Additional fog lights

I am complaining about bad headlight performance everytime we arrive late to our destination. I was thinking about many solutions of this problem (LED, Xenon, Halogen fog, Halogen long beam...) - I have chosen the one that I think fits the best: 2x Halogen fog lights HELLA Micro DE.

Hella Micro DE fog (official website screenshot)

These are relatively cheap (set of 2pcs with relay, cabling... costs about 90 EURO), they don't dazzle other drivers, they mainly increase the amount of light right in front of the bike (not that far away as headlights) and it also iluminates sides close to bike. So perfect solution for me.

I just had to figure out the connection to the bike and also I had to do all the cabling. I made a CAD drawing with measured distances between bolts that could be used for attachment of the lights to the bike. After few tries, I had a rough design. I made a paper model, that was adjusted few times again. When it seemed OK, I (with help of my father) made a steel prototype made of thin metal sheet. It seemed ok as well, so I could order a production of final product in local steel workshop where they did some lasercutting of 3mm thick stainless steel for me. You can see all three models below:

Fog light holder for BMW R 1150 GS - drawing, paper model,
steel sheet model and the final 3mm thick stainless steel model

Ok, so the holder for fixing the light to the bike is done. Now I head to solve how to connect it to the fog lamp itself. There was attached some kind of steel holder, but it was not what I would use. I made my own design that enables also adjustment of light inclination not only in vertical direction but with connection to my holder (above) it can be adjusted horizontally as well. The procedure was similar as before. I made CAD drawing, after some adjustments of the paper model I ordered the lasercutting and CNC bending according to my design with brushed 1,2mm thick stainless steel sheet.

Paper and stainless steel Hella Micro DE holder

All the essential parts together

I will not bother you with all the cable work. I am using two relay system - the first one starts my additional electric installation circuits (GPS, charging plug, and fog light switch), the other relay may work only when first one is already running - it just turns the fog lights on when the fog lights switch is on. That means that I cannot run the fog lights when my engine is not running. I used SW Motech switch for handle bars with some adjustments (I have read that it is not that much waterproof so I used silicon sealant on its back side). Well that was it. Here are some pics of the final product on my bike.

Installed Hella Micro DE fog lights on my BMW R 1150 GS

One more picture from the front

 I took two pictures with manual setting (the same conditions) with additional fog lights off and then the other one with switched on lights:

Turned off additional fog lights

Turned on additional fog lights

You can notice that the amount of the light increases significantly in front of the bike and it does not dazzle anyone since the light is still below the "border" of the original headlight.

My expenses:

- Hella Micro DE fog lights set of 2pcs (90 EURO)

- Additional cabling, faston connector etc... (10 EURO)

- SW Motech handle bar switch (20 EURO)

- Stainless steel material + lasercutting and bending (20 EURO)

= SUM: 140 EURO