GMT Moto R1200GS light mounts
These light mounts are the simplest and cleanest design I've seen yet for the R1200GS (and I've seen a half dozen different designs). The are very solid 2-part pieces, made about of black anodized 6061 billet aluminum. They position the lights ideally with regard to crash protection, and avoiding interference with the fork tubes (another friend had his R12GS fork tubes badly gouged by some poorly designed and improperly quality-tested aftermarket light mounts).
It took about 60 seconds to attach each of these mounts. They fit perfectly, and when you get the two pieces in place, and insert the mounting bolt, they lock into place in a rock solid manner with no possiblity of misalignment. You can't get it wrong. Very impressive.
Attaching the light mounts
The two yellow arrows point to the two halves of the right side mount. They firmly clamp the two tubes of the front subframe where they join together in a "Y" just in front of the forks. Normally, I would have taken more photos of this, but they mount so simply it wasn't necessary to have extra shots. Torque them to 11 ft-lbs (or 15 Nm).
The mounts require you to use lights in the "hanging" configuration. I tried mounting the PIAA 510s (which come configured so as to be mounted upright, with the mounting bolt at the bottom) right-side up, but no joy -- they wouldn't fit that way. It turns out that hanging them is better anyway in this situtation, as the 3 lights then form a triangle, making the bike more noticable from the front. See the last photo on this page.
Putting the PIAA 510s on the GMT Moto mounts
Converting the PIAAs from upright to "hanging" configuration is pretty easy. Just loosen the two phillips screws which attach the lens to the housing. You don't need to unscrew them completely, just enough to slide the lens out.
The two red arrows show the guide tabs that slip over the screws. Simply rotate the lens 180 degrees and reattach them. Be careful to get the rubber seal even between the lens and the housing, so it won't leak.
The green arrow above points to the water drain at the "bottom" of the housing. Since that will not become the "top" of the housing, just rotate it so it points down. It won't work as a drain anymore, but by pointing it down it won't allow water to enter either.
Bolt the lights finger-tight to the mounts.
Using the stock PIAA wiring harness, we routed the wires along the left side of the bike. It would have been better to remove the tank and run the wires underneath, but we were lazy.
After plugging the harness into the lights, we tie-wrapped the wires so they would not move around, and would be out of the way of the forks. We moved the forks lock-to-lock several times to make sure we'd done a good job.
After hooking the harness to the battery, and testing to make sure the lights worked, we wrapped the excess wiring harness in a bundle and tie-wrapped it next to the toolkit (leftmost green arrow above).
Since Gary wanted the lights on all the time, we discarded the included switch and wired the trigger side of the relay (small white wire) as shown by the other two green arrows above. We put a bullet-connector in the middle, so the lights could be powered off if desired, and tapped into the green wire for the Aux Diagnostic plug shown by the rightmost green arrow. It has +12v when the ignition is on, and no voltage when the ignition is off.
This means the fog lights come on when the ignition is on, whereas the stock headlights don't come on until the engine is running. We could have tapped into the headlight wiring harness for the relay trigger, then the fog lights would have been in sync with the headlights, instead of the ignition. But it was easier doing it the way we did, and has the side benefit of being able to run the fog lights without the engine having to be running too. That could be useful in a roadside emergency, or when setting up camp for the night
The obligatory "completion" shot. We aimed the fog lights down and outward a bit more than you normally would, so they don't appear as bright here as they seem to the naked eye.
When you think you're done with the project, re-check the 4 mounting bolts one more time (one on each light, one on each mount), and re-check the wiring harness to make sure it's not interfering with the forks or the front shock.
Follow the manufacturer's directions regarding aiming the lights.
Copyright © 2005-2007, by H. Marc Lewis. All rights reserved.