The Emperor's New EyesI was using LFB's original silver fairing as the pattern while I was doing this.
The first thing about this is that you can't do it with the old pressed-steel fairing spider. You must be using the newer tubular steel one. The good news is that it's a drop fit for the older one. Next: you need to cut off the threaded boss on the front left because it will foul the bottom crossbar. I got lucky and picked up a freshly powder-coated spider from ebay which I promptly ruined by hacksawing off the boss and forgetting to paint the cut surface.
I made the framework from 25mm x 3mm for the top and bottom bars and 20mm x 3mm for the uprights. I chose to use stainless steel because I'm lazy and the thought of preparation and paint hit the snooze button. Measure, cut and drill so that they fit over the threaded mounts in the fairing. You can't see it but I did actually finish the ends in a half-circle.
With apologies to Bolt-On Bits because I stole this picture from their ebay website (link above):
Each headlight comes with four adjuster posts (fitted to the headlight) and three mounts (the things that look like plastic knobs). Three mounts is all you need for secure lateral and azimuth adjustment. I removed the lower outer adjusters from each headlight and bolted the two frames together - you can just see the straps in the middle of the second picture. Also, if you check the fourth picture you will see that the lower crossbar has to be relieved by 5mm along most of its length to allow the fairing base to go back in.
It was at this point that I found I had to cut off a small lug from each headlight body because it prevented the two headlights from fitting into the joined frames. If you go this route you'll find them quickly enough. It wasn't anything structural in this application of the lights. I figured out the approximate centre of each headlight relative to the original headlight opening and cut two uprights that were bolted to the frame hole that would have been occupied by the discarded adjusters (bottom left and right, fixed with a hex-headed bolt). With the uprights still bolted to the headlight frames, I clamped the whole assembly to the lower crossbar and welded them on.
The top z-bars were a bit of trial and error until I got them to fit. Working with a fairing on the bench made this a lot easier than it sounds. I clamped a length of the 20mm bar in the vice and drafting in my old friend the BFH to help, beat the shit out of it until the angle from the crossbar to the top of the headlight frame was correct. I marked the bar just before the back of the headlight frame (it's just visible on the far side in pic 3) and beat the bar back the other way. I cut the excess bar off and chucked it in the re-use box. Making the second one was easier as it was just a copy of the first. As with the bottom uprights, I bolted them to the headlight frames, clamped the z-bars to the top crossbar and welded them up.
Not while they were still in the fairing, I hasten to add!!
A bit of measuring later and I'd figured out I needed two M5 55mm standoffs at the top and two M5 30mm standoffs at the bottom which would clear the headlight adjusters to allow the front panel to fit. Just about this point Simon (Ringfad) dropped by and on seeing this, said,
'Someone's going to want to know how you did that. Did you take any pictures?'
Of course I didn't!!!! What do you take me for???
The front panel is 3mm plastic to allow for flexibility in fitting. Once I had the plasticard shaped to fit the headlight opening, it was a case of very careful measuring to figure out the centre of the headlights. The cutting circle was made 5mm bigger to allow for headlight adjustment. Getting the hole centres for the standoffs was easy; a small dollop of copper grease on each one and sneak up with the plasticard.
It took three attempts and two destroyed sheets of plasticard before I got the headlight holes somewhere near right. I cut them by mounting my Bosch/Black & Decker frankenstein of a jigsaw upside down in the vice. It was run at the slowest speed possible with a coarse scrolling blade fitted. I wrecked the first two by trying to cut too quickly and both went off the circle and part-melted the plasticard. I had more patience with the last one because it was the last one.
A bit of rubber trim covered up the worst of the mess. The mounting holes were drilled out to take 8mm ID grommets which were fitted with 8mm OD x 5mm spacers to take the pressure from the dome-head allen bolts. The washers were form-B style - bigger than standard but smaller than a penny washer. The four COB LEDs were wired into the sidelight circuit and they must be doing their job because I've pissed off at least one taxi driver who flashed at me.
Yes, the wiring loom does need modifying. One of the reasons' for taking LFB through a long overhaul was that the wiring loom was starting to develop some minor faults that were irritating me, so I made a new one. Modifying a standard loom to add the relay is actually quite simple. These headlights do not have a normal H4 bulb. It's a single H7-bulb with the dip beam controlled by dropping a shutter inside the headlight. The shutter is triggered by wiring the existing white high-beam wire into to the flying tail (see first pic). The other pin is earth. The H7 needs a permanent supply controlled from the headlight supply (the yellow/white wire in the existing wiring loom):-
What's good about this is that
a. it fits the existing headlamp cutout
b. there's no permanent modifications to the original bike (okay - apart from sawing off that spider boss!)
c. you finally get to see where you're going.
Final comment? If I was doing this again I'd raise the headlights by 10-20mm above the original headlight's centreline. As it is, on full lock the fork legs are
just catching the bottom of the headlight connector.
[Edit] Wiring mods updated. I forgot that on European bikes with a headlight on/off switch the standard flash switch will just end up operating the shutter (as happened to me at first...
). The flash button in the left switch has a blue/green and a white wire. The white wire needs chasing back to the high/dip switch and removing completely. Add a new wire from the contact vacated by the white wire and run it to the second relay (red/black here because that's a combination that BMW don't use on the K). Note that it
has to be a type B switching relay (load shed relay) because a type A switching relay has the 87 and 87B contacts linked togther. The end result of using a type A will be permanent hi-beam. When you press the flash switch now you will provide power to the headlight and lift the shutter at the same time. However, if you're in the habit of riding with the headlight on all the time then the single relay mod will do.
The Emperor's New Clothes Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:00 pm
