Installing driving/fog lights on a Ninja 250

Posted July 20, 2004
Updated July 21, 2004

For all the pictures I took during this project, please see the image gallery. For pictures of the beam patterns, see below.

I decided some months ago that I was interested in getting more and better lighting on both of my motorcycles. The best option I could find seemed to be to purchase a set of PIAA 2100XT driving lights and fog lights, and install one light from each set onto each bike (leaving each bike with one fog light and one driving light).

Finding the Lights

PIAA's diagram of the 2100XTs

I cruised the net looking for deals on PIAAs. The best one I ever found was at litewarehouse.com, for $153 for a set. That still seemed a little bit high to me (since I'd be buying two sets, for a total of over $300). I went in search of reviews of various lights, hoping to find a review stating that the 2100XTs were absolutely the cat's pajamas, and that my search was over. Instead, I found a lot of glowing reports on PIAAs (and some not-so-glowing reports), with the 2100XTs never mentioned. Eventually I found this article, which goes into detail on how PIAA lights are exactly the same as the $50 lights you could get at WalMart or the local auto parts store.

This got me thinking, and I decided to diversify my search. I had also just visited CarToys and seen the 2100XTs in person, and they were huge -- at least, much larger than I'd been imagining. I quickly recalled my days working on my 1964 VW Bug, and I had been impressed with Hella's quality. I knew they were still in business, and checked out their selection of driving lights. With very little effort, I located the FF50/75 series, which have both fog and driving versions in the same shaped housing, something I wanted to have for my project. Surprisingly, they listed for only $70 (versus PIAA's low low list price of around $250 for the 2100s), and could be found for less with a little bit of searching.

Hella FF50

I quickly located a set of FF50 driving lights (the FF50s had received a slightly better review than the 75s, and in any case I liked the oval shape better) on Ebay for $39.99, including shipping. I Bought It Now, and soon the driving lights were on their way. Locating cheap fog lights was harder, and the best deal I found was from rallylights.com. Rallylights had received several glowing reports on offroad boards, and indeed, their service was exemplary. I highly recommend them.

Planning the System

The early brackets awaiting lights

My plan was as follows: I would put one fog light and one driving light on each bike, and wire up a switch and a set of relays to control them. I decided, with the help of some members of the Ninja 250 board that the best way to set up the switch was so one light or the other could be on, but not both at the same time. Both lights on (nearly 8A draw) would quickly deplete the battery, even with the engine running full bore. Neither bike has a powerful alternator. Additionally, leaving a fog light on while trying to see in the distance is counter-productive, since it causes your pupils to contract in the presence of such a bright light.

The lights as seen from the riding position

For the Ninja, I was planning on installing the lights via the mirror mounts, which are easily the strongest point on the front of the fairing. I would mount the switch in the left side of the fairing, for convenient access with the non-throttle hand. I also wanted to mount a BMW power jack, which I'd acquired some months earlier. Finally, I would make a metal backing plate to spread the stress of operating the switch and using the power plug, so the relatively thin fairing plastic there wouldn't crack.

Doing It

The switch and power socket. Switch moves side to side: Fog-Off-Driving

Over the course of a week, the parts trickled in. I had pre-fabricated the light mounts, making them ridiculously long in order to accomodate any strange mounting problems that I hadn't foreseen. (Naturally, I had to re-make one of them anyway, when I miscalculated where the mounting hole should go.) The fog lights arrived first (thank you rallylights.com), so I mounted those both up and took some pictures as a proof-of-concept.

Semi-tidy wiring

The switchgear and driving lights arrived later in the week, but my time was heavily committed to theatre until that Sunday, so I didn't make any real progress until then. On Sunday, I was able to finish up the project by modifying the wiring harness that Hella had provided, making the metal plate, and mounting it all up. I ended up epoxying the relays (sealed NEC automotive PCB relays -- $1.68 each at Mouser) to the metal plate, and wiring it all in place.

There are currently 7 different wires that need to be disconnected to remove the front fairing: 2 each for the turnsignals, and 3 for the driving lights (12V+, ground and ignition-switched 12V+). In order to simplify getting all those wires hooked back up in the correct order, I'm considering integrating the 3 driving light hookups into one Molex-style connector. That's still a future plan, though.

Using It

So far, I've only ridden for about 30 minutes after dark. The fog light provides an excellent supplement to the low beam, but I did spend a lot of that ride waiting for oncoming cars to flash their highbeams at me. No one did, but I still suspect the fog light is aimed a little bit high.

The driving light provides an excellent amount of light straight ahead, but nearly none to the sides. It'll be great when I'm riding deserted roads at night, but it's not practical for city riding.

I haven't noticed any problems with the lights bobbling around; in fact, vibration seems to be nearly nonexistent. The mirrors remain about as steady as they were without lights clamped underneath them. The switch is situated such that it falls directly to hand under the clutch lever when riding, but it's too low to easily see. Some indicator LEDs would be useful, to show which (if any) light is on.

Mini Hella FF50 Review

I am quite impressed with the quality of the Hella lights, overall. Both the fog and driving lights are well-focused. The fog light throws its beam in a nice 90° pattern. The driving light puts an amazing number of photons way down the road.

Construction quality appears excellent on both lights. They were supplied with all the extra stuff one would need to install them on a car, except the tools (ie: relay, switch, wiring harness, mounting hardware). I was uncertain of the plastic housing at first, but the more I think about it, the more I like it: can't rust, can't be dented, fairly resilient.

I would happily recommend these lights to anyone looking for a less-expensive, but still high-quality, alternative to PIAAs. They don't say PIAA on them, but I bet you're paying $100 or more for that PIAA tag. I wasn't impressed enough with the PIAAs I used on their display to be willing to swallow a $150-200 difference in price, per set of lights.

I only had one "wishlist" item: aiming "clutches." Amateur radio manufacturers have been putting this neoprene-like material on radios so that when you pick an angle between the radio body and the mounting bracket, it doesn't move. It would have been fabulous if the light bodies had had that material so the vertical aim was easier to tighten down without messing up the focus.

Copyright 2004 by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.