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.