Clearwater wiring harness?

Daboo said:
You might check on the ADVMonster website. They sell lights as well, and wiring harnesses with relays, etc.

Personally, I'd recommend not buying the Clearwater lights. Mine have the paint flaking off. Clearwater won't do anything for me, because I bought the bike second hand with the lights already installed. At some point, I'll simply replace them with ADVMonster lights. They are a fraction of the cost, perform just as well, and are more durable.

I've made my own wiring harness in the past. It's pretty simple stuff and there are lots of diagrams on the Interweb.

Chris
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The clearwater lights are probably 10-15% brighter and better than models you can pick up from LEDRider or ADVMonster. But if you are running thru deer country at 3 am at rally-nominal speeds you want every frickin lumen you can get blasting downrange. And Clearwater does that. Is it worth double the price to you?
As for paint peeling on the clearwaters, most every brand of light will cook off the outer coating if you run them long enough. The only cure is to ride your bike so much that the coating of dead bugs prevents you from seeing the imperfections.

B
 
Dave,

I have the Clearwater Ericas on my BMW K1600GT. They are incredibly bright. If you intend to only use them at full beam, you could wire them with a relay into the high beam circuit on the ST1300. If you want to use them during the day on low beam and then at night on low and high beam, I have an unused CanOpener 4 I can send to you. However this is setup for the BMW which uses the Wonderwheel to control the lights. I recommend you call Clearwater and ask them how the CanOpener 4 is installed on the ST1300. You will probably have to buy the dimmer.

Andy
 
I've had the Clearwater lights on my BMW for 65,000 miles. I had the ADVMonster Model 30s on my two previous bikes for about the same number of miles. Lumens are lumens. The Clearwater lights are nothing special, they just have a good reputation.

Whether or not Clearwater should replace my corroding lights or not, really isn't as important as the evidence of the corrosion that has come about over time, and how much you pay for those lights. The ADVMonster lights looked like brand new, yet were on two different bikes for @30,000 miles each. They never had any issues, either in performance or cosmetically. Yet you can buy the ADVMonster Model 30 lights for $40 each.

On the other hand, the Clearwater Darla lights I have corroded in half the miles. At $530-$700, you'd think they would hold up better.

Yes, I can paint them. But I shouldn't have to for that price. Even at $200, the Model 55 puts out 3000 lumens, compared to the Clearwater Darla lights at $530-$700. As jodog said, you want every lumen you can get...but how much of a price are you paying for a name?

On another forum, I did a comparison between some high-priced Denali lights and the ADVMonster Model 30. Same bike. Both bikes were side-by-side. Camera was fixed to shutter speed, ASA, etc. The Denali rep on the forum had said you can't compare lumens. That the Denali lights were far superior to the ADV Monster lights. Well, the photos told the story, and there wasn't a comparison...other than the higher priced lights were clearly less bright than the cheaper ADV Monster lights.

I'm not saying to not buy the Clearwater lights. Just be aware that there are alternatives that may give the same (or better) performance for a fraction of the cost. And a wiring harness, is a wiring harness. Plugging in a LED light from a different vendor, is nothing different than replacing a household light bulb.


Chris
 
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My experience is similar to Chris's. I have had Clearwater Ericas on my BMW K1600GT for over 100,000 miles. Very happy with them. I run them on low beam during the day at 60%, dimming to 40% at night.

No sign of any corrosion on the Ericas.

I installed Darlas on the forks and use the yellow filters. I have done about 50,000 miles with these lights. One of the Darla showed peeling paint. I talked to Clearwater about the problem at the BMW Rally in Lebanon, TN in 2019 and they immediately gave me a replacement light.
 
Daboo said:
I've had the Clearwater lights on my BMW for 65,000 miles. I had the ADVMonster Model 30s on my two previous bikes for about the same number of miles. Lumens are lumens. The Clearwater lights are nothing special, they just have a good reputation.
Chris
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Chirs, Lumens ARE lumens, unless you take into account beam patterns, color temperature, and warranty. But let's limit ourselves to lumens. I run ADVMonster model 60s, model 30s, AND Clearwater Ericas on my bike and have for many years. You read that correctly, I have 6 forward facing aftermarket lights. I like them all, and I also like the LEDRider LX5s a great deal. But here's the thing that stands out from your post: You're focusing on the Darla and ADV 30 model lights. They put out around 2000 lumens per light for 4000 total. None of them are going to light up a deer's eyeball at 1/2 to 3/4 mile out. The CW Ericas are putting out 6000 lumens per light and throwing that light out as far as a mile. There is a huge difference.

The ADV model 30 lights (no longer available from what I see on their website) are for being noticed, the model 60s (at 3000 lumens) will light the road decently but not that far downrange, and the Ericas light it up.

If you are simply looking for conspicuity lights down on your forks and not expecting them to really light the road as much as get you noticed, then I would not go for the Darlas. Great lights, too much money. The ADVMonsters come very close to the Darlas for a lot less money.
 
As they say in real estate, location makes all the difference. I'd have no way to ever use 6000 lumens per light, and have it aimed a mile down the road. ;)

I live in a urban area. All of Puget Sound is pretty much that way from Arlington up north, to south of Olympia. Go west, and you hit Puget Sound. Go east, and you hit the mountains. Even the side roads, have traffic. In that environment, the Model 30s worked very well because they were a tight spot beam that I aimed in my own lane...so it didn't bother anyone else. I'm guessing its a supply chain problem for the Model 30s not being available. I'd probably buy the Model 55 today though instead. At $75 per light and 3000 lumens in a 7 degree spot beam, it would work well in my location.

But that's really going off on a "bunny trail". My objection to the Clearwater lights was the paint flaking off, and the high price you paid to get quality like that. A light that costs that much money, should never have cosmetic issues.

Chris
 
amorley said:
Dave,

I have the Clearwater Ericas on my BMW K1600GT. They are incredibly bright. If you intend to only use them at full beam, you could wire them with a relay into the high beam circuit on the ST1300. If you want to use them during the day on low beam and then at night on low and high beam, I have an unused CanOpener 4 I can send to you. However this is setup for the BMW which uses the Wonderwheel to control the lights. I recommend you call Clearwater and ask them how the CanOpener 4 is installed on the ST1300. You will probably have to buy the dimmer.

Andy
Click to expand...

Andy,

Thank you for the offer and advice. I ended up buying heffly's unused harness that he had laying around for a bit less than half of new so my problem is hopefully solved, once I get his harness. I should get it on Saturday or maybe Monday.

Thank you to all for the helpful advice, especially to jodog for the link to the Skene Design controller. I was just about to buy that one when I saw heffly's post about his unused one.

Maybe all the helpful advice in this thread will help other in the future looking for the same thing. :)
 
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