bulb options

[oldyam80sg]

Ok i searched and nothing came up to answer my question.What bulb options can i put in my SG without doing electrical damage to my bike.I just want a brighter bulb without alot of mods to get it to work.Now that i have an e-bay account i see options but what can i use?

[79XS11F]

Which bulbs are you referring to. When i did my 79 factory restore bike I bough all new factory bulbs from the dealer and just having NEW bulbs made a big difference in brightness. I would guess that in many cases the bulbs on your bike are 25 - 30 year old and they get darkened on the inside of the bulb and the filaments do loose their brightness over time.
Rob

[oldyam80sg]

I was looking at HID lighting is that possible with the stock bucket set-up?

[dbeardslee]

I put some syvania replacement bulbs in mine last year. Lots brighter and hasn't caused any electrical issues. Can't remember the model name, but it seems to me like they are xenon bulbs.

[oseaghdha]

I've been looking all day at different setups and I'm thinking about going with a Kuryakin reflector and maybe this bulb in my Vetter. Claims to put out better than usual at the std 55/60W. PIAA seems to know a little bit about lights. It's an H4 mount, so no reason it can't go in the stock reflector.

One concern about using an HID conversion seems to be the geometry is different and the focus may not be correct without replacing the entire reflector unit with one that is designed for the bulb. You get a lot more light, but it can get sprayed around where you don't want it.

[dbeardslee]

Man those are some expensive light bulbs. I started to put sylvania cool blue bulbs in mine, but the $20 a pop stopped me.

[oseaghdha]

Man those are some expensive light bulbs. I started to put sylvania cool blue bulbs in mine, but the $20 a pop stopped me.

I run the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra in my stock light bucket. They seem to throw some good fire, I have no complaint about that setup. I agree, $20. is ridiculous, but I've had it in there for 3 years now.

[Geezer]

I'm using Philips 75/95 bulbs and the system seems to be handling them very well but I cleaned every connection in my 79 standard and packed them with dielectric grease. This included disassembling the ignition switch and doing a poor-boot milling job on the contact plate then putting it back together will all the dielectric grease I could get in there...

Geezer

[Crazcnuk]

I am running the HID headlight bulb in the stock (vetter) headlight on my 80G.

I also have LEDs in all the other bulb spots. My speedo and tach are green at night.

[oseaghdha]

I'm using Philips 75/95 bulbs and the system seems to be handling them very well but I cleaned every connection in my 79 standard and packed them with dielectric grease. This included disassembling the ignition switch and doing a poor-boot milling job on the contact plate then putting it back together will all the dielectric grease I could get in there...

Geezer

Ok, I'll bite.
Is that like lapping it on the concrete with your foot or sumpin? Not heard that expression, but I may have used the technique.


Dan
Poorboy Motorcycle Company LLC

[oseaghdha]

Fyi info only!

So I wrote to this guy, and asked him about the Kuryakin and PIAA, this is what he had to say:

> I am considering using a Kuryakin diamond cut reflector with an H4
> PIAA bulb.

That would be _two_ very large errors: a toy headlite equipped with a
scam bulb. First let's dispense with the toy headlite: Kuryakyn's stuff
is all marketing and style/flash. There is no qualified optical
engineering behind it, despite the flowery language and fanciful numbers
("200% brighter than a sealed beam!" etc) in the catalogues.

Now let's talk about bulbs. PIAA's entire line of bulbs, lamps, wipers,
and everything else they sell
is of mediocre quality, performance, and durability. PIAA is a
marketeering company, plain and simple. They appeared clear out of the
blue about 15 years ago. They spend all their money on sexy packaging and
breathless hype; their actual product is crap but they price it
stratospherically so people will think "Wow, for this much money it's
*got* to be good!". Unfortunately, it works. Marketing psychology 101 --
that's where those rave reviews you hear are coming from. I call it the
"Slick-50 Effect".

As for a recommendation, he proffered this advice:

So...what to buy?


If you want HID, you can have it, but you have to do it right. Putting
an "HID kit" into a halogen headlamp is not doing it right, see link
provided above. There is exactly _one_ legitimate, legal, well-made HID
headlamp that can be made to fit in a bike like yours. It is the
ValeoSylvania XE7 (not the XE7R, you want the XE7). Best price I've seen
is at http://www.steelthundercc.com/lighting_headlights.html Note the
XE7 is the _only_ lamp on that page that's not a total piece of junk.
And there's a bunch of nonsense and hype used to describe the XE7. Good
price, though, relatively speaking.

My standard advice to those with a motorcycle that takes a 7" round
light is to put in a Cibie lens-reflector unit ($74.95) and an Osram
70/65w bulb ($22, maybe get a spare), aim the lamp carefully and
correctly per http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html , and
you'll find you're much better able to see at night. Proof of pudding,
see http://www.hdforums.com/m_3263504/tm.htm .

One guys opinions, just figured I'd share.

[CatatonicBug]

When I got my bike, it came with a sealed beam 7" headlight in it. I guess the PO did a little re-wiring, but the connectors look like they came that way. The bulb just gets clamped into the gold ring (MNS) around the front edge, and it looks just like the stock setup from the outside. No complaints on the brightness either - though I don't do much night riding. The thing to remember with headlights is that they do get dimmer with time, and the fact that we run them "on" all the time will make them dim faster than they would in a cage.

[Geezer]

My standard advice to those with a motorcycle that takes a 7" round
light is to put in a Cibie lens-reflector unit ($74.95) and an Osram
70/65w bulb ($22, maybe get a spare), aim the lamp carefully and
correctly per http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html , and
you'll find you're much better able to see at night. Proof of pudding,
see http://www.hdforums.com/m_3263504/tm.htm .[/I]

One guys opinions, just figured I'd share.

I heard all that crap about how superior the Cibie headlights were many years ago but when I put one it my bike I found that when I leaned into a turn on low beam all my light went into the street. On the other hand my brother had a similar bike as mine and put in a cheap Hella headlight for 14 of what I spent and his light gave good light in the corners on low beam and high beam was just as good. More expensive isn't always better.

About that time I found a supplier for 100/130x bulbs and those were great for riding out in the country....

Geezer

[3Phase]

12 Volt L.E.D. Headlight

Try a Truck-lite 7'' Round 12v LED Headlamp.

There should be a price available real soon now but they will probably cost more than the deposit for a 2009 V-Max.


Regards,

Scott

[Geezer]

Try a Truck-lite 7'' Round 12v LED Headlamp.

There should be a price available real soon now but they will probably cost more than the deposit for a 2009 V-Max.


Regards,

Scott

Very cool but some of us didn't pay that much for our bikes...

Geezer