Halogen headlight upgrade

[rputney01]

A guy is selling these on E-bay. My limited experience with halogen bulbs in house lights is that they generate a lot of heat. My '79 GS1000S has a plastic bucket and a lot of wiring behind the bulb. I'd like to get more light on the road in front of me and the cost is fairly nominal ($40 U.S.).

Has anyone done this upgrade and how much risk, if any, is there from the additional heat the halogen bulb generates? Also, are they street legal in the U.S.? A friend told me that only certainly types of bulbs/lights are legal.

As always, thanks in advance for the help. Great to see the site back up and running!!

[rustybronco]

Find a stanley 001-1970 7" glass housing with the bulb.
standard issue on '80-up, used with a plastic headlight housing.
e-bay, 15.00-20.00 shipped if you wait.
no heat issues...

***example***

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=862054&postcount=6

***what it looks like from the back side***

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=4463&d=1217075280

[Planecrazy]

If you don't already have one do an H4 housing upgrade and then buy Silverstar bulbs (By the way you DON'T have to buy the motorcycle specific H4's - the automotive equivalent is a 9003 and the bulbs appear to be absolutely identical).

Some people claim that the motorcycle specific H4's are more vibration resistant. As somebody who has used the same 9003/H4 purchased in a less expensive two-pack for going on four years (almost exclusively on "high-beam") I can vouch for the fact that any premium you may pay for a "motorcycle specific" H4 Sylverstar is money wasted.

Once you use a halogen bulb (compared to the stock sealed beam) you'll never want to go back, and the upgrade to Sylverstar from a stock halogen is every bit, if not more, impressive. I'll never use a lesser product on my bikes again.

By the way, keep in mind that because of the mirrored reflector inside the housing/light most of the heat generated by the bulb radiates out toward the front and is not transmitted to the housing. In short, while a halogen or sylverstar bulb may run hotter than a stock headlamp there isn't a significant change in the amount of heat transmitted to the housing.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

[Ghostgs1]

Both of the GS1000 bikes I've owned have had H-4 halogen bulbs from the factory with no heat issues.

[scrapper]

I was wondering what is the housing upgrade and where is it? Is this a kit? I was wondering if it would be hard to convert to three lights on the front? I would not want to spend alot of money, I think it might look kinda cool. I hope I'm not asking to many stupid questions I have a 82 650L. I only have a windshield but will try to install the fairing I bought, may have to fabricate a new bracket, guy wasn't sure if it came off a honda or suzuki. This place is great lots of help with dumb newbe questions. I am poor or cheap and am willing to learn.

[Planecrazy]

I was wondering what is the housing upgrade and where is it? Is this a kit? I was wondering if it would be hard to convert to three lights on the front? I would not want to spend alot of money, I think it might look kinda cool. I hope I'm not asking to many stupid questions I have a 82 650L. I only have a windshield but will try to install the fairing I bought, may have to fabricate a new bracket, guy wasn't sure if it came off a honda or suzuki. This place is great lots of help with dumb newbe questions. I am poor or cheap and am willing to learn.

Here ya go...

Click me for one example of an inexpensive H4 upgrade kit

[Nessism]

I bought a lamp w/H4 bulb off JC Whitney for pretty cheap (can't remember exactly how much). Look in their motorcycle section. 7" lamp is direct bolt-in on many GS's. Some L models use a smaller lamp and then there are the larger lamps on others. Measure before ordering.

I've heard that some brands of bulb run hot - stay away from the versions that have stainless prongs on the electrical contact. Sylvania should be fine but Phillips is stainless i think.

[Nessism]

Here ya go...

Click me for one example of an inexpensive H4 upgrade kit

That's the one I used. Worked fine.

[scrapper]

That looks cheap and easy Thanks

[Planecrazy]

My pleasure ...

Regards,

[rputney01]

Thanks

I appreciate the advice.

Cheers!

[noobie]

OR you could get yourself one of those H3 headlight sets of lights with
looking glass (reflector - spotlight effect) instead of normal glass, the ones that are so popular with streetfighters. From what I've seen they're very powerful (because of the spotlight effect) and also don't get so hot. Well, temperature-wise at least. I wanted to put them on my 1k, but the damn regulation forbid it here because the bike is registered as an oldtimer and I'm not allowed to change anything, especially not put anything newish on it.

[tas850g]

I just tried to order the H4 upgrade from J.C. Whitney and it is not longer available. The 7" round housing anyway. I could have gotten the replacement bulb but obviously does no good without the housing.

Is there any other available upgrades out there for a 1979 GS850?

Thanks for the help.

[tkent02]

but the damn regulation forbid it here because the bike is registered as an oldtimer and I'm not allowed to change anything, especially not put anything newish on it.

Who cares, run the good light.
Change it back once a year if you need to get inspected.
Using crap lighting for some silly law is ludicrous.

[Matchless]

Osram now sells a Night Breaker which is supposedly better than the Silverstar, 90% more light, 35 meter longer reach, 10% more white light and 60W main and 55 W low, same current draw as the Silverstar also come in H4, straight swop with ordinary H4 halogen bulb.

Has anyone tried this yet?

Edit: Apparently some claim that the Night Breaker is only more expensive than the Silverstar and gives the same performance. The Philips X-treme Power is supposed to better the Silverstar avialable here http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Phili...spagenameZWDVW