Man it sure is dark, wish I had a headlight.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I ripped the Vetter fairing monstrosity off my '81 GS750L, man is that ever better! It's kinda dark though. I need to get a new headlight.

The two triangular sheet metal brackets/mounts are still there, which is cool, but I need the actual quasi-spherical pod and headlight itself.

I'm no purist at all, so an aftermarket light of some sort would make me equally happy.

Can anybody suggest a good light and/or a good place to get one?

Thanks,

 

[bradleymaynar]

Follow the link in my sig below. Check out the crud run pics. There was an 1100 there that used a pair of fog lights. I thought it looked kinda neat. It was an orange and black bike.

Brad tt

 

[Anonymous]

Whoah, so those are just basic foglights... That double headlight thing is kinda cool. Would you run a double lamp setup in series or parellel?

 

[bwringer]

My bike had a cheesy, cracked, hacked, nasty Vetter fairing when I bought it. I junked that monstrosity immediately.

I kept the headlight bucket from the fairing, and with a trip to the hardware store, found the bolts, nuts, and rubber washers I needed to mount it to the stock headlight ears. I'm almost ashamed to say that I just zip-tied the wiring into place behind the headlight bucket. Normally, it's stuffed into the headlight bucket, but there's no room in the Vetter piece.

And thank you for not misspelling the word "fairing" as "ferring". That drives me nuts. I can almost understand "faring", but "ferring"? It's almost as common as the "breaks" vs. "brakes" confusion, for some reason.

 

[Detman101]

Glad to see you made it here dude.



Now, about those dual-headlights.
What wattage and how do you wire them up?
That is the look I wanna go for but I haven't the slightest clue how to wire in two 60 watt bulbs without overtaxing the charging system.

Last time I tried it the battery was dead within 5 miles.


Dm of mD

 

[Anonymous]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2486519903&category=35594

 

[Anonymous]

Update:

I stuck in a single headlight for the moment.

Though I am curious how you would wire the two still.

 

[mcycle-nut]

And thank you for not misspelling the word "fairing" as "ferring". That drives me nuts. I can almost understand "faring", but "ferring"? It's almost as common as the "breaks" vs. "brakes" confusion, for some reason.

Must be fishermen that do that. "Ferring" is close to "herring." :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Though I am curious how you would wire the two still.

I'm pretty certain you're wire them in parallel. That way if one burns out the other stays lit.

The question of whether the electrical system can support two lamps still stands, though.

Dave

 

[jonr]

<Edit>
It's definitely got to be parallel. Otherwise, they will run dimmer than they should. Since volts times amps equals watts, each headlight is pulling 5 amps. I don't know what the total output for you system is, but you'll have 10A draining constantly and then whatever the engine requires. Also, is the wire gauge on your headlight circuit big enough to handle double the power?

I know that when my turn signals blink on my 78 that the headlight dims a bit (at stop light idle). Makes me think that I barely have enough to run the one headlight I have. 8O

-jon

 

[Nerobro]

Taht's not quite correct. Two bulbs in series would be the same brightness, but both bulbs would see half voltage. The amount of voltage the bulb sees is a factor of it's internal resistance, not i'ts order in the circut.

In parallel the resistance of the lights will be half, so the total amp draw will be almost doubble. The charging system shoudl be able to handle it... if you keep the rpms up.

At idle, the stator is not generating enough electricity, and none is being shunted to ground. (what the voltage regulation circut in the vreg does) Untill the output of the stator outruns the bikes demand, any additional load will cause lights to dim.

Try turning on your turn signals at 3000rpm. You won't see any dimming because the stator is generating enough amperage to completely fill the bikes electrical demands.

If you run higher electrical loads, you will need to keep the engine turning more rpm to compensate for the additional electrical load. If you were me and were planning on running multiple headlights, I'd put dual lights on high beams. That way you can easily turn down the electrical load if you're running under 3krpm (or whereever you determine your charging limit to be, an ammeter will help with that, though a voltmeter will indicate it as well)

 

[jonr]

Oops ,

Nerobro is right. Running in series puts strain on the voltage while running parallel strains the amperage. So, one would not be dimmer than the other if in series - just both.

Thanks Nerobro. I edited my previous post for the sake of the archives!

RockyMountain, you'll still have gauge whether you've got the charging system power to maintain the circuit!

-Jon

 

[Stephen]

Headlight!

Headlight!

Wow, I am in the process of doing this very thing. I have an 82 GS1100GK. Hated the fairing. So last week off it came. I bought a pair of clip-on brackets. wired the parking/turn signals in to a pair of turn signals from an 82 650. The third wire, I just cut and covered. I then took a 3/4 x 3/4 piece of squared aluminum and put Mollly Bolts into the ends, to connect the piece to the brackets. I installed a pair of mini driving lights on the bar. One of which is plugged into the existing three wire headlight connector. The other light will ]be connected to a fused wire, I have run from the power block to a handle bar switch, down to the lamp. I ran new grounds months ago, so I have one just sitting around. When I need to use "High Beam", I will just switch on the handle bar switch. I tried to plug both lights into the three wire haedlight plug, but, it will not work the way a two element bulb works. (Don't know why) I kept the side bags, the rear bag, and removed the handle bars and installed drag bars. I will no be sitting forward leaned over a bit, but I think this will be a fun bike to ride.

 

[sidd]

you might want to check out www.streetfighters-usa.com. They have a pretty good selection of various "non traditional" headlights.

 

[Stephen]

Man it sure is dark, wish I had a headlight.

I installed two mini headlights, one into the existing harness, the other to a new hot lead, with a fuse. Worked well. However I just picked up a Emgo sport fairing. It has a hole for 7" headlight. But no headlight bucket. herefore I guess I need to get a bucket! Wish I had a way to cover up the headlight hole, and just install the mini's back on. Would look very different. Any thoughts? Does anyone make a filler for the headlight hole?