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Published: January 3rd 2011
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12 – 11-10
One thing that I always enjoyed about my Honda was the
Hella Auxiliary lights that I mounted on the front forks. I remember riding across the pan handle of Florida on Hwy. 10 at two o'clock in the morning and turning them on. It was almost like being in a football stadium at night watching your favorite team. The lights really illuminated all the Forest Rats (deer) that were grazing on the side of the highway.
After wrecking the Honda only one of the Hella lights survived. I put out an S.O.S. call to all my friends on the LD Rider news group that I belong to and had several people offer to donate one of their extra lights to my new V-Strom. Now, how to mount the lights. I located a great mounting system for the lights from a awesome company called
Twisted Throttle. I placed my order and the Headlamp Mounting Bar (part # LAH.05.456.100) was delivered quickly.
A few days latter I called my buddy Andy who lives about an hour and forty minutes from me to see if we could use his garage to do the install. I new the job would be more
Bike on stand
seat and bags off that I could handle especially with the limited number of tools I have. It seems that I had a lot more tools, but when my oldest son and another one got an old car to work on that most of my good tools have vanished. Anyway Andy jumped at the chance to help and we made plans for the next Saturday.
I got up early so I could be at his home by ten in the morning and I was not happy. The front yard looked frozen. I checked the Weather Channel and it showed the crisp morning air was in the mid 20's. I suited up with an extra layer of clothing and headed out.
The ride was nice! The chilly air kept me very aware of my surroundings and I got to enjoy the heated grips that the previous owner of the V-Strom had installed. When I pulled onto Andy's street I spotted him riding his dirt bike in a big field up from his house.
Once we got the bike in his garage and up on the lift Andy started pulling the plastics off the front of the Suzuki while I took off the
luggage and seat. I am glad I was there because I would have never known how to remove all that plastic.
The first order of business was to check and see how well the Mounting Bar lined up to existing holes under the headlamp of the V-Strom. It was a perfect fit! I have bought other after market parts before but I think that this part from Twisted Throttle was the highest quality of any that I had ever purchased before. While the plastics were off we had a chance to reroute some of the wires that Jim and I had run not long ago when I visited him and Jeff at the beach.
It took the better part of four hours to get everything installed and put back together and I was all ready for a ride. However once we got everything back together the lights did not work. After a little trouble shotting we were able to locate a loose wire and everything was great.
As far as the Hella FF50 lights they work great. The instructions that come in the box could be better and I was the wire would have been a little
heavier but other than that they are great lights. Over all I am well pleased with my addition and would recommend both companies to anyone who is looking for great accessories for their bike. Twisted Throttle offer lots of great after market parts for a large number of bikes.
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Mary Anne Sharp
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Glad you are shining! DRIVE SAFELY AND REMEMBER -- I LOVE YOU!