I agree Tarpits.  One of the few LED running light kits that throw off enough light to actually be used (not just seen).  If they get these fitted for the Vision and we can get in on some kind of group buy discount, I'm in.

Here's a short YouTube video from WebBikeWorld.com.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZPjH2E76S8

These are not the lights you want if you are looking for a "good deal" on LED running lights.  They will probably cost around $500 but I feel like I will get what I pay for.  I was thinking about the Victory PIAA running lights but the first thing I would want to do is upgrade the wattage from 35 - 55W.  The bike isn't really wired for 55W but could probably handle it no problem.  The Clearwaters only run 12 watts at full blast and are probably brighter than the 55W PIAAs.  The dimmer is a first.

I like the idea of supporting a small American business that makes world class stuff.  Here is a great article on Glen Stasky and how Clearwater got into the LED business. http://www.pashnit.com/product/clearwater/photos.html

More info here:  http://www.pashnit.com/product/clearwater_lights.html  http://www.pashnit.com/product/clearwater/buy_bmw.html

Not for the faint of heart, but neither is the Vision.

p.s.  Many thanks to Tarpits99 for finding these guys and rldr12 for donating his bike for the set-up.

rldr12,

That is a big chunk of change.  Thanks for giving them a call.

The PIAA driving lights would cost me $520 installed with upgraded 55W bulbs.  PIAA's - $350, install/1 hour labor - $60, tax - $40, 55W bulbs - $70/pr.  (My own personal quirk:  If I buy it from the dealer, I'll pay the extra and let them install it.  If I buy from somewhere else, I'll install it myself.) The Clearwaters are not such an outrageous alternative. 

The adjustability and low power draw are big plusses.  Clearwater also suggests rigging the wiring harness so that when you hit your brights, the Clearwaters go to full blast no matter how dimly they are adjusted as running lights.  That is a good thing in my mind because I never go to the brights unless I have the whole road to myself or I want to get some knucklehead's attention.  With the PIAAs, when you go to high beams, you lose the PIAAs.

As far as looks go, I ride a Vision.  You think I give a flyin' flip if someone doesn't like the looks of something I like?  I think Clearwater is a cool little company and look forward to supporting them.

Tarpits99 - 2009-12-11 10:50 AM If someone asked you to develop a product where there were only say 5000 potential customers spread over the planet would you do it free? 

Not knocking Clearwater, but Bushtec Trailers did when they developed the trailer hitch for the Vision.  They used my bike for development and I got the prototype hitch in return.

Great job!  Thanks!  (I'm guessing you meant 12 watt draw instead of 12 amp.)

Vern,

I'm so frickin jealous.  Tarpits99 put out the call for a volunteer on the 7th and four days later you had them installed.  I think it is great that you got to work personally with the company president to make it happen.  Thanks for going to bat for all of us.  Very, very cool.

Glenn,

Thanks for chiming in on our forum.  I'll be calling you next month as soon as my CC recovers from the holidays. 

Safe travels to Samoa.

"Must be because I had the flu for Christmas...........", anyway I have been staring at my trick little Clearwater LED driving lamps for what seems like a month but apparently was only a couple of weeks. Yesterday I finally got around to installing them. As I may have mentioned vehicle electronics and I have NEVER gotten along and it was not without a little trepidation that I began this project since after reviewing the instructions I realized that I was going to have to splice wires.

The parts come segregated in neat little plastic bags with detailed well-written instructions. And for those of us who cant read a wiring diagram to save their souls the instruction sheets have pictures!

But before you begin, it’s wise to put your windshield in the all the way up position and disconnect the battery before you start. These simple precautions will prevent any damage to your electrical system if you screw up and make it possible to reach the fuse panel if you blow a fuse.

The Clearwater LED lighting kit comes complete with everything that you need to install the lights in about an hour IF you are smarter than I am, and if you read the directions!!!!!! I cannot stress this enough, so let me repeat, READ THE DIRECTIONS!

There are a couple of little things that will make you shake your head, and start again if you don't; there are others that will cause you to invoke ancient gods and decry the fates. For example the bracket mount spacers come in two sizes and the longer ones go on the top! I would have recognized that if I had read the directions. 

Also for those of us who are persnickety about the little things but become less observant than we should be when caught up in the excitement of new toys; the washers have a finished/polished side and a rough side. Believe me you will notice it after you have installed them the wrong way.

While we are talking about being persnickety, I could not stand the idea of drilling a hole in the Vision body panel for the dimmer control. The thought of screwing up an SSG body panel when virtually all bodywork for Visions is classified as “unobtanium” was just too much for me to stomach so I worked out an alternative mounting location behind the radio controls on the left handlebar.

First thing I did was drill a small pilot hole in the aluminum cover of the dimmer pot opposite the hole that is already there.  I expanded this new hole until I could get a Philips screwdriver through both sides. Note: When doing this you must be very careful not to drill into the Volume control mechanism itself.

I removed the right side mounting screw (when viewed from the front), added a dab of blue loctite and attached the dimmer control to the back of the mounting bracket. The supplied cable length is perfect for this mounting point. I then attached the cable with the supplied ties to the existing cable bundles. A little flat black barbeque paint on the raw aluminum and the hole will blend back in to the housing.

Also I could not for the life of me figure out how to tighten the bolts that mount the lamps to the brackets. Using the supplied 1/4-20 allen head screws, none of my allen keys were short enough to fit between the bracket and the fender. So after determining that I was too stupid to figure it out I ran down to the local Ace Hardware and bought 4 stainless hex head bolts. Problem solved, I could now easily tighten the lamp mounting bolts and adjust the angle at will. My buddy Milton who had ambled over for a beer and to watch me curse my own stupidity, suggested that I just cut down a wrench to fit. Had I done so, it would have saved me a 20 minute bout of frustration at the Home Depot looking for a bolt size that they didn't carry.

The rest of the install went pretty easy, just be sure to check all your poi-lock connections well and move them around before you button everything up so that you don’t end up like I did having to pull it all apart to find where the bad connection was. I think that the lights look great (I love the chrome accent ring) and they work very well. 

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Chief Waldo - 2010-01-03 1:38 PM Wow! Thanks for the write up and pictures. Two questions, did you consider putting the light adjuster knob in the blank next to your driving light switch? Do you think there's enough wire to reach there? ...

Chief Waldo : I did consider doing that and there is more than enough wire to reach anywhere on the dash, however the dimmer pot housing requires about 1 1/2" of depth so that limits your choices somewhat. Also if you intend to install power outlets for heated clothing or other cool stuff then there are areas of the dash that would necesarily be off limits. The blank switch cover that fills the hole in the dash on my '08 is the same depth as a the real switches (less the terminals) so I dont think that the shaft is long enough to pass through the switch cover without some creative alterations of the blank. The total shaft and knob combined height is only 5/8".

 As to the issue with the standard wiring harness you mentioned, my take is as follows:

1) The Victory PIAA lamps are indeed plug and play. They attach to a two wire connector under the front panel and and cycle off when the high beam is engaged. My guess is that this is a DOT rule.

2) The Clearwater setup requires 3 wires and an additional relay to achieve its full fuctionality. I could have connected to the standard Vision location with  taps but would have lost the dimmer adjustability function and the ability to keep the lights on when Hi-beam is engaged.

 Other more electronically savy users may dispute this and I'm happy to take correction; but I bought these over the PIAA lamps because of 3 factors.

1) the low curent draw

2) the dimmer set-up

3) the abiltiy to run these full blast on high beam when I'm out in the middle of nowhere. 

It seems that the connector should be easily sourced to draw power from this location rather than tapping in under the dash and that could eliminate the need for the supplied inline fuse but before one tried that I think they would need to be sure that the yellow/red wire stays hot.

Chief Waldo - 2010-01-03 3:53 PM [ I don't know how much is Victory propriatary, but it would be even more cool if Clearwater could make a direct plug-in to the Victory harness. ...

I thought the same thing initially but I really like the way the Clearwaters go to full blast with the high beams.  With the Victory harness, the driving lights cut out when the high beams go on.

Tarpits99,

Thanks for the write-up, lessons learned and photos.  I'm looking at doing the Radioteacher mod and put the radio controls on the top of the handlebar.  Would the bottom of the handlebar (where the radio controls were originally mounted) be a good spot for the dimmer?

I got scheduled for overtime yesterday and I'll see that on my Jan 25th paycheck.  Clearwaters will be paid for with five days to spare without touching my regular budget.  WooHoo!

Ordered mine today with the silver bezels.  Will take them off and get them color-matched when I do the helmets this spring.

Thanks again to tarpits99 and rldl12 for running point on this.  Great job from you guys and Clearwater seems to be a great company to support.

After ordering them in January, I finally got my Clearwaters installed this morning.  (Nothing like a home re-model to derail the really important stuff.) 

Tarpits99 tips really saved me some time.  Namely, which spacers go where, the shiny/dull washers, and cutting down a hex wrench to fit in the space between the fender and bracket to adjust the lights.  I had one little glitch where I ended up calling Clearwater and trouble shooting until I found a loose wiring connection in one of the Posi-Twists. 

Here are my lessons learned: 

- Twist all the wires together before you put them in the Posi-Twist connections.

- There are two Posi-Taps.  One goes to the Yellow/Red wire for power (easy).  The other one goes to Green.  The problem is there are two Green wires in the bundle.  One light green (like the green wires with all the Clearwater stuff) and a dark Green wire.  The wire to tap is the dark Green wire.  That is for the relay that will cause the Clearwaters to go full on with the brights.  The light green wire in the bundle goes to the windshield.  While I was on the phone troubleshooting the loose connection I mentioned the two different green wires and told them that if I hadn't had a wiring diagram to check, I would have gone with the light green because it more closely matched all the other green wires from the Clearwater kit.  I think they will make a note with the next set of instructions.

- I spread everything out on the kitchen table ahead of time and tied it all together, Posi-Twists and all.  It took about 30 minutes for me to get it all sorted out in my head with the instructions right there.  You will end up with only three wire ends not connected:  The fuse wire (it's orange but they call it red - it taps into the Yellow/Red wire), the red wire from the relay (taps into the dark Green wire) and the black ground wire with the loop on the end to ground to the bike.  Everything else ties together; all the blacks tie together, all the reds tie together and all the greens tie together.

- I used Tarpits' handlebar mount location. Very handy having all of the lighting stuff on the left handlebar.

- I cut down an allen wrench that is totally dedicated to adjusting the Clearwaters if needed.

From the time I laid everything out on the table to everything buttoned up (including the 15 minute troubelshooting call) was about 2 hours.  I got my wife involved and had her adjust the lights with a carpenter square while I held the bike straight up.  All in all a great upgrade with obviously high quality parts.  The guy from Clearwater that answered the phone even remembered my name from January.  Great people.

I fiddled with the Clearwaters in traffic today when stopped at traffic lights.  I could see my reflection in the car ahead of me and would brighten/dim them just to see the difference.  I haven't used them at night yet but can't wait to try them out.  I'll hopefully get a video made of them on the road in traffic with the various modes just to see how much of a difference they make.

Thanks again to Tarpits99 and rldl12 for making all this happen in the first place.  One of the highlights of Vision-Rider lore in my book.

I got to do "show and tell" at my weekly "lunch-with-the-boys" yesterday.  While out and about today, my phone buzzed in my pocket.  When I got home, the call was from one of the guys who had been at lunch.  I called him back.  He had just seen me out on a local road, going in the opposite direction.  "Dude!  Those new lights are AWESOME!  All I could see was this UFO triangle coming towards the intersection!"  (I keep them on about 80% during the day.  Will try them after dark on the way home from work tonight.)  He said they were aimed perfectly and really broke me out of the crowd.  He is a BMW/IronButt guy and makes mods to every machine he has ever owned.  I could not have gotten a higher stamp of approval.  I know he's gonna get the Krista's just to one-up me.

Tarpits - The loose tooth analogy is perfect.  If they didn't want us to play with it, they shouldn't have made it adjustable!

I got off work at midnight last night and headed home on my 25 mile commute.  I had to turn the HID off to really get a feel for how bright the Clearwaters were reflecting off the road.  I ended up at about 50% and then turned the HID back on.  The last 10 miles of the commute are a split 4-lane with no streetlights at all.  I watched for signs ahead and when one came into range I would crank the Clearwaters up and down to see if they made the sign any brighter.  They are a little more powerful than the low beams but much more focused.

When I got into the town I live in I was approaching a traffic light where the left lane in front of me had four cars stopped and the right lane was wide open.  I got into the right lane and as I got to the rear of the fourth car, the car in front of him jerked into the right lane.  I was already slowing and had anticipated that one of those cars would move over so I was ready, but pissed that they cut it that close.  When the light turned green the car in front of me pulled away pretty aggressively.  Teenager on board.  It is 12:20 a.m.   I kept about two car lengths back but slowly started cranking up the Clearwaters (like boiling a frog).  I stayed in his left mirror and by the time they were full blast I could see his face lit up in the mirror like a stage spotlight.  He finally folded and pulled into a bank parking lot.  I cranked the Clearwaters back down to 50% and was home 2 minutes later.

Gotta love em.