Help me Farkle my GSA
- Thread starter BigLew55
- Start date
I did use the Trailmax Missions for the IBR and got just under 19000km on them with plenty of life left in them.
Handled well but we're a little noisy.
I was able to secure a rear for my Tenere here in Australia but there were no fronts available.
Rear tread after the ride back to Wisconsin after the rally.
Handled well but we're a little noisy.
I was able to secure a rear for my Tenere here in Australia but there were no fronts available.
Rear tread after the ride back to Wisconsin after the rally.
Opinion about lights:
My history with Clearwater lights goes back to June 2015.
I had a new KTM1290 SuperAdventure and ordered a pair of Sevinas for that motorcycle. The Sevinas were newly released and i got them mounted and wired without much trouble. They were large lights for a motorcycle and basically were like hanging the Sun itself off the front of your ride. I enjoyed the Sevinas and Clearwater gave terrific support for a new product. Support was flawless. They were easy to reach and stood by the product. For me it turned out the Sevinas were a bit large for my taste but they lit up the night better than any light I could have imagined.
Fast forward to July of 2019 and I made the jump back to BMW motorcycles and bought a 2019 BMW 1250GSA. I had started riding longer and longer distances and I opted to try some Denalis and bought a pair of D7 lights controlled by an EZcan. These lights ultimately mounted fine after struggling to get the company to get me the right bracket for a new version of the GS adventure and they worked fine if you kept them at 50% brightness or more. Anything lower than that and the light tended to either go off or flicker terribly. The company replaced them and again they did not like to be overly dimmed. 30% was the lowest setting. It was problematic because the lights were just too bright to be used at night at 30% brightness without dazzling the oncoming traffic. I kept them off at night except in bright mode (which of course you can rarely use) and eventually one of them went out and I ended up removing them completely and throwing them away.
This led me back to Clearwater Lights and I wanted something less than Sevinas for my new motorcycle. I went with Ericas and they installed flawlessly. The brackets fit, they were easy to adjust, and they were programmable without the use of a computer. At first glance, one would think having a computer that plugs into a programming unit like I used for the other lights mentioned above is an advantage. Indeed it is nice to visually see on a screen all of the settings for the lights but it is also cumbersome. You have to pop off the seat, pull the controller out, plug in and then make changes with your computer. I ended up dropping the computer once and damaging my computer doing all of this and while that is my fault, the problem is that if you are a long distance rider, it is unlikely you are going to want to take the time to do all of this and most of the time you will not be lugging around a computer on your trips. The Clearwater solution is much better. You can program from anywhere at anytime without any additional equipment and without opening up your bike seat. It is just much more robust and efficient for those that want to travel across the continent.
I have a second, and more important, comment about the Clearwater lights. While maximum lumens is what attracts many of us to a certain set of lights, this is something that in real life on the road you get to experience only a small fraction of the time at night. We all want to increase nighttime and daytime visibility but the nuance of motorcycle lighting is nighttime useful illumination and the determinant of that is the dimmability of the system. The Clearwater Ericas are dimmable to 3% and 10%, 20%. This lower threshold makes the Clearwater solution much more robust because it allows you to ride all night long with the lights on without driving the oncoming traffic crazy.
Clearwater lights to me are probably the best solution for motorcycle illumination. The company provides amazing support. The lights are easily programmable from anywhere without equipment (on a modern BMW). The lights are more dimmable for nighttime applications. They cost a little more than some of the other companies but with this you get a more superior product that is more usable.
My history with Clearwater lights goes back to June 2015.
I had a new KTM1290 SuperAdventure and ordered a pair of Sevinas for that motorcycle. The Sevinas were newly released and i got them mounted and wired without much trouble. They were large lights for a motorcycle and basically were like hanging the Sun itself off the front of your ride. I enjoyed the Sevinas and Clearwater gave terrific support for a new product. Support was flawless. They were easy to reach and stood by the product. For me it turned out the Sevinas were a bit large for my taste but they lit up the night better than any light I could have imagined.
Fast forward to July of 2019 and I made the jump back to BMW motorcycles and bought a 2019 BMW 1250GSA. I had started riding longer and longer distances and I opted to try some Denalis and bought a pair of D7 lights controlled by an EZcan. These lights ultimately mounted fine after struggling to get the company to get me the right bracket for a new version of the GS adventure and they worked fine if you kept them at 50% brightness or more. Anything lower than that and the light tended to either go off or flicker terribly. The company replaced them and again they did not like to be overly dimmed. 30% was the lowest setting. It was problematic because the lights were just too bright to be used at night at 30% brightness without dazzling the oncoming traffic. I kept them off at night except in bright mode (which of course you can rarely use) and eventually one of them went out and I ended up removing them completely and throwing them away.
This led me back to Clearwater Lights and I wanted something less than Sevinas for my new motorcycle. I went with Ericas and they installed flawlessly. The brackets fit, they were easy to adjust, and they were programmable without the use of a computer. At first glance, one would think having a computer that plugs into a programming unit like I used for the other lights mentioned above is an advantage. Indeed it is nice to visually see on a screen all of the settings for the lights but it is also cumbersome. You have to pop off the seat, pull the controller out, plug in and then make changes with your computer. I ended up dropping the computer once and damaging my computer doing all of this and while that is my fault, the problem is that if you are a long distance rider, it is unlikely you are going to want to take the time to do all of this and most of the time you will not be lugging around a computer on your trips. The Clearwater solution is much better. You can program from anywhere at anytime without any additional equipment and without opening up your bike seat. It is just much more robust and efficient for those that want to travel across the continent.
I have a second, and more important, comment about the Clearwater lights. While maximum lumens is what attracts many of us to a certain set of lights, this is something that in real life on the road you get to experience only a small fraction of the time at night. We all want to increase nighttime and daytime visibility but the nuance of motorcycle lighting is nighttime useful illumination and the determinant of that is the dimmability of the system. The Clearwater Ericas are dimmable to 3% and 10%, 20%. This lower threshold makes the Clearwater solution much more robust because it allows you to ride all night long with the lights on without driving the oncoming traffic crazy.
Clearwater lights to me are probably the best solution for motorcycle illumination. The company provides amazing support. The lights are easily programmable from anywhere without equipment (on a modern BMW). The lights are more dimmable for nighttime applications. They cost a little more than some of the other companies but with this you get a more superior product that is more usable.
Ive tried Road6 twice. Relatively tame riding, mostly highway and I was only able to get just over 11,000miles on the rear and it had visible fabric showing as i took it in for replacement. I admit I do love the tire in every respect but I was looking to push the mileage a little harder if it was possible. I may try those Dunlops with the next change and see if I can eek any more miles out of them. If they are not demonstrably better than the road6 in that department I will probably go back to the Road6 because indeed it was a phenomenal tire.