Headlight upgrade

[Wayne]

Anyone out there found a way to upgrade their headlight?

Mine sucks! (compared to my wifes shadow which is very bright) I tried to replace the bulb with a so called blue bulb which is a little better but still not very bright. It seems a sealed headlight would be better, but don't know if there is one that fits the XS.

Just wondering if anyone knows of a different upgrade

Ride Safe

[Ken Talbot]

Sure, Wayne, you need to "triple-clean" your electrical connections - just like your carbs only different!

[skids]

The other thing, is to not try and use a bulb that is rated for too many watts. I had one that was something like 110 watts and it was like warming up a toaster when I switched it to high beam. The 80 Watt bilb was much better.

[chopper]

hi,i run a bates light,with a vw golf gti (think it called vw rabbit in the states) headlight unit in it.straight fit,made by hella,flat front and a good beam pattern,takes standard halogen bulbs up to 100 watt main,also has a parking light..the unit costs around $20 i have the part no if anyone wants it

[Wayne]

Yes chopper, send me that part no. That sounds like what im looking for.

Thanks to all for your imput.

[chopper]

just realised wayne we drive on the other side of the road here mate.......lol..i'll see if i can find a us equivalent

[Wayne]

I can prolly find it here at one of our super duper "We got it all" auto parts stores.

"Pep Zone Hi Auto Lo Boys"

Thanks chopper.

[chopper]

no joy... http://www.hellausa.com/maineng/lev1...lresellers.htm if you wanna look........the box i have here says universal - 135mm diameter ,has asymmetrical dip beam with or without parking light aperture.....there are two stickers,one over the other,bottom one reads 1L3 913904-051A INSERT INVDEGLIG over this the top one reads 1M3 534 LSA-001 on the bottom of boxthere is Ref. No. 926 006 00 i suggest you contact one of the dealers on the url if they can sort you out it will be us spec let me know please

[Wayne]

Will do chopper, thank you very much.

Ride Safe.

[Bill]

Re: Headlight upgrade

Wayne wrote:

Anyone out there found a way to upgrade their headlight?

In addition to what Ken said about "triple cleaning" your connections, there's another consideration... 20 year old wiring. Clean connectors on a new light may still leave a lot to be desired.

I dug into my archives (clear back to 1999) and found lots of of discussion. One that came up a lot was about adding a heavy guage wire to the headlight. A relay is controlled by the stock headlight high/low switch.

There is some other discussion about the XS11 headlight relay that might also be useful. Maybe there's tech tip somewhere in all this... (the guy that used to do the tech tips probably wasn't paying attention!)

Here goes!

Fri, 25 Feb 2000 09:50:31 -0500
From: "Clarkin, Thomas" <clarkint@scott.disa.mil>
Reply-To: xs11@onelist.com
Subject: RE: [xs11] electrical

Have you checked the headlight relay switch? it is under the tank in a rubber housing and is succeptible to corrosion. If it isn't something with the fuse box connections, this relay would be a good 2nd point of failure to look for - the good news is that if it is bad, you can depress the connections manually and get it to work, the bad news is that you have to do it everytime you start the bike. Also, replacement part from Yammy costs about $60, so pray you get lucky and find someone (like I did) with a spare
that works for a few bucks.

From: Sid Hansen <sid.hansen@mciworld.com>
Reply-To: xs11@egroups.com
Subject: RE: [xs11] Re: Dim Head Light.

One of the solutions to this problem is to use a relay switch. When the switch receives the small current from a handle bar switch or other source, it uses an electromagnet to close the switch on the high amps side of the relay. What you want to do is run a thicker wire (lower ohms and less wasted power) from the fuse panel or from the battery (you should fuse this somehow), to the input on the high side of the relay, and from the output of the high side of the relay to a wire leading to your headlamps. I can be more specific if needed. I have done this with three xs11's so far. It really helped Cherry Bomb's headlight (H4 beam) a lot.

1. Increased wire size to the headlight;
2. Direct wire the headlight with a single, high performance relay, to avoid the voltage drop acquired through the use of so many junctions and relays;
3. Manual, dual relay to allow both hi/lo beams to be used at the
same time; and
4. The obvious- increased wattage bulb.

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:09:10 PDT
Reply-to: xs11@onelist.com
Subject: Re: [xs11] Wiring two 55watt halogen driving lights
From: "Denny Zander" <denny_zander@hotmail.com>

I have a pair of 55 watt driving lights mounted to the head light bucket of my 'F'.

I used a relay to power them. I ran a 12 gauge wire from my battery to the relay, which is inside the head light bucket. I installed a throttle housing off a '77 650 Special. It has a head light on/off switch that I use to energize the relay. I have a 15amp in line fuse between the relay and the battery.

I also installed a 130/90w (blue) H3 bulb in my head light(J.C. Whitney - $8.99 + SH). I upped my head light fuse to 15amp. That is about max for the XS charging system. You don't want to run all this light unless you are running over 3,000 RPM or so.

It really helps keep an eye out for dear on those dark early morning starts.

From: "Guy Stormo" <gstormo@cloudnet.com>
To: <xs11@lists.visi.com>
Subject: Re: brighter lights/adding a relay
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 11:46:38 -0600

Steve - I wired my '78 to function as you described, only with one relay. I used a 3-position (on-off-on) switch to feed the relay. One on position feeds from the high beam wire, the other feeds from low. The common terminal on the switch then feeds the relay. Since the switch handles low current (it only feeds the relay coil), I used a tiny toggle switch in an accessory housing on the handlebar.

I buried the relay under the seat, on top of the air box. I used 12ga wire for light power, and had the ground return directly to the battery. I chose this location because I didn't have the fairing, and it seemed to stay dry.

Later, I rearranged the wiring so that one on position would be on, and the other would follow the high beam (and dim when the high beam would dim).

From: Tkat <tkat@tkat.com>
Subject: Re: Fw: brighter lights/adding a relay
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 09:55:21 -0800
Reply-To: xs11@lists.visi.com

Steve, another thot on lites.

Again, back in my Monte Carlo Rally days a trick we usta use was wire the low beams into the hot side of the select (dimmer) switch. that way when you hit highs, lows wouldn't go off; i.e. lotsa lite from near to far 'specially w/ QI's. I haven't torn into the lighting circuits of an XS yet but I'm sure s'thing can be set up the same way. Betcha the H/B select sw works about the same.

Set a relay, if reqd. for low beam that comes on w/ the ignition key. Set another that activates the highs from the select sw. 16 ga. control wires or lighter shud work --- thin little things. You can sw. the lows on/off as desired/reqd. w/ an additional sw.

10 ga. will handle 30 amps and shud be plenty to power w'ever you want to run.

Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 19:44:20 -0800
From: Edward Doub <ed246@earthlink.net>
To: Steve or Pat Gano <s_m_gano@email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: LDRider: Fw: brighter lights/adding a relay
Reply-To: xs11@lists.visi.com

Alternate suggestion using one relay.
Get a SPDT (single pole double throw) relay.
Wire low beam to NC (normally closed) terminal.
Wire High beam to NO (normally open) terminal.
Wire High beam wire from handlebar switch to the control terminal.

If you want to get really fancy you can use a double pole relay and use the second set of contacts to control your driving lights as well.

Wire them to:
have driving lights on only with low beams or driving lights only with High beams.

If the second set of contacts is run in series with (ahead of) the relay for your driving lights you can have dimming capability by a flick of your beam switch (high beam option).

For those who don't understand what a relay does. It is just a switch that allows you to control a larger amount of power run through heavier wire with a low power selector switch and light gauge wire.


From: motorholic@ibm.net
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 15:41:31 -0500
To: xs11@lists.visi.com
Subject: Re: Fw: brighter lights/adding a relay

If you put the high beam switch in between the low and high you get both low and high beam on an XS SF. I've been riding that way about 20 years with mine. May want to put in a larger amp fuse though. Dave Hill