Uprating my headlights

[Mikeybikey57]

As the nights have been closing in, i've been riding in the dark more often and have noticed that my headlights are somewhat lacking in distance penetration and brightness. It's not an enormous issue and compared to the feeble AAA battery powered excuses for lights on my old Tiger 955i, they're fantastic. However, they do seem to throw out quite a weak, yellow beam in both dip and main, so i'm looking to improve them if I can.

I'm not too keen on going down the HID kit route, as besides their being illegal to retro-fit here in the UK, there's so much junk about, it's difficult to know where to start looking. I also looked into some of the better quality LED bulbs too and I fully accept that you get what you pay for but £120 for a half decent quality pair of LED bulbs…………….are you serious?

That leaves me with the good old, tried and tested Halogen option. I used Osram Nightbreakers in my old Tiger and it did improve things but they didn't last very long at all, as they both blew within 12 months. It also seems that this is nothing unusual for these "uprated" halogen bulbs, as few appear to be renowned for their longevity.

Then I spotted something that would possibly give me another other option. Osram make the Rallye H7 65w bulb, which is getting some pretty positive reviews from folk that have fitted them. I know that at 65w, it's designated for "off road use" only but if my lights are adjusted properly, they shouldn't dazzle other road users. It's also reported that they don't generate the kinds of reflector/lens melting heat that a 100w bulb does, so I should be safe in that respect.

My only concern is that some early bikes have rather fragile headlight wiring and connectors that, over time, struggled to cope with the loading placed on them by 55w bulbs. Mine is a 2011 model, that had the uprated sub-loom fitted under warranty, so i'm hoping that this can cope with an extra 10w loading from each bulb.

Any one have thoughts on this idea? :-\

 

[Dogdaze]

The wiring harness has been upgraded, so if you had that done you should be ok, my only concern is that these lights are on everytime the bike is on and if you ride for 3 hours straight how much heat are you generating on the wires? I'm sure someone can answer that. I too like the LED's option, but £120+ S/H from the US is way up there, a forum member from Sweden(?) has these on his with no issues...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391213941249?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

And with the copper heat dissipaters and not cooling fins you should be able to use the light covers.

 

[Andylaser]

I use the Osram h7 rallye 65w.
Just a bit more power than standard and not enough to stress wiring or relays.
Some of the "hight intensity" 55w lamps get their extra brightness by using a smaller filamtent (vreates a tighter hot spot). This can also weaken the lamp. The rallye filaments are designed for off road use and are quite substantial.

 

[Andylaser]

I use the Osram h7 rallye 65w.
Just a bit more power than standard and not enough to stress wiring or relays.
Some of the "hight intensity" 55w lamps get their extra brightness by using a smaller filamtent (creates a tighter hot spot). This can also weaken the lamp. The rallye filaments are designed for off road use and are quite substantial.

 

[Mikeybikey57]

A forum member from Sweden(?) has these on his with no issues...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391213941249?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

And with the copper heat dissipaters and not cooling fins you should be able to use the light covers.

Has anyone, including the said Swedish(?) forum member used this type of LED bulb and how do they rate their performance, compared to Halogen and HID?

 

[Xt1200zsupertenere]

Has anyone, including the said Swedish(?) forum member used this type of LED bulb and how do they rate their performance, compared to Halogen and HID?

Inan waiting for mine .... Orderd for 3,5 weaks ago ... ( Asia ). Talking to one here ( from USA ) that now have hade Them for about 6 months ... Super happy !

I have A " bike- Buddy " that have theese 5 th generation led ( H4 ) in hus xt660 , Super bright .

 

[Xt1200zsupertenere]

You just have to bend the copper end A bit to get the cover on...

 

[Mikeybikey57]

Thanks for the information about the LED lights folks. ::008:: I managed to find a set on e-bay for around £38 with free shipping, from a seller in Holland. They reckon they'll get them to me within in a week too, as opposed to the usual four to six weeks, when sourced from Hong Kong. At that price, I thought that they would be worth a try and i'll feedback on them after I've fitted them and seen how well or poorly they perform.

 

[WJBertrand]

I use the Osram h7 rallye 65w.
Just a bit more power than standard and not enough to stress wiring or relays.
Some of the "hight intensity" 55w lamps get their extra brightness by using a smaller filamtent (vreates a tighter hot spot). This can also weaken the lamp. The rallye filaments are designed for off road use and are quite substantial.

Hard little buggers to find, but I just ordered a set of these from Candlepower, Inc. Only place I could find them. Looks like the difference in wattage, 20W for both bulbs only adds about 1.4A, (charging system running at about 14.3V).

 

[Xt1200zsupertenere]

Has anyone, including the said Swedish(?) forum member used this type of LED bulb and how do they rate their performance, compared to Halogen and HID?

http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=18004.0

 

[Stridey]

Hard little buggers to find, but I just ordered a set of these from Candlepower, Inc. Only place I could find them. Looks like the difference in wattage, 20W for both bulbs only adds about 1.4A, (charging system running at about 14.3V).

I tried to get these but in UK the google search came up with nothing locally!

The only ones I did get was the 85W replacements as the 65W seem to have disappeared. I'm not at all electrically minded so if I put two of the 85W lamps on the bike what effect will it have! Frying tonight!?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dogdaze]

I tried to get these but in UK the google search came up with nothing locally!

The only ones I did get was the 85W replacements as the 65W seem to have disappeared. I'm not at all electrically minded so if I put two of the 85W lamps on the bike what effect will it have! Frying tonight!?

Thanks in advance.

Yep! 85W is a little excessive, not only for the wires but probably have adverse effect on the plastic headlight lens, if you are really desperate for brighter lights add aux lighting or put some fanless H7 LED's in. I will go this route when I stop riding (very soon I suspect).

 

[Mikeybikey57]

I tried to get these but in UK the google search came up with nothing locally!

The only ones I did get was the 85W replacements as the 65W seem to have disappeared. I'm not at all electrically minded so if I put two of the 85W lamps on the bike what effect will it have! Frying tonight!?

Thanks in advance.

If you're after some 65w bulbs, try here.............http://www.phoenixautobulbs.co.uk/pr/osram-h7-super-bright-65w/ ::008::

 

[Lubelhu]

£29.50
Free shipping
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291507155576?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

It is worth waiting. And it is WINTER!

 

[WJBertrand]

I tried to get these but in UK the google search came up with nothing locally!

The only ones I did get was the 85W replacements as the 65W seem to have disappeared. I'm not at all electrically minded so if I put two of the 85W lamps on the bike what effect will it have! Frying tonight!?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure if this is a problem for the wiring but changing both bulbs to 85W from 55W represents about 4.2A increased draw.

 

[Mikeybikey57]

Finally.............a day where is hasn't been absolutely chucking it down or been so grey and gloomy, that going outside would bring on an acute depressive episode ::012::. I managed to get out into my shed this afternoon and fit the LED bulb kit that I bought back in November. Getting the little ballast boxes into the headlight assembly was a bit of a bind but after reducing their size and rounding off all the corners and edges with a file, they slid in quite smoothly. These LED's seem to be really bright but i'll have to wait until later on tonight to try them out in the dark to get an accurate impression of how they actually perform, compared to 55w halogens.

 

[Mikeybikey57]

Just returned home from a brief and bloody cold night-time ride on my S10 and here's the lowdown on the new LED headlight bulbs.

They're really nice and bright with a surprisingly consistent and wide spread of light across the whole width of the road. No discernible dark patches or drop outs were seen and the distance penetration on dip beam is superb. The dip beam cut off is really sharp too and with no light bleeding over it either. On main beam, the light doesn't seem to penetrate along the tarmac quite as far as the high performance halogen bulbs that I had in before but the difference looks to be negligible. A minor downer is that any light reflected back from large road signs can be a little glaring but given the bulbs 5000K (2500K each) output, I expected it to be much worse. I'd previously had both Osram Night Breakers and Philips X-treme Vision bulbs in my S10 and both brands lit things up really well but for only 8 to 12 months, before conking out. I'd rate these LED's as equal to any high output halogens in all respects, apart from being very slightly poorer in lighting up the far distance.

All they have to do now is to last the 30,000 hours that the manufacturers believe they will and i'll be well pleased. ::008::

 

[arjayes]

Just returned home from a brief and bloody cold night-time ride on my S10 and here's the lowdown on the new LED headlight bulbs.

They're really nice and bright with a surprisingly consistent and wide spread of light across the whole width of the road. No discernible dark patches or drop out were seen and the distance penetration on dip beam is superb. The dip beam cut off is really sharp too and with no light bleeding over it either. On main beam, the light doesn't seem to penetrate along the tarmac quite as far as the high performance halogen bulbs that I had in before but the difference looks to be negligible. A minor downer is that any light reflected back from large road signs can be a little glaring but given the bulbs 5000K (2500K each) output, I expected it to be much worse. I'd previously had both Osram Night Breakers and Philips X-treme Vision bulbs in my S10 and both brands lit things up really well but for only 8 to 12 months, before conking out. I'd rate these LED's as equal to any high output halogens in all respects, apart from being very slightly poorer in lighting up the far distance.

All they have to do now is to last the 30,000 hours that the manufacturers believe they will and i'll be well pleased. ::008::

2500K each???

 

[Mikeybikey57]

2500K each???

Ooops! My bad. : Should have read 2500LM (lumens) each, not 2500K. Clearly posting stuff on the internet whilst sipping a nice single malt is not a sensible thing.

 

[SilverBullet]

I put a set of the Osram 65W off-road only bulbs in and while I did gain a very slight amount of output both bulbs burned out within 6 months. Actually their life was so close to each other it was amazing, the second bulb died within one week (~1,500 miles) of the first. Good thing I kept my stock bulbs and they are so easy to replace on our bike. I should note however that although they only lasted 6 months that was ~25,000 miles so lifetime by hours of operation was not as short in comparison.

_