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Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

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Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 4 Aug 2022
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Lights
Does anyone have any experience with Squadron Pro driving lights? If you have had a good experience with other brands, please let me know. I will need some for a big trip being planned. Thanks
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  #2  
Old 5 Aug 2022
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Baja Designs - makers of Squadron lights - has a very good reputation. If they fit your requirements and in your price range, they're an excellent choice.
NOTE: BD makes RACE / OFF-ROAD and DRIVING lights only.
I'm personally looking for a good LED high / low headlight for a dual sport bike - but Baja Designs doesn't do that. The Squadron and it's ilk are single beam headlights that you can add a dimmer to in order to approximate low beam. NOT really street legal anywhere, as that means there is no proper low beam cutoff to prevent glare to oncoming traffic.
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  #3  
Old 6 Aug 2022
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Lights
Thanks for the info. regarding Baja Design driving lights Grant. Best information I have had about them to date. I'm surprised that there is no immediate switching option linked to a bike's high and low beam switch, similar to the system that many cars have, other than via the use of a dimmer? I'm wondering if any other brands have a better system so as to enable an immediate change from high to low beam incorporating the driving lights also I'll keep my eyes and ears open for a good LED light for a dual sport bike, as described above. Thanks Grant.
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  #4  
Old 6 Aug 2022
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fernbrook View Post
I'm surprised that there is no immediate switching option linked to a bike's high and low beam switch, similar to the system that many cars have, other than via the use of a dimmer? I'm wondering if any other brands have a better system so as to enable an immediate change from high to low beam incorporating the driving lights also I'll keep my eyes and ears open for a good LED light for a dual sport bike, as described above. Thanks Grant.
I have always wired separate driving lights into the high beam switch via a relay, AND a switch. The switch turns the driving light OFF at all times, and when ON, it's powered via the relay triggered by the high beam circuit. Simple enough and gives options.
As for a single LED high - low headlight option, that's the tricky bit it seems.
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  #5  
Old 6 Aug 2022
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Further thought - are you looking for ADD-ON driving light(s), or a SINGLE headlight?
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  #6  
Old 7 Aug 2022
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I have a pair of Baja Designs Squadron Sports which I use for my main headlights. Wired as a low/dipped beam is the wide angle/cornering version. It has a quite clearly defined cutoff in the beam pattern which satisfies my MOT tester, and while there is a bit of residual light above this, I do not get flashed by oncoming traffic, although the more powerful Squadron Pro might be too much. The Sport is plenty bright enough.
For the main beam I use the Driving Combo, which has 2 spot beams and 2 wide angle beams. It is brilliant (literally!) and the Pro would be even better, but at my road speeds an unnecessary extra expense. If the 2 sets of LEDs could be switched individually, one lamp could be used for the whole job, but then you would lose the wide angle AND spot function which is a perfect flood of light when there's no oncoming traffic.

I initially tried the S1 wide angle - a single LED unit - for the dipped beam, but it has a larger lens and the beam cutoff was not well defined enough. The smaller lens on the S2 would probably be ok. (See Mr Pavey's light weight dual sport build on Youtube for how it could be set up)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T-GLGANCv4
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Old 8 Aug 2022
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Interesting! Thanks Mossproof! Do you have a photo of your setup?

Looking at BD's website:
https://www.bajadesigns.com/squadron-sport/ and specifically:

https://www.bajadesigns.com/products...ary-light-pod/
combined with:
https://www.bajadesigns.com/products...ary-light-pod/
might work. Similar to the Motominded setup for Husqvarna as in the video, but cheaper
hmmmm... gets out the tools...
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  #8  
Old 9 Aug 2022
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Lights-p1020196.jpg

Lights-p1020197.jpg

Lights-p1020198.jpg
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  #9  
Old 9 Aug 2022
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Forgot to rotate the first pic before attaching it. Sorry!
UFO Universal enduro twin headlight shroud with enlarged holes and a custom made bracket behind it to mount the 2 lamp units. Home made adjustable mini fairing.
Significantly lower amp draw than an H4 bulb and an amazing spread of light.

I see Hella now do LED 90mm round lamp units, which could be paired for a more retro Tenere look, (or ultra modern Ducati Desert X look?) but I don't know what the beam pattern is actually like.

PS Just noticed Llel Pavey has an S2 and Squadron both in driving combo pattern, which I don't think will have a decent cutoff to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. OK on a wild Welsh hillside, no good on the ride home!
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  #10  
Old 22 Aug 2022
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Squadron Pro lights
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grant Johnson View Post
Further thought - are you looking for ADD-ON driving light(s), or a SINGLE headlight?
Apologies for late reply Grant! I'm planning on adding 2 Pro lights as extra lights (driving lights) to supplement the existing headlights on the Africa Twin.
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  #11  
Old 22 Aug 2022
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Squadron Pro lights
I am a bit concerned regarding the cut-off options for the Pros. A switch to separately turn the Squadron pros on, is planned but an additional dimmer switch to dim the pros is not what I want. What I envisage (if possible) is linking the pros to the low beam switch on the bike via a relay, (as Grant has said in an earlier comment) therefore turning my pro lights completely off from high beam when low beam is activated and leaving the headlights (only) on low beam. When high beam is activated again, I want both the headlights and the pros on high beam. My question is... Does the low beam switch completely turn off the Squadron Pros when activated, provided it is wired to a relay? Surely this option will work.
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  #12  
Old 22 Aug 2022
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If you bring a wire from the HIGH beam bulb feed to the switching terminal of your relay, when you switch to low beam the relay will switch off. (Unless the AT headlights are some overcomplicated system of which I, a luddite, am unaware! Canbus or something?? Not that I really know what it means!) Put a switch in that line as well so you can isolate the aux lamps from the high beam if you want.

You can see the cutoff beam pattern of the wide cornering Squadron in my middle picture. The bottom picture is the pattern with the driving combo, which is part wide angle and part spotlight. If you have 2 Squadron Pro driving combo lamps, you won't need the high beam - you will barely notice it is on!

A dimmer is not necessary for use alongside the main beam.
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  #13  
Old 23 Aug 2022
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Thanks Mossproof. I plan on getting a distribution board (PC8) to cover driving lights, heated gloves and possibly vest etc. It all should come together thanks to the info. supplied by you, Grant and others ( ‘et al’ for you Latin scholars!). I apologise for showing off!!
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