functional - blingtional

[hubcapsc]

Until a couple of weeks ago I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Rivco light bar for
a Valkyrie. An awesome VRCC member noticed the interest I was showing in them on another
thread, and he offered to sell me a set he had for a great price. YAHOO!

The fender rails are from Big Mike - they're new and he had them priced $100 less than they were
when they were available new at the store... hope they work with a rattlebars bag drop kit.

I have motolights on my bike, they make me visible to others. I always wish I had more light for
my own vision when I'm riding on dark country roads at night, so hopefully the Rivco lights will help
that - I ordered Rivco's halogen bulbs to put in them.

I've been thinking of trying to hook them up so that they only come on when I have the headlights
on high-beam, and pointing them to maximize how much they light up the road in front of me, that
way when I hit "dim" for oncoming traffic I don't blind them... help me decide why this might be
a stupid or difficult-to-implement idea... my fuzzy idea thus far is to make the high beam button
somehow do its regular job and also trigger a relay...



-Mike

[Chrisj CMA]

IMHO those spots are just as important during the day as at night.  My original cobra spots hardly even lit up the road but they were very visible to others, so they were on ALL the time.  My new spots light up the road as well as the headlight but I wouldnt think of leaving them off EVER

[JimL]

Wooahhh.....those Cobra fender rails are harder to buy on the open market than weapons grade plutonium!!  Excellent addition to your Red and White!

However....it just occurred to me that your Red and White is a Tourer....aren't those rails going to be out of sight behind those saddlebags??!!

[Chrisj CMA]

Nice Cobra fender rails!  I thought of those, but knew my HitchDoc would just cover them up........Id still like to find the radiator covers....ya just bling.......but anytime I can replace a plastic part for a metal one its worth it

[Black Dog]

Mike,

While it may sound like a good idea to make yer spots work only with the brights, it kind of defeats the reason yer puttin' them on...

I noticed a dramatic drop in the number of cagers pulling in front of me, once I added the Rivco's.  I have them on 100% of the time.  Where I live (30 miles west of Milwaukee WI), deer are as abundant as cars, or so it seems (my son just hit one Tuesday evening...  He's OK, but $4400 damage to his '04 VW R32).  Once you play around with how they are aimed, it gives you a very nice view, of the sides of the road, and the critters that like to play there.  I'm a firm believer in never having too many lights, and my observations have convinced me that cagers have taken notice.  The way mine are aimed, I've never had an oncoming driver 'flash' me as if I was blinding them.

Two things about mounting them...  Make sure that the 'turn signal mounting (around the forks) is very tight...  In the beginning, I had intermittent issues with one of the spots not working, and the mounting is where they get their ground.  It needs to be TIGHT.  The other thing, is the mounting of the switch.  Rivco's directions say to drill a hole, in the top of the headlight bezel ( ).  I used the triangular plastic piece, to the front, left side of where the gas tank meets the frame.  Mounted there, I can reach down with my left hand, and turn them off, if necessary, and I didn't garf up the beautiful chrome on the headlight.

I know you will love 'em, and you will be safer because of them...  All chrome is good.  Safety chrome is better 

Black Dog

[hubcapsc]

Chris and Black Dog...

I agree about the importance of lights with respect to being seen by others - the motolights are always on:



They make people see me, and they do light up the sides of the road at night. It's just that high beam
with just the headlight doesn't light up the road ahead nearly as awesomely as my car does... I'll probably
take your advice and deploy the Rivco lights the "normal" way - just fishing for the best way to "light up
the road ahead"...

JimL...

The fender rails won't be totally hidden by the saddlebags ...

Chris...

I got these cheap from a rural Honda shop's dusty cut-out bin... stop at the Honda shop every time
you're in a new town!



Black Dog...

I don't have the switch, just what you see in the picture. I was thinking about what gauge wire to use in the install, what kind
of switch to use, and how to employ a relay, when I stumbled over this at HDL:


http://www.directlineparts.com/product.asp?pid=4402&str=2

And I plan to more or less wire it based on this schematic from Rivco:



The motolights came with a wimpy looking (but so far durable and long lasting) plastic switch... but I don't like the places I've
tried to mount it. My plan now is to mount the motolight switch on the triangular plastic tank piece on one side, and the
switch for the Rivco light on the triangular piece on the other side, just like you're suggesting. I don't have the Kuryakyn
harness in hand yet, so my fuzzy plans might change...

It turns out that now that I know what Rivco lights are, I have a buddy who has them. I went over to his
house to look at how he mounted them and stuff on Sunday... he used the Rivco toggle switch and mounted it in
the headlight bucket, he likes it and it looks OK...



Thanks for everyone's help and opinions...

-Mike

[Jess from VA]

Everyone is forgetting Mike said he runs the caliper mounted Motolights full time to be seen by others (so do I).  So he already has the magic triangle of forward light on full-time.  

But Mike, I'm still not sure I'd wire the passing lamps to only come on with brights.  In essence, at night any way, you could never run them in traffic cause you'd get flashed by everyone.  I have an older (toggle switch) version of the below master cylinder three switch box on my SV which controls  Motolights on the caliper and PIAA 1100s on the fork wings.  The switches are full time hot, so I must remember to turn them off at a stop or risk draining the battery....whoops.  

But my point is, I think you are better served to have accessory lights wired to individual switches, so you can choose when and where you want to run them.  A moto bulb could go out or the moto circuit could fail, or you might find the passing lamps work better than motos in a heavy fog (where you never want your brights) and then you could just switch on the passing lamps.  Of course you don't have to spend for a fancy switch box, but my point is a separate switch gives you maximum flexibility for a nice passing lamp upgrade, instead of being tied to brights only.  JMHO  

http://www.hondadirectlineofshadyside.com/stores/product.asp?pid=5647&str=2&ID=181351313

BTW, my SV came with the cobra grooved fender struts, and while the bags do cover them to the side, they are still visible and pretty to look at walking around the bike.

[Black Dog]

Sounds like you have a good grip, on what needs to be done...

If you are looking for better high beams, swap out the stock bulb, with a 100/55 bulb...  Ya keep the stock 55 watt low beam, keeping the other drivers happy, but when ya flip over to 'high' beams, that 100 watts, is like a flame thrower 

Black Dog

[hubcapsc]

... Of course you don't have to spend for a fancy switch box, but my point is a separate switch gives you maximum flexibility for a nice passing lamp upgrade, instead of being tied to brights only.  JMHO  

http://www.hondadirectlineofshadyside.com/stores/product.asp?pid=5647&str=2&ID=181351313

Frank Smoak has  a switchbox like that (or similar)... that is a definite consideration if I give up on finding a decent
mounting place for my plastic switches...

BTW, my SV came with the cobra grooved fender struts, and while the bags do cover them to the side, they are still visible and pretty to look at walking around the bike.


Standing around in the parking lot is the only place that blingtional stuff has any value 

-Mike "nice bike"

[hubcapsc]

Sounds like you have a good grip, on what needs to be done...

If you are looking for better high beams, swap out the stock bulb, with a 100/55 bulb...  Ya keep the stock 55 watt low beam, keeping the other drivers happy, but when ya flip over to 'high' beams, that 100 watts, is like a flame thrower 

Black Dog

I have the Sylvania head light that BigBF touts on his web page... I've read stuff in the tech archives about people adding high-watt highbeams and
melting stuff... I like the idea, though... can it be done without any modification? Any specific light to suggest, or just any compatible light that has
that rating?

-Mike

[Gryphon Rider]

To have your spots run only with the high beams, simply take power for the control circuit of your relay from the blue high beam wire inside the headlight shell.  With your Rivco wiring schematic, it's hard to see their lines, and I can't see how they have the headlight as part of the circuit, but where it says "any wire with power when the ignition is on", the "any wire" would be the blue high beam wire.  Your spots would then be on with the high beam only, and would of course shut off when the key is off.

I put my spot light switch in the centre cover under the front of the seat.

[Black Dog]

"can it be done without any modification?"

Others may not agree, but I've been running that setup, with no modification, for 7 or 8 years, and no 'smoke' yet 

I got mine, as a special order, from Auto Zone...  Sylvania, I believe.

Black Dog

[hubcapsc]

To have your spots run only with the high beams, simply take power for the control circuit of your relay from the blue high beam wire inside the headlight shell. 

  I hoped there was a wire in there somewhere that was only hot when the high-beams were on...

With your Rivco wiring schematic, it's hard to see their lines, and I can't see how they have the headlight as part of the circuit,

I think they're showing that the headlight is not  part of the circuit.

I put my spot light switch in the centre cover under the front of the seat.

That's a good place. But...  ... I took my center cover off twice this summer. I'd rather have fourteen root canals
than take it off again... I think if it ever breaks, I'm going to just get a new bike...

-Mike

[Scott in Ok]

IMHO those spots are just as important during the day as at night.  My original cobra spots hardly even lit up the road but they were very visible to others, so they were on ALL the time.  My new spots light up the road as well as the headlight but I wouldnt think of leaving them off EVER

Except of course, when there is oncoming traffic after dark?  You wouldn't think of blinding oncoming traffic, now would you?

Mike, you are on the right track bro.  Like others have said, use the highbeam to trigger a relay to turn on the rivco's.  On a set of lights I had, I had an additional switch to "enable" them in the event I didn't want them to come on at all.  But when "enabled", the highbeam switch turned on my spots.  They were way to bright to be used at night if there is oncoming traffic.

-Scott

[Scott in Ok]

FYI, I believe its the blue wire inside the headlight(housing) that you use to trigger from the high beams.  Could easily verified with a volt meter or test light.

Via Rattlebars:

http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/foglites.html

-Scott

[hubcapsc]

Mike, you are on the right track bro.  Like others have said, use the highbeam to trigger a relay to turn on the rivco's. 

Cool... you "blue wire" guys got me thinking it will be easy to do. And undo, if I don't like it...

-Mike