We've seen this on a fair amount of Trek products... using just the front light port to provide power to Trek's proprietary light distro system. Seems to work quite well, thought I'm still not 100% familiar with it.
I'd imagine you could roll with using the modified Trek design, or you could likely source individual front/rear light wires for Bosch. They sell them as a plug with wires from the factory. Unfortunately, no "plug only" designs. Would require special tools, and some tight working spaces to field-terminate this style.
I'm not sure about the "hot to touch" situation. Many modern lights have this same characteristic as they are generating quite a bit of light in a tiny package. L&M may be able to tell you more about expected running temps.
I know my Serfas 1000 Lumen night-riding light has explicit instructions to keep moving (air flow) or turn the light off. It gets hot.
Thanks
@William - Bosch Team ,
I have this system all installed and working using individual wires for the front and rear light connected to separate ports on the motor. I sourced the connectors on ebay (they were Supernova Bosch light install kits). I did a careful job of soldering the connections and used the adhesive type shrink wrap to secure the connections. The big challenge with the install was.. I literally spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to thread the rear light wiring through the seat tube, past the tube junction, and the iso speed, and then past the DI2 battery, which is mounted below the seat in the seat tube. There was only a very tiny (1/8") hold in the carbon tube where the seat and top tubes meet. It was barely big enough to fit the light wiring through it. I tried all of the tricks I knew, including the Park IR 1.2 wiring install kit, a piece of light string (heavy sewing thread) and a vacuum cleaner, and just a lot of plain old fashioned determination. I was finally successful with a guitar string. Specifically a .046 wound E string
. Once I got past that hurdle, the rest was a cinch.
I am a bit perplexed about the functionality of the buttons on the lights. based on the fact that the software is set to "Always On, I can use the button on the front light to toggle between the various modes... (pulse, low, medium and high), but the button on the rear TUCK light (actually apparently called "VIS E-TL" seems to do nothing. That light is currently on in 'Pulse' mode as long as the Kiox is mounted and turned on. The manual seems to indicate that pulse is the only mode, which would lead me to believe that the button the light should turn it off an on. It doesn't. Sadly, Light and Motion support is pretty absymal. The phone number on their website just has a voicemail pointing at an email address. I have sent several emails to that email address, only one of which was answered. This is one where I asked for an installation guide for the wiring. The only response was "take it to your local bike shop, they'll know what to do" and closed the ticket. The problem is, my local bike shop (trek dealer) doesn't sell or service L&M products, and the only shop that does carry L&M doesn't do much in the way of ebikes, and none of those have Bosch systems. When I asked them if they could install the lights, all I got was a blank stare. It's not terribly important. I always have a flashing rear light on anyway, day or night, so it's ok, I just wish they provided a little better support.
I still need to find time to get the bike to the shop to have the system settings changed so I can turn the lights off/on via the Kiox light switch (right now they are always on).
The specific lights I used were the Light and Motion NIP800 and TUCK (VIS E-TL) rear lights. You can see the pictures of the front light mount setup in my previous posts.
The rear light was mounted using the GoPro mount provided in the TUCK packaging. I secured this to the back of my Bontrager seat using the 'Blendr' saddle mount point, and a 3D printed GoPro mount I found on Shapeways.
Check out Bontrager Saddle Integrated GoPro Mount by MadBikeSkills on Shapeways and discover more 3D printed products in Camera & Video.
www.shapeways.com
Really happy with this.
So overall, I'm much happier with the bike, and I love riding it. Sadly, due to Covid19, I'm not commuting to work, so the bike isn't getting a lot of use, but I to take it out on weekend rides on occasion.
Here are some more pictures of the setup I use.
This is my commuting setup. The Tailfin Trunk Bag contains my spares and tools, a little bike food and, when on longer rides, I take a second battery.
Here is the inside of the tailfin bag showing the Kaizen foam cutout for the battery.
And with the battery inserted
The front view showing lights, Wahoo Roam and the Kiox.
And the top view
This is the rear light and radar cluster. I use the Flare R's when I ride at night for extra visibility. The Garmin Varia Radar (Which is amazing BTW), is normally only on in "Radar Only" mode with the light off, but it's always available as light if needed.
Some of my spares and tools I carry in the trunk bag
@William - Bosch Team , Thanks again for your participation here. You and
@Stephen - Bosch Team were very helpful.
I do have two more quick questions for you.
What size Torx are the motor mount bolts on the Performance Speed motor ? I have a set of Torx L wrenches and sockets. Both sets have a T-45 and a T-50, but the 50 was too big, and the 45 seemed a little loose in the socket head. They worked, but I was very careful to make sure I didn't strip them. Are these bolt heads an odd size (i.e. T-47) ? Or is it something proprietary? I'd like to make sure I have the correct tool for these before I try to remove the motor again.
Also is the motor in my bike considered Gen3 or Gen4 ?
Thanks again
Jim