Remove Stock Headlight

Remove your stock headlight mask and unplug the headlight and turn signals, as well as any other electrical connectors. You’ll need to keep the main headlight connector to the side as you may need to test it with a multimeter to determine which wires are high or low beam.

Remove your stock headlight from the stock mask with a T20 torx.

Wiring Harness

The wiring harness will connect to the LED connector and the stock light connector from the bike.

Using the red provided connector, place the crimped pins in the connector in the correct slot for your bike to connect the correct colored wires.

On the 2017 KTM 350 EXC-F here’s the wire match:

When pushing the crimped pins in the connector, make sure you hear a “CLICK” when pushing them in. This means they’re seated correctly and won’t come out.

MOTOMINDED BRACKET KIT

The Motominded bracket mounts the LED to the mask plate and allows for adjustment of the LED up or down. Remove the locking wings from the mask plate.

Attach the Motominded bezel to the LED with four allen screws. This will hold the LED lens cover on.

Attach the Motominded bezel to the LED with four allen screws. This will hold the LED lens cover on. Now it’s time to mount the locking wings onto the LED.

The locking wings fit into the two slots that wrap around the LED. Using a 2mm allen and 7/32 socket, tighten the wing nuts just enough so the washers are touching the wing. It’s not time to tighten these up complete. This helps with getting the locking washers between the light and locking wings….

The lock washer will go between the mask and light as seen in the photo.

The easiest way for me was to, first, get one lock washer and bolt started on one side..

On the other side use two flathead screw drivers, one to lift the mask slightly away from the light as you use another flathead to push the washer in. This method worked very easy, no fighting the lock washer!

Once both lock washers and bolts are on, you can tighten the locking wing nuts and snug up the side bolts just enough were the light will stay in place on the trail but you can also tilt the LED up or down as needed.

Use small zip-ties to tidy up the light wire as shown, Motominded has pre-drilled small holes for these ties. This works very well! It’s like they are moto-minded or something!!

MOUNT LED TO MASK

Take the LED and mount and install it onto the mask from behind. You’ll have two allens at the top and one screw at the bottom. You can use either whole at the bottom, which ever one fits better.

Kinda eyeball the direction the LED should be tilted and install the light assembly back onto the bike, connecting the new wiring harness to the stock light connector.

NOTE:

With this wiring harness when you turn the headlight on low beam the high beam indicator will be on. Baja Design’s notes this in their instructions.. if someone knows a hack to fix this, please comment below!! If you have any questions just send me a note.

Both the Baja Designs LED XL PRO and Motominded Bracket Change Over Kits are very well made and high quality products.

Hope this helps someone installing this kit, Motominded instructions are pretty clear… now it’s just time to go ride!

Fitment

First things first, how well does each tank fit on the bike, mount up and how well do the stock shrouds fit. Each tank “fit” on the 350 EXC-F very easily and nicely, neither were perfect that would grant them a 10 score but I had no issues actually fitting either one on the bike.

Neither tanks gave me any problems mounting the stock shrouds to the tank, I personally like the fact that both IMS & Acerbis give you that option to use your stock side panels, unlike many past aftermarket tanks.

I gave the IMS one more point in the mounting area because I like the way the tank “wings” attach securely to the radiator.

Probably the number one question I get asked is which tank is better with a tank bag, while a tank bag can be used with the Acerbis, as I’ve done it on a 3 day ride, but clearly the IMS will fit a tank bag much better.

Acerbis

IMS

Build Quality

At first I gave the Acerbis a bit node in the build quality just by handling each tank. Then, as you can see on my Acerbis review post, I had an issue with one of the mounting holes for the fuel pump. It appeared to be a factory mold issue which I was able to fix with a Time-Sert and never had any fuel leakage. The IMS has brass threaded inserts for all mounting points, which for me is a plus.

I did not measure the thickness of each tank but it does appear the IMS is thicker plastic than the Acerbis. On another note… the Acerbis fuel cap/mount is very cool!

Acerbis

IMS

Protection

Well it’s not usually a requirement for a fuel tank to add protection….. but all the aftermarket tanks I’ve purchased that’s always been a talking point.. “the larger tank really protects the radiator well..”

So I thought I’d add a section for protection, namely the radiator. The IMS clearly hugs the radiator quite well from the sides, the Acerbis does come lower on down the radiators than the IMS but there’s not a large difference here. BUT.. if you need to get to your rear shock for easy removal without taking the tank off, the Acerbis allows you to reach the top mounting bolt for your shock.

Acerbis

IMS

Style

And once again, this is not a requirement of a tank.. but most of us want our ride to look good. The natural color probably isn’t your first choice if you are looking for style points alone, but the ease to see fuel levels at all times on a long ride for me is more of a priority.

Due to the weird tall fuel cap spout of the Acerbis, I lean towards the IMS on style alone. For me the IMS matches the lines KTM originally created for this bike and looks more natural than the Acerbis. But to each his own right!

Acerbis

IMS

Overall

It’s no surprise here… the winner (for me) is…

What puts it out in front is the brass mounting inserts, overall look on the bike, added protection, and for the same price .4 gallons more of fuel!

Acerbis Fuel Tank

IMS Fuel Tank

Again, both are great options and are well made, these are just my thoughts on the tanks for the 2017 KTM 350 EXC-F!