Auxillary/Driving Light Mounting Location

Purchased a set of LED lights for driving lights and trying to decide on best location.  One popular location seems to be the reflector mounts on the fender, but has some concerns about the constant movement of the location causing premature failure (LED bulbs, so less likely than conventional) and the other concern is the constant movement of the light on the road vs a location on the frame/body area where there would be less movement, more similar to the headlamp.

These lights easily mount at the 2 lower fairing hex bolts that are on the underside of the front fairing and there is a metal support part that runs down to the location, so the weight should not cause any issues. In this spot the lights are tucked in and hidden giving a much cleaner look than on the external areas of the fairing.  The big concern here is the amount of travel of the fork and fender and whether or not the fender will hit the lights on the maximum travel of the forks.  I put one here and I like the location and look but I have not tested it on the road to see if it will hit.  Anyone try this location? If I can I may have to customize the mount so it doesn't hang so low and risk being hit. Photo of trial install below:



Lights:
LED CREE Spot Motorcycle

Hey "nut",
Looks like a neat spot if it works.  Just out of curiosity, have you tried to cycle the forks up and down by hand as much as possible?  Might give you a good indication to start off with.  I do believe someone else on this site used those mounting points to mount some flat mounting bars and extended them straight out a little way so they were actually more visible. Do a search on driving lights and check the photo albums. You might see them there. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

bicyclenut......I've just fitted the very same lights on the same fitting point.  After having fitted them I'm very pleased with the light output. VERY bright !  But I too am now concerned about them hitting the mudguard on full bounce.  I have managed to bend the brackets in a wee bit closer to the fairing and that's given me an extra inch.  That will now clear the mudguard on full bounce IF the wheel is pointing straight ahead but if the wheel is turned to the right or left a bit there is still the chance they will hit the mudguard.  My SWing is less than a year old with just over 1000 miles on so there is nothing worn out but the front suspension I find is very soft and have on occasion hit a pothole and bottomed out so this is what now worries me.  If the front suspension was a bit stiffer this may not be a problem.  But maybe that's another upgrade for another time.  But in the mean time I'm intending to remove the lights and have another think about making different brackets.  I like this location so would like to stick with it if possible rather than use big large brackets that stick out too far and don't look right.

Den

Den,

Good to hear you have tried it and it has worked so far. I didn't have a second person around to watch as I moved the forks manually this morning to see how close they come to the fender and I'll have to remember to check the clearance on turning too. Fortunately, its unlikely you would experience full compression of the forks upon much of a turn as you would only likely do this on low speed maneuvering into a parking space or such so I doubt there is much too worry about. I sometimes have my POV camera mounted on my handlebars in a location that would hit the windshield upon full turn but this has never happened during normal driving and only maybe moving around in the garage.

I too was thinking that bending the bracket or customizing the bracket to raise the light a little or move it to the outside near the fairing might work too. I'll do some experimenting and maybe see if my local machine shop guy can alter or create a different bracket.

I also prefer this location as they sit low like the fork mount but are more hidden and not as obvious when not in use. I'll keep you posted on what I figure out. Thanks,

Mark

If you type 'Light bar - safety and good looks' in the search box, you'll see the bracket DennisB used to make and sell - he even supplied longer bolts to fit it. May give you ideas.

Sadly, Dennis doesn't post on here anymore, wish he did, he had some great ideas and products.

mounted lights in same place and done about 1000 miles this summer and no problems apart from getting water in one from washing the SW and had to replace it but not a big job.