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PIAA Lights for my XC

8K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  retpd2001 
#1 ·
Wanted to have PIAA lights installed on my 13 XC (the dealer is offering $$ off since I bought from him). He says they make a kit for the Vision, but not the XC, but if I bought it myself, he would install it (same with a Stebal horn). Any suggestions on which lights and kit (and horn) to get? I am not stuck on PIAA if others have a better choice, want lights that help me be seen). Thanks in advance.
 
#3 ·
In my humble and somewhat biased opinion, for less than what would you pay for the PIAA bulbs, you can get a plug-and-play HID kit, with lifetime warranty, and twice the brightness of the PIAAs (3x the brightness of OEM halogens), less electrical draw, and less heat output - see this thread for more: http://www.victoryforums.com/showthread.php?t=14017.
 
#4 · (Edited)
CrossRoads is right. My 2012 XCT came with HID low beam headlight. I have added other lights to the front (KuryAkyn Silver Bullets with 35 watt halogen bulbs, and also tried LED bulbs). The extra lights do not add any noticeable light on the road. The HID headlight overpowers them. However, adding lights does make the bike more noticed in the daytime, IMHO, just because there are several sources of light. So, consider your goals.
 
#7 ·
Looking for extra lights to be seen and more visible to others during the day. The stock lights are very bright as you know, just want more of them up front to be seen. Thanks for the answers so far.
 
#6 ·
Here's a photo of CR's HID low beam and Clearwater LED's. Best combo in my opinion for day and night.
 

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#13 ·
It looks like you've used the highway peg mounts for your lights, do you have highway pegs on as well? I could not tell from the picture. I was thinking about the same solution but I have pegs on and I'm wondering if I can do both. Thanks!
 
#8 ·
I know a lot of folks think the HID is the bomb. BUT some of us don't play well with them. The factory HID is way too cool for my eyes. If there were a cost effective solution to making them standard I would.
All the extra lighting in LED, HID, etc., is too cool for me and some others. Our cars have HID that are white, how come no one can make one for a MC? They are all too blue and soft.
I have talked with Crossroads via email, and I think he is a stand up guy. He answered questions no one else could or would. I'm still in the same spot though. I just don't think I should have to "experiment" with the light colors and HOPE that one of them works.
Oh well, momma won't let me ride at night for now, hit one deer and no since of humor, who woulda thunk.
Good luck on your search.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Well, the first thing we have to know -- and you have to ask yourself, if you haven't already -- is: why do you want the lights?

[Edit: strike that. You already said, "want lights that help me be seen," which somehow I missed, in the first reading. Sorry.]

- If you're doing a lot of night riding, doing an Iron Butt run, etc., then you want driving lights, to see well down the road, at speed. PIAA and Hela have excellent driving lights.

- Another down-the-road option is CrossRoads' HID kit, which has gotten great reviews. (I'm disappointed in Victory for dropping the low-beam HID on the '13 XCs.)

- If you want conspicuity (and I fall into this category, and ride at night just a couple of times a year), then your best bet is probably a headlight modulator. I used one three bikes ago, and that, I believe, will get you most noticed by cagers. (I stopped using a modulator because I tend to travel above the speed limit, and I didn't want to attract extra attention from LEOs on the side of the road. Modulators will get you hassled on occasion, even though they're 50-state legal.)

- Again on conspicuity, non-modulator: you'll benefit from a "light triangle." This adds visual area to the bike, so cagers can get a better feel for your speed and movement. I use MotoLights on my XCT -- see my gallery for some pictures, including on the road -- because I transferred my current set from the bike I sold to get the XCT. Motolights are high quality, and have a wide focus (which is good for conspicuity and road-side fill-in, bad for down-the-road).

- Along the lines of MotoLights, there are many others. webBikeWorld recently (very favorably) reviewed the Denali Micro Lights. You might want to take a look at that write-up -- http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/denali-dm1-micro/review.htm -- along with similar reviews there. This may serve well for both down-the-road and conspicuity purposes.

- If you just want lights to look cool, or as additional turn-signals, that sort of thing, you might want to look at Kuryakyn "bullet" lights and their assorted mounts.

- If you do a lot of mountain passes, etc., and want fog lights, you might want to look at what PIAA, et al., have for that.

Here are a couple of Motolight pics from my gallery, anyway. Note that I replaced the stock halogen bulbs they come with, with 5-watt LEDs.
 

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#11 ·
Thanks Bill, I simply want to be see better, do little driving at night, so I will consider your motolights, looks like they are designed to fit right on your bike......
 
#12 ·
- Re the Motolights, they're very well made, no plastic, etc., and the price (ouch?) reflects that. Those are Motolight caliper mounts with their lights ( http://www.motolight.com/motolight-lights ); they make different caliper brackets for different bikes, varying the size of the bolt holes and included bolts, while the light assembly is the same. Very good for conspicuity and road-shoulder lighting, as I mentioned, because of the wide beam (which also means not so good for lighting up down the road).

This particular set of Motolights is going on five or six years, now on its second bike; all I had to do was spend something like $30 to get the appropriate caliper mounts. You can see larger pics of this setup in my gallery. I also had a set of Motolights on my 1997 BMW R850R, but I sold those with that bike in 2000.

- If you're really almost exclusively interested in being seen, perhaps even better conspicuity might result from using the Photon Blasters, http://www.skenedesign.com/lights/PB_Features.shtml . These have gotten good reviews in some BMW forums, are cheaper than Motolights, and may be more eye-catching (particularly in amber).

Lots of choices out there!
 
#14 ·
No Hwy pegs mounted on my XC. The mounting bracket occupies both of the Hwy peg mounting points. cheers
 
#16 ·
I went with a 2 sets of Denali Micros (1 set as fog lights and 1 set as driving lights) from Twisted Trottle.com wired to a Victory switch in the dashboard for the price of one set of PIAAs wired similarly.

Here is the thread posted earlier.

PIAAs are a very nice light as well, but as stated earlier, a little pricey.

steviej
steviej: I guess I missed that earlier post of yours. Nice setup, looks like a good value for your money, and I found your thorough responses to questions useful.
 
#17 ·

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#18 ·
Thanks!

Thanks for all the input! I appreciate everyone's time.
 
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