Do you see the light?

Lighting improvements.

The headlights are ok / adequate but could do with being brighter. Of a night I generally find myself gravitating towards the high beam trigger a lot more than I should do. There is a switch but the trigger just seems the best for a momentary burst of high beam. Looking to see where some junctions / turn offs start at night being one of the issues before having to drop to low beam for on coming traffic. The low beams really should be good enough for this on approach and could do with being a bit brighter if at all possible.

I've heard stories about people using upgraded brighter bulbs on these bikes and in some instances melting the bulb mounting (not designed for such power output and gets too hot). Or with the the battery / electrical charging hardware (stator/magneto, voltage regulator etc) not being able to keep up with the power drain demands of the higher wattage bulbs and flattening the battery even whilest running. I've heard stories of people using just one higher power bulb instead of two to get around it. I wasn't going to do that.

First things first over the past couple of years there has been jumps in the L.E.D area of auto replacement bulbs. These L.E.Ds can match or in most cases be much brighter than bulbs and use a lot less wattage in the process.

What we need to do is look at the original specs for the bulbs in question.

The original bulb's specs:

Riding light: T10 fitments (original 1.7W output. Another is listed available at 5W output).

Headlight bulb: HS1 fitments (original 12v 35W output)

Rear / brake light: P21 fitments (original 5W output)

[the indicator bulbs have long since been converted to L.E.D and for that look back through the blog]


What we don't want to do is exceed the wattage, we want to match or undercut it to avoid any problems. Remember, it's possible to find brighter replacements that use less power output than standard bulbs. Finding running light & rear / brake light replacements that do will mean less draw on the stator and the battery going flat.

Running Light.

The running light is a light that gets used mainly in the day on a motorcycle, instead of the main headlight so you can be seen easier in traffic, especially on dull cloudy days. You would switch to main head lights at night of course. Although if your headlights fail it wouldn't provide much light but would perhaps allow other road users to see you and allow you to make your way back home carefully in an emergency. I would stick to well lit roads in such a situation. The dash also lights in conjunction as it does with main headlights. The running light is the small triangular light on the top. It is the equivalent of a car sidelights.

So we need to find a bulb that is much brighter than stock if possible and at a bonus uses even less power. I look to L.E.Ds of course for this. And Ebay is the best location. Sure enough there are many T10 fitting L.E.Ds on offer. Of course we need WHITE lights. It is illegal to drive around with green or blue or any other coloured lights on the roads. And they need to be in keeping with the dimensions of the original. They need to fit essentially. So any exaggerated length looking setups need to be avoided. And they need to be bright enough for our purposes. Since T10 fitting is the same for most car sidelights one designed or advertised for such a task would be great as it would both be bright enough and fit.

I decided on this 8 SMD option:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T10-CAR-BULBS-LED-ERROR-FREE-CANBUS-8-SMD-XENON-WHITE-W5W-501-SIDE-LIGHT-BULB-/281450157390?var=&hash=item4187bc954e:m:m9jxk3QjBoCvJEZpsOPy0HA

They have a brightness rating of 6000K & output less than 1W (Watt) in power! They only cost a couple of pounds (£s). I ordered two so I have a spare now for later, so I don't need to go looking again in future. That's another thing they tend to last much longer than bulbs anyway, if they are good enough quality. That's a little bit of our overall wattage output shaved off.

Rear / Brake light.

Now onto the rear / brake light. Any P21 fitting L.E.D brake light replacement of choice will do. Again it's a standard fitting for cars also. As such your likely to get a pack of two again and they should be equally as cheap. One thing you need to consider is which rear lens you have on the bike? If you have a red one with a white bulb you will need a white l.e.d (although a red one would still work fine behind a red lens. The light is going to be red no matter what). If like me you have the clear lens version then you definitely need a RED l.e.d!

I decided on this super bright 50 RED L.E.D option:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-380-RED-50-LED-1206-STOP-BRAKE-TAIL-LIGHT-BULBS-LAMPS-1157-BAY15D-P21-5W-12V-/271989652271?hash=item3f53d8bb2f:g:fQ4AAOSwKIpV-5TY

They output at 3.5 W where as the standard bulb was 5 W output. So that's a lot less again. They are coming from abroad but it's something you may have to consider waiting a couple weeks for if you can't find any local.

Main headlight.

Now this was the hard one (and arguably the most important and expensive). We already know that 45W HS1 bulbs etc were out of the question, we know they exist (or rather I do any way), not only do they get too hot, they draw too much power. Now, so far we've shaved a bit of power draw off elsewhere with our other replacements. At a push the rig could probably handle 37 / 38 W output now with out draining out the battery, if such an output bulb existed? However, we are still best looking at sticking to the standard 35W output of the original but brighter of course.

Again, I search for any L.E.D set ups with HS1 fitting. I find some 'CREE L.E.D' jobs which offer between 6000 - 10000K brightness with much less power usage (30W). There was an issue over whether they were legal for road use however. I think it was to do with the different colours available and white only being legal for road use. Of course it was the white I was looking at but, as I couldn't be sure and someone mentioning something about them working better with specially designed reflector coating (silver coating where you mount them) for focusing the beam, I decided to look elsewhere and picked up a packet of two 35W Japanese 4200K Xenon Super White Halogen bulbs from HIDS Direct for £9.99. I might order the Cree L.E.D.s and check them out at a later date but, at least I know these will work well and better than the originals for the meantime..

http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/hs1-12v-35-35w-xtreme-white-motorbike-atv-bulbs/

If I choose to fit them myself  (cheapest option) I will likely post another blog in future on the process, as it's not straight forward and involves the removing of fairings etc on most motorcycles just to change a bulb unlike most cars.

Since I use the bike for transport and all of my current bulbs are in good working order it wouldn't be wise for me to put it out of action to change the bulbs while I workout what exactly needs to be removed and what doesn't for this bike to change the various bulbs. If over winter there's a snow / ice period that it can't be used anyway then it might be a good time for me to do so.