Anyone Add More Lighting?

[Mike Stewart]

Well,

 

I have put it off as long as I could. I need to add more lighting to my commuter bike since daylight savings went into effect. Most of my ride to work is now in the dark and I could use more lighting to make things safer for my 40 something eyes.

 

So has anyone out there found a good pair of additional lights they have added to their Guzzi for a wider light pattern ? And can the Guzzi alternator handle it?

 

Thanks,

40 something Mike

[Guest captain nemo]

Good question. I find the light to be ok, I've seen worse. But not good either. Can we simply add a halogen bulb to the main lamp? There must be a way to get more candlepower without drawing too much more amps.

[dlaing]

I like the idea of putting an HID "bulb" in the stock lamp.

It uses less power and produces more light.

However I don't like blue light and the bulbs are expensive.

I expect the price will come down a little by the time that I hit 40

[Lex]

Can we simply add a halogen bulb to the main lamp?

 

I'm pretty sure the current bulb is an H4 Halogen. Do you mean HID? If so that is a great solution but very complex to implement and very expensive. HID requires two bulbs (one for low, one for high), bulky ballast resistors, etc. Each unit will cost you a few hundred dollars. Unless you want to do some pretty serious engineering I'd try to add lights that wouldn't overstress the alternator. That limits you to fairly low wattage, a pair of 35 watt light at the most.

 

In other words, Moto Guzzi has made it very difficult to improve the lighting on our bikes, sorry. I'm a lighting addict so not being able to improve the lights on my Goose is pretty frustrating.

 

Yours in frustration,

 

Lex

[Guest russ]

That limits you to fairly low wattage, a pair of 35 watt light at the most.

 

I don't think that the POS Alternator will support even 35watt lights.

[al_roethlisberger]

HID is indeed a pain, but is what I've been looking into as they draw significantly less power than our H4 Halogens, but produce a much brighter light... believe it or not.

 

Actually, not all HID systems require a separate bulb for high/low functions. Several auto manufacturers, and some aftermarket kits like those that were sold by CATZ use a servo to move the bulb back and forth far enough to change the focus of the beam, along with a servo controlled shield that adjusts to cover the bulb appropriately for high or low beam applications.

 

Unfortunately most of the "H4 replacement" kits have been pulled from the market due to DOT pressure. And the single H4 bulbs sold as "HID like" are of course just colored bulbs, and a joke.

 

More info here:

 

HID Retrofit Discussion on Sport-Touring.Net

 

 

It seems that the correct solution for our single bulb OEM application, is to find a salvage automobile solution that has the high and low beam function in one housing, but I've yet to find one. The correct housing would almost certainly be a projector/reflector unit that one would just install inside our stock bucket.... as the OEM reflector is not designed for the focal point of an HID installation, and would produce undesireable results if one just jammed an HID bulb in there.

 

I'm on the hunt, and thought I found a whole projector, bulb, ballast, and ignitor from a salvaged BMW on eBay for $49(a steal) but it was only low-beam

 

 

al

[Guest northend]

Have you tried adjusting the light ?

 

I know they are set awful low from the factory.

[Guest captain nemo]

I have two thoughts:

 

One, I don't see any reason for low and high beam. I always run on high beam. If I'm in the city, I simply turn the lamp more toward the road. If I'm out in the country or forest, I turn the lamp up a bit, but still not so high as a car high beam. I would simply like a high beam only light that puts out more candles.

 

Two, I have seen many very powerful, rechargeable flashlights. For instance, I have a flashlight here at the house that is rechargeable and puts out an enormous one MILLION candlepower. Now, such a lamp could be mounted in such a way as to be very easy to take off. It could be used - not as a on-always driving lamp, but for 'scanning' far up ahead from time to time with a switch.

 

Oh, here is another 'out of the box' idea: I like bicycles also and they have many lights that are generated by friction from the tire. I wonder is such a thing could be done with a motorcycle and the far higher energy that could be generated by the faster front tire. Such a light could potentially be FAR BRIGHTER than what we have now. Maybe again as a secondary light source.

[Mike Stewart]

I am currently running a higher watt bulb than what the factory put in (I wonder why the relays don't last long). My problem is high beam works great but with oncoming traffic, it is hard to use. The low beam just does not put out enough light and a wider beam would be nice in the dark twisties. It is hard to look far into the turn when your light is pointed straight. Adding another pair of lights seems like the best solution. I will be searching for a set at the bike show this weekend!

 

Mike

[Guest chong-chong]

I put a pair of MotoLights on my bike. The type that attaches to one of the brake caliper bolts. The bulbs are 35 watts each. So far, I've had no problems . I haven't checked my battery yet, but she cranks over fine every morning. The lights fill out my view very nicely at night. What's nice about them also is that they have their own wiring harness with relay and fuse. What's bad about them is that they are expensive. I bought mine for $300.00 .

[Guest carlomoto]

I didn't like the bulb in my V11, either.

 

I bought a PIAA "Xtreme" H4. It's an HID bulb.

 

So far so good. Big increase in light -- not too blue. Not too expensive, either.

[al_roethlisberger]

Charles,

 

Unless I am mistaken, I don't think the PIAA "extreme" H4 bulbs are HID. They are simply coated halogens to produce a more white or blue light similar in color to an HID.

 

Unless the PIAAs came with a whole kit that included an external ballast, ignitor, and special adapter to fit an HID bulb(which is much longer than an H4) to an H4 base, then it's not an HID. Keep in mind that HID bulbs are much different than a halogen in operation. HIDs are more like an arc-light, and do not have a filament.

 

Typical, but now illegal, H4 conversion kits are usually around $400. And those kits typically do not support high/low beam with one bulb, because with an HID bulb, since there is no filament(s) the high/low funciton cannot be in the bulb itslef.

 

For those few kits that did support a single bulb high/low function like our bikes require, there was a motorized(solenoid) mount for the bulb that physically moved the bulb forward and backwards to change the focal point.

 

But bottom line, the US DOT has been calling the vendors of these kits and threatening them with huge fines, so most have stopped selling these true HID H4 conversion kits.

 

The link I provided a few posts above has a long discussion on this topic.

 

BTW, how much "spare" Wattage do we have on these bikes for lights, vests, etc? I know it's not much...

 

al

 

 

P.S.

 

You can get kits from places like Micatech that allow one to mount HID solutions externally like halogen driving lights. These kits are sold as both dual and single light solutions, with the dual-light kits running around $400. I believe that for the dual-light kits, the draw is about 85 Watts.

 

More info here: http://www.fjr1300.info/howto/HID.html

 

And here: http://www.micatech.net/Lights.html

[dlaing]

But bottom line, the US DOT has been calling the vendors of these kits and threatening them with huge fines, so most have stopped selling these true HID H4 conversion kits.

Oh great.

So only the High End Automobiles will be able to blind you with 35Watt Low Beams <_>

 

FWIW PIAA clames not only whiter, but brighter light....about twice a powerful as other halogen bulbs.

[Guest carlomoto]

Unless the PIAAs came with a whole kit that included an external ballast, ignitor, and special adapter to fit an HID bulb(which is much longer than an H4) to an H4 base, then it's not an HID.

I stand corrected - my PIAA is not an HID (although the box says it is). Sorry for the confusion. Foreign packaging can follow different standards for labeling of product, I guess.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

BUT - the bulb is brighter. Big improvement over the stock bulb.

[callison]

Daniel Stern Lighting used to have a great web page with an ind-depth FAQ about all of these things. He still has a great web page, but the FAQ is unlinked for "updating". Basically, what I remember from reading it is that the PIAA bulbs merely shift the filament further (forward?) which concentrates more beam intensity into the center of the beam pattern. After that, they make lots of high claims with no substantiation. Still, for a bike like the Sport 1100i, which has a miserable beam pattern from the rectangular bulb, concentrating more light in the center is an improvement. If you think the headlight on a V11 Sport is bad (which I don't agree with), you should try riding the Sport 1100i at night. Or my California - even the V65 has a better light than that one. Best light I've ever seen on a bike? The 8 1/4" flamethrower that was on the 1982 Yamaha Seca 650. Big headlight, works very well indeed. I'm totally turned off by the appearance of the projector lights, and I really hate the blue arc lights when I see them, but if someone really wants the things, they can take a look at some at http://www.spieglerusa.com/body_pages/mig_lights.cfm.