Never being too fond of the stock headlight, I wanted a replacement that was more industrial and technical. The stocker is just too "cartoonish" for my taste. It had to look trick yet be functional and aggressive at the same time, and it had to be LED. This is what I came up with...
The technical stuff...
The headlight itself is an impressive piece of kit. It's a Rigid Industries Dually D2 and is usually found on off road vehicles, boats, and ATVs. I can tell you it's bright as hell! It makes HIDs look washed out and dim in comparison. Its rated to 2600 lumens @ 28 watts in a 1lb package. 6 high powered LEDs at only 1.9A make it all happen. They actually just released a 36W 3030 lumen version...whoa! Compare that to 1200-1500 lumens at 55W for our stocker. No bulky ballasts, igniters, or wiring to hide as well = compact and clean. The housing is extruded aluminum and is basically a large heatsink. I hooked up the LED with an OEM harness connector (thanks Eastern Beaver!) so the whole thing is plug n play with no cutting or splicing of the factory harness required. Matte white to match the bikes colorway and to contrast with the carbon
Originally ordered a black version and did a quick mock up...
The mounting would not be possible without this trick CNC bracket from Crime Scene Choppers (
http://www.crimescenechoppers.com/) Yes, a "chopper" shop made this! Based on my measurements and diagrams they CNCd me a prototype that fit perfect the first time. It mounts on the factory tabs on the lower triple and can fit just about any compact headlight that has a mounting point on the bottom. This is much more ideal IMO than the ghetto fork strap mounts that are widely used. I designed the bracket so the headlight would be recessed in the forks as much as possible to avoid that "buck tooth" look of the headlight sticking too far out. I can't say enough about Crime Scene, they were a pleasure to work with and said they would be willing to make more if there is a demand. They made two of these so I know they at least have 1 left...
the mess before the wire cleanup...
Note: I am only running a single LED headlight, not a low/high beam arrangement. The LED is so bright it is like running a high beam at all times. It took some careful adjustment to aim the headlight as to not blind oncoming traffic but still be high enough to project far enough down the road. This LED is not DOT approved. The mounting bracket I designed is capable of running 2 of these D2 LEDs stacked, but it would lumen overkill in my opinion. I almost went with a LED lightbar from Rigid instead but settled on the more compact D2. Another option is to wire the light to power on at say 70% for low beam, 100% for high beam if you MUSt have high/low. Again, I didn't bother with this and I am pleased with the results. Since the LED is wired to the high beam wires my indicator is lit all the time but I can selectively turn the headlight off now with the high beam switch and run "stealth" if I feel the need
Oncoming point of view compared to my Navigator with OEM HID with 6K bulbs...
Off center oncoming comparison between our Leaf (OEM LED low beams) and the wifes SRX (OEM HID). As you can see, the D2 is incredibly intense. Pictures dont really do it justice, you have to see it in person to believe all this light comes from this tiny cube...
Not the best pictures but you can at least see the razor sharp cutoff and beam pattern. These are the "Driving Beam" versions FYI...
Other mods...
As you may have noticed, there is plenty of carbon fiber on the bike. In addition to the fork shrouds, the LED headlight "winglets" as I call them are simply there to add some style to the package. I angled them to match the line of the cluster and forks and give everything a more raked, aggressive look. I actually got the idea from the rear stabilizers on RC helicopters lol. Removing the OEM headlight meant I no longer had a way to mount the instrument cluster and turn signals. Oberon LED bar end indicators solved one problem. For the cluster, I fabricated custom aluminum brackets to bring the assembly down as much as possible providing for a much cleaner profile. The shrouds extend to the rear monotube as well
Excuse the lack of exhaust...NO I don't ride like that normally! I am right in the middle of my exhaust project...stay tuned!
