Spot lights instead of flood lights
- Thread starter Shawn K
- Start date
I've not seen the Denali D7 in action and only in YouTube comparison videos. From those... they seem like an excellent choice. I'm running Clearwater Ericas on my GSA and Sevinas on my GTL. Very different beam patterns. The Sevinas throw a spot beam way down the road. Very comfortable at highway speeds and being able to see the road surface quite a ways down the road.
The GSA will run both of those lights at speed but maybe not at idle and not with full heated gear at any speed. A little power management is needed. Ideally with a CanSmart you can set the D4 to turn off or turn down with high beam when the D7 are on that will help a lot. You don't need the D4 on with the D7 IMHO.
There are some good initial reviews of the new D3 from Denali.
YouTube A Bike Thing posted up a great comparison of output and beam pattern comparisons with Denali and Clearwaters.
The new D3s have a few versions, flood, spot and a hybrid lens. The Denali site has a good video comparing the different models as well.
I'd wager the D3 spots would do what you're after. Long throw, pencil-style beam that reaches the same as the D7s without all the side-splash.
I love my D7's but if I did it over I'd probably go with a set of D3 spots and D3 fogs, operated independently and as needed.
YouTube A Bike Thing posted up a great comparison of output and beam pattern comparisons with Denali and Clearwaters.
The new D3s have a few versions, flood, spot and a hybrid lens. The Denali site has a good video comparing the different models as well.
I'd wager the D3 spots would do what you're after. Long throw, pencil-style beam that reaches the same as the D7s without all the side-splash.
I love my D7's but if I did it over I'd probably go with a set of D3 spots and D3 fogs, operated independently and as needed.
I watched this video from Denali and the D3 spot is definitely the type of beam pattern in looking for - long, thin, with very little side splash.
Anecdotally, my LX5's have a beam pattern much more like the D4 or D7 - lots of light, but it's so blown out and uncontrolled that it becomes almost too bright up close.
Anecdotally, my LX5's have a beam pattern much more like the D4 or D7 - lots of light, but it's so blown out and uncontrolled that it becomes almost too bright up close.
I don't have anything useful to add, but just want to clarify a question that I thought about while reading this discussion.
@Shawn K , do I understand correctly that you are satisfied with the width of the regular headlight beam (high or low) for purposes such as cornering or spotting critters at the shoulders, but you are looking to add more light further down the road in a straight line than stock or your present aux lights are providing?
@Shawn K , do I understand correctly that you are satisfied with the width of the regular headlight beam (high or low) for purposes such as cornering or spotting critters at the shoulders, but you are looking to add more light further down the road in a straight line than stock or your present aux lights are providing?
I did the same thing. I ended up manually adjusting the headlight shells (via the physical adjustment inside the fairing) until I got the aim "correct" via the 20-foot method and with the electronic headlight adjustment in the middle of its range, and then waited until nightfall and went out on the street and used the electronic adjustment to find tune it.
Since the "shelf" of the light pattern gets lost with the LED conversion, I had to adjust the headlights down a little lower to make up for it.
Since the "shelf" of the light pattern gets lost with the LED conversion, I had to adjust the headlights down a little lower to make up for it.
I've been researching lighting options for a while and I came across visionxusa.com (also on Amazon) which seems to be the OEM for at least some of Cyclops Adventure lights. Right down to the "Optimus" reflector used in the RT kit Cyclops offers. I have the Denali D3 driving lights, Canbus controller and RT specific mount on order currently. I'll be running a the Hybrid lense on both, or a Hybrid and a spot.
F.W.I.W. I inherited a L.E.D. Headlight light bulb when I purchased the 2006 Sportster from a friend. I added the oval accessory fog lights by H.D. that I had previous experience with. This combination gave pretty good illustration especially on the dark rural roads I find myself on when night running. Shortly after purchasing the bike I noticed that low beam performance became less than ideal and I found myself running the hi-beam more and more finally realizing that the low beam was failing and almost unusable. I chose to replace it with a J.W. Speaker L.E.D. headlight and the difference was amazing. This is without question the absolute best headlight I’ve ridden with in over 60 years. An excellent rectangular beam with tremendous reach, a crisp cut off on top and a very nice half moon fill on the bottom which gives me a very good read on road surface condition. This is not a cheap headlight and I’ll share this, compared side by side with a friends Sportster with a very inexpensive L.E.D headlight our beams displayed on the back of his overhead garage door were illuminating. His had a very similar rectangle beam, noticeably not as bright as mine and slightly less bright and the lower fill noticeably less. But please note that he rarely rides at night and his light was great for his needs. Mine on the other hand was much more pricey but in my case I need all the light, within reason, that I can use. Now the auxiliary lights were replaced with the “Cyclops” Pegasus units, similar to the Denali S4’s, with two spots above two floods giving me a far better shoulder illumination than the H.D. Units. I also chose to add the dimming controller, which was controlled by the hi-beam switch and I could program a “low-beam” at 10 per cent increments for my low beam on the auxiliary driving lights. I’ve been running them at 50% an have been extremely happy with the performance. Once dark humps on the road shoulders became raccoons and opossum. Deer light up much further back giving me greater comfort , less stress, running in the rural areas. I may try a set of the D4’s in the near future, again for peace of mind and more reaction time with late night encounters.
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