Are These the Ultimate Adventure Bike Lights?
If you spend serious time riding at night, especially on adventure bikes, you already know that standard motorcycle headlights often leave a lot to be desired. Whether you’re dodging wildlife on remote backroads, tackling mountain passes after dark, or simply trying to increase your visibility during daytime riding, auxiliary lights can completely transform the experience.
The new Lone Rider MTL9 Motorcycle Lights promise to do exactly that — and more.
Lone Rider has built a reputation for premium adventure motorcycle gear, and with the MTL9 they’ve entered the high-end auxiliary lighting market in a big way. These aren’t just simple spotlights bolted onto crash bars. The MTL9 system combines multiple beam patterns, DRL functionality, MotoCAN & Hex ezCAN integration, and extensive customization into one seriously advanced package.
But with a premium price tag, are they actually worth it?
After digging into the specifications, rider feedback, installation details, and real-world impressions, here’s our full review of the Lone Rider MTL9 Motorcycle Lights.
First Impressions
Straight out of the box, the MTL9 lights look and feel premium.
The housings are large, solid, and clearly designed for hard adventure use. These are not lightweight plastic commuter-bike accessories. Each light pod feels extremely robust, with heavy-duty mounting brackets and oversized heat sinks that give confidence they’ll survive rough terrain, weather, and vibration.
The styling is modern and aggressive without looking over-the-top. The integrated DRL ring gives the bike a factory-style appearance and makes the front end look noticeably more premium.
For riders who care about aesthetics as much as performance, the MTL9s definitely add presence to bikes like the BMW GS, Africa Twin, KTM Adventure models, and similar ADV machines.
Lighting Performance
Lone Rider claims an impressive 23,200 lumens with a beam reach of up to 700 metres at 1 lux, and judging by rider feedback, these lights are genuinely powerful.
Unlike many auxiliary lights that only provide a narrow spot beam or wide flood pattern, the MTL9 combines multiple lighting modes into a single housing:
- Spot beam for long-distance visibility
- Wide beam for peripheral illumination
- High beam functionality
- DRL ring lighting
The result is a very usable lighting system for real-world adventure riding. The spot beam gives excellent long-range visibility for high-speed night riding, while the wide beam helps illuminate road edges, corners, and potential hazards like animals.
Several riders have described the lights as “daylight at night,” which honestly seems accurate considering the output. One of the most impressive aspects is how the beam pattern appears to have been engineered specifically for motorcycle use rather than simply maximizing raw brightness.
MotoCAN & Hex ezCAN Integration
This is arguably one of the biggest selling points of the system. The lights are designed to work with MotoCAN & Hex ezCAN, allowing deep integration with your motorcycle’s electronics and controls.
This means you can:
- Adjust brightness levels
- Configure day and night modes
- Control DRL colour
- Activate different beam patterns
- Use intelligent dimming functions
- Integrate with OEM switches
- Customize behaviour based on speed and riding conditions
For BMW riders especially, the integration appears extremely polished. Rather than dealing with multiple separate switches and wiring harnesses, the setup feels closer to a factory-installed lighting system.
The included Speed Blending Technology is also interesting, automatically adjusting brightness depending on riding speed.
That level of customization is rare in motorcycle auxiliary lighting.
They also use one circuit from the 4 available on your accessory manager, which works much like an ethernet connection, where power and data flows down the same wire. This means that programming is so easy and leaves you 3 other circuits on your MotoCan or Hex ezCAN to use for other items like dashcams, horns and phone chargers to name a few.
Daytime Visibility
One of the biggest reasons riders install auxiliary lights is not necessarily to see better at night, but to be seen during the day.
The amber or white DRL ring on the lights do an excellent job of making the bike more visible in traffic.
The ability to switch between amber and white lighting is a nice touch, especially for riders who prefer the added contrast of amber lighting during daytime use.
Some riders have commented that the DRL ring alone could be brighter for rural daytime riding, but most users appear to solve this by running the wide beam at reduced daytime power settings.
In busy traffic or poor weather conditions, the light setup should dramatically improve visibility to other road users.
Build Quality & Durability
Adventure riders are notoriously hard on equipment. The lights appear built with that in mind. The lights feature an IP68-69K waterproof and dustproof rating, meaning they should comfortably handle rain, mud, pressure washing, and off-road conditions. They also uses Osram LEDs and substantial cooling fins to manage heat during prolonged use.
The mounting brackets look properly over-engineered, which is important considering how heavy and powerful these lights are. The interesting thing about them is that to install them, you don’t have to take the whole bike apart and they are relatively easy to fit and exude a brilliant quality and hold the lights firm.
Overall, durability appears to be one of the strongest aspects of the package.
Installation
The TPMS on these units is a game-changer for motorcycle safety. You will see real-time updates on tyre pressure, which can help prevent accidents caused by under inflated or overinflated tyres. Alerts are displayed clearly on the screen and can have their upper and lower alerts level changed as you wish so when riding in different temperatures you are not being warned where you don’t need to, giving you peace of mind during your journey.
They work by adding the sensors to the tyre stalk and connect seamlessly to the units. They have small batteries in them but will last a long time before needing to be replaced.
The Price
Installation quality will depend heavily on your motorcycle. For supported bikes — especially BMW GS models — the process looks relatively straightforward thanks to the MotoCAN and Hex ezCAN integration and bike-specific mounting solutions.
There are also dedicated mounting kits for various motorcycles including:
- BMW R1250GS / GSA
- BMW R1300GS
- Honda Africa Twin
- Yamaha Tenere 700
- KTM Adventure models
The included hardware is comprehensive. One important thing to note – The MTL9 system requires MotoCAN or compatible ezCAN hardware for full functionality. That means these lights are not a simple plug-and-play universal solution. (unless you have the aMotoCan or Hez ezCAN or can fit one). If you do then its really straight forward. For some riders, that’s a downside.
For others, especially BMW owners already using CAN-integrated accessories, it’s actually a major advantage.
We found the included cables were long enough to route through the bike to the Hex ezCAN without issue. They also provide a ‘Y’ splitter cable to connect both lights into one cable, and this for us allowed us to route around the fuel tank. In Lone Rider’s extensive installation video they removed/lifted the fuel tank to fit, although we routed the cables around the tank and found that easier and still provided a neat installation.
Real-World Rider Feedback
Looking through rider discussions and community feedback, the general consensus is overwhelmingly positive.
The most commonly praised features include:
- Incredible brightness
- Premium construction
- Excellent beam control
- Advanced customization
- Clean bike integration
- Strong daytime visibility
A few riders mention that the lights are physically large, especially on sport-touring bikes or smaller motorcycles. Others point out that the system is expensive compared to traditional auxiliary lights. But almost everyone agrees that the actual lighting performance is extremely impressive.
Pros
Outstanding brightness and beam quality
The combination of spot, wide, and high-beam functionality creates excellent real-world usability.
Excellent MotoCAN & Hex ezCAN integration
Few lighting systems integrate this deeply with modern motorcycles.
Premium build quality
Everything about the system feels engineered for serious adventure riding.
Highly customizable
Day/night modes, DRL colours, beam settings, and intelligent controls offer huge flexibility.
Strong daytime visibility
The DRL ring significantly improves bike visibility in traffic.
Cons
Expensive
This is undeniably a premium-priced lighting system, although it is true, that you get what you pay for and these will last for years, and not to mention that there is extensive support available if you reach out to LoneRider.
Requires MotoCAN or Hex ezCAN for full functionality
Not ideal for riders wanting a simple universal install, although Hex ezCAN are now starting to produce their accessory manager to fit more and more motorbikes.
Final Verdict
The Lone Rider MTL9 Motorcycle Lights are clearly designed for serious riders who demand maximum visibility, premium integration, and high-end build quality.
These are not budget auxiliary lights. They are a fully integrated motorcycle lighting system aimed at adventure riders, long-distance tourers, and anyone who regularly rides in challenging conditions.
For BMW GS owners especially, the MotoCAN & Hex ezCAN integration makes the lights feel exceptionally refined.
The lighting performance appears genuinely outstanding, and the combination of spot, flood, DRL, and intelligent controls puts the lights among the most advanced motorcycle lighting systems currently available.
Yes, they’re expensive, but if night riding, safety, visibility, and long-distance adventure touring matter to you, these lights could be a very worthwhile investment for you.
Would We Recommend Them?
Yes, yes and yes! Whether you are a tourer, long distance rider or short distance rider, there add to much more than just being able to see at night. They add a fabulous array of customisation to aid you being seen by other road users in the daytime too, oh, and they make the bike look super cool too!