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1980 gs550e - headlight replacement (UK)

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    #31
    Here's what I'm using now.
    The fairing headlight is a Cibie rectangular which dates (like the fairing) from the early 80s. That light unit was made by Cibie for the French car industry starting in the early 70s and millions of Renaults were fitted with them. Only thing was, back then halogen bulbs were expensive and the majority of penny-pinching owners made do with the miserable 45W tungsten lamps that were fitted as standard. Even so, the lamp units made the most of the puny lighting power available and provided a very good beam and dip, much better than most other cars of the day. I had fitted one of the foresaid Renaults with a pair of halogen bulbs and the difference was incredible - those Cibie lamps were probably always designed for that, but most people who had them never knew how good they could be.
    That's currently fitted with one of the imperfect LEDs, that doesn't have the smallest LED light source in it. It's like the one I posted above - small, but not quite small enough to be perfect.

    The two auxiliary lights are another pair of proper Hella H4 headlamps with main/dip and using a pair of Nighteye LEDs - those DO have the smallest die size that fairly accurately mimics the position of the original filaments in the halogen bulbs.

    The total current demand when all three are on is approx 75W - well inside the limits for the wheezy auld stator and prehistoric charging system we are lumbered with on these bikes. Even bringing them up to date with a new stator and an SH-775 reg/rec, there's a limit to what it will put out.
    I'm quite happy with the current draw as it stands; out on the open road there is enough spare capacity to keep the bike systems happy and charge the battery, but if I'm driving in town there's no need for the auxiliaries anyway, so I switch them off and the charging system quite easily keeps up with the single main LED headlamp.




    Ps; one thing I should mention, if you decide you'd like to try an LED - I'm not sure if you're still running the stock reg-rec, but if so, you really need to get an SH-775 Series reg-rec to save your stator.
    Last edited by Grimly; 08-18-2019, 10:00 PM.
    ---- Dave

    Only a dog knows why a motorcyclist sticks his head out of a car window

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