| Author | Message | ||
     Harold |
Well I finally got my camera out to the bike, and so this is my 4th post about little problems. My headlights I think are from an XB, on my S1W. The left one comes on on regular, and they both come on on bright. The left one, low beam, is so dim at night as to be a joke. I don't ride much at night and hadn't noticed it until I did. On brights, you can see OK, but I would rather have the dim one at least as bright as a stock headlight. They look identical, and so I am thinking I can take the front off and just replace the bulb with the same as the left light has. But, they both have a smaller bulb coming up from the bottom of the lights, below the halogen main bulb. These little bulbs don't ever light up, even with the key on parking, which is one of the dumber things I have seen on my Buells. One that has killed my battery from not noticing it a couple of times over the years. These bulbs must have been disconnected by the previous owner. Can anyone tell if these are XB, and either way, where do you get a bulb that is bright enough to be seen in daylight, and see at night? Is there a wattage too high for the S1W? Yes, and now looking at the pictures I need to cut the flyscreen to fit a little better.    | ||
| Fahren |
I'd change back to stock with a good bulb in it, or you can look at the XBoard and KV for wiring both headlights to come on at the same time (although the wires will not be the same schematic for the S1 as for the xb... Same for info on better bulbs - there are brighter ones out there w/o having to go to HID type, that will fit the stock XB lights. But I'm not sure those are standard xb units, either. It's dumping down rain right now, so I'm not going to go to my shed to compare- maybe after this storm passes... | ||
| Ratbuell |
XBs have a pair of identical 55w H7 bulbs. The difference between hi and low is the REFLECTOR, not the bulb. Aim them properly. It made a HUGE difference on my Ulysses. Generally they're a few degrees too low - doesn't sound like much but it makes a huge difference when you adjust. Do NOT up the wattage...unless you'd like to melt a reflector or a lens. | ||
| Andymnelson |
Those are NOT XB lights, they are cheap aftermarket lights with a poorly made lens. No amount of good bulbs and proper aiming will fix the poorly made lens... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hm, now that I pay attention to the pic...Andy is right. Those are NOT OEM Buell lights. OEM's have a clear lens and all the focus is done by the reflector; the ones in the picture are trying to focus with the lens serrations (a great way to lose light output, by the way). | ||
| Purpony |
As stated above, those are not XB lights. Sounds like though if both lights are coming on on high then your bike already has the hi beam mod. If not, the low would shut off then the high came out. You could do a few different things, go back to the stock headlight and run a higher bulb or a HID bulb, install HID bulbs in you existing housings, or get a XB housing. | ||
| Harold |
Thanks for the input. I guess the first thing to do is pull the bulbs and see what is in there. They both come on with the brights, so if I get the bright bulb in both, that will take care of it for now. I am assuming that the dim bulb is less wattage. |
