| Author | Message | ||
     Briz31 |
Seasons Greetings guys: Can someone steer me in the right direction to changing the single headlight to dual.. What sort of wiring is required ? (dual bulbs, high/low beam) I have seen some pictures of both headlight working together... Cheers for your help... | ||
| Bonesbuell  |
Common question. Basically I took apart the light controls on the left handlebar. Notice how when pressing the "Highbeam Flash switch" (the one upfront shaded like a trigger) creates a circuit between two wires? I created a constant circuit by soldering the two together. This gives me two lights during normal lowbeam setting. Check your state laws for highbeam usage. | ||
| Vikingdave  |
Beware, you are more likely to have a car make a left turn right in front of you. The morons in the cages will think you're a car, a mile up the road! You are better off with the one light! Get a better bulb and adjust the angle if you need more juice. | ||
| Hkwan |
I think to achieve this, you need to get the dual filament bulb. After that, you will need to cut the tap to have the bulb fit in the socket of the housing. You will need to add relays to your wiring system so that yu don't burn your harness. After you go through the small trouble of doing all that, you will find out that you light output isn't really brighter after all said and done because your housing isn't designed for dual filament bulbs. You have just moved the original filament when is the focal point for the specific housing and now, your light output isn't optimized because lights is bouncing off different angle inside the housing. But, you will notice a switch in beam (low to high or visa versa) when you hit the hi/lo light switch. | ||
| Tsmith4378  |
or, if you just place the switch in the middle. (it will Stay there, until you bump it) both lights will be on. This is good during the day, but at night I get flashed. | ||
| Hkwan |
For those of you saying that you want both light to stay on, are you guys actually not able to have both lights on when switch over to high beam? That is really weird!! Both of my stay on from the factory if I switch over to hi-beam. Only one side is on (lo-beam side) if the switch is on the lo-beam. | ||
| Wyckedflesh  |
Hkwan the "R" models get both lights on when on Hi-beam, the "S" models don't. | ||
| Jpl9sx  |
Has anyone tried the Sylvania Silverstar bulbs that are advertised everywhere ? | ||
| Gowindward  |
I put a them on my R. Helped some with just having a "whiter" light. Something like $15.00 a piece at Walmart. | ||
| Ralhphiegb |
i installed the sylvania silverstars at the beginning of this summer. they were great, a much brighter, whiter view. BUT....i already had the low beam blow on me a few weeks ago, of course that was 12,000 miles later, but that shouldn't effect the lights | ||
| Glitch  |
or, if you just place the switch in the middle. I did this for about 6 months or so. Now when in the middle, neither light comes on. | ||
| Anonymous |
If you put both lights on in an S you will cook them sooner or later. The heat capacity of the S housing is not sufficient for long term durability with both on. | ||
| Court |
>>>If you put both lights on in an S you will cook them sooner or later. Actually, that is a partially accurate statement. you WILL cook them (remember that part), the moment it reaches the critical value for the "S" fairing. Question: (for those of you that love a good mystery) is which you cook first, the insulation on the overloaded wiring or the plastic fairing. Hope for the fairing since your butt does not takeup residence atop it. Court P.S. - as this electrical overload, not intended for this use, develops we shall refer to it as a "flame war".  | ||
| Fullpower  |
ok, there are 2 unused positions in the fuse holder under the seat of the lightning. if you connect one or both of these to the key switch relay, you can run a wire to the low beam direct, which will leave the low beam on regardless of the position of the high beam switch. in that way you can have two headlites on for high, and one for low. in my case i am running an HID lamp and ballast in the low beam housing. so far i have not melted any plastic. | ||
| Keith  |
I've been running the both lights on my XB9S for over a year now with no known issues what so ever. Court - If the wiring is the issue, why doesn't the fuse blow? Keith | ||
| Court |
>>>>If the wiring is the issue, why doesn't the fuse blow? I, frankly, doubt that the wiring is. Experience may bear out, and appears to have in your case, that it can be done without incident. It was not designed to be done and it's important to realize that. Some don't realize what a certified motorcycle has gone through. One issue, and again it appears to be a non-issue, might be the ECM. I recall several years ago that folks were putting mega-lamps in the Saab 900's and there was a problem with the ECM as a result of seeing the load. One of the things I have discovered on the XB, in the few short miles I logged before the snowfall, was that having the "this one's low, this one's high" arrangement provides me with a powerful tool approaching an intersection. Blake's ridden in New Jersey and can tell you that before you can drive in New Jersey, you must be issued an SUV, have a cell phone installed to your ear and have your brains surgically removed by smelling the air in Elizabeth, NJ. The lights on the XB are a defense against this. By the way....and perhaps a little known fact, it is PERFECTLY LEGAL to modulate the lights on a motorcycle. It is not in a car and I have the "illegal strobe" tickets to prove it. I used to carry the letter from the Federal Highway Department with me on the KLR which had modulators installed front and rear. Perhaps we should get one of the electroids here to compute the load and the capacity of the wire on the XB. In the meantime, I'll do some snooping around engineering for any "known issuses". Ride safe, lean much and smile more, Court | ||
| Glitch |
It was not designed to be done and it's important to realize that. Some don't realize what a certified motorcycle has gone through. I have an idea, this may be why it's not been an issue. Over-Engineering is a common practice. If you make it tougher than it needs to be, and not cost too much, you can worry about other things. By the way....and perhaps a little known fact, it is PERFECTLY LEGAL to modulate the lights on a motorcycle. True, and what I'd like to see is... one lamp on "low beam", both on "high beam" and when you pull the "passing light" trigger, the lights alternate from one light to the other. I don't think it would be that difficult to figure out, it's just that I'm ignorant when it comes to things electronic. | ||
| Court |
>>>I don't think it would be that difficult to figure out, it's just that I'm ignorant when it comes to things electronic. I am too so I just rock the switch approaching intersections. Works so far and is allowing me to concentrate on other things. Just one person's solution. Court | ||
| Glitch |
I've been doing that also. I'm just lazy, and want a trigger switch. | ||
| Trenchtractor  |
Well, for the international XBS models at least, the high beam and low beam both use the same designation bulb, that is, they are both H7 55W (from memory). This means that since the high beam pattern is different (brighter) than the low beam pattern, it's the reflector that is the difference, not the bulb. Nothing new there. So, someone mentioned the dual filament bulbs, which is how you would best make a dual lamp system produce a dual beam with separate low/hing pattern. Problem there is that since the reflectors are different, ie, you have a high beam reflector and a low beam reflector, if you were to use 50/60W dual filaments, with the stock XBS reflector set, you would end up with a 50W low/50W high beam pattern combination when low beam was selected, and a 60W low/60W high beam pattern combination when the high beam was selected. No easy solution there, for the XBS's, the only way to do it 'right' is to fit an aftermarket dual reflector that is designed for the dual fillament globes (H4). So, here are some numbers... 55W globe, 12V = 4.6Amp. 55W globe, 13.8V = 4Amp. No, that's not back to front. POWER (P) = Current (I) x Voltage (V). Up that to 65W and the numbers are... 65W globe, 12V = 5.4Amp 65W globe, 13.8V = 4.7Amp If you use 2 x 55W globes at the same time (110W)... 110W globe, 12V = 9.2Amp 110W globe, 13.8V = 8Amp You'll notice I always quoted two voltage values... The battery will sit at around 12V standing voltage, but when the bike is running the charging CCT will hold a voltage of around 13.8V. So while the cabling and fuses might be up to the job of carrying the extra current (10Amp fuse IIRC), I still think it's up to the owner if they decide they want to use high beam pattern all the time, since this might actually be against the law in some regions. | ||
| Trenchtractor |
Oh, in australia, MCS (through your local bike shop) does a streetfighter dual headlamp set, chrome steel housings designed to run H4 globes (dual fillament), from memory. All you gotta do from there is wire in a pair of relays under the front plastic to ensure you aren't messing with running cables close to their recommended values... | ||
| Reepicheep  |
Just so this nugget posted by an anony does not get lost in the translation, it was VERY clear:
It is clear the problem is the housing. You are going from 55 watts to 110 watts, and something in the housing is going to melt, it is a very small housing, and fully enclosed (by necessity). What Trench is nicely describing above is a new housing, not some sort of magic that will make the stock housings not melt. I can think of several ways to try and increase the stock heat capacity of the stock housing, none of which would work well for a motorcycle application. | ||
| Ingemar  |
Sorry to bust a thread but Reep, did you get the pm I sent you? | ||
| Blackbjoel |
This is what I read somewhere. The solution for some people? I did it. 6 months ago. It still works, maybe because I use the hi beam not very often. "Just to drop a note that I modified the headlight switch today. I wanted both lights on when I am on hi beam. The fix is very easy: Just open the switch housing on the left handlebar (where the light switch is located) and solder in a bridge between the yellow and the blue cables. It takes about 15-20 min to do the mod. Works great! Now I'v more light and less people that ask me whether one of my lights went out." Something for you? BB | ||
| Smitty  |
The problem would along with the heat of both lamps in the housing; they may also use the same neutral wire increasing the current ( two independent fused feeds)on the same neutral designed for one feed. That could overheat the wire but the fuse would'nt see the increased load. Tim | ||
| Trenchtractor |
Smitty, I would say that my experience is that few automotive lighting power/earth cables are rated at less than 10Amps, so I would say (subject to my own personal verification) it would be likely that the earth cable would be up to the 8Amps when 110W is used, although it leaves no margin for crushed cables which can greatly reduce a cables capacity, you see current only uses the outer diameter of the copper, so changing it's cross section shape changes it's current rating... Personally I don't think the cabling is an issue here, so long as it's in good condition. To keep it simple, 1. you might be breaking the law using high beam reflector all the time, and 2. the housing may distort. It'd proly less about the housing melting, but the reflector, being coated plastic MAY distort, reducing the accuracy of the beam pattern, reducing available light. | ||
| Smitty |
Trenchtractor I agree. I do not know the wire guage. But i can recall in an article that I read that they use a chimney affect to aid in cooling the lamps due to the size and composition. The melting could be the the main issue with both lamps on. Tim | ||
| Ben_jamminvfcc |
I have a headlight modulator on my SV, when the lights are set on "lowbeam" they modulate inbetween low-->low/high-->high something like 4 times a second I've never had a car pull out in front of me, or even give me the impression they weren't aware of my presence...It works great! Easy install as well. It has a light sensor with it, that tells whether it's day or night, and obviously, doesn't modulate the light at night. It may annoy cagers...but they're pretty f'ing annoying when they're blabbing on their cellphones in absolute disregard for our lives.. Besides...the laws behind us. |
