[OX-34]

Jon and Chris I never considered leaving the ballast dangling out. Its heartening to read that rain has not been a problem for the exposed ballast.

I'll have another look and see where I can secure it and take Ken's tip to use a grommet to seal around the wire.

My bike is at the dealer waiting for my fairing parts to arrive following my kangaroo strike. Apparently 8 weeks is the expected delivery time for parts from BMW in Germany. This will be my last BMW......

 

[Rev Ken]

Let's keep politics out of it. Besides, your government will be the ones to charge for importing it.

Chris

Tongue in cheek, no intention of offending. I just know that when I buy from the USA it costs an import duty and handling charge, so assume it happens the other way, but no idea how much!

 

[Daboo]

Ken.

 

[Titlerider]

I installed the Cyclops H7s earlier this week. I highly recommend taking the fairings and windshield off, as well as unbolting the headlight module and letting it rest on a blanket on the front fender. The reason for this is twofold. First, every time I change a bulb, the little factory clips that hold your headlights in the reflector pop off (slide out from the anchor screw) and you can't reposition them without taking the headlight assembly off. Second, I used a Dremel-type tool to cut/grind a place for the high beam's ballast wires to neatly fit under the cap (I made the gap in the body of the back of the headlight housing so that I wouldn't affect the rubber gasket of the cap) and I could not have done that without disassembling the bike as described. The cap fits on great. I hope that the heavy duty Velcro they provided holds it on to the bottom of the headlight housing. The light output is very good. The beam pattern looks just like the factory, only brighter. Much brighter.

 

[Noel]

Out of curiosity, is the main reason for this for night riding or conspicuity? I can't bring myself to ride at night around here there are too many deer, and I'm deer-paranoid!

 

[Daboo]

I can only answer for myself. Until I retired two weeks ago, I was using my motorcycle to commute. I'd often be riding in the dark going to work, and riding home at night. As I tell people, I don't mind riding in the rain. I don't mind riding in the dark. But I really do not enjoy riding at night in the rain. The gray pavement turns black and it seems like all the light that hits it, gets sucked up.

So for me, on the last two bikes, I've added auxiliary LED lights that I could use to supplement the motorcycle's headlight. With the Cyclops LED light, I don't feel the need nearly so much, and like you, since I retired and quit the hour long commute I can chose now when I ride at night and when I don't.

Chris

 

[Zamp]

I have a 2015 GT. Tried to install the Cyclops lights, and gave up.. Like Titleride mentioned the clip kept on coming loose.
Maybe give it another shot, and disassemble the housing, setting it on the front fender, as recommended.
Mostly for daylight use LA traffic, lights good, and ugly hi viz helmet helps too.

r

 

[Daboo]

I read about the issues others were having and remembered changing the headlight on one of my cars. I really had a problem with the clip on it, and I had a lot more room. So when I got ready to put my Cyclops LED light in, I studied several videos on changing it over and over and over and over again. Then when I released the clip, before anything moved, I clipped it back on again. Maybe a couple times. It went together without any issues when I did it for real.

Chris

 

[Zamp]

Success.. with the Cyclops LED lights
Was able to fit the driver and connectors inside stock housing, while still on the bike.. It was a bit of a squeeze, and took some time, but it's all in there.. Boy these things are bright..
It took some patience..

 

[Maccam26]

I have a 16 f8gt, cyclops now has covers available for about $20 each over bulb cost, should I opt for them for proper cooling of the system?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Daboo]

You can chose to install the larger covers...but you don't need any new covers to make the installation work.

You can do it without the cover and save a couple $$. I couldn't get the ballast or whatever it is called to fit inside, so I drilled a small hole in the bottom edge of the OEM cover to run the wires outside. I attached it with velcro, but that came loose. In the meantime, it doesn't seem to make any difference except for appearance...assuming you can get someone interested in looking at the back of your headlights.

The low beam all fit within the headlight housing just fine.

Chris

As for the comment about the Velcro coming loose that held the driver against the underside of the headlight housing, I just used some glue on the sticky side of the Velcro to help it out. Works great.

Before the people selling the Cyclops lights came up with the covers, do you think they told people not to install them? Of course not.

Chris

 

[Gary]

Having a little trouble understanding this. I would like to have the LED low beam only, and fit inside existing cover. Is this it?
thanks

 

[Daboo]

Yes.

I personally went with the Cyclops LED lights. One of the things I liked about them is that they use a built-in fan for active cooling of the bulb. Some of the others just use a heat sink. That would probably work fine on a headlight where the rear was exposed to air movement, but in the confines of the headlamp area, I thought it best to use the fan. Another reason I liked going with Cyclops, is they have videos showing you what to do to install the LED bulb. In other words, they have real life experience in installing it on F800s.

Chris

 

[Gary]

thanks for clearing that up chris. GS vs GT is not clear to me at website. may i trouble you for proper model #?

 

[Daboo]

Gary, it looks like this is the correct one for just the bulb. https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/4000-Lumen-H7-LED-Headlight-Bulb_p_86.html

With a little patience, you can fit the driver inside between the headlight housing and the back of the reflector, so the entire thing is inside. I had mine go out earlier this summer. They were surprised at that, but said it can happen. So they gave me a brand new bulb and driver. I decided to put the driver on the outside this time and keep some of the heat out of the headlight area. I don't know if that would be an issue, or not, but decided to try it anyway.

This option has a high beam bulb (same H7 bulb) and includes the cap to fit over the high beam side. There isn't enough room to fit the driver inside on that one. They also have a check box to include a low-beam H7 bulb in the purchase.

This option includes both the low and high beam bulbs, and caps for both the low and high beam headlights.

I think this is the thread that towards the beginning someone installed these and just drilled a whole on the edge of the OEM cap to let the wires for the driver pass through so the driver can sit outside the headlight assembly. I've had mine like that for about 10K and have had no issues. If you do this, simply move the rubber seal out of the way and drill through the bottom edge. When you put it together, pass the driver and wires through the rubber seal, then slide the wires into the new hole and put the rubber seal in place. The driver can be exposed to water with no issues.

Chris

 

[Gary]

good job chris. thank you. happy holidays my friend

 

[Rev Ken]

An HID conversion is simpler and suits me!

 

[Daboo]

Rev Ken, I'm curious as to why you think it simpler? It's been a few years since I installed HID lights, so I could easily be wrong.

The thing I did like about the LED lights is that they have solved the problem of getting the light output to match that of a halogen bulb. The light pattern is almost identical to the halogen bulb pattern. The HID lights I installed on another bike had so much light spray that they blinded oncoming drivers.

Chris

 

[jim130]

You need to use H7R Hid bulbs, they're designed for use with reflector type lamps.

 

[Barbon]

Many of the early "super bright" LEDs were junk, a waste of money. The bulbs that are available now, however, such as those from Dynamic Motorrad and Cyclops, are vastly better and are basically plug-and-go. Unless they have also improved significantly, I can't imagine messing around with an HID conversion. The kit I bought for my long-departed R12RT was a mess. Others had better luck, but the version I bought is still buried somewhere in my basement discard repository.