Upgrading Lighting for R1150 R

[rprothero]

Guys,

How difficult is it to upgrade the lighting (head lamp) , on the R? What kinds of things do I need to keep in mind? Also is there an easy kit out there that doesnt require modifications to the existing electrical system? I wan tto upgrade my stock lighting for safety and an eventual cross country trip.

[owldaddy]

There are many replacement bulbs that can give more light. I added driving lights in addition. The driving lights help a lot, you can point them in places the headlight doesn't reach, such as the side of the road, as well as further out.

[rprothero]

how hard is it to install the driving lights? Do you splice off the existing connection or run a seperate line? New to wiring and dont want to screw up a perfectly working electrical system..Also any brand recommendations...Sorry for the barrage just trying to learn from others

[MIXR]

how hard is it to install the driving lights? Do you splice off the existing connection or run a seperate line? New to wiring and dont want to screw up a perfectly working electrical system..Also any brand recommendations...Sorry for the barrage just trying to learn from others

A few things to remember - You have a 700 watt alternator and therefore have buckets of spare power to run anything you want. I do a lot of night riding. Good lights are critical. I started with a pair of rectangular 55 w spotties. Poor choice. I went to a pair of round 55 w spotties that were 4". Poor choice. I then went to a pair of 6" round 100 w spotties with a reasonably deep reflector. Perfect.

In standard halogen lights, you can't beat 100 watts and a deep reflector in a round beam. Cheap too. You have the power to spare, so don't waste money on HID etc. Also, you can replace a stock halogen light (or bulb) anywhere if one blows or gets broken in a fall or by a bird-strike etc. Any brand (even cheapies) will do the job. The bigger and deeper the reflector the better.

The problem with the R is where to mount them. I went with crashbars, primarily because it gave me a place to mount bigger lights.

Wiring - Always run seperate wires and of decent capacity and quality. If you don't want to get to the battery, you can wire of the hot line to the starter. Easier to get to. Run a fuse. Use a relay. Sheath all wires where you can, and run a switch. The trigger wire to the relay should be off the high beam. You can access that in behind the headlight (easy).

The headlight will handle a higher powered bulb as it is all glass and metal. The stock wiring may not. If you go to a Phillips Vision 80+ (or similar) you will get good light and reliability (in my experience).

Use quality crimps and a proper crimping tool and you won't have problems.

Have fun - You will never regret it if you do country night riding.

Cheers, Mick.

[gregor]

I upgraded to a standard wattage Osram Nightbreaker. Much brighter and whiter than standard and I've not felt the need for anything better on UK roads. Lasted for 5 years and counting.

[owldaddy]

I got the Optilux 1502 http://www.hella.com/produktion/Optilux ... l_1502.jsp. They are small enough to hang under the oil cooler shroud. They are 55w, and put out plenty of light. I used to work off shifts, and bought them to make my commute safer. They really do the job and are well worth doing if you ride at night a lot. I also used the Autoswitch, connected to the blinker cancel switch. Makes for a clean handlebar.

[monomoit]

I've just been through a lot of this with my bike, so I'll share my experiences...

I started with a pair of Denali D2 LED Driving Lights from Twisted Throttle, which I am very, very happy with. They are small, bright, EXTREMELY white, and I think compliment the bike quite nicely.

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/trade/productview/6158/

I elected to mount them underneath the oil coolers, as shown in these photos:





Because of their color and intensity, I feel that these lights increase the bike's daytime visibility dramatically. They provide a decent amount of additional illumination at night, mostly filling in the area immediately in front of the bike, but certainly don't reach way, way out there like larger halogen driving lamps do. That said, I really, really like them and am thrilled with the installation. They also can be wired to switch between 40% and 100% intensity automatically with high and low beam.



My next task was to tackle the headlight. Wanting to match the brilliant, pure white color of the Denali's, I ordered an HID conversion - one of the "Bi-Xenon" H4 kits that are available, thinking that this would be the "ultimate" solution. After spending about $70, and a LOT of time and effort, I was very disappointed. While the light WAS bright, and very white, the beam pattern was terrible - both erratic and unfocused. There was also a highly annoying amount of "jitter", due to the bulb vibrating (it is designed to move up and down to produce high and low beams). After one day... this "moving" bulb stopped functioning, and I tore the entire installation out of the bike.

The final solution was to order and install an H4 Headlight Relay Harness from EasternBeaver.com:

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Produ ... _kits.html

This allows the use of a much higher wattage H4 bulb, without risk to the factory wiring harness or headlight switch. These are left handling only the low currents to actuate the relays, while the new, robust harness does all the "heavy lifting" to power a MUCH brighter bulb.

I did quite a bit of experimenting with the various H4 bulbs available, finally settling on Hella's 100/80W High Performance "Xenon Blue" bulb, available through Amazon for about $27 a pair:

http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H83140282-P ... 364&sr=8-3

I also tried Hella's H83140011 130/90W "Standard" H4 bulb, which, while extremely bright, seemed to produce a less crisp beam pattern, and had a decidedly orange cast to it. It is, however, very inexpensive, at less than $6:

http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H83140011-W ... 443&sr=8-1

Important to note: both these bulbs listed above are intended for "Off-Road" use only; proper headlight adjustment becomes extremely important, so as not to blind oncoming traffic! After carefully aligning mine (as well as the Denali lights), I am happy to report that I rarely, if ever, have anyone flash me, and that night time driving has taken on a whole new eye-opening perspective, orders-of-magnitude better than the "stock" setup.

Good luck, and hope this helps!