I was taught to never ride faster than you can see to stop. That applies to blind corners during the day and riding on the freeway at night. I have ridden through the night many times to save my body from the heatstroke temperatures of the Mojave Desert in August. Depending on the stock lighting of the motorcycle, 40 to 50 mph is usually pushing the see to stop distance in pitch black conditions. Adding auxiliary lighting is how I can comfortably ride the freeway speed limit at night on unlit roads on moonless nights.
As I equip the Ultimate Motorcycling 700 Yamaha Ténéré Project Bike for more distant adventure destinations, I started looking for lighting to keep me riding safely after dark. I was planning a whole wiring assembly with its own On/Off switch, relays and all, when I found the Cyclops Yamaha T700 Auxiliary light kit.The kit from Cyclops Adventure Sports in Kent, Wash., works off the Hi/Lo Beam switch and turns with the handlebars. The Cyclops wiring harness magic is just a $60 add-on to the $296 list price for the pair of 19-watt Aurora two-inch LEDs. I also went with the optional Amber Halo Ring daytime running light version, which added another $50. They look awesome, and act like daytime running lights when the headlight switch is set on low beam. The Cyclops wiring harness eliminated my worry about tapping into the wrong wire on the Ténéré 700 and blowing up the $400 ECU.
The stock headlights are frame-mounted, so having lights mounted to the fork legs is a benefit when riding slowly in a campground or highlighting the deer herd ahead to your riding partners who asked you to lead. If you have never ridden with extra light at night, it adds a considerable safety and comfort factor.Additional front lighting during the day can help make you more obvious to the driver who might have said, “I didn’t see you.” In my case, auxiliary lighting extends the distance I can ride each day, from early morning starts to late-night motel arrivals.The Cyclops Yamaha T700 Auxiliary light kit has an excellent installation manual, so it doesn’t require much electrical or wrenching expertise. To access the correct power plug on the left side and the high beam trigger wire on the right side, remove the side panels after unscrewing their fasteners.
The two-inch LEDs attach to a sturdy steel plate bolted on via conveniently located, factory-threaded holes right below the headlight assembly. Route one wire to the right side to connect it into the readily accessible high beam trigger wire using a Posi-Tap. Route the rest of the wires to the left side and plug the wiring harness into the open Yamaha accessory plug—literally plug-and-play. The Cyclops harness lets you slide the preassembled wire ends into the plug assembly, so follow those instructions carefully.Using the Cyclops Ténéré 700 wiring kit, hooking into the factory headlight switch is that easy. Operation is as easy as using the existing headlight switch. The Amber Halo DRLs light up with the key in the accessory position, and then the full power of the LEDs comes on when you hit the High Beam.
That’s it. The two waterproof 19-watt LEDs operate off the existing Hi/Lo headlight switch and produce a claimed 4000 lumens of 5500K white light with a 15-degree beam pattern. Cyclops Adventure Sports has many LEDs to choose from—most are larger and more powerful. I selected the two-inch lights because they accomplish my goal of out-distancing the stock headlight, yet they are small enough to tuck away where they should be safe during the occasional tip-over.There is a stretch of freeway near me that is pitch black and devoid of traffic around midnight. I headed over to a straight segment that I had found was particularly dark with just a sliver of a moon as the clock struck 12. I pulled as far on the shoulder as I could and put the Ultimate Motorcycling 700 Yamaha Ténéré Project Bike on its SW-Motech Centerstand, patiently waiting in the 39-degree night air for breaks in the unusually heavy traffic.My dashcam is not well-suited for nighttime photos and loses clarity in the dark. You can see from the two photos that adding the Aurora LEDs filled the foreground with light. What you can’t see is how much farther I could see down the road.
I estimate I could see the road or an object if it happened to be on the road, about twice as far as I could with the standard Ténéré 700 lights’ high beam. I rode between packs for automobile, up and back on that stretch of road. I was completely comfortable riding at 70 mph, clearly able to see far enough in the distance to stop should an obstacle appear.
Another helpful visibility feature of the Cyclops lights is the beam pattern. I rode tight twisties with no light other than the Ténéré 700’s stock low and high beam. The Ténéré 700 headlights have a distinct upper limit to not blind oncoming drivers. However, when that upper limit is leaned over left or right, there is no light ahead on the ground to see what you are turning into. The Aurora lights have a circular beam pattern that leads with light as the bike turns.I have added auxiliary lighting to several of my motorcycles over the past 20 years. I have never had such an easy and uncomplicated installation, which was further simplified by Cyclops’ use of the Ténéré 700 stock light switch. The Cyclops Auxiliary light kit ran $406, as tested. It not only adds to the already eye-catching Ténéré 700 appearance, but adds safety for both day and night riding.
Cyclops Auxiliary Light Kit Review Photo Gallery
