SW Motech Auxiliary Lights Review |
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SW Motech are well known from producing an extensive range of quality motorcycle accessories ranging from tank bags, hard luggage to frame sliders and crash bars. So when we were sent a pair of their auxiliary lights to review, we knew the products were from a company with a proven track record of producing high quality motorcycle accessories. The SW Motech Auxiliary lights kit includes two H3 55W ellipsoid lights which are designed to produce a broad dispersion of light in low light and fog conditions. Included in the standard kit is a complete additional wiring loom with relay and waterproof handlebar switch and some installation instructions.  SW Motech Auxiliary lights kit The kit does not include any form of mounting bar or attachment for the lights other than the mounting bracket, however SW Motech do sell as separate extras, auxiliary light mounts for 22 or 27mm tubing and an auxiliary light mount for BMW R1200 GS 2008 onwards for upper crash bars only. We had decided to fit these lights to a BMW R1200 GS but our bike wasn’t fitted with upper crash bars so we decided to purchase a Migsel Light bar from www.migsel.com which provides a stylish and simple means of mounting additional lights on the BMW R1200 GS.  SW Auxiliary light with bracket On opening the SW Motech Auxiliary lights kit you can immediately see that this a high quality product, the lights appear solidly constructed and the supplied loom, waterproof switch and relay are all well put together. Now although in theory the mounting of these lights is simple in nature we would suggest you only tackle their fitment if you feel qualified to do so, if not they should be installed by a qualified, experienced motorcycle technician.  BMW R 1200 GS without petrol tank and seats Fitment on the R 1200 GS involves complete removal of the petrol tank to run the loom along the spine of the bike and the seats to gain access to the battery. Once you have removed the tank and seats from the GS you can then run the loom along the existing loom on the bike up to the head stock and back to the battery. The supplied loom has two connectors to connect direct to the bikes battery, but our GS was already fitted with an auxiliary aftermarket Centech AP-1 fuse box to make the wring in of additional accessories easier on the BMW R1200 GS. So we removed the supplied connectors are wired the power cables directly into the auxiliary fuse box. As the BMW 1200GS bike has CANBUS wiring system and you can not just tap into the loom it as with more traditional wiring.  Waterproof light switch The supplied auxiliary lights wiring loom includes a stylish waterproof switch which needs to be mounted on the handle bars so as not to interfere with the movement of the steering and be in an easy position to operate.  Mounting bracket on the mounting bar The loom splits near the head stock with one set of wires (shorter) for mounting the left hand light and another set of (longer) wires for mounting the right hand light. One small issue we encountered is as the loom is premade and the left hand wire was only just long enough and the right hand wire was far to long, resulting in us having to lose much of the unwanted wiring by wrapping it around part of the cockpit nacelle mounting. Now we could have cut into the loom to shorten it but we didn’t want to have then have an additional wire join in the loom.  Left hand light mounted on bike The design incorporates a relay which needs to be mounted somewhere securely on the bike and also two in-line fuses holders that need to be mounted whereby they can be accessed in the event of a fuse blowing. The supplied wiring diagram shows the power lead from the relay running back to the same positive power supply i.e. the bikes battery and whilst the lights will work with the suggested set up this will mean that the power supply to the lights will not be switched off with the bikes ignition. Now we know there is the supplied handlebar switch, but this risks the lights being switched on by persons unknown when the bike is parked up or even worse the rider forgetting to switch the lights off and coming back to a flat battery. We chose to run the relay power lead into the back of the front mounted additional power socket power supply on our 1200 GS, this circuit powers down approximately 30 seconds after the ignition key is removed on the 1200 GS; hence overcoming both of the above issues. We found the installation took us approx 4hours though we suspect a qualified motorcycle technician would carry out the installation quicker, much of our time was spent cable tieing in the supplied loom neatly and running the loom out to the lights as unobtrusively as possible.  Lights on! We have to say the finished installation looks impressive and the fitment of additional lamps on the R1200 GS is something many owners do.  Lights on! Whilst the lights are designed to improve visibility in low light or fog conditions, we really wanted them as additional day-time running lights. We know that the car drivers tend to take a second look when they see three light points travelling toward them and having these lights switched on in the day time with your dipped beam will we feel sure make you a far more visible. We have definitely noticed car drivers taking a second look when they see our bike approaching.  Lights mounted on bike One word of warning when these lights are switched on, the light casing becomes extremely hot very quickly. We would have like to have seen some warning stickers on the lights cases to warn of this. We quickly tried the lights out for night time riding and found as claimed they do provide a broad dispersion of light with approximately the same intensity as the dip headlamp beam of our 1200 GS and they most certainly will be a big help in foggy conditions. Of course it is important to set the lights up so as not to dazzle oncoming traffic and we set the beam heights to be the same as the bike’s dipped beam.  Lights on at night time So we are sure the question many of you are asking is how much do these lights cost? With many kits on the market costing many hundreds of pounds we were really surprised when we saw the cost, they retail at only £98.69 inc VAT per pair. We consider these to represent very good value given the quality of the lights and the supplied installation kit. They are available from Motohaus Powersports. You can call them on 01256 704909 or visit www.motohaus.com. Review by Jon Booth - www.inter-bike.co.uk
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