It is well known that the original headlight of the XR 250 is just a little bit brighter than a lighter! It is only useful for being visible by vehicles coming from the opposite direction. It is definitely of no use, however, to the rider. This certainly makes riding at night dangerous, if not impossible. In the countries where we travel, driving at night is dangerous anyway, as vehicles are grouped into two large categories: the ones that use headlights and the ones that don’t! Indeed, in some countries it is totally legitimate for vehicles that move under a specific speed not to use headlights! So, we travel at dark very rarely and that’s only if it is really necessary.

Photo: Nikolaos Oikonomou

   These few times that we have to travel after sunset or when we ride in a city, in neighbourhoods with dirt roads without any lighting, the headlight should illuminate efficiently. On my quest for proper headlights, the first door to knock was that of the renowned Baja Designs, even though I knew it is established in the faraway U.S.A.. The reputation of this firm, specializing in lights for every kind of vehicle, has reached Europe and beyond!

   Baja Designs saw to our case seriously and after a thorough debate, in order to find the proper equipment for our expedition in Africa and Middle East, they were generous enough to sponsor us with all the necessaries! They sent us a huge package to Greece, inside of which there were the most powerful LED headlights for motorcycles, the legendary Squadron! The main reason for choosing LED technology was the low power consumption. This is very important, as the motorcycle is our home and our energy production plant. That’s where we charge all of our electric appliances, which are quite a few. So, it is crucial to diminish power consumption. Squadron has four of the most powerful LEDs on the market. Nevertheless, it consumes just 42 Watts in total, which is less than the consumption of a simple glow lamp of 55 Watts. Its luminosity, however, is 4,300 lumens, which is more than this of two Xenon lamps!

Photo: Nikolaos Oikonomou

   When I first installed the headlights on my motorcycle and had them tested, I could not believe my own eyes! I never had such powerful headlights in any of my motorcycles! I was enlightened at last 😉  They produce a milky white light which is very convenient, especially in off-road riding, when it clearly indicates the terrain ahead of us. Moreover, I would really like to shake hands with the people who designed the headlight’s beam… They have done an amazing job! Relatively close to the motorcycle (the distance can be adjusted), a really bright circle is being formed. This helps us to observe every obstacle we are about to run over. At the same time a wider circle illuminates softly all the area around us. For instance, when being inside a tunnel, both the sides and the ceiling are illuminated. This is very helpful, especially when riding in the countryside, where we need to have a full view of the entire area, not just of what there is in front of us.

I would really like to shake hands with the people who designed the beam on this amazingly bright headlight!

   Besides the headlights, we had also every other light on our motorcycles replaced with LEDs. The turn signals and the taillight, even though small and with minimal power consumption, are extremely bright, catching the attention of other drivers. By having Baja Designs backing us up, our motorcycles don’t have a single glow lamp, meaning that, besides everything else, we also don’t have to care about replacing lamps due to excessive vibrations in off-road riding. LEDs practically never need to be replaced!

The turn signals and the taillight were also replaced by LEDs.

   Baja Designs, it’s thanks to you that we are not afraid of the dark anymore! Even when the sun goes down, we know that we can ride safely.

Here you can watch the test I ran to check how waterproof the Squadron headlight is: