Suggestions for external auxiliary/ spotlight - BMW 1150GS

[Britzilian89]

Hi All

Background
In the last few months I have bought a BMW 1150GS. Previous owner did a big overhaul with new clutch and a host of other stuff, including a big service. Low miles for year a bonus and the thing runs like a dream.

Everything works, plus I added a y piece to join up with the Remus can. Bike is now delish and I’m enjoying it for my long work commute 1-2 days a week. Parfait


Night time riding
Only issue is the average lights for night time. So my thinking is auxiliary lights, the type you normally see on grandad bikes. I don’t want to pay a fortune as I think in winter I may px the bike for a GSA but wondered if anyone here has a suggestion of decent but very reasonably priced aux lights (with all cabling and handlebar button)

Lower the price the better, don’t want some expensive system that costs as much as the bike! I know people will say I could buy expensive and then take it to next bike, but think it adds value so would keep it on the GS


Thanks

[Jazoli]

The cheapest improvement would be to change the headlight bulbs for LED or HID, you may find that you won't need aux lights after doing so.

[Fattyfat]

Completely O/T, do you mind revealing the miles and approx purchase price of your bike? I'm looking at one on Monday and trying to gauge the market value for these

[Britzilian89]

Jazoli said:

The cheapest improvement would be to change the headlight bulbs for LED or HID, you may find that you won't need aux lights after doing so.

Thanks FF - but don’t really want to start messing around with the normal lights

It’s a 2004 so it’s 18 years old now… lights working fine so it’s best keep them as is!

[Britzilian89]

Fattyfat said:

Completely O/T, do you mind revealing the miles and approx purchase price of your bike? I'm looking at one on Monday and trying to gauge the market value for these

Hi

Mine was bought nearer winter, so you will pay more now and once we get to October ish onwards you should be back to better deals

Anyway, mine was 2004 and 34k miles, but more importantly massive service plus brand new clutch. Remus exhaust, engine protection, headlight protection, etc etc usual extras

£3.5k ish

[black-k1]

Britzilian89 said:

Jazoli said:

The cheapest improvement would be to change the headlight bulbs for LED or HID, you may find that you won't need aux lights after doing so.

Thanks FF - but don’t really want to start messing around with the normal lights

It’s a 2004 so it’s 18 years old now… lights working fine so it’s best keep them as is!

I don't understand how you think a "plug 'n' play" HID or LED bulb replacement will involve more messing around with the existing lighting that trying to add aux lights. For any aux light to give enough light to actually be of benefit to it'll need to be switchable with the low/high beam (or you'll just dazzle and ps off every other road user), will need to switch on/off with the ignition but will need to be powered and fused separately. How are you going to achieve all of that without "messing with the existing lighting"?

[OverSteery]

I put 80k miles on my 1150.
I fitted a HID and it made a huge difference. Any half decent kit will not need any wire cutting and there is room in the beak to stash the ballast resistor box thing.

It was before LEDs were available, so I can't comment on those.

[Fattyfat]

Britzilian89 said:

Hi

Mine was bought nearer winter, so you will pay more now and once we get to October ish onwards you should be back to better deals

Anyway, mine was 2004 and 34k miles, but more importantly massive service plus brand new clutch. Remus exhaust, engine protection, headlight protection, etc etc usual extras

£3.5k ish

Excellent, cheers dude! Gives me an idea - I'm looking at a 03 with 43K, need to confirm history etc but closer to 3K seems where I want to be with it, vendor wants 3.5K

Good luck with yours and enjoy!

[Britzilian89]

Fattyfat said:

Excellent, cheers dude! Gives me an idea - I'm looking at a 03 with 43K, need to confirm history etc but closer to 3K seems where I want to be with it, vendor wants 3.5K

Good luck with yours and enjoy!

I think my answer is “depends on how much big ticket items” have been done in the last couple of years on the bike you are going to see

As one of the other PH Forum members has just said, he has 80k and more on his so they do last well

My thing with mine was “ok yes it is old, but a massive service and new clutch is about as good as you can ask for”

If yours doesn’t have any of big ticket items done, then I agree with your estimate so that you can then do a big service and have budget for whatever is found

[RockBurner]

Jazoli said:

The cheapest improvement would be to change the headlight bulbs for LED or HID, you may find that you won't need aux lights after doing so.

Unfortunately, this doesn't really help that much with the 1150GS full beam. It's a very focused beam that only gives you about a 2-3 meter diameter illumination at 50 yards distance (if that). I have the same light units on my Rockster.

I've had the same issue as the OP since I bought my first Rockster in 2004, and I've added extra lights that come on ONLY* with the full-beam, and I angle them to fill in the gaps that are caused by the lack of spread from the original full beam unit.

I've used PIAA 1100Xs, they were pretty damn good, well worth the £120 or so (I can't remember what they cost, but I bought a second set when the 1st was damaged in a crash, the 2nd set were then damaged in another slight drop some years later). These came with a full sub-loom and were very easy to wire in.

I've used HELLA FF50s: unfortunately the beam on these seem to be more shaped like a fog-light (a wide, flat beam shape when projected) and they're not that bright tbh. These did NOT come with a sub-loom, but I simply wired them into the existing PIAA loom that I already had on the bike.

I'm in the middle of fitting a pair of Denalis (D1s I think), so will report back on what they're like. They come with a full loom that seems a bit better put together than the PIAA wiring (proper waterproof DIN connectors and everything) - The PIAA kit seems more built for cars than bikes)


I wire the '12v supply' light, (which trips the built in relay in the sub-loom) into the cable that feeds the full-beam indicator bulb in the instruments. That way the aux-lights are triggered by the full beam coming on (without messing with the actual wires that feed full power to the main beam), and I don't need to turn the aux-lights on with another switch. (the switch that comes with the kit IS stuck somewhere I can hit it, but I leave it 'on').

• This is to prevent causing any undue glare to other road users, and also to prevent the bike looking like a car at longer distances at night. (if there's ONLY 1 light at a distance, it looks like a bike, if there's multiple lights, the bike looks like a car when all you can see is the lights).

Edited by RockBurner on Monday 27th June 11:38

[RockBurner]

Britzilian89 said:

I think my answer is “depends on how much big ticket items” have been done in the last couple of years on the bike you are going to see

As one of the other PH Forum members has just said, he has 80k and more on his so they do last well

My thing with mine was “ok yes it is old, but a massive service and new clutch is about as good as you can ask for”

If yours doesn’t have any of big ticket items done, then I agree with your estimate so that you can then do a big service and have budget for whatever is found

Sounds about right. The GS is a little over-priced on the market anyway (it has 'cachet' because of the 'Long Way Round' programmes), but they're a solid reliable beast and very easy to maintain if you're reasonably competent with a spanner.

[Britzilian89]

RockBurner said:

Unfortunately, this doesn't really help that much with the 1150GS full beam. It's a very focused beam that only gives you about a 2-3 meter diameter illumination at 50 yards distance (if that). I have the same light units on my Rockster.

I've had the same issue as the OP since I bought my first Rockster in 2004, and I've added extra lights that come on ONLY* with the full-beam, and I angle them to fill in the gaps that are caused by the lack of spread from the original full beam unit.

I've used PIAA 1100Xs, they were pretty damn good, well worth the £120 or so (I can't remember what they cost, but I bought a second set when the 1st was damaged in a crash, the 2nd set were then damaged in another slight drop some years later). These came with a full sub-loom and were very easy to wire in.

I've used HELLA FF50s: unfortunately the beam on these seem to be more shaped like a fog-light (a wide, flat beam shape when projected) and they're not that bright tbh. These did NOT come with a sub-loom, but I simply wired them into the existing PIAA loom that I already had on the bike.

I'm in the middle of fitting a pair of Denalis (D1s I think), so will report back on what they're like. They come with a full loom that seems a bit better put together than the PIAA wiring (proper waterproof DIN connectors and everything) - The PIAA kit seems more built for cars than bikes)


I wire the '12v supply' light, (which trips the built in relay in the sub-loom) into the cable that feeds the full-beam indicator bulb in the instruments. That way the aux-lights are triggered by the full beam coming on (without messing with the actual wires that feed full power to the main beam), and I don't need to turn the aux-lights on with another switch. (the switch that comes with the kit IS stuck somewhere I can hit it, but I leave it 'on').

• This is to prevent causing any undue glare to other road users, and also to prevent the bike looking like a car at longer distances at night. (if there's ONLY 1 light at a distance, it looks like a bike, if there's multiple lights, the bike looks like a car when all you can see is the lights).

Edited by RockBurner on Monday 27th June 11:38

Interesting - thanks

I have a biking buddy who has worked out who I am on PH and got in contact offline saying he will sell me his at a massive discount, some aux lights he took off from one of his many bikes (big guy is lucky to have a bike each for a type of riding event - be it trackday / MX / 3 day tour / fun ride out and more).

So it potentially looks like problem solved! Second hand aux lights here I come

Thanks all