Highbeam? You wouldn't have guessed it!

[niero]

OK, so yesterday my poor RF (as if didnt have enough stuff that was going belly up on her already) had a headlight break down, now most of you would say "boohoo! Circle of life get a new one" which is what I am going to do, but here is something I want to share with you that I found somewhat depressing but at the same time good. Only the low beams failed, and yes as you all guessed when I drive back from HeliPro each evening I have my high beams on full blast. And guess how many people it blinded?!?!? NONE! OK, so I would be driving on the road and at an intersection I would look straight across the road and everyone is staring forward as if my lights are working perfectly, thats great on one hand but really bad on an other, I just cant see far enough with them either on low beam or high beam. Now I was wondering how much are those clear light bulbs cost I think they are called 9300 Kelvin or something... well, you know what I mean, and what can I do about it, your suggestions would be much appreciated. My previous FXR had the same problem, you couldn't even see weather it was the high beam I had on or the low beam. Any suggestions? Do you guys have similar problems on your current/past bikes? Cheers

Nikolai

[xwhatsit]

Is the headlight adjusted? Maybe it's simply pointing too low.

[steved]

I thought most headlights had only a single bulb to do both low and high beams. If that is the case for the RF400, the fault may be electrical.

I changed the bulb in my CBR to a halogen (I think) and liked the results. The light was definitely brighter and made me feel more noticeable to others.

[CookMySock]

my lights suck as well. I'm looking at doing an upgrade to H.I.D lights. It's gunna rawk, but is $400 worth.. :whistle:

DB

[Jeremy]

The bulbs are double filamented like the rear bulbs aren't they?

[CookMySock]

The bulbs are double filamented like the rear bulbs aren't they?mine aren't. They are seperate H1 and H3 units.

DB

[Subike]

If you upgrade the wattage on you headlight, be sure to put a relay in the cuircit
Nothing worse than haveing your wireing burn out from pulling 35amps when its designed for 15amps
switch block replacement, wire loom replacement, either or would be more cost than the instilation of a good relay and the right wires.
Adjustment of the light should be checked, make sure your lense is clean on the inside, and does not have a smoky film over it which can reduce the lighting by 50%, check that your reflector also is in good condition. Reflector? the silver plate behind your bulb that trows the light forward.
Be sure to use the correct fillimant bulb, not theose cheapfuckers that are out of alignment when manufactured.
Hella or Bosh bulbs IMHO are best,
I use a 100/65 bulb and have plenty of light, it is linked to a 35amp Hella fused relay, I used 3mm wire for the power feed.
The XSEleven's alternator is not the best and only just keeps up with the demand.
Ensure you have matching equipment fitted for the best results, I have seen a few burnt out wiring looms from too high a powered bulb fitted to stock wireing with no relay. Melted switch blocks become exspensive throw aways even worst when they become obsolete!

[pete376403]

9300 Kelvin is the colour temperature of the lamp, nothing to do with the light fitting as such
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

[rottiguy]

shizen, no wonder you have no problem with ya light, 100 watts is quite a bit :) and I fully agree on the relay idea, I had a 90/110 in an old GPZ 750 I had a while back and that caused some joy until I put a relay in. Boy the highbeam sure lit up the road though :) you could feel the heat off it from 8 feet infront


If you upgrade the wattage on you headlight, be sure to put a relay in the cuircit
Nothing worse than haveing your wireing burn out from pulling 35amps when its designed for 15amps
switch block replacement, wire loom replacement, either or would be more cost than the instilation of a good relay and the right wires.
Adjustment of the light should be checked, make sure your lense is clean on the inside, and does not have a smoky film over it which can reduce the lighting by 50%, check that your reflector also is in good condition. Reflector? the silver plate behind your bulb that trows the light forward.
Be sure to use the correct fillimant bulb, not theose cheapfuckers that are out of alignment when manufactured.
Hella or Bosh bulbs IMHO are best,
I use a 100/65 bulb and have plenty of light, it is linked to a 35amp Hella fused relay, I used 3mm wire for the power feed.
The XSEleven's alternator is not the best and only just keeps up with the demand.
Ensure you have matching equipment fitted for the best results, I have seen a few burnt out wiring looms from too high a powered bulb fitted to stock wireing with no relay. Melted switch blocks become exspensive throw aways even worst when they become obsolete!

[CookMySock]

If you upgrade the wattage on you headlight, be sure to put a relay in the cuircitalso make sure you don't melt your headlamp unit.

DB

[Subike]

also make sure you don't melt your headlamp unit.

DB

Danbed good point DD
I forgot some of the new ones are plastic!

[breakaway]

And guess how many people it blinded?!?!? NONE!

How can you actually tell that it didn't blind them? When I see some knob jockey riding around with high beams, and it blinds me, I don't actually act any different. I just try to not look towards him/her.

[CookMySock]

When I see some knob jockey riding around with high beams, and it blinds me, I don't actually act any different. I just try to not look towards him/her.You should give the bloke a quick flash, followed by another one if he doesn't get it. It's rare for me to forget and leave my lights on full, but I am very grateful for a, er, reminder, so DO IT please. Everybody aint arseholes, they just forgetful here and there.

"Always attribute seemingly harmful things to momentary lapses of concentration rather than callous acts of disregard."

DB

[niero]

Is the headlight adjusted? Maybe it's simply pointing too low.

You see after 1988 (I think. correct me if I am wrong) The lights on alll suzukis are permanently on low beam. When I switch to low beam my lights go out. :(.


my lights suck as well. I'm looking at doing an upgrade to H.I.D lights. It's gunna rawk, but is $400 worth.. :whistle:

DB

Holy shit! Man... Anything cheaper than that?!?!? I dont want a turkish prostitute life time membership card, just the light bulb!


If you upgrade the wattage on you headlight, be sure to put a relay in the cuircit
Nothing worse than haveing your wireing burn out from pulling 35amps when its designed for 15amps
switch block replacement, wire loom replacement, either or would be more cost than the instilation of a good relay and the right wires.
Adjustment of the light should be checked, make sure your lense is clean on the inside, and does not have a smoky film over it which can reduce the lighting by 50%, check that your reflector also is in good condition. Reflector? the silver plate behind your bulb that trows the light forward.
Be sure to use the correct fillimant bulb, not theose cheapfuckers that are out of alignment when manufactured.
Hella or Bosh bulbs IMHO are best,
I use a 100/65 bulb and have plenty of light, it is linked to a 35amp Hella fused relay, I used 3mm wire for the power feed.
The XSEleven's alternator is not the best and only just keeps up with the demand.
Ensure you have matching equipment fitted for the best results, I have seen a few burnt out wiring looms from too high a powered bulb fitted to stock wireing with no relay. Melted switch blocks become exspensive throw aways even worst when they become obsolete!
Hey thanks for the tip, but I thought you can take any lamp with any wattage as long as it can supply the voltage or the ampage (P=IV) So, if your wire is only rated for 15amps (Which is is a shitload, knowing that an ultrabright LED takes up .1 amp to power it self). Anyway, drifting off topic here. Since you cant get the ampage, why not increase the voltage? Will it work?

O and something funny i saw on the road today. A guy in his over tuned VW Golf stopped at an intersection right across the road from me. While he was listing to his tunes (which was a combination of bass noises) every time the subwoofer made a noise the headlights dimmed and the neons went out. I guess you can figure out yourself what was happening there.

But thanks a lot for the tip, I will be defiantly looking out for the right bulb.

Which brings me to my next question, is there a good place in Christchurch anyone could recommend I go, where they wont charge me an arm and a leg (as my kidney has been sold already..*sigh*), and more importaintly know what they are doing. The last thing I need as the man says A melted lightbulb cover and reflector and blown out fuses all over the show.

Many Thanks

nikolai

9300 Kelvin is the colour temperature of the lamp, nothing to do with the light fitting as such
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Yeah you are entirely correct friend, but the color is a good indication of brightness, eg. If you compare yellow ordinary light with blue light, chances are the blue light would be brighter as there is more current induced through the bulb, aka the more white/blue the brighter the light. Its like looking at molten metal, you can have red hot metal and you can have white hot metal, white is a lot hotter.


Boy the highbeam sure lit up the road though :) you could feel the heat off it from 8 feet infront

Ahhh, nothing compares to fried eggs on the go, litrally!


also make sure you don't melt your headlamp unit.

DB

Yeah, good point. Thats what I really am scared of buying the wrong bulb.


How can you actually tell that it didn't blind them? When I see some knob jockey riding around with high beams, and it blinds me, I don't actually act any different. I just try to not look towards him/her.

Well, people look at me as I go past (cmon like I am the only one who noticed), and people look directly into the light/bike. I also conducted a test stood 200 meters away from the bike and looked straight at it. I wouldn't have guessed it.



Cheers to everyone that is helping me out, help is much apreciated :banana:

[CookMySock]

Holy shit! Man... Anything cheaper than that?!?!? I dont want a turkish prostitute life time membership card, just the light bulb! haha, is there such a lifetime membership ?? :whistle:

I will let you know my costs to do this shortly. I have bought a kit to do the high-beam only, as my low beam is poor, but high-beam is RETARDED!!

edit: btw, HIDs use less power, and the bulb runs cooler than conventional bulbs. Soon we shall see.

If it works really well, I will do low-beam as well.

more to follow
DB

[crazybigal]

also check the chrome reflector inside the headlight unit is not all manky and cracked, this will dull your light some.
in my rf900 i chucked in a moe expensive brighter bulb, way better.

[slopster]

Newer bikes have seperate high and low beam bulbs. Older ones have the dual filament bulb that does both. I imagine the rf is dual filament. It would be highly unlikely that both bulbs would go at the same time so I'd be looking at the wiring. On my old gsxr 750 I had headlights fail due to a the crimping on a connector come undone - might be a common suzuki thing - it was located near the left indicator.

[PrincessBandit]

I went through many bulbs on my dear little GN (yeah a Chinese one unfortunately) - hi beam worked fine, but all failed on low. After scratching our heads over it my husband ran a multi meter over the bulbs and it turned out that even the "new" ones showed no reading on the low. Were cheap Chinese bulbs. Went to repco and bought same sort of bulb (which turns out to be the same as what's used in the rear end of my Cynos :blink:) and all is sweet.

[madandy]

You see after 1988 (I think. correct me if I am wrong) The lights on alll suzukis are permanently on low beam. When I switch to low beam my lights go out. :(.
My '91 Gixxer has an on/off switch for headlights. I can choose to run low/high or off.
I had an RF400 a few years ago - rode it to work in the dark (early morning starts) for 2 years and the lights were sweet on that though nothing since has been as good as the Ducati I now love :love:

[niero]

Whoop, whoop, my low beam started working again, (the bike probably thought that breaking its own second gear tooth was a bit too much of a punishment for me) Holy crap how can I afford $1500 for the repairs, thats, like....a new bike. Now i just go from first into third but I have no idea how much she can take of this, I understand that little metal bits are coming off the tooth every time it's spining and is in gear, but its my only form of transport. A good bloke has kindly given me an engine http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa206/paturoa/RF400/ problem is... its the VC model and I have the normal model, what are the differences and am I able to repair (from the pictures) the crashed engine with mine or do I have to strip it down to the gearbox? Please help I have no idea what I can do here and will the restoration (from what you can see at least) be cheaper than a new gearbox.

Many thanks


Nikolai

[Skinny_Birdman]

Others may wish to correct this, but it seems to me, given that the motor you've scored doesn't appear to have carbs or an ignition module (which will undoubtedly be different between VVC models and non-VVC models)that you will probably want to stick to the engine that's in the bike, and just try to swap out the gearbox bits. I'm guessing at this point that you don't have a manual either.... :weep: You may need to approach a professional.

[alanzs]

my lights suck as well. I'm looking at doing an upgrade to H.I.D lights. It's gunna rawk, but is $400 worth.. :whistle:

DB

No need to spend $400. I just bought a 6000k HID system for my Bandit 1200 from www.bombaymotorsports.com. It cost ~$140 US (~170 NZ$) with shipping and got here to NZ in 5 days. They are in Lost Angeles, USA.

It is SUPER BRIGHT! Makes the halogen bulb I had look like a candle compared to the sun.

Check them out, the owner is an old friend; super reliable, great service, excellent price on anything bike related. Been in the bike business for years, so he knows what he's doing.
Tell 'em Alan sent ya...
Cheers....

[CookMySock]

ok I got my Lumenux H1 highbeam-only HID set from a bloke on trademe - $150 incl incl, so thats $75 per bike for high-beam only. It looks ok at first glance. Will Install it tomorrow and report back. It's a car set (left and tight) so this will do two bikes, mine and my mrs. I'll do just one bike and then compare them. Pics and comparison to follow. If it works out REALLY well, I'll do lowbeam as well.

DB

[CookMySock]

woah I installed one HID unit and it is FULLY NASTY !! Just tieing all the wires back and waiting for darkness hee hee.. pics to follow.

DB

[CookMySock]

ok we went for a ride out in the country. It was like bloody queen street - so hard to get the lights on fullbeam. When we did, it was quite clear the HID lights were much better.

Heres two pics, one with both bikes idling on low beam, and then with both on high beam. Probably I could have been way more scientific, but my brain is on the blink at the moment.

The H1 bulb fits right in the housing instead of the old H1 conventional bulb. The rear of the bulb is slightly larger so I have to give it a shove or two to make it fit. The Ballast is non-trivial to mount - its quite large so some foam mounting tape, and some large cable ties were required. It's mounted good and snug now.

Now theres a problem - the inverters are freaking out my digital display, so it looks like I need some suppression, or else re-routing of cables. Basically, the digital dash crashes hard, and requires key-off-on to reset it. Ten seconds after selecting the HID lights and the digital dash is toast. It restarts fine.

I'll try and fix this dash interference tomorrow, and let you know what happens.

DB

[CookMySock]

ok I tried re-routing the high-tension leads to the lamp, but that made no difference. The inverter unit continues to freak out the digital dash.

I built a crude filter with some junk capacitors and inductors from a PC power supply, and put it inline with the 12VDC supply to the inverter unit. It has made a huge difference (dash locks up on the 20-30th try, not the second) so I will refine this filter somewhat and post my results.

Why should I have to add a filter ? Well, I shouldn't. Thats cheap chinese junk for you. The filter should be built in but it aint.

What exactly is happening ? The controller/powersupply/inverter/ballast unit that runs the lights is generating a large amount of electromagnetic radiation (EMI) that is travelling BACKWARDS up the power cable into the bikes' 12V supply. The digital dash cant cope with this level of interference, and locks up solid. (rinse and repeat comments above about lack of filtering..) :rolleyes:

Total expenditure so far, for TWO bikes to have H.I.D fullbeam, $150. Yep, thats only 75bux per bike, for fullbeam only.

DB

[CookMySock]

hrm, I rebuilt the filter, and stuffed around with it this morning, and its not making any difference at all. I will go get a relay and run a wire directly from the battery (sigh). Theres quite a spark when I plug the connectors in, and I read that these units pull about 100W on start, and during the start is when the dash locks, so hopefully the relay will fix it. Strange that no one else has had this problem.

DB

[CookMySock]

I added a relay and a wire direct from the battery with a fuse right next to the battery. What a mission, but it all works sweet now. Looks like it draws too much current on startup. I'm still puzzled why no one else has had this problem.

Hopefully it still gets a WOF :blink:

To do: Cables to tie back, loom to tidy, wiring to give a thorough yank test, controls full-and-free test, road-test during the day, and then a night trip somewhere.

Lowbeam to fit next, then on to the next bike.

Project is a success. $160-$170 per bike for full and low beam HID.

update: Installed other half on the HID kit on the GT250R and the damn thing just worked fine - no dash problems. All done in 45mins. Grumble.

DB

[avgas]

You see after 1988 (I think. correct me if I am wrong) The lights on alll suzukis are permanently on low beam. When I switch to low beam my lights go out. :(
Err my 98" RG150 had an on/off switch. Likewise my mates 92" Katana.
Even my mates 2004 GN125 had one

[Chrislost]

I thought most headlights had only a single bulb to do both low and high beams. If that is the case for the RF400, the fault may be electrical.

I changed the bulb in my CBR to a halogen (I think) and liked the results. The light was definitely brighter and made me feel more noticeable to others.

single bulb with 2 filiments usually...

[alanzs]

I added a relay and a wire direct from the battery with a fuse right next to the battery. What a mission, but it all works sweet now. Looks like it draws too much current on startup. I'm still puzzled why no one else has had this problem.

Hopefully it still gets a WOF :blink:

To do: Cables to tie back, loom to tidy, wiring to give a thorough yank test, controls full-and-free test, road-test during the day, and then a night trip somewhere.

Lowbeam to fit next, then on to the next bike.

Project is a success. $160-$170 per bike for full and low beam HID.

update: Installed other half on the HID kit on the GT250R and the damn thing just worked fine - no dash problems. All done in 45mins. Grumble.

DB

The ballast on the one I have is about the size of a half pack of playing cards. It was an easy install. Sounds like you got the problems sorted. Shines pretty bright!

[CookMySock]

The ballast on the one I have is about the size of a half pack of playing cards. It was an easy install. Sounds like you got the problems sorted. Shines pretty bright!Yes I should have got the compact ballast. Oh well. Aren't they great to ride with ? It's weird but cool how they light up slowly and change their hue.

DB

[alanzs]

Yes I should have got the compact ballast. Oh well. Aren't they great to ride with ? It's weird but cool how they light up slowly and change their hue.

DB

Yeah, I'll never go back to regular lights again. I have a WOF coming up in a month, so hopefully it won't be an issue. I'll make sure to go during the day!