I'll recommend just adding a relay between batteri and switch and let the power with a running engine trigger the relay. You can use power from the small connecter behind the cover below the instruments to trigger the relay. This way you don't have to rember it and nobody else can accidentally turn on you light while parked...

I've done that and hidden a relay etc in the grey plastic between tank and front fairing. You can see the picture on http://www.tenere.dk/forumnew/forum_...ID=78610#78610 (the text is in danish)

The newest addition is a switch form zen overland that is easier to reach than the one in the fairing. When i just had small led as running light i could just keep them on, but the 2x 10W china LED's ive on now is to blinding for oncoming traffic at night. (The leds are no where near visionx quality but they price is also different - they were the most narrow cheap spots i could find) But ive decided against wiring it to the high beam since the are not road legal so prefer to be able to run low/high as normal and beeing able to argue that the are for offroad only ...


Pictures:

Low beam with: http://www.ebay.de/itm/2500-3200LM-H...var&hash=item0

Low beam + 2 x China spot: http://www.ebay.de/itm/10W-CREE-LED-...item2a44512500

Twin spots mounted as wide as possible is a massive safety feature for day or night riding too. Apart from being able to see better it makes a significant difference to how well you are "seen" by motorists. I recently read an article on this very topic and the mere fact that your lights give you more "presence" on the road will help you to be seen by others.

Also, as mentioned above my 10w LED spots are perfect for pitching tents without draining the battery. Bar mounted switch wired directly to the battery. Not concerned about kids tampering with switches as I hardly ever park the beast in public and leave it.
These products off the shelf are now very cheap. Mine cost ZAR995 which, when I last looked is about a two Pound fifty!(sic)
Do it..

It is true about more lights making you more visible. Also if the lights are unusual it attracts more attention. I'm fitting my Ten with LED strips in the front so it would stand out more. It might look a bit tacky but better than being run over by a day dreaming cager.

Some questions for those who've already installed aux lights:

1. Is there a min / max as far as Amps for the relay ?

2. Did you connect the grounding back to the battery or somewhere on the frame?

I wired my daytime lights into the the rear tail light , no worries about over draining power,and they turn off when bikes off. My vision x lights are wired into my full beam,they use hardly any power and you don't have to worry about relays..

These are the spots I bought:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FREE-...239844823.html

According to one review, they run "12 V / 0.67 A = approx. 8 W"

So... no need for relay, u say?


PS: Easy recovery, mate!

Most commonly available four pin relays you buy will switch up to 40A which is way more than you'll ever need for LED lights. As Jo says, you don't actually need a relay for the Vision-X lamps as together they only draw roughly 1.5A (for a pair).

My advice would always be to earth back to the battery. Frame earthing points will always end up getting furred up and cause trouble in the long run. Also, if you use a frame earth, other electrical circuits that suffer a ground fault can shortcut to earth via another circuit's earth. Electricity will always take the easiest route to ground, which might not always be the intended one, so make sure the intended route is the easiest!

"Earth back to the battery" = physically connecting a wire to the negative battery terminal? 'Cause that would mean removing the tank and I'm really not looking forward to that.

The way I was planing to do it:
- use the idle connector below the speedo;
- split both "+" and "-" in 2 separate wires;
- - 1 x "+" and 1 x "-" would feed the aux power socket;
- - 1 x "+" would go to the switch for the aux lights -> than to a 15A fuse -> than split again in 2, to each of the lights "+"
- - 1 x "-" would again be split in 2, for each of the lights "-"

What I'm not that convinced is if the initial wiring of the connector will endure the strain of both aux lights and aux power socket.

Just don't accidentally put parking lights on when you leave it - and definitely not have both heated grips and LED lights on when you do ....

8 hours later there was'nt even enough power to turn on the dash and the scottoiler resat itself ....

You can quite easily feed wiring through under the tank and along the frame without having to remove it. I have done it several times. When you next take the tank off (to do the valves or whatever), you just take the opportunity to tidy/tie it up. Just make sure what you feed through is sheathed and isn't going to get trapped. Easiest way is to simply follow the existing cable routing. It helps if you use a thick domestic electrical wire to pass through first, then tape the auto-electrical wire to the end of it and pull it all through.

You can do it this way, but... You must fuse each thing separately as the socket and the lights have completely different power demands. BTW - a 15A fuse is going to be next to useless in protecting a pair of LED auxiliary lights which run at 1.5A. The auxiliary lights need a 2-3.5A fuse max.

The other problem you'll have is the main fuse (in the fusebox) for the parking light circuit is rated at 10A (and it doesn't just run the parking lights). Now if you allow 2A for the LED lights, 1.5A for the bike's parking/tail/plate lights and 3.5A for the indicators (x4 in hazard position), that leaves you only 3A for the power socket which is just enough to deal with a sat nav with a completely flat battery. Obviously the electrical diversity principle means that you're unlikely to be using everything at once, and most of the time a sat nav will be float charging, so you can probably allow maybe 5A for the socket, but it means you are always running at the limits of what that spare connector can safely give.

This is where a relay comes in. You can trigger it (at a very low current) off the spare connector, but it can switch a fused load straight from the battery of whatever size you need (within reason). So you could have your LED lights and a full-fat 10A at the socket.