The Gear Doctor / Denali Electronics D3 TriOptic Light Pods : Long

Photo: Sean Michael

Some ADVers might remember presentations from Dr. Sean Michael at Overland Expo events. Dr. Michael is a motorcyclist and professor of Outdoor Product Design & Development at Utah State University, among many other things (longer bio at end of this story). Today, he’s bringing us a review of some Denali Electronics equipment (www.denalielectronics.com). If you’ve got questions about the new D3 lights, then you’ll probably find a lot of your answers here—Ed.

Don’t ride at night. Besides ATGATT, is there any old saw more common to hear for improving safety? Underlying its wisdom is this fact: motorcycle manufacturers have been building bikes for over a century with completely inadequate lighting. So, what’s a rider to do? When the sun goes down, so does the kickstand. But why?

Even with Ducati releasing the first LED-equipped production bike—the 1199 Panigale—in 2012, most bikes still come equipped with inadequate lighting. Fortunately, the aftermarket has done what BMW, Honda and other manufacturers have failed to achieve. In only a decade they have developed LED lights that dramatically outperform factory equipment, making the road ahead no longer a dimly-lit guessing game.

From 2004 to 2009, LED’s adoption had rapidly evolved in automotive lighting, as Audi led the revolution. Initially used for only select functions, the R8 supercar claimed bragging rights as the first production vehicle to run fully LED-based lighting. Today, the market is replete with cars and trucks equipped with the crisp, bright and readily controlled LED lighting systems. Many include new variations on the sequential turn signal which first appeared on the 1965 Thunderbird. This and other eye-catching lighting functions have helped improve vehicle safety.

The D3 mounts easily on most bikes. Photo: Sean Michael

All of that technology is good news for motorcycles, too, because being seen (aka, conspicuity) is among the top safety needs for riders. The LED revolution is also pivotal because stators on bikes produce very modest wattage with which to power lights and other systems. LED chips today produce 5x the lumens of a comparable wattage halogen bulb. “Lumens per watt are the ‘horsepower’ of light”, wrote MotorTrend at the advent of the LED revolution, and that remains a helpful way to envision lighting performance.

Denali Electronics has been tackling this safety need for years, and their latest lights show how far motorcycle lighting has come. The brand was co-founded by Twisted Throttle founder Erik Stephens in 2010. Together with product designer Nate Bastien, they were spurred by the promise of the same technological frontier that the Ducati engineers in Bologna had tapped into: LED chips.

The journey to found Denali Electronics began with rider safety. “Safety has always been super important to me and Nate and the rest of our product team”, Erik says. At the outset, they first faced the challenge of sourcing reliable vehicle-specific lights from existing light manufacturers. Those fledgling attempts resulted in Twisted Throttle-badged lights, but the light’s success (along with frustrations from fitment and more) soon led to a decision to design their own lights from the ground up. Those first Denali Electronics lights focused on pushing the limits of small form factor while achieving highly usable light outputs.

Since then, Denali Electronics has gained a reputation for resolving lighting for motorcyclists through both fitment and types of lights. Of late, they have branched into other powersports, and even the automotive realm. But their core market remains powersports, and specifically the enthusiast needing compact lighting with substantial outputs. Erik described how the brand’s evolution started with a big pile of lights purchased from all the leading competitors, followed by comparing all the lamps head-to-head for performance. From there they began “cranking up the LED’s” in their own prototypes to establish maximum outputs. This process and the subsequent models evolved until they reached the milestone of Denali’s first fully customized (i.e., housing and components) light: the D7.

Denali model sizing. Image: Denali Electronics

As a rider, lighting safety is about seeing and being seen. Most of us, including the Denali team, have known a fellow rider who was hit in broad daylight by a motorist who later claimed “I never saw her/him”. Thus, for typical riders, daytime lighting is a more important safety consideration than how well lights perform at night. Fortunately, advances in high visibility lenses have made it much, much easier for riders to be seen during daylight hours. In this crucial role, “selective yellow” lens covers on sets of Clearwater Lights’ Darla and Sevina models have served me very, very well. Similarly, Denali offers optional selective yellow lens kits for its lights as well.

But having ‘solved’ daytime conspicuity, I still needed better long-range nighttime lighting. That reality sunk in when following the Snake River into Jackson Hole, WY late one frosty November night. Scanning for deer, I found myself leading a sportbike rider whose headlight was woefully inadequate. When two lanes widened to four at the city limits, the Yamaha zipped past, waving thanks, impatient with the cautious pace. In only minutes I saw hazard lights flashing, followed by the limp form of a very large, lifeless mule deer, and a stunned young man staring back at his shattered bike. Later, as EMS pull up, he told me “I never even saw ‘em”.

Having run many top-tier off-road lights on 4×4’s over the years (e.g., PIAA 80 Series, VisionX ADV8.7, Lightforce Genesis Pro), the idea of ample light is, it seems to me, relative to what one has previously used. Given current technology, auxiliary lights on bikes simply can’t compete with the top off-road lights, many of which have reflector diameters exceeding 8 inches and >140w outputs (and lack DOT approval). Nonetheless, the gap has closed considerably thanks to modern Cree LEDs.

In 2021, I contacted Denali Electronics and asked if they had a light that would reach way down the road. “Cow-spotters” was the phrase I used, referencing the need to see the open range Angus cattle we find wandering at night in Utah, Nevada other Great Basin states. Seeing black cattle >300m ahead in the inky night takes a special set of lights. Flood, driving and so-called hybrid beams each have their purposes. But they are no substitute for true spot beams. In describing this with Denali’s tech support, their D7 was said to reach substantially further down the road than most lights on the market, so on went a pair of the big beams.

On the bike (and on paper), the D7’s light output is impressive. Illuminating the foreground, road shoulders, and midrange path ahead is their forte. At 15,000+ raw lumens, they throw a lot of light, and do so in a highly useable pattern. And they should, since they draw 10A and weigh almost 4lb per pair. Want only want one set of lights to do it all? The D7 might be your answer. However, if you already have comparably patterned lights (e.g., Sevinas), the big Denalis may prove redundant, and offer minimal gains in enhancing illumination. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

When reporting my experience to Denali’s technical specialists later in 2021, they perked up and said, “Oh, what you really need is our new D3.” Despite the name, size and LED count sounding less impressive, I decided to give them a try. Unfortunately, COVID-induced supply chain issues meant I couldn’t source a pair until spring of 2022 (and only then after ordering from A Bike Thing in the UK). On the positive side, the D7 and D3 utilize the same wiring harness, and only minutes are required to swap one out for the other. This proved helpful in both the new install and in hot-swapping the lights for comparison testing.

More than any predecessor, the D3 line of Denali lights optimizes the balancing act between size, light output and power consumption. Despite its high lumen count, the D3 is easily overlooked. Literally. Against the backdrop of many bikes’ front ends, these mid-sized lights blend right in. Their compact form, measuring exactly 3.5”x2.5”, makes them hardly larger than a tennis ball. Compared to the D7, the brand’s largest light, the D3 is dwarfed, and tips the scales at ~55 percent of the weight (1lb 1.5oz). But where the D7 is impressive to the eye at first glance, the design intent behind the D3 had different goals in mind.

Compared to the D7 pattern, the D3 Spot (2nd from top) produces a long, narrow tunnel of light. Using the D3’s add-on Hybrid lens, the light can be distributed for a more balanced coverage. Image: Denali Electronics

The D3 is offered as either a distinct Spot beam or as a Fog model. Although a Hybrid lens is included with the prior “TriOptic Driving Pods”, if pure distance is the need then the unadorned spot-patterned D3 offers the most ‘reach’ of any Denali product. By comparison, the D7 attempts to combine the full range of beam patterns into a single light.

This difference is seen in light mapping comparisons between the D3 and D7 models. The ‘pencil’ effect of the D3, as well as the broad overall illumination of the D7, are accurately rendered in these light maps (aka, isolux graphs). Both images capture reasonably well a rider’s in-person experience when operating the lights in various after dark conditions.

Isolux graphs, or charts/plots, themselves deserve an explanation. For consumers, isolux graphs conveniently illustrate light performance using a standardized measure of light termed a lux. This base unit of illumination is said to be equal to ‘the light of a full moon under clear, unpolluted skies’. In fact, we typically see not much more than a third of a lux reach the earth during a full moon. So, a better way to think of it is that 1 lux is just enough light to read a newspaper by. More precisely, a lux is measured as 1 lumen per square meter. Therefore, isolux plots result from controlled measurement of lux levels using light meters and standardized test surfaces at various distances from the light source. The resulting data are then graphed in software to produce the multi-hued charts like what Denali shares.

However, not all lighting manufacturers provide isolux data on their web sites—which is not to say that they don’t possess them. The charts, and the base data from which they are derived, are essential for any brand that seeks to gain government certification (e.g., SAE, CE) for their lighting products. To obtain the graphs, an independent, third-party lighting laboratory must be hired to create them. Even for a single set of lights, the cost of a lab’s services is not inconsequential. Yet for companies that have invested in this testing, the resulting graphs are invaluable for understanding each model’s light dispersion and intensity.

For riders who want more lead time in seeing deer, cattle or other nighttime threats, the maximum distance at which a light produces 1.0 lux is a vital piece of data. Using this metric, the D3 Spot beams do an exceptional job. Isolux plots published by Denali show their newest light produces 1.0 lux at 1,900 feet. Based upon their respective plots, the D3 provides 200-300 feet of more distant visibility at any given lux level when compared to the D7. If we use Denali’s standard 68 mph “sight distance” metric, the gains equate to ~3 seconds of additional reaction time. Riding at more cautious backcountry speeds, that figure could even double.

For comparison, isolux graphs for Baja Designs’ Squadron XL (High Speed ver.) and Cyclops’ Orion 4.7 (Extreme Long Range ver.) both indicate performance of 1.0 lux at ~1,300 feet. [Note: Unfortunately, many light manufacturers do not publish and/or create comparable isolux plots, making it difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to compare light projections. Comparisons are made more confusing by the listing of raw lumens, which can sound impressive, but which only represent the total light emitted and not where it ends up.]

Real Life Comparisons

On loose surfaces or when reaction times increase (e.g., riding fatigued late into the day; when fingers are cold and/or stiff), a few more seconds of reaction time can make the difference between a 911 call and simply a close call. Less apparent, but equally important, is the reduced stress and eye strain that comes with quality LED lighting. Whether operating a motorcycle or a cage, flipping on high-powered auxiliary lights produces immediate facial relaxation. This tension relief helps preserve focus, energy and nerves.

Image 1: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.Image 2: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 100 percent + OE Hi Beam.Image 3: (1) D7 + (1) D3 at 100% + (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.[Note: BMW R1200LC GSA w/ stock OE headlight. Denali lights at 100 percent. Both pairs of Clearwater lights fitted with Selective Yellow covers]. Photo: Sean Michael

Like other Denali models, the D3 touts all the key durability features that the brand’s lights are known for. IP67 waterproofing, polycarbonate bevel, powder-coated aluminum housing and stainless steel hardware are among the key spec’s. For many buyers, the ability to use Denali’s CANsmart system will add a host of options for tying into their bike’s CAN system. For a simple on/off configuration this controller and its cost (~$250) is superfluous. Unfortunately, Denali’s switch options suffer from the difficulty of where to conveniently mount them (a solution I am still experimenting with).

Image 1: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.Image 2: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 100 percent + OE Hi Beam.Image 3: (2) D3’s at 100% + (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.[Note: BMW R1200LC GSA w/ stock OE headlight. Denali lights at 100 percent. Both pairs of Clearwater lights fitted with Selective Yellow covers]. Photo: Sean Michael

An additional safety solution Denali offers is their SoundBomb horns. A popular replacement for weak OEM horns, the Original model is a marked improvement. Its 120 decibels are loud enough that I not only got one for the GSA (Denali mount and wiring adapter required), but also installed one on our Sprinter van to improve on the pathetic Mercedes ‘Euro-horn’. Installation of both horns was fairly straightforward, though size/fitment can be an issue on some bikes. Denali also offers the Mini and Split (divorced components) versions for added flexibility.

Image 1: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.Image 2: (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 100 percent + OE Hi Beam.Image 3: (2) D3’s at 100% + (2) Darla’s + (2) Sevina’s at 20 percent + OE Low Beam.[Note: BMW R1200LC GSA w/ stock OE headlight. Denali lights at 100 percent. Both pairs of Clearwater lights fitted with Selective Yellow covers]. Photo: Sean Michael

Riders have a lot of aftermarket LED lights to choose from these days. Denali Electronic’s D3 model has made the decision of which auxiliary lights to run a bit harder. Not only does it produce some of the very best long-distance lighting, but the D3 can morph to serve other needs using optional lenses. Compact and drawing a modest 36 watts, this is a competitively priced light with excellent CAN-compatible integration. For helping you see wily coyotes and inky Angus over a quarter mile ahead, the D3 Spot beam has few peers. And that makes these little lights a big deal. #brightlightssavelives

About the Gear Doctor: Dr. Sean Michael (“Right Turn Clyde”) has been designing, abusing and testing outdoor gear since the 1980s. When forced to get off the bike, he’s a professor of Outdoor Product Design & Development at Utah State University, a product consultant, and a long-time instructor at Overland Expo. His work focuses on the history, performance and safety of outdoor products. Follow his product tales @thegeardoctor