Reporting on the new headlamp/light

[ThomWV]

Reference Post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=393x505

I picked up the bike last night well after dark and brought it back home. It was only about a 20 mile ride and a third of that was in town and the rest out on pitch black winding country roads. So these are my first impressions only.

I didn't aim the light, I just got on the bike and rode. It was aimed way to high and I would lower it before I got to the other side of town but it was good enough to start with and much better after I lowered the beam.

First thing is that the new low beams put more light on the road when going straight than my pickup does on high beams, and the truck has a set of Sylvania Silverstars in it. I was very much surprised that no one in oncoming traffic was flashing their high beams at me. With that much light output I thought it should be blinding them but it wasn't. The reason was the cutoff of the light which is distinct. The beam cuts off at headlight height, its supposed to point horizontally straight ahead then the beam dip to the left so as not to offend oncoming drivers and rises to the right to light up the side of the road. That would be in a perfect world, mine is still slightly out of adjustment.

That pattern is wonderful when going straight, pretty good when leaned over and turning to the right, but not so great when leaned over for a left turn. The sharp cutoff on low beams during hard left turns is a bit unnerving in that its like a spot light directly in front of your front wheel but it goes black 50 feet infront of you. It took a few left turns to get used to but its not bad.

High beams are like daytime. They are as bright as both high beams on our Audi - which has very good lights itself. The beam pattern is focused down the middle but diffuse enough that it lights the entire road. With the high beams on you can absolutely bet that you will be flashed by oncoming divers.

What's next? Well, to actually aim the light would be a good start. Also it was obvious to me that the light needs to be turned slightly in its housing. Today I will get that part right and find a way to lock it down. As it was last night the beam was tilted slightly clockwise as I viewed it, meaning that the left side of the beam was a bit high and the right a bit low. Once again, that is because the stock Harley retaining ring has no provisions for the three standard headlight alignment tabs. Harley uses a single tab located in the 9-O'clock position. I'll figure out where the three standard notches are supposed to be and cut them today.

Overall, and from just the short ride, they seem to be a vast improvement over the stock light. However it was clear to me very quickly that the with the much sharper focus of the light that I could have easily gone to the more powerful bulb (at the sacrifice of bulb life) and in fact I may order one. Just to remind you, a stock H4 bulb has a power consumption of 60/55 (High and low beams respectively) and the one I bought is 70/65. I may order either the 85/80 or maybe even one of the standard H4's in 100/80. I am told that the stock wiring can handle up to 100 watts.

So that's sort of initial findings. I would have put some more miles on it last night but the temperature was in the 30's and I wasn't dressed for it, if it were a contest I would have put a brass monkey to shame.

[HamstersFromHell]

1. I'll take it from your comments...

that your Harley doesn't have the "old" headlight mounting method where a ribbed rubber tube is clamped to the headlight shell by one (thin) chrome clamp, and the headlight itself is held in place by a thicker tapered clamp that also forms the front nacelle for the light assembly? Those old units had no provisions for any indexing of the light in the shell, making the installation a bit easier than what you're having to go through with cutting notches.

[ThomWV]

2. Wish I had one laying around

As I recall that rubber gasket mount system fit 6" headlights, but if I had one I could probably cut a bit out of the rubber and then mount it between the lamp and the bezel. However, being the lazy and un inventive person that I am I just opted to pick up a custom housing. Just the excuse I was looking for.

By the way, on that tail light conversion, the one that makes the rear turn signal units act as running lights, turn signals, and brake lights; well, I'm not all that sure that I like it. It functions by modulating the voltage to the lights, they are always on, just sometimes they are on brighter than other times. The tail lights use a single element (1156) bulb so that's the only way they can work. The converted lights overpower the tail light in that the running light aspect of them is brighter than the standard running light segment of the standard tail light but the step up when the brakes are applied or when the turn signals are activated is not all that much. I don't mind so much that the distinction between bright and brighter isn't all that much but when just the running lights are lit up its awfully bright, almost like brake lights were applied. Anyway I'm not sure I'm going to leave it on the bike. There is an alternative version of the adapter that give the lights two functions by omitting the brakelight part. I'm thinking about just picking up a set of front signals off E-Bay and swapping the guts; the mounting is somewhat different between the fronts and the rears even though they look very similar at first glance but the insides are the same other than the fronts take two element (1157) bulbs. Not sure yet just what I'm going to do with them.

For now the most pressing thing for me are the plastic idler ramps for the anti-vibration things on my twin cam (88b). I'm at the 20,000 mile mark and am having concerns. I'd take it to the Stealer but you know how that goes against the grain.

[HamstersFromHell]

3. On that taillight mod...

A lot of crotch rocket riders modify the rear lighting, mostly eliminating the license mount and rear fender extension in trying to get a cleaner look.

One popular thing is using LEDs mounted in holes drilled in the passenger peg mounts...very nice looking if done right.

Almost all of those doing light mods are using the little Hoppy or other mfr. trailer connector "black box" to wire the lights so they work in combination...they wire the turn signals as if they were the only lights back there (like a typical trailer) and wire the black box to use them as both turn signals, running lights and brake lights. Real simple to do with the little box, and they are for the most part less than $20 at most well stocked auto parts stores. Something you might check into if you convert to dual filament rear signals and want to make em brake lights/running lights as well.