Got auxiliary lights for my 2022 RE Himalayan: Installation & results

I didn't want to blind people coming from the opposite direction, I wanted them to be mounted low down and pointed toward the road.

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After doing a few day rides where I returned pretty late in the night, I found that the Nighteye Headlamp, while being significantly better than stock, wasn't enough for even the occasional highway touring in the dark; decided to play it safe and go ahead and get auxiliary lights installed. I didn't want anything overly powerful for two reasons.

• Too much load on the battery
• Wasn't going to tour at very high speeds or very often in the dark

In this regard, I'm going to speak about each aspect of this endeavour separately and in detail.

A. Legality

The legality of mounting auxiliary lights on motorcycles in India is a bit of a grey area. While there are statutes (CMVR and MV Act) that do prohibit modifications without the approval of the RTO, there are many news articles floating around providing guidelines issued by the RTO (Which I couldn't find. If anyone has access to these, please share), listed as follows:

• Lights must be mounted well below the Headlamp
• Lights must be covered when not in use
• The Power Draw of the Lights shouldn't exceed the Power Draw of the Stock Headlamp.

The validity of these conditions, I'm not too sure about but it's better to be safe than sorry.

B. Lights

I just needed the upcoming 60-70 metres or so ahead of the bike to be well-illuminated so that I could see potholes or obstacles, if any. Initially, I did consider the Maddog Scout / Scout X Lights, but friends said that in terms of price to performance, it didn't meet their expectations. I also didn't want to break the bank with these, so started scouring the web and finally landed on the HJG L9X Lights. It's the same lights that Ben from the "Ontwowheelseben" YouTube channel uses, and he seemed pretty happy with it. The power draw was pretty low as well (20W Per Light Module) and is well below the Draw of the stock headlamp (55W), so decided to go ahead with these. The Key Features of the Lights are as follows:

IP68 Certified

9 CREE LED Emitters with an output of 3600 Lumens (Each Light)

Colour Temperature at 6000 Kelvin

Light module

I Ordered the Lights from the Bikester Global Website, along with a pair of Filters, Was quite a rollercoaster of an experience ordering from them. I ordered 1 Pair of Lights and 1 Pair of Yellow Filters from them. The Order was manifested the very next day on Delhivery, which was a pleasant surprise, but the order was not picked up (Due to the package not being ready) for the next 5 Days. The Whatsapp Support takes ages to respond as well. They finally delivered the lights and ONE Filter in the initial parcel. The Customer support team initially insisted that I had placed an order only for one filter, and on being shown proof, the other filter was sent across. I understand mess-ups sometimes, but the way it is handled shows that they are pretty disorganized. The Lights cost Rs 2249 and the Filters Rs 269, with an additional shipping charge of Rs 179. There aren't any Blackout Filters available, though, so I have placed an order for another pair of the same filters, and I will use a Vinyl Wrap to make my own Blackout Filters to be used in the City.

Yellow Filters

C. Electrical Fittings:

This is one aspect where Quality was important to me. A bad pair of lights may just conk out, but a bad harness can fry your bike's electrical system, which is not a chance I wanted to take. Decided to go with a harness and switch from Maddog for this. They have universal compatibility and give you all the necessary adapters required. Now Maddog has two variants of the Harness, i.e the Base and the Pro Version. I've differentiated between them using the table below.

The Switch as well as a pro variant, with the two differences being that the Switch is IP66 Rated as opposed to IP 68, and the Pro version comes with a better design and dual mounting options, i.e handlebar or mirror. The Base Switch can only be mirror-mounted. Since the Lights I'm using aren't super powerful and well within the Wattage Capacity, I chose the Regular Wire harness and Switch.

The white wire connects to the Ignition to prevent accidental battery drain if the switch is on when the bike is off

The switch is of good quality and feels robust

Mounted at the bottom of the mirror stem

Switch backlight

D. Mounting Position:

I didn't want to blind people coming from the opposite direction, unlike some bufoons who think that their vehicle must compete with the sun. I wanted them to be mounted low down and pointed toward the road. Headlight Mounting was not even an option considering that it is illegal and will definitely inconvenience others. I also didn't want to mount it on the forks, for now, at least due to the constant movement these lights and its wiring will be subject to. Further, when I consulted with Ben, he strongly advised against it. I decided to mount it in a similar fashion as he did, which is using a screw hole below the Jerry Can Holder/Tank Crash Guards. I picked up the Universal Headlight Clamp from Maddog and used it to mount the same. The setup seems solid, but I did zip-tie it in a couple of areas just in case.

E. Getting the Lights Installed:

Unfortunately, this is where my experience went downhill. I do not have the expertise to fit these myself as it concerns electronics, and I don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Mechanical stuff I can grasp, but not this. Hence I decided to visit Art of Motorcycles in Bangalore. I used to have a lot of faith in them before this experience. Being a repeat customer, having visited them a couple of times before for various things, I have always had a level of trust in them. In the same spirit, I messaged Zoheb, booked an appointment and went to get the lights installed. They made me wait a little bit before getting to it, which is fine, and the mechanic got to work on my bike. It took about an hour to install everything, and all was well when I left. I paid 450Rs for the job, which is a reasonable price. Now I made a mistake by not paying too much attention to the way the mechanic was routing the wiring. He has done a shoddy job at best, causing a complete lack of clearance for the Relay to comfortably sit. However, I didn't know this at the time. I took the bike out in the night to a few back roads to see how they performed, and the light flickered on its own despite the switch being off. The horn could be heard faintly as well without me hitting the switch and it sounded different too when engaged. This left me extremely paranoid, and I returned home immediately and messaged Zoheb about the same, only to get no response even the following day. In the morning, I headed over to AOM and requested the Service Advisor Saif, whom I'd spoken to the previous day as well, to check the wiring and see if there was an issue somewhere. He said that they were a little packed at the moment (It was a weekday, and they did have bikes for regular service, but not so many that a mechanic couldn't take out 20 minutes to check the wiring) and asked me to come at 2 pm I was disheartened as I live a good 15km away from the workshop. I killed time until 2 pm and went there, to which he said that they still couldn't check it and asked me to come again tomorrow and leave the bike for a day. Zoheb was also there and paid no heed to me as well. This was an extremely disappointing experience, and I don't think I'll be going back again. It looks like pride really did get to their heads to the extent that they undermined the value of a customer's time and business. Pathetic.

I figured out the relay issue a little later after talking to Ben and managed to make some space for it where it isn't fouling too much with the seat. Took it to Big Bear Customs in JP Nagar and had the wiring rerouted again just for peace of mind, where they did a cleaner Job. I didn't get to meet Bosky Anna this time, though.

F. The Results

Well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I chose an isolated road near my house which was pitch dark

Headlamp (Nighteye) Only. All testing was done with this on the Low Beam

Nighteye + Aux Lamps w/o Filters

Side profile

Nighteye + Aux Lamps w/ Filters

Side Profile

The Lights aren't overly bright and have a decent throw. They suit my current needs when combined with the Nighteye. Since it is a plug-and-play system, I can always upgrade lights later should I need to. The Current Draw on the electrical system from Lighting is 36W from the Nighteye LED and 40W from the Aux Lights, so I'm not expecting any issues there. Overall, satisfied for now. That's all for now folks, cheers!

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