spots for distance rather than side flood.. Any advice welcomed!

[Nickj]

Look at the Tourance web site.. then hop off to evil bay to find the same things direct from the Chinese manufacturers for half the price.
Anything using Cree high lumen LED units ought to be bright enough and not take a big hit on the available.
Not a real style match but this linky would probably do at 3000 lumens

[Mark64]

I've just put a pair of those type on my bike - they're a revelation, I'm chuffed to bits with them, they are quite discreet, draw very little power and give a good spread of light, build quality is great for the money, I've spent more than that just on bulbs and always been disappointed, I mounted mine on one of the (nearly) vertical frame rails next to the airbox and wired them straight to high & low beam on the headlight (mine have the 'halo' on low beam) the only downsides are that they are programmed to 'scroll' through 3 modes (low light, bright light & flashing) so if you flick main beam on and get the wrong mode just flick it back to low & it will go to the next one, it doesn't bother me unduly.
Hope this helps

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by Mark64

the only downsides are that they are programmed to 'scroll' through 3 modes (low light, bright light & flashing) so if you flick main beam on and get the wrong mode just flick it back to low & it will go to the next one

Unscrew the lens from the front, locate the 6-legged chip denoted as 'U2' and simply lever/pull it out and the light will be permanently in the bright mode so that you can use it as auxiliary high-beam light, wired with the high beam switch.

There are several youtube videos showing this BTW.

[Mark64]

Thanks for that Tim, good tip

I've got those mounted on the crash bars of my Triumph tiger 800, they throw a concentrated spot quite a distance and are excellent for getting you spotted in the mirrors of cars when filtering.

[Zimbo]

I have this on my M900, same light?

[Mark64]

[IMG][/IMG]

As fitted to my bike, the only downside for me is the 'halo' shines bright directly on the radiator and makes you think someone is behind you all the time but cant fault the beam & spread of light

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by Mark64

Thanks for that Tim, good tip

The reason I know is that I recently fitted a pair of these to my Monster and did this mod. to prevent the 3-mode configuration.

After having recently ridden home on a dark, damp evening I realised that my high-beam headlight was poor, dip-beam pretty good but the high beam just disperses into nowhere (plus the beam indicator light dazzles - easily fixed with a small piece of black duct tape!).

I may look into a better headlight ultimately but for now I decided a pair of small spotlights, fitted as discretely as possible would be a good solution.

I wanted them on only with high beam and with a separate switch so that I can switch them off even when high beam on but the 3-mode setup was not practical as every time I went from dip to full the things started flashing or dim etc. removed said chip and all is fine.

As for function, well they're not bad although I don't know where they get the 125w claim from? I did try just the one initially but really felt it wasn't enough so I fitted both and they do improve the headlight range thus making night-riding better.

I fitted them just below the front indicators on some easily removable brackets and plugs so can remove them in a matter of minutes if I want to but they blend in quite well so don't look too bad, plus I find Monsters kind of ugly (in a good way) so it sort of matches the Monster-ous look in some ways.

As for wiring, I fitted a fused relay powered from the high beam (and through an on/off switch) with power to the relay taken directly from the battery so that there are no 'surprises' due to standard Ducati marginal wiring.

Some pics;

[Darkness]

How heavy are the lamps Tim?
Adding mass to the fork assembly, especially away from the steering axis could change the handling, including the weave frequencies from castor effects?
One reason frame mounted fairings are more stable than handlebar ones.
Though of course it also depends on suspension set up, especially if the forks are dropped in the yokes, or the back end is "jacked up"?

[utopia]

Originally Posted by Dukedesmo

After having recently ridden home on a dark, damp evening I realised that my high-beam headlight was poor, dip-beam pretty good but the high beam just disperses into nowhere .

Would that have been on the return from Wells perchance ?
That was one of those nights when visibility was particularly poor.
But I do remember thinking that your (HID ?) headlight was easy to pick out in my mirrors because of its extra brightness.
And there were times when I thought I perceived it outshining my own (std with uprated bulb) headlight, from behind !
So I'm surprised to hear about the need for additional spots.
I'm guessing that you'd feel blind behind my headlight then.
And therefore, since you have devised a quickly detachable mounting for them, I just might consider getting a pair myself .. but only to be fitted when long, nightime rides were planned though.
I'll check your installation next time.

But really, the only reason for all this waffle is as a lead-in to saying ....
Wot ? .... you improved the FRONT light ???

[utopia]

Originally Posted by Darkness

How heavy are the lamps Tim?
Adding mass to the fork assembly, especially away from the steering axis could change the handling, including the weave frequencies from castor effects?
One reason frame mounted fairings are more stable than handlebar ones.
Though of course it also depends on suspension set up, especially if the forks are dropped in the yokes, or the back end is "jacked up"?

That is something that I would normally consider too.
However, I imagine that they are so close to the steering axis that their rotational inertia is minimal.
Though lightness (sorry/pun) is always a good thing.

I also often wonder about the "sail" effect of the large, std mirrors too.
Which is one reason I have bar-enders.

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by Darkness

How heavy are the lamps Tim?
Adding mass to the fork assembly, especially away from the steering axis could change the handling, including the weave frequencies from castor effects?
One reason frame mounted fairings are more stable than handlebar ones.
Though of course it also depends on suspension set up, especially if the forks are dropped in the yokes, or the back end is "jacked up"?

I didn't weigh them, I'm guessing maybe 0.5kg between them?

I certainly haven't noticed anything handling-wise or at (legal, of course ) high speed.

As for geometry, back end is jacked up around 25mm from standard on adjustable rocker. I'm not sure of the front height related to standard as I have different (916) forks and I don't know what standard height is but the bike is very stable, behaves impeccably and never had any weave or wobble.

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by utopia

Would that have been on the return from Wells perchance ?
That was one of those nights when visibility was particularly poor.

Indeed it was but I'd had reservations before, that prompted me to do something.

As you say the dip beam is good but, and this maybe because of the HID conversion not being ideal in a non-HID light housing?, the full beam is dire - it just scatters into nowhere.

I was OK when following you but when I went off on my own I actually found dip to be better than high, not helped by the super-bright LED full-beam indicator on the dash shining in my eyes which I have now 'dimmed' with the use of some tape.

So for £16, I thought it worth a punt and easy to remove if I don't get on with them.

The brackets are simply a flat bar held onto the inside of the headlight bracket using 2 bolts, one of which is the indicator fixing bolt and the other through an already present hole just above. The lights then just plug into a small wiring 'loom' connected to a relay, so removing the lights is probably a 5 minute job and maybe 10 minutes to re-fit. The relay and switch fitting are discrete and minimal enough to leave in place.

They send 2 narrow spot beams and make quite a difference to night-riding.

[Dukedesmo]

To add, the headlight on my Monster is not an OEM Ducati version, rather some aftermarket/generic round headlight (with a plastic housing that probably offsets any weight gain from the spots ).

I do have a comparison though with the standard Monster setup as my Guzzi has an OEM Ducati Monster headlight with conventional (55/60w?) halogen bulb - I looked at fitting a HID in it but the bulb is physically too long to fit inside the headlight housing. This light is, on full beam, better than my Monster's effort though and maybe HID isn't the best solution anyway given the results on my Monster?

The reason I wanted HID on the Monster is; thinking back to my early biking days, I had a Ducati 250 Scrambler with 6v electrics and the headlight was dire (I think it made the night darker! ) which made me always crave better, plus in recent years I have been spoilt by good headlights in cars (the lights on my car have the power of the sun!).

To which end I had already converted my 916 to HID and that works very well, but a 916 uses a projector type headlight on the dip beam, where the lens rather than reflector forms the beam (like these spotlights) and so HIDs work very well in it.

However 916 high beam is conventional reflector light so not best for HID but a 100w halogen works very well and, given that on high beam both lights are on, my 916 headlights are pretty good for a bike, especially a nigh on twenty-year old bike and I was trying to capture some of that on the Monster.

As said previously, I'm on the lookout for a better headlight solution for the Monster but I want to keep the classic large round light, so if anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears.