In my part of the world (Eastern Ontario, Canada) dusk is when all the critters start to hang out on the road. And critters like deer are best detected and avoided long before they spring unpredictably across your path. The stock LED headlight on the Tenere 700 is pretty good for conspicuity in traffic but is so-so at best for night-time illumination. It is unlikely to show you deer lurking on the shoulder. So, if you plan to ride often at dusk or at night, auxiliary lights are going to be a valuable safety upgrade to increase your field and range of illumination over the Tenere's stock lighting.
Years ago I outfitted my WR250R with a pair of 40W, 4-emitter LED lights from Fenix (similar to a Denali option) that turned night into day. They are especially helpful on dark forest trails during the shoulder seasons. While this would be great lighting on the Tenere, I figured it would be overkill because the headlight is already so much better than the anemic candle on the WRR. So I began to look for smaller, lighter auxiliary lights that could double as conspicuity lights.
After much searching I converged on the Cyclops Aurora LED lights. The build quality is excellent and the size (2" dia.) and illumination pattern seemed to be a good compromise over the tanning lights on my WRR, and over other, cheaper options I considered.
I also recommend the orange halo feature which can be ordered optionally. It's not obvious from the product marketing photos, but adding the halo doesn't reduce the main lighting area. Rather, it converts an otherwise opaque section of the lens perimeter into an orange-lit halo illuminated by a second LED cluster with its own separate wiring. This arrangement gives you the flexibility to pair the halo with a turn signal or wire it always-on for conspicuity lighting; I opted for the latter. And since the halo is extremely bright, it's very conspicuous! For the style-conscious, mounting the Cyclops lights under the round headlights really completes the bug-eye theme of the Tenere's face.
Fully lit, each Cyclops Aurora proves 19W of main LED lighting. That's plenty to through a beam a few hundred metres ahead with a decent spread to the light up the sides of the road. The result is a more complete wash of the way ahead than the OEM headlights alone achieve, especially with their sharp horizontal cutoff. The halos alone are also extremely bright and provide a substantial orange wash on the road ahead.
As for mounting the lights, there are few after-market brackets available. I wanted one that mounted to the lower triple clamp so the lights would turn with the bike (since the headlight doesn't). The best quality option I found was from Rugged Roads, although the OEM in the UK didn't have stock so I had to order from Germany (and it was cheaper than ordering from the manufacturer!). The bracket is top quality, nicely finished, and provides a sturdy and discreet mount for the lights in a relatively protected location. Note that if you've installed the high-fender kit on the Tenere, you will likely need to consider another mounting option since this bracket uses the high fender bolt holes.
When I ordered the lights I didn't notice there's a special harness option available for the Tenere 700. Turns out you need this harness. I had intended to make my own harness using OEM connectors ordered from Eastern Beaver, and even rigged it all up only to discover that the Tenere uses a non-standard method to turn on the high beams: The ECU effectively grounds the high-beam circuit in the headlight to illuminate the additional LEDs. This is the opposite of typical high-beam lights and how most aftermarket auxiliary lights are controlled. These typically rely on 12V being supplied via the high beam lead when you flick the high beam switch. On the Tenere, you'd need a way to invert the control signal Sure, there are some solid-state relays available that can trigger when switched from 12V to 0V, but by the time you factor in sourcing the parts and rigging the circuit, you're much better off just ordering the harness from Cyclops. It's only about $75 (don't quote me on that). Cyclops was generous enough to ship me just the harness (which normally isn't sold separately) when I called them to explain my situation.
The high-beam wire is located on the right side of the dash near the turn signal plug. It's the yellow wire in the 6-position connector. I removed the pin and spliced in a heat-shrink-covered pigtail with a bullet connector to attach to the Cyclops harness. This makes it easy to revert to stock, and I don't like piercing insulation with wiretaps since that can allow moisture ingress leading to corrosion.
The Cyclops harness plugs into the Tenere's left side auxiliary connector (white; near the indicator connector) which is switched with the ignition.
The Tenere includes four auxiliary connectors at the front: a triangular three-pin connector on each side intended for heated grips and auxiliary lights; and a rectangular two-pin connector on each side for accessories that mount in the dash holes. (Note that the left accessory plug powers the 12V plug on the dash; the other accessory plug is unused on my bike because it requires an obscure connector that I haven't gotten around to switching for something waterproof and more readily available. However, I'm likely to rig it to power the double USB port on my dash which is currently wired into the PC-8.) Since I had already used the righthand three-pin connector to plug in my Eastern Beaver PC-8 expansion box (so it would turn on with the ignition), I routed all the Cyclops wiring to the left side.
Wiring the lights was initially a bit of a chore, mainly because of the lack of room to tuck away the extra wiring. I won't describe the gong-show of different options I tried to hide the relay and wiring inside the headlight housing. Don't waste your time with this approach. It would be the neatest, but it just doesn't fit because of the Cyclops switch relay, and it also creates the problem of being a pain to access in the event of an electrical gremlin.
The method Cyclops recommended to position the wiring didn't seem very practical to me so I experimented with some different approaches. In the end, I mounted the slack wiring as a vertical loop against the left fork inside the triple clamp, positioning the connectors in this location with a short section of bicycle inner tube for mechanical protection, and zip-typing the whole mess to the fork tube. The relay and excess wiring got zip-tied to the plastic frame mount near the aux connectors, where it's easily accessible by removing the left body panel and is reasonably well protected from rain and splashes. Overall, the arrangement minimizes flexing of the wires and keeps it clear of the other wire and cable spaghetti in this area when turning the bars.
After a few thousand kilometres of riding the lights have performed very well. The orange glow really seems to catch people's eyes and it makes a striking front-end for the Tenere. Illumination is greatly improved and the beam spread is easily adjustable to ensure both a good wash of area lighting (looking a bit wall-eyed on my bike) as well as a safe cutoff height to reduce the risk of blinding of oncomers. While a dimmer can be used with these lights (and I use a Skene with my WRR setup), I don't feel it's necessary given the always-on conspicuity of the orange halo by itself. Flicking the high beams gives that extra sauce for max visibility.
My only complaint with the lights is the factory strain relief on the aluminum housing seems to be an inflexible material, causing the external insulation to pull back from the internal wiring. While I could tuck it back together, this is a weakness in the environmental integrity that I'll need to keep an eye on. Some silicone tape or sealant may be needed to ensure a better mechanical connection in this location.
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