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Head light woes

D

David Griffiths

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Oct 26, 2019
Messages
56
Reaction score
29
Location
Australia
The 1400 headlight is crap. I was caught out on the weekend and ended up riding home at night. The head light is dismal. I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me with no to minimal in light spread. It was like riding in a tunnel. Are there any better bulbs than the standard H3 12v 55 w? I've researched LED but anything decent wont fit in the headlight housing. Has anybody been able to upgrade with better light penetration and spread? I'm thinking about adding some auxiliary driving lights so I can see where I'm going as I don't want to be caught out again. It was dangerous and I almost went straight a couple of times. I would prefer to be able to upgrade the bulb first but if not auxiliary lights it is.
 
I've already tried replacing the original. Please see photos. Their claim 30% brighter. Nope exactly the same.
 

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Pretty sure this topic has been explored a year or two ago. Look back through the old posts here. If not here, it must've been over on the Wildgoose Chase message board...
 
David Griffiths said:
The 1400 headlight is crap. I was caught out on the weekend and ended up riding home at night. The head light is dismal. I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me with no to minimal in light spread. It was like riding in a tunnel. Are there any better bulbs than the standard H3 12v 55 w? I've researched LED but anything decent wont fit in the headlight housing. Has anybody been able to upgrade with better light penetration and spread? I'm thinking about adding some auxiliary driving lights so I can see where I'm going as I don't want to be caught out again. It was dangerous and I almost went straight a couple of times. I would prefer to be able to upgrade the bulb first but if not auxiliary lights it is.
Click to expand...
I fitted these auxiliary led’s. If you have a Custom you could mount them directly under the headlight.
 

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You are aware of the headlight switch behind front brake lever? If you switch this off, it makes the LED's brighter and is preferred (by me) for daylight running.

But this arrangement doesn't work very well at night, and creates the scenario you are describing.
 
Yes I'm aware of how to turn my head lights off and on. This is the first time I've ridden at night and they are dismal. Don't you have this problem?

Anyway I've decided to to run led auxiliary lights. I will fabricate some simple mounting brackets to my windshield bracket and fit one spot and one flood led to use as my low beam driving lights. I will wire direct to the battery which will have it's own switch. I don't ever want to be in the same position again where I felt I wasnt in control due to poor lighting. I'll post some pictures when complete. Due to many projects already on the go I'm hoping to have completed in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all the advice it does does help when you can discuss options and idea's.
 
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David Griffiths said:
Yes I'm aware of how to turn my head lights off and on. This is the first time I've ridden at night and they are dismal. Don't you have this problem?

Anyway I've decided to to run led auxiliary lights. I will fabricate some simple mounting brackets to my windshield bracket and fit one spot and one flood led to use as my low beam driving lights. I will wire direct to the battery which will have it's own switch. I don't ever want to be in the same position again where I felt I wasnt in control due to poor lighting. I'll post some pictures when complete. Due to many projects already on the go I'm hoping to have completed in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all the advice it does does help when you can discuss options and idea's.
Click to expand...
These are the units I fitted available as halogen or led. (I fitted led).
Manufactured these brackets to mount them under under the existing fog lamps. 21DF86BC-F66A-4AB2-A7C7-3EEEA545C96B.webp
 
I pushed a couple of projects back as I have a couple weekend rides coming up and being winter in Australia I'm sure I'll end up coming home in the dark. I fabricated some simple brackets and mock fitted before proceeding. I'll weld the spacers and paint black. I'll source some better nuts and bolts. After some research I'll wire to a switched power source and mount separate on off switch. This will only replace low beam and use standard high beam which I find adequate.
 

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I have completed the installation of my auxiliary led lights. I spliced to the existing low beam headlight wires so they are operated via existing headlight switch. A few adjustments with beam alignment to finish. I pretty happy with how they turned out.
I can now see where I'm going at night.
 

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Unfortunately they are too bright. I misunderstood the rating of these led lights and they can only be used on high beam. I adjusted the angle down but I they just to bright for low beam use. Funny though when I tested them on a back road after passing many cars going the other way only one car flashed me. Anyway back to the drawing board. As they say nothing ventured nothing gained.
 
I'm afraid I don't understand your remark about too bright . How is it that aiming them down doesn't work ? Or are they just too much of a pattern spread (vertical and horizontal) ? Peter
 
David Griffiths said:
Unfortunately they are too bright. I misunderstood the rating of these led lights and they can only be used on high beam. I adjusted the angle down but I they just to bright for low beam use. Funny though when I tested them on a back road after passing many cars going the other way only one car flashed me. Anyway back to the drawing board. As they say nothing ventured nothing gained.
Click to expand...

David, they look like the Max lights I use on my Eldo. I used a two way switch, on-off-on, in one 'on' position they come on with the ignition for use as extra daylight running lights, in the second 'on' position I spliced into the high beam feed so at night they are off until you switch to high beam.
 
Yes Peter the spread of light is to much in the vertical spread. I'm working on another theory at present. First though I'm going to try led globes. I know others have tried and they where unsuccessful but I've never stopped trying because others have failed.
 
Further update to my low lighting issue. I decided to fit a led bulb but after researching found the led bulb requires an heat sink otherwise the bulb won't last long. Due to the cramped space because of the projector I'm not confident this will be achievable. I did find that pulling the headlight off the bike the the projector lense was very dusty. After blowing the dust out I noticed another issue. The projector reflector is quite dull. I tried to clean but found this near impossible as there is only a small hole where the H3 globe resides. I then looked trying to remove the the projector from the headlight bucket. This is impossible without splitting the front of the headlight from the bucket. This also seems impossible and I'm not sure you can actually do this. So with a dull projector reflector I don't think by upgrading the bulb this will benefit me. I also noticed the top of the reflector the chrome had started to deteriorate and was flaking. I decided to remove H3 halogen bulb and hook up to a battery outside the headlight. Geez do they get hot. I'm now at a stand still.
 
Been down that path. Country roads with no lighting were a pain.

Never liked the look of the headlight anyway, so swapped it for an Audace headlight and dropped in a LED headlight.

The standard bulb was an improvement but LED headlights better.

Needed the headlight mounts as well but well worth the cost.
Also changed over to Audace indicators

Have additional running LEDS on the crash bars


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I didnt want to go down that route changing the headlight but that is an option I am willing to explore. Where did you get the audace bucket and headlight from. If you don't mind me asking what was the cost.
 
Bucket and LED (2D000386)and indicators came from TLM in the Netherlands during one of their sales
But it wasn’t cheap. Around NZ$600 plus shipping

I originally brought a cheap bucket and fork mounts locally and they worked and were cheap.
Chinese cheap..
 
Hi Rick, do you still have your original headlight. Did you notice any issues with the projector and reflector bowl being dull?
 
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