Denali D2 mount points

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Gabe

Gabe

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Phil & daler, thanks guys! They look better and higher than I figured. I think I will pursue this setup. Thanks for taking and posting the photos.
 

silverdevil

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my lights are mounted like JungleJim's, on the mirror mounts. I added one other thing, they only work with bright lights, will not work with low beam only. the reason is if the running lights are on they are like the bright lights and if I am coming into traffic I can go to low beam and it will turn off the running lights and the high beam.
I wired it to the high beam by using a relay hooked to the high beam and come off the relay to the running lights, the reason is I can hit the low beam switch by its self quicker than hitting low beam and the on/off switch to the running lights.
 
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Houston, TX
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Mine are the D2 lights and I mounted them on the fenders like Phil's. My reasons were twofold:

1. Standard mount with only one tool required. Nothing to fabricate or purchase extra.
2. The resulting light triangle is large and easily seen. It is amazing how much this helps in city traffic.

I aimed the lights so that the beam roughly coincides with the headlight low beam. They fill in well and do not seem to cause any issues for on-coming cars.

The Denali lights were out of action for a while due to a faulty controller. During that time I noticed a significant increase in the number of cars whid did not seem to "see" me. I am gald to have back up and running.

keep the shiny side up,

Chuck
 

CommuterNT

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As Daboo has stated I have my D2 lights mounted on the tip over wings. Chris (Daboo) and I got together last year and did a light comparison and he posted the results. I believe they are under the lighting section. I've actually had my bike tip over with the lights mounted and it did put a couple of very minor nicks in the housing but nothing serious. I think it was a pretty minor tip over, if you were to have a more serious one I would guess all it would do is bend the mounting bracket and put some beauty marks on the housing. Both of which could easily be fixed with some straightening of the bracket and a rattle can of paint. I also made to wedges to match the angle of the wings so that the lights mounting bracket is level but that may be more work then its worth for some.

The D2's come with two light projector lamps, a fog and spot. I use the fog lamp as I'm mainly going for the effect of lighting up the sides of the road and for being noticed by others. I keep my lights point to just below where my low beam hits and have never had anybody flash me or say anything. I think they are plenty low to keep from shining in oncoming cars any more then my headlight. Another thing that is often overlooked but has been discussed here is the proper aiming of the headlight. I made mine a little higher which has made all the difference in lighting up the road ahead of me. I can see my headlight beam hit the back of cars and it hits just below most standard cars back window. Now if I want to light up the road and really see things, I just turn on my high beams and because the D2's have a high/low setting I have them synced to my headlight.
For me I find this the ideal combination of being seen and being able to see.

My latest project that I just finished is installing a set of Rigid Industries' Dually lights on a custom bracket up high like others above the mirrors. I had these originally mounted on the wings until I went for a slide with them and insurance bought me the D2's and I was able to keep the Rigid Industries ones. Had them kicking around for a couple of years before I finally got them mounted. I was able to purchase some amber covers to go over the lenses as I wanted amber lights that high, plus I already have the D2's on the wings. I have these lights pointed down to the area between my bike and the headlight low beam location. I have to say I really like this set up and I've have yet to have anybody flash me. There is no excuse for saying you couldn't see me!

Here are a couple of quick pictures I took to show you how it looks. The little lights you see on front fender are little Bike Viz led light pods bullets. They are only for visibility as they are too small and weak to light up the road. I also have a pair of red ones mounted on the rear under the panniers to give me a red triangle in back of the bike to help people judge my distance better at night. They are super simple to install as they are just a +/- wire. Don't judge the brightness of each light by the picture because of the short distance of where the picture was taken and the slightest up or down change effects how bright the lights look in the picture.

Sorry you are going to have to turn your head sideways. Couldn't figure out how to rotate them here.
20150212_214005.jpg
20150212_214047.jpg
 
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Gabe

Gabe

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Wow, great setup! I'll have to experiment with the fog and spot lenses and the fog as you noted for illuminating the sides of the road and being noticed sounds about what I"m looking for. Do you find with your setup and fog lights that your Denali beam range is exceeding that of the main headlamp, and if so then by how far in your setup? One of my biggest annoyances is that the headlamp illuminates a very small section of road, not much before or behind. :-/
 

Phil Tarman

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Gabe, I've got the spot lenses in my Denalis and they do a pretty good job of illuminating the road and the edges. The Denalis give me a wider lighted area and extend beyond the low beams, then the high beams reach farther than them. I wish I had one of the headlight systems like BMW's got that points where you're going.

Back in 2007, I hit a deer in WV about 15 miles south of Canaan Valley State Park. I didn't go down but my headlight went out. It was dark and I followed a buddy, about 15-20 feet behind him. The road was fairly twisty for several miles and I decided having a headlight out in front of the bike that was going into turns before I was a pretty optimal arrangement. :)
 
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Gabe

Gabe

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Wow Phil, glad to hear you survived unscathed... I've known deer to take out an ambulance. Whatever horseshoe or rabbits foot you have, keep a tight hold on it!
 

Phil Tarman

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Gabe, I know six people who have hit deer and one who hit a bear while riding the Classic C-10 Concours. None of them have gone down. All of their bikes were rideable after the accident. All of them spent about $2-3,000 repairing their bikes.

I'm sure that there are people who have hit deer on Connies and gone down, but I don't know any. I also don't know anyone who's hit a deer on an NT.
 
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Phil didn't one of the members on this forum hit a deer about 2 years ago and then another member purchased his damaged NT700 and fixed it up? Does that ring any bells?

Of course that does not mean you know them (although I am sure most of us think you know nearly all the members)
 
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Just to steer this excellent thread in a slightly different direction, I opted to install something other than Denalis.

I went with the Cylcops Optimus round light. Why, you ask? Because I wanted to do two things:

  • I wanted day and night time conspicuity
  • For night use, I wanted both a light to illuminate the area way down the road and off to the side so I could see Bambi.

The Cyclops light is available as a "combo" set, with one light a 10 degree spot and the other a 20 degree "wide angle". The spot was mounted on the left, and aimed fairly high so that I can light up the road far ahead. The wide is mounted to the right and aimed slightly to the right and illuminates the area closer to me. The lights operate at full power when I switch my headlights to high beam. That pretty much covers my night needs. I seldom ride at night, and try to avoid it, but sometimes, things happen.

Both lights are reduced to 30% power when I switch to low beam. This gives me better conspicuity both in the daytime and at night.

The Cyclops units are physically larger than the Denalis. They would not fit on the tip over wings, and I did not want to mount them on the fender. ( I put a set of Skene Photon Blasters there - thanx, Katherine.) That left only one option - next to the mirrors.

As usual, since I am unable to do anything more mechanical than flip a light switch, the work was done by Big Phil. (He's a GS rider, but he's on this forum.) He fashioned a steel mount that goes on the mirror mounts. Its a matter of taste having those big lights sitting up there, but I like it.

The only experience I have with the system is riding home from Phil's last night. Switching to high beams lights up the world. I won't have a complete report until I've ridden the bike on a long trip at night. I'll be happy to post pix of the lights with the mount if anybody wants them, but I'll skip the night-time shots of beam coverage.
 

Bigphillip79

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Post up the full frontal view at night. Looks awesome.
 
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So, I say "No night time shots", and who asks?? Phil, of course.

My wife took this shot with her cell phone, so its not the best quality, but it does do a good job of showing the combo system



On the right side of the bike, you can see that the light is not that bright. That's the wide angle side. The other side is very bright, and this is the 10 degree spot lens.

In case you're wondering, the lights on the forks are new Skene Photon Blasters.

I'm just waiting for somebody to say "But I didn't see you!"
 
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Gabe

Gabe

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Awesome set up Doug, No deer slaying for you!
 

junglejim

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If the deer don't get out of your way your lights will burn their hair off.
 
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