INSTALLING EXTRA LIGHTING ON THE HONDA MONKEY 125! | Light up the trails with Rock Crawler lights!

The headlight on the new Honda Monkey 125 is pretty good. It's LED, and casts a decent field of light on the road ahead - BUT - what if the road ahead isn't quite a road, but a rocky single track trail winding through a pitch black forest? For me, I take my Monkey off the beaten path more often than not, so I wanted to bolster my illumination capabilities with a set of Bison Offroad YAK! Rock Crawler Lights. I've done this project on my 2021 Honda Trail 125 Hunter Cub and really liked the outcome and how much they lit up the road and trail ahead, so I decided to perform the same modification on my 2019 Honda Monkey 125.

The basis of the mod is simple, we're just adding two LED 12v lights to the bike. There's only a few components needed:

12v LED lights (or an Amazon sourced lightbar if you want to stay budget minded)
7/8" handlebar mounted on/off switch
posi-tap connectors

I chose to use the headlight power wire for my 12v source that is located in the headlight housing, just before the main connector to the headlight. This is a large gauge wire and will have plenty of available power for the additional lighting load. Using a posi-tap splice connector ensured that I didn't damage the wire, so if I remove this system in the future, the wires will not need to be reconnected due to a full cut and splice job. This is where I connected the line (switched) side of the handlebar switch, as you need to send power to the switch, then back to your positive 12v to control the lights. If you're using an illuminated light switch, you'll also need to connect the negative (ground) wire of the switch to a ground on the bike. This is super easy, and you can choose just about any ground as they all really connect to the same point anyways. I chose another lighting circuit ground, specifically the side marker (blinker) ground within the headlight housing. I used one side marker for the handlebar switch ground (for the illuminated switch), and the other side marker for the rock crawler lights.

When connecting the Bison rock crawling lights, you can combine the positive wires together and connect them to the switch return, and the negative together and connected to the side marker ground. This will complete the circuit and power the Bison lights. Here's the connection list in simpler terms:

Handlebar switch supply (line) 12v to wiring harness 12v (I suggest the main power for the headlight)
Handlebar switch return (load) 12v to both positive (red wire) Bison lights
Handlebar switch ground (negative) to either right or left side marker ground wire (also black)
Both Bison ground (negative - black wires) to the other side marker ground (also black)

I chose to use the headlight power wire as I didn't want the Bison lights to have the ability to be turned on when the bike wasn't running (I set up my Trail 125 this way, and it's a nice feature actually). You can connect any lights of your choosing directly to the battery positive and negative points within the main fuse box or wires as well, you'll just have to run and manage a lot more wire to get to your lights. I didn't want a mess of wire running from under the seat, under the tank, along the frame, then up the handlebars, etc... I chose to keep it all central to the headlight housing, although it took a little more research to find the appropriate switched 12v supply.

Mounting the Bison lights is easy. The kit comes with a variety of mounting options, and you can choose the one that works best for where you want to mount your lights. I chose to mount them on the side of the headlight housing for easy of install. On my Trail 125, I mounted them on the side of the forks, which required a little more fabrication. Using the existing headlight housing bolt location, I substituted the OEM bolts for longer stainless steel hex head bolts. You can of course mount the lights wherever you like, but I found this to be a quick and easy method. I trail tested these during our Upstate NY trip for a whole week on super rocky trails, and they never came loose or had any issues, so I trust this location to be solid.

I hope you enjoyed the video! I plan to sell this kit through our website www.5xracing.com if you're interested in outfitting your bike with the same equipment.