I need a brighter headlight

[Anonymous]

I guess this is an appearance question. Is there a conversion to make my headlight brighter? Also my high beam seems more lika a wide beam I can see all around except directly in front.

[Anonymous]

Hmm, sounds almost like your bulb is crooked.

You can buy one of those cool-blue bulbs at the auto parts store. They have the correct capsule for motorcycles. I use these, and love them. Especially at night with a wet road...


Tim

[Anonymous]

If you have a replaceable element, they do sell higher wattage H4 bulbs that you can put in. The best I've seen in auto parts stores are 55/60, but through JCW you can get all the way up to something like 90/130. You may also want to consider your charging system too. If you're riding an older GS like I am, the charging systems are bunged up enough as is without the extra load.

Have fun,
Dave

[mcycle-nut]

I put a H4 headlight which I scrounged from a wrecked GS1000 into my '78 GS750. All I can tell you that it's a Stanley without ripping the bike apart. It is a lot brighter and the electrical system seems to handle it ok(for now). Be careful about buying the blue type bulbs. I had a local cop tell me that unless they are the high dollar lights that come with certain Lexi and Mercedi, they are illegal. Then again, we have lots of strange laws up here. :roll: Ever heard of excessive lighting? They will nail you for that if you have running lights on the running boards of your van. 8O 8O 8O

[administrator]

Blinded by the light

Quite a few states have requirements for "white light only" on headlights. So unless the vehicle came with high intensity lights, you can't put them on. That is, depending on where you ride and how aggressive the police are. :twisted:

As for brightness, most states have a candlepower distance that can't be exceeded so brightness isn't based on bulb wattage. They use rules like "you have to be able to illuminate an object at X feet". So it makes things tough to be legal when you want to have more light but still want to be legal.

--- Frank ---

[argonsagas]

Wonderful! I think I agree with every posting on this thread.

Either your present bulb is crooked or you have a car-type light body and lens instead of one intended for bikes. They may look the same, but they place the light on the road differently.

I use the coated bulbs in my car and agree they are decidedly superior in wet conditions, as well as in snow.

The police seem to pay more attention to bike herex (and probably in every other area too), so they ignore my car. Additionally, the bulbs are becoming more popular, as dealers are selling them

When I first looked into these lights I was warned about the police, but there was a caveat: some of the earlier blue-type bulbs gave off a rainbow or neon effect and the cops are guaranteed to grab you if you use them, while the better bulbs appear to have a blue tinge, and give off a white light, which the police seem not to care about, (unless they are stopping you for something else anyway)

The bulbs on my car are the latest xenon-type, with standard wattage, and they are excellent. I want to find out what the local police think about them before installing one on the bike.

[Anonymous]

You can buy the bright white lights on Ebay for most all GS models. They even have the kits where you can change to a sealed headlight that has the smaller replacement bulbs that slide in and out of it. That way you could upgrade to a brighter bulb. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

I just installed one of the H4 HID Krypton bulbs 80/100 WHATTA DIFFERENCE.
The Krypton versus the Zenon is it uses less power than a standard H4 so no problem for the older bikes Mine is an 83 GS650GD No problems so far. Mine also happen to be the purple showoff, look GREAT, but whites and blues avail also. got them on e-bay real cheap. 25 bucks for two so I got a spare too plus my old h4's.
good luck

[Anonymous]

Blinded by the light.....

On my old 79 1000 I also noticed the factory sealed beam was a very dismal thing ..yellow in color and not very bright.
I found a lens reflector conversion kit ..perhaps the name was aerotech/..I upgraded the bulb to a 130/90 watt.
The difference was literally night & day! The precision of the lens reflector assy was critical, when it was on lowbeam there was a definate horizontal line deliniating the lit & unlit section, making adjustment very critical. I also noted at the left "horizon" the pattern turn down away from oncoming traffic and on the right it turned up illuminating the far right section of the road and off in the gravel.
Rick......

[Anonymous]

bulb

watch out for some of those new hi intensity bulbs. they work fine but some will not take the vibration like normal bulbs..................

[jimcor]

Carefull with the hi watt bulbs. They get HOT and will melt the wiring connector. Napa auto parts has a high temp connector #LS 6235 that will save you some trouble...(don't ask how I kno!!)