How 'come most other import motorcycles have yellow running lights up front, but BMW insists that this necessity isn't necessary? Especially in our increasingly safety conscious and risk averse environment, how can the makers of "the finest driving machine" leave off such a simple feature? BMW owners pay through the nose to have the best, and it's a shame we sometimes have to fend for ourselves to have the features BMW should have designed in from the start. Well, enough of the soap box proselytizing. Here's how you can brighten up your day (and night) with a pair of low power consumption LED light grids that overcome BMW's oversight.

While several running light kits are available, I chose the Lite Buddies because they fit into the existing turn signal housings and eat up just a few milli amps of current, an important consideration when the factory alternator only makes about 180 watts (or about 15 amps). A standard lamp uses somewhere between 7 and 15 watts, or about .5 to 1 amp, and with four of the darn things being needed, it doesn't take long to make a significant dent in your power budget. The Lite Buddies solve that problem nicely, taking less than .1 amp for all four (installation of red Lite Buddies for the rear is covered elsewhere). They're available in both red and yellow, with the yellow being most appropriate for front mounting.

Start by removing the turn signal lens from the housing, a simple task achieved by unscrewing two phillips head screws. Set the lens and screws aside (the lens makes a nice bucket to park the screws in). The lamp housing should pop out at this point, and you'll be able to see the two wires that provide power to the bulb at the back. Use a marking pen to write the color of the wire next to the appropriate connector, then remove the wires from their spade lugs. Flip the housing over and remove the bulb.

The Lite Buddy grid is molded from epoxy to fit the inside contour of the shiny side of the turn signal housing, and double sided tape is provided to secure it in place. I've found the tape to be less than reliable, and recommend foam tape in its place along with a healthy dose of silicon sealant to keep the Lite Buddies firmly attached. I like the idea of maximum separation of the two lamps, and so located them to the outside of the housing. That's a long winded way of telling you to stick the Lite Buddies into the housing. Oh, and don't forget to use some alcohol to clean up the reflector before you put on the tape.

Now you get to drill a hole in the lamp housing so the Lite Buddy wire can get back into the turn signal stock. A Dremmel tool comes in handy here, or I suppose you could use a 1/8" drill, making two holes close to each other and filing out the little bit between them to make one oval hole. The hole should go close to where the wires emerge from the Lite Buddy epoxy matrix.

Now you'll find a little idiosyncrasy about the kit: the connectors are already connected to the wires. This makes it impossible to get the wires through the hole. So cut the connector off, and be thankful that an extra set of connectors is provided. Feed the wire through the hole and prepare to feed them back through the turn signal stalks. This isn't such an easy trick, but I found that a piece of safety wire with a loop on the end, fed from the inside of the fairing, makes the job fairly straight forward. It helps a lot to remove the gas tank to get a little room to maneuver.

The picture at left shows where I slipped the safety wire into the turn signal stalk (arrow). I took my time working the wire through the stalk to avoid cutting the existing wires, and I found it necessary to loosen the turn signal housing clamp to get a little extra clearance. Fortunately the Lite Buddy leads are fairly thin, and only the power lead needs to be run through the turn signal stalk. You might want to use a pair of in line bullet connectors in the power lead in back of the turn signal reflector to simplify future rounds of fairing removal (the turn signal housing must part from the stalk to get the GS fairing panels off). With the safety wire inside the housing, loop the power lead from the Lite Buddy through it, making a generous loop, and gently pull the power lead back through the turn signal stalk.

The Lite Buddies piggy back on the existing ground wire, so you won't need to clip off the existing BMW connector off the brown wire. Just crimp the piggy back connector onto the brown Lite Buddy wire, push the connector onto the ground terminal on the back of the reflector housing, and push the BMW ground lead onto the other terminal of the piggy back connector. Reattach the blue BMW power lead for the turn signal to the other terminal.

Reinstall the bulb and feed the reflector housing back into the turn signal housing. You may need to bend the terminal to which the piggy back connector is attached to get sufficient room to let the housing seat fully.

Now's the time to take a breather, then repeat all of the above steps for the other turn signal. When that's done, run the Lite Buddy power leads to the parking lamp located on the underside of the headlight reflector. There are lots of places to tap into the wiring harness for Lite Buddy power, so if you use another location just make sure that the lead is switched on and off with the ignition (otherwise you'll have Lite Buddies that stay on and drain your battery). The kit comes with a little tap connector that wraps around the hot lead of the parking light and snaps shut, piercing the insulation on the lead in the process. A standard spade connector hooks up to the tap, so strip a bit of insulation off the two Lite Buddy power leads, twist 'em together, and crimp a spade connector to them. Push the spade connector into the tap and you're done with the connections. Now would be a real good time to turn on the ignition and see if the Lite Buddies illuminate. If you're using a Euro headlight switch, you'll have to flip it to the park or headlight on position to see the Lite Buddies illuminate. If you get no light, recheck your connections and make sure you haven't swapped the power and ground leads (you'll probably need a fuse if you made that mistake).

With the smoke check successfully completed, push the turn signal reflectors all the way to the back of the turn signal housing and install the turn signal lenses. The lenses are brittle, so don't over torque the screws. Just snug them up enough to take out the play between the lens and housing. Congratulations! Enjoy your new found conspicuity.

Post Script:

As good an idea as the Lite Buddies are, their durability leaves much to be desired. Since the time this article was originally written, I've replaced the front pair of Lite Buddies twice, and when the third set failed yet again, I decided to leave them off the bike. The folks at Run-N-Lites were patient and sympathetic, and I couldn't have asked for better customer service. At one point we thought we'd determined the cause of the problem (no current limiting resistors) but the last set still failed. Admittedly, Lite Buddy production had only recently been acquired by Run-N-Lites when I gave 'em a try, and perhaps by now they've got the bugs worked out. Or maybe the R100GS just puts too much vibration into the front turn signals, but that seems unlikely since the turn signal bulbs don't seem to be effected (the rear Lite Buddies are still workin' fine). What ever the reason, life is too short to waste on good ideas poorly implemented, and I'm still searching for a way to illuminate the front turn signals as running lights.