These are Hella Micro DE Fog (halogen) lights, model H13090611.
New lights in box
Remove the wrapping
The postman delivered them Halloween afternoon. About $113 from Amazon. The light bar to mount these on the GS wont be here for another week or two, though. That didn’t stop me from opening the box to see what I have.
The light bodies
Wiring harness, bulbs, etc.
The light housing is made from magnesium. The wiring harness is going to be a bit of a problem in that it is much larger than I need on the GS. If I can’t find a way to hide the excess wire I’ll shorten the harness. I hope it won’t come to that.
Bags of stuff
Light switch with indicators
The kit also comes with brackets, 55 watt H3 bulbs, hardware, cable ties, and a nice switch with LED indicator. The instructions are simple. I think the switch will wind up in my right hand-guard. The only installation issue I can foresee is wire harness routing and length.
Saturday, 2008-11-08
Today the light-bar went on the bike after morning straightening the mangling done the postman. [link]
Left fog light
Incorrect fog light ground
The first image shows the left light mounted under the light-bar. If I ever add driving lights they’ll go above the bar. The second image was my first attempt to connect the ground wire to the lights. As you can see the wire comes off the connector at a 90 degree bend. The bend needs to be toward the center of the housing, not the edge. Otherwise the rubber cap won’t fit.
H3 lamp
mounted, but not yet wired
The bulbs are H3 halogens. I was careful to not touch the glass when installing the bulb in the housing. The second pictures shows the lights on the bike. The wiring isn’t done, yet. I cabled tied the pig-tails coming off of the lights to keep them out of the way until I get time to do the wiring. Perhaps tomorrow or Monday.
Sunday, 2008-11-09
I didn’t have much time to play with the bike, today. When I got back from the breakfast ride I removed the tank from the bike and did a test fit of the wiring harness. The goal was to figure out what changes, if any, I’d need to make.
Wiring harness junction
Folded harness section
The harness is made for cars where the light are going to mount on opposite ends of a bumper with other wiring in the engine compartment.
I first thought I was going to have to shorten the harness and removed the electrical tape from the junction where the power goes to the two separate lights. This would be the place, I think, to make any changes. When I did a test fit I realized that I want to feed the lights from the center of the light bar. That means I only need to shorten one of the harness branches that go to the lights (they are different lengths). I re-wrapped the junction in new tape and folded one branch so the connectors are about equidistant from the center. The second picture shows the folded harness.
Right hand guard
Fog light switch
Light switch wiring
I decided to mount the switch (see above) in the right hand-guard where I can toggle the button with my right index finger. I used an alcohol swap to get any dirt/grease/oil off of the hand-guard then peeled the protective film off of the switch adhesive and stuck the switch to the guard. The wiring for the switch is parallel to the wiring for my GPS antenna, both cable tied to the stock right brake switch wiring.
More tomorrow.
Monday, 2008-11-10
Today I finished routing the wiring harness and checked that the lights worked. Major WWWobble took a break from his afternoon walk to offer verbal support as I finished the task.
Wiring cable tied to light bar
I actually did this part of the job yesterday but forgot to take a picture. As noted above, the lights are fed from from the center of the light bar. The next picture shows why.
Wiring doesn’t touch oil cooler
bundle follows center support
The bundle of wires will follow the center support along with my GPS and Radar power wiring and the relay trigger wiring that is tied to the low beam. I made sure that nothing touches the oil cooler, the handlebars as they are moved from lock to lock, and that nothing is under tension as the suspension compresses and releases.
Excess wiring
Relay and fuse under saddle
The harness is routed along the right side of the bike (the same place I had my motolight wiring) with the bundle of excess wiring along the right down tube under the vin plate then over to the cross tube to the right of the ABS and air box.
The relay and fuse are in the tool holder under the saddle. Power is taken directly from the battery. As I’ve only two additional connections to the battery, the lights and an SAE pig tail for various use, I don’t need an external fuse box.
Wiring path along right side of bike
Lights not yet aimed
Quarter view
Here are few daylight pictures with the lights on, but not yet aimed. I waited until duck to set the light height. It was quite easy as there is a very sharp cut-off. The left/right aiming will have to wait for a night time road test, though. Unlike the motolights the beam is nice and even with no real hot spot noted. Perhaps it wasn’t dark enough.
My initial impression is quite favorable, save that the switch feels a bit flimsy. I don’t expect to use the switch often so it may be good enough. Time will tell. I’ll make a point of taking an evening ride, soon, to see how well they work when riding in the dark. I expect I’ll at least need to adjust the side-to-side aiming.