GOOD & BAD - SW-MOTECH EVO FOG LIGHTS LONGTERM USER REVIEW // KTM 1290 Super Adventure S

I have had the SW-Motech Evo Fog Lights on my KTM 1290 Super Adventure S for 3 years and almost 50,000 km - a good time to recap my experience with this accessories and tell you what I think about it.
The experience has not all been good and there would be a few changes I would like to see in future iterations of this product. I had issues with water build-up in both of the lights and eventually had a warranty claim on this product as one of the lights failed to work.
Even though only one of the fog lights was broken (probably due to the water build-up) I had to return all of the items which were included in the orginal SW-Motech box to claim for warranty including the wiring harness. Luckily I had the original box handy as I had to buy a second set due to the damage of one of the lights during an off-road training which included a wiring harness. Otherwise this would have been a major pain to remove the wiring just to claim a SINGLE broken light.
Keep that in mind when you are looking to purchase this item - make sure to buy them from a trusted dealer that may be able to help you should something go wrong and you need to use the warranty. This is also the main reason why this item does not get a clear recommendation from me - I do not think it is a problem that something breaks but a top tier manufacturer will make the exchange as easy as possible and not require you to uninstall the wiring harness that took hours to install.
Aside from the issues with water build up the product has been great and I am happy to have it. Even though I got my warranty issue resolved the unneccessary hassle to get one of the lights exchanged left a bid of a bad taste.
SW-Motech Evo Fog Lights
shara.li/c/NMZr77HZ78
shara.li/c/6UL1C45uNh
12 Watts / 1050 lumen
KTM Powerparts Fog Lights
14 Watts / 650 lumen
If you are interested in what I think of some of the other accessories that I have on the KTM 1290 Super Adventure S check out this video:
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[@stevedenny3547]

Thanks for the continued updates on the gear/equipment you use. BTW my new 2021 1290 SAS arrived last week and i'm very impressed with it, only done around 200 miles yet but super easy to ride fast.Great engine.

[@MotoVibes]

Thank you very much Steve and congrats for getting the new 1290 SAS as one of the very first riders! I will be ridding the new R model for a day this Saturday if everything goes well. It will be at the Enduro Action Team for some offroad training. I have only been on the bike a couple of times this year - i have never had such a late start into the season before ;-)

[@bradleyalexander5821]

I would say this was a fair and honest review. Good tips concerning the recipe and original box. I’ve purchased a couple of parts from this company, but they’re machined parts. So not had any return issues. I’m the same as I always run my fog lights to be seen. 👍🏼

[@MotoVibes]

Thank you very much for your feedback. As always this just a single experience that I can share. I hope others had better experience when they needed the customer service. SW-motech have a range of good and interesting products and I will still look at them for my future needs for sure. 😉

[@barkinsahin]

Thanks for the honest review. Sw motech led lights perform well but water ingress has been and is still an issue! For the price tag, they should be better.

[@MotoVibes]

Thank you for your comment - have you had similar issues as well?

[@patrickcooper9641]

Never heard of that one as far as removing the harness! This is a crazy request! I have Clearwater Erica lights (I know they are not fog lights) and love them but after riding through a few monsoon in Central America one the lights accumulated water between the lenses/it's like a double pane window. When I came back State side I called Clearwater, send the light and within a week I received a new one, no questions asked. II also love the light output and the fact that they are fully dimmable and the flood light pattern. The more lights we have, the safer we are. Cheers

[@MotoVibes]

That is how it should be! Especially with brand name products. I know there are great products on the market but i wanted something street legal in the EU and that cuts the field down a lot.

[@patrickcooper9641]

@@MotoVibes Clearwater lights were legal in the UK before Brexit! Who knows now! Safe riding!

[@MotoVibes]

@@patrickcooper9641 good to know. Chances are they have street legal products for the EU. I will have a look 😉

[@KMeyn]

Thanks for the video. Interesting I came across this today. Bought a SW-Motech package (bars, hand guards etc) for the 1290SAS not long ago, but left the lights out. Still considering them. Lumen wise there are brighter ones out there, but the reflector also matters. Like you I primarily want them for improved day-time traffic vsibility (a GSA replication). Ideally I'd like to mount them on the SW-Motech crash bars, to get them further apart (but inwardly). However there appears to be no brackets for this.

[@MotoVibes]

I briefly looked at mounting them on the crash bars (KTM powerparts) but I think it could tight with space or you move them out more but then they are even more vulnerable than they are now. I took of the installation bracket from SW Motech cut off the end pieces and moved the mounting points further to the inside (approx 5cm). However, I have not had the time to put them back on but I may do a short video on what that looks like once they are back installed. That should help to keep the LED lights out of the way if the bike falls on its side (hopefully ;-) )

[@simonhemingway495]

Help. Where do I attach the green cable on the switch relay. It says to the positive of the low beam cable. What colour is this on a ktm 2018sar

[@MotoVibes]

It’s been a very long time but I think you need to find the switched power which you can find behind the head lamp (need to remove it) there are 2 cables with ACC 1 and ACC 2 - you need ACC 2 for switched power

[@johannesstahl3370]

I consider to buy these because my headlight has avery small light source (but bright). During night lots of cars arent able to see me. So i would pay the fine than to not use. I never saw a car where the fog lights disable when the high beam is turned on.

[@MotoVibes]

I would buy these lights again in a heart beat. Best thing to get noticed 😎 never had an issue with police complaining - not that I care anyway. My safety is worth more than a small ticket 😉

[@SsiolisP]

Pause at 06:44 why not just drill a new hole for the mounting screw 1-2cm further in, on the bracket (or even more if it's possible)?

[@MotoVibes]

That is pricely what I did - I moved the lights further to the inside and cut the end pieces off. I had to use a different screw and a few other metal pieces but you can see the final result here kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKPcmpuNfJd_lbs

[@dankomasovic3226]

Hi First of all thanks for very good and useful videos. Helped me a lot. All these tours in the Alps are very much inspiring. I have a question that is not related to this video, and which I wanted to ask you for quite some time. Please bear with me. I purchased the same bike last year hoping that I’ll be able to ride some dirt roads once and a while, but on the way home I was very disappointed on how it rode on gravel. It was a very harsh ride with a lot of rattling especially from the windshield. Tires were still the original ones, but with only 2bars pressure. I know that knobbies will take some vibrations away, but that windshield seams very loose for some reason. The bike had less than 4500km on the odometer, and wasn’t used off road. Can see many of these bikes are used off road with the original windshield, so my question to you is, did you experience this rattling and harsh ride before you made the off road conversion? I expect to ride probably 70% tarmac so not planning to make the same conversion, but if you have an advice regarding this issue, I will be even more grateful. Thanks in advance and keep up the good work. All the best!

[@MotoVibes]

Thank you very much Danko. As for the rattling of the KTM off-road - i experienced a lot of that too - seems to be quite normal. You can hear it really well in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/aGWYkn9plMqsgLM start at the 20min and keep watching. It is intense and I think it is a mix of different parts - center stand, chain, parts of the cockpit. Same on off-road R version from Thomas. Chris managed to rattle off his windshield on this track on his BMW - this was only the second day 😂. Nothing came off my bike - I use loctite on pretty much every screw on my bike because I had things fall off before- hope this helps 😎

[@dankomasovic3226]

@@MotoVibes thanks for the fast response. At least now I know I'm not the only one😅 Thanks for the advice. Will keep that in mind. Cheers!

[@EugenRomaniuc]

Hello and thanks. What am I concerned about is the law here in Germany. I know it is illegal to use them if there are not bad visibility conditions like fog or rain. But did ever the police asked you about this? Does your friends also use fog lights during daytime? Thank you

[@MotoVibes]

You are correct- you are only allowed to use fog lights during bad weather conditions. Everyone I know uses them here and will gladly pay the fine if I ever get stopped for that. The increased safety is easily worth the occasional ticket (which I have not gotten so far). I think most police would be quite understanding- they usually target motorcycles for speeding or loud exhausts - my bike is completely street legal 😉

[@brucecutts8841]

Just use the ACC2 outputs behind the headlight - no need to faff around with cable runs to the battery

[@MotoVibes]

The lights came with direct power connection to the battery and a relais that gets connected to ACC2 (switched power). I know the KTM has 10A on ACC but it was easy enough to run the wires to the battery and take ACC2 power from the the front (behind the headlight). On paper the LED lights are rated at approx. 30 Watts @12V that would come out to 2.5A so it would be fine just running them of the ACC2 - is that what you did?

[@syumassh]

How are they angled? Did you angle them at 0 deg tilt? Or tilted down slightly?

[@MotoVibes]

I have them slightly tilted down - best to set when it’s dark. As I use them primarily for day time lights I do not want to blind oncoming traffic but I was riding at night yesterday and the extra light was good to better read the road surface 😉

[@elenapahor9916]

Ciao, complimenti per I tuoi video, mio padre ha montato gli stessi faretti sul suo super tenere 3 anni fa, in 50000 km nessun problema, sei stato sfortunato mi spiace

[@MotoVibes]

The second set was better 85.000 + km now and still going 😉

[@Aldimann007]

Moin, du hattest doch ein Video in dem du erklärt hast, wie du deine KTM für Offroad fit gemacht hast. Wie wärs denn mit einem Video wo du zeigst was kaputt gegangen ist? Welche Schutzmaßnahmen was gebracht haben und welche du evtl. Zusätzlich empfehlen würdest. Gerade der Motor und die Tankverkleidung stelle mich mir eher Problematisch vor. Bei mir dauerts noch ne Weile mit Offroad, aber dann weiß ich zumindest eher worauf ich mich einlasse :D

[@MotoVibes]

Das ist ein gute Idee für ein Video - hätte da einiges an Erfahrung zu teilen und würde jetzt auch ein paar Dinge anders machen als noch vor 1.5 Jahren. ;-)

[@Aldimann007]

@@MotoVibes Sehr cool! Dann freu ich mich schon auf das Video ;)!

[@GhettoSuguru]

yo is that the Sony FDR X3000 mounted on your helmet ? how do you mount it ? how is it so far and also night videoing is it bad ?

[@MotoVibes]

Yes it is. I did a video on the camera setup that should answer your questions kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqrIc4d5fNmSgdUsi=uqkBm5f2V8_YIGJV

[@MotoVibes]

The sound setup has changed slightly since the first video if you are interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmjImWR-eN2jZsUsi=VmTVvkH_FGB-T43r

[@MarcoSero]

Any reason why you didn’t consider Denalis?

[@MotoVibes]

I was looking for street legal (in Europe) lights- as far as I know Denali light are generally not certified for street use in the EU. It is one thing to run the lights when you should not (a small fine) but using lights that are not street legal may mean that you continue your journey on foot if caught by the authorities 😉

[@PawelzBydgoszczy]

Czy lampy posiadają homologację i czy nie łamiesz przepisów mając je stale włączone.

[@MotoVibes]

The lights are street legal - running fog lights are just allowed when there is actual fog in Germany. However I would rather been seen by traffic than sweat a ticket. 😉

[@PawelzBydgoszczy]

Ja tłumaczę policjantom na różne sposoby i w dużym ruchu włączam nawet długie światła i mówię, że ostrzegałem iż jadę. Zawsze tłumaczę iż pogorszyły się warunki drogowe przez dymiące samochody, albo falujące powietrze w upały itd...popieram dodatkowe światła, bo nie chcę zginąć.@@MotoVibes

[@MotoVibes]

same here ;-)

[@czaras_]

Well, I just wanted to verify at the source the need of return both lights AND WIRING in case ONE light gets defective so I contacted SW-Motech and I can say it's 100% truth. What's more: I can also confirm its exeptional rude attitude to customer where I had to exchange like 5 emails with them to only confirm the above information. I just hope it's a sales person who was just NOT the right man for this job.

[@MotoVibes]

Sorry to hear you had the same experience - it’s unfortunate 😬

[@tmark1301cc]

What is your email? I need to send you pics of some real bikes.

[@MotoVibes]

Tod - check the channel's "about section" you will find my email there