Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Winter 2014 | IRON BUTT MAGAZINE  As described in the previous articles, an advantage of LED lights available from Clearwater and other manufactur- ers is that they can be dimmed, rather than turned off, to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. This feature not only provides improved illumination of the road and roadside when there is oncom- ing traffic, it increases the conspicuity of the motorcycle to oncoming traffic. Since releasing the Erica lights, Clearwater Lights hasn’t been resting on its laurels. As described below, the Krista lights have been substantially improved and a new “CANopener” device is avail- able for providing a level of integration with late model BMWs that isn’t avail- able from any other manufacturer. In addition, Clearwater has increased the number of bike-specific systems that come with everything you need, includ- ing mounting hardware and a wiring harness. Advantages of LEDs Three different types of light sources are currently available for driving lights: conventional halogen bulbs, high-inten- sity discharge (HID) bulbs, and LEDs. Both HID and LED bulbs provide sub- stantially more light output per watt. The total lumens (lm) of light output per watt is about  for the brightest halogen bulbs, about  lm/watt for HIDs, and about  lm/watt for the best LEDs. The higher efficiency of HIDs and LEDs results in a lower operating tem- perature, in addition to leaving more alternator output available to run heated gear and other accessories. Another advantage of LEDs and HIDs over con- ventional halogen bulbs is service life. Halogen bulbs rated at  lm/watt have a life expectancy of only about  hours. In contrast, HIDs are typically rated to last over , hours and some LEDs are rated at , hours, which is way longer than the maximum life of the vehicle. HID auxiliary lights have been popu- lar among long distance riders in recent years because they could produce signifi- cantly more light than the most powerful halogen or LED systems. For equivalent light output, an LED requires more sur- face area,which makes it difficult to focus the light in a “spot”beam.(The closer the light emitter is to a “point source,” the better the beam can be focused.) How- ever, recent improvements in the output per unit area of LEDs combined with the use of multiple emitters and multiple reflectors has recently made it possible for LEDs to rival HIDs in long range driving light applications. Since LEDs can now compete with HIDs for long range driving lights, they have become the preferred tech- nology because of the other advantages they offer. The two primary advantages of LEDs over HIDs is their ability to almost instantaneously go from off to % brightness and their ability to be dimmed so they can continue to be used when there is oncoming traffic. Systems Provided by Clearwater Lights The table below summarizes the LED lights currently available, or soon to be available, from Clearwater Lights. Cur- rently, only three of the models listed in the table are shown on the company’s website (www.clearwaterlights.com): the  lumen Glenda; the  lumen Darla; and the  lumen Erica. A Krista model is shown, but it’s the  lumen version with a ° spot beam that has been superseded by the  lumen version with an ° spot beam. According to Glenn Stasky, the owner of Clearwa- ter Lights, the new  lumen Sevina model will be ready to ship this month. I’ve seen a working prototype and the increase in light over the Krista and Erica models is impressive. The ." diameter Glenda and Darla lights are usually mounted low on the forks. The  lumen Glendas are pri- marily used for conspicuity; they don’t throw much light down the road. The  lumen Darlas are also used for conspicuity, but, as shown later, they do make a noticeable difference in roadway illumination when running at full power. They need to be dimmed to avoid blind- ing oncoming traffic. The long range driving lights cur- rently available from Clearwater are the  lumen Kristas and the  lumen Ericas. Both are ." in diameter and need to be mounted higher on the bike for optimum long range illumination. The Ericas produce twice as much light as the Kristas by virtue of the fact that they have six emitters and six reflectors rather than three. However, unlike the Krista lights evaluated in the Summer  edition of Iron Butt Magazine, the current Kristas have % more output and an ° center spot beam compared to the ° spot used for the Ericas and the older Kristas. As a result, the new Kristas have an even greater reach down the road than the Ericas. The math is a little complicated, but a semicircular ° beam covers an area of , square feet (a . foot diam- eter semicircle) at a distance of  feet. In contrast, an ° beam covers only  square feet (a . foot diameter semi- circle). Assuming half of the % of the light output is in the semicircle cre- ated by the spot beam, the  lumen Ericas produce . lumens per square foot at  feet, but the  lumen Kristas produce . lumens per square foot at the same distance. The soon-to- be-released Sevinas will produce . lumens per square foot at  feet.That’s more than four times the amount of light per square foot than the Ericas that were so highly rated by Chris Sakala. As shown in the table, the prices for systems designed for the BMW K are significantly higher than for the “universal” system or systems designed for other models, like the Yamaha FJR. That’s because of the cost associated with the subsystem needed to integrate with the CAN bus system used on late model BMWs. However, as described in more detail below, there are advantages of integrating with the CAN bus system that are not available with non-CAN bus models. » Clearwater Lights LED Systems Model Lumens Watts Diameter Spot Beam* Price Universal Price FJR Price K1600 Glenda 800 12 2.20” 15° $379 - - Darla 2000 24 2.20” 15° $499 $539 $599 Krista 2 3000 36 3.73” 8° $649 $718 $1028 Erica 6000 60 3.73” 15° $849 $918 $1228 Sevina 7000 70 4.50” 8° $1100 $1170 $1599 *About 85% of the light output is in the center spot beam. The remainder of the light is in a 45° spill beam.