The driving lights on my bike were large round Markland halogen lights, long discontinued. They are incredible lights, and throw a huge amount of light out - but they looked out of place on my bike - yellowish compared to the white light emitted by the LEDs. So I decided to change them to LEDs as well.
After doing some research, I decided on the 10 watt Mini-Aux LEDs from SuperbrightLEDs.com. Drawing only 10 watts per light (as opposed to the 55 watts per light of my old halogen lights) I would also save quite a bit of power.
These waterproof (submersible!) 900 lumen lights are compact, and come in various beam widths: 10°, 30°, 60° and 120°. 120° is extremely wide, and illuminates not much more than the road immediately in front of you.
I ordered one 10° light and one 30° light. The 10° light, concentrating most of its light in a narrow beam far away, would be mounted on the left side of the bike to throw light as far as possible without blinding oncoming drivers. The 30° light would be mounted on the right side of the bike, and aimed slightly to the right. This would illuminate the right side of the road as well as the shoulder and ditch, to light up any nighttime wildlife. At $34.95 apiece, these lights are a steal.
Each light is packaged in a small plastic container, and comes with a lifetime warranty - something you get by default from SuperbrightLEDs, that you don't get from the Chinese eBay sellers.
The back of the package describes the CREE LEDs, IP68 rated sealed housing and polycarbonate lens.
Power drawn is only 10 watts, and the lights will run off 9 to 50 VDC. The light temperature is 6500K, or "cool white." 900 lumens of light is provided by a CREE XM-L LED.
The lights themselves are quite compact, only just over two inches square, and just slightly more than two inches long.
Should you desire more light, the lights can be "connected" using included hardware, so you can create a "row" of lights all connected to one another. Originally I had thought I might buy four of these lights, and mount a second set on the bottom of the first set - but the first set puts out so much light, I realized it really wasn't necessary.
More package details.
The lights come in white or black, I selected black (despite my white bike) because it's easier to keep clean!
Inside the package is the light, the mounting bracket, an optional connecting bracket (used to connect the light to another light), and a completely waterproof connector harness.
The connector is an extremely high quality, fully waterproof design.
Looking at the lens, you can see a magnifying lens over the LED itself, as well as a parabolic reflector surrounding it.
The mounting bracket slides into and mounts onto the light the same way the connecting bracket does.
The connecting bracket can be used instead of or in addition to the mounting bracket.
The mounting bracket slides into the light, and is secured using the included allen screw.
The connecting bracket does the same, sliding into a slot on the light, and fastening in place with an included allen screw.
I mounted the lights underneath the front cowl of my GL1500. I used existing light mounts that connect to the fairing frame to mount the lights. The light on the right side of the bike is angled slightly outward, and can be seen next to my camera. The mounting brackets are extremely sturdy, and can be used to position the light in any direction desired. The lights do not move or vibrate once tightened.
You can see the light bolted to the mounting bracket.
The moment of truth: The lights are extremely bright! Taken from the right side of the bike, you can see that the right-side light, with its wider beam spread and slightly outward angle, appears brighter than the left side light.
With my LED headlight on high beam and all other lights on, the amount of light blasted out from the front of my bike is breathtaking - yet it is well-aimed, and does not dazzle oncoming cars.
Overall I am extremely happy with these lights, and you really can't beat the price. Below is a video taken from my on-bike camera, travelling through some extremely dark, remote areas of southern Ohio, towing my camper, with my LED headlight and these LED driving lights in use. The lights actually light up the road (and trees) quite a bit more than what appears in this video: the lights are so bright, they are causing the camera to dial down its sensitivity, so it is not recording anywhere near what it could be in the dark!
