I bought some Darla lights, from Clearwater Lights, to improve the visibility of my FJR-1300ES motorcycle on the road¹. I spent quite a bit of time seeking advice on which lights to get, how easy the Darlas were to install, etc., over on FJRForum.com. Thanx to all the people who answered my questions!

Yesterday I started installing the lights, after carefully reviewing the instructions several times.

Sadly, it was a terrible experience, in large part because of one critical error in the instructions Clearwater provided. Many years ago, when I first started working on cars, I coined the phrase “No instruction manual ever contains more than 70% of what you need to know to do any given job.” The Clearwater instructions, while good in many places, fell far short of that mark.

I could tell the authors were trying to be thorough. There were separate sections for the various iterations of the FJR-1300 that have been produced over the years. They also were careful to remind you that the screws on an FJR, although they look like Phillips heads, are actually JIS — Japanese Industrial Standard. I’d never heard of JIS before. I ended up buying a set of JIS screwdrivers from Amazon (my local Home Depot didn’t have them in stock).

But there was one small, critical error in the Clearwater instructions. You have to remove several aesthetic panels to install the lights, controls and required electronics. Here’s the picture Clearwater provided showing the panels to be removed:

So far as I can tell, you don’t need to remove the left side panel to complete the rest of the instructions. You just need to remove the right panel (which covers the battery) and the instrument panel covering (which gives you access to where you need to tie in the Darla electronics). In fact, the instructions go into a fair bit of detail about how to remove the right and instrument cover panels…but not that left panel.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t try to remove it, because the instructions said I had to. Which ultimately led me to try and remove the lockbox, including a drain plug at the bottom of the lockbox. Unfortunately, when I finally gave up and started putting the left panel back together, I popped the drain plug through the lockbox…and couldn’t see where it ended up.

It took me the better part of an hour — not to mention a lot of angry cursing — to locate it. I never did figure out how to reinsert it, so I just taped over the hole it was supposed to seal with some duct tape².

The one good thing that came about from this mess was it forced me to reconsider whether this was a job I wanted to do personally. After encountering lots of problems trying to remove the instrument panel cover — a difficulty glossed over in the Clearwater instructions — I decided to give up. As another FJRForum member told me when I was seeking help, what Clearwater implied is relatively straightforward is “not for the faint of heart”. Truer words were never spoken :).

If and when I finally get the Darlas installed, I’ll write about how they work. They have a reputation of being excellent. Let’s hope they at least work far better than the Clearwater instructions do about how to install them.

One thing I noticed about the Darlas — I was able to install them onto the fenders — is I wish Clearwater had left a tad more space between the two bolts that hold the light to the mounting bracket which is, in turn, secured to the fender. I suspect the tight quarters will necessitate dismounting the lights every time I want to adjust their leveling, because you can’t get a wrench onto the two bolts you need to loosen (they’re too close together). You could use pliers, but I try to avoid that because you eventually strip the bolt heads..

1. The single greatest danger to motorcyclists, IMHO, is that our friends in four or more wheel vehicles often don’t see us. With often unfortunate consequences to the rider. ↩

2. No repair job is ever complete until you use at least some duct tape. ↩