Driving Lights--What's the best?

  • February 3, 2010 2:28 PM PST
    I have an 07 Street Glide and am considering adding Driving Lights to be more visible to oncoming traffic and others.  Would appreciate any comments/suggestions regarding reasonably priced products available.  I don't particularly care for the HD passing lamps.  However the fork mounted Motolight Halogens and fender strut mounted Kuryakyns both look pretty good.  Does anyone have "pros or cons" or other options to consider?  Thanks in advance....Dale
    • 0 posts
    February 3, 2010 3:39 PM PST
    Depends on what you want. If you just want to get noticed then the sealed beams style lights do a good job and they can generally be left on even at night.
    If you want to actually see better too, then a couple of options. The tri-bar lights and most of the high end light use the deflectors to "shape" the light to best advantage to see the best. The cheaper lights use a "shotgun" approach to just illuminate everything it can. The way to tell the difference is by looking at the front of the light. If the bulb is covered, then all the light has to come from the reflector and it is aimed. If you can see the bulb and it is not covered then it uses the shotgun approach.

    The shotgun approach lights well but is objectionable to other drivers. The aimed lights are not as noticable to others, and therefor not as objectionable.

    Me myself I have both. I have driving lights that are shotgun style for general driving and nighttime with no traffic, and I have aimed freeform style fog lights mounted to the hwy bar for night time driving. They cannot both be on at the same time. The signal for the relays are powered by the relative headlight wire so when I switch the headlight it drop's one light source and allows the other. Or I can just turn them all off, and run just the headlight.
    • 5420 posts
    February 5, 2010 2:56 AM PST
    Dale,

    I saw those Kuryakyn fender mount lights at their booth in Laughlin last year and they looked pretty nice. Another option is the lights that mount on the crash bar. I had a set on my last Road King and really liked them. I think they blend a little better since they hang under the top of the crash bar. Plus they are real easy to move up or down slightly depending on whether you want to light the road right in front of you, of shine down the raod a bit.

    The ones I had were similar to this, and I got them at J&P Cycles for around $175
  • February 5, 2010 3:19 AM PST
    What ever you choose be sure to read the specs and compare it to your electrical system to avoid drawing too many amps and causing problems.
    • 834 posts
    February 6, 2010 3:47 AM PST
    I had the highway bar mounted on my old roadking, they worked great.
  • October 12, 2010 5:45 PM PDT
    How about the Driving Light from all sales? I think this is also okay. You might want to try it.
  • October 19, 2010 11:03 PM PDT
    most of the dealers here have the LED fogs that mount at the bottom of the forks, most of the police bikes around here have them, you can see them extremely well.... I just can't remember the manufacturer....if no one else knows I can find out
  • October 19, 2010 11:21 PM PDT
    I have two 4" round fog lights I bought from Autozone for about 10 bucks that work very good. I have them on the turn signal stalks and wired into separate rocker switch so I can easily flick them on and off. I have a voltmeter and I noticed the two fogs draw less voltage than my headlight. I only use them in heavy oncoming traffic and at night to better illuminate the sides of the road as we have lots of nocturnal deer here in N. Florida.
  • October 28, 2010 8:12 AM PDT
    Thanks everyone for your comments & suggestions. I installed the oblong/oval ones on the crashbar and they worked out fine. Installation was simple and straightforward, and have received positive comments from the guys I ride with. My bike is more visible to oncoming & sidestreet traffic, plus more light to see deer & other animals at night.