Headlights

From: Glen Farney <glen.farney@snet.net>
To: vx800-l@mcf.com
Subject: Re: Dem high beams in da trees - warning... long post !
Date: 2/27/00

First, let me say that the headlight should do most of the work. My wife's VX headlight is awesome,
Kotto brand I think. I thought it was the stock unit, maybe it's not. If the stock VX headlight
isn't doing it's job, I'd replace it. It's not nearly as expensive as you'd think (about the same
as driving lights, and the results can be well worth the money. You can get a replacement headlight that fits exactly for about $40-50, still takes the H4 bulb, and works very well. Brands I'd look for include Candlepower, Hella, Cibie, Orsam, Phillips, or Bosch. It's a standard 7" Round headlight. Don't pay more than $50 (bulb included) or I'll help you get good ones for less.
Motorcycles are allowed to run headlights cars are not, allowing us to use the European spec lights in most cases. I have put these type headlights on EVERY car and bike I've owned (that would take them) since I discovered them. Some great reading on the subject of lighting is at
http://lighting.mbz.org/faq/ and http://www.overlander.com/faq_lamps.html

Now, with that said... .driving lights.... and the VX's charging system.... 280 watts at 5,000 rpm.

My GS650 and it's 250 watt capacity is good for about 100w of total head/driving light power, but that's about it. The VX is comfortable with the 55/100 or an 80/100 alone, and I'd say you could run either a higher power headlight, or standard and some driving lights. Most driving lights are 50-55w each, some are 35w though. Keep in mind that these lights almost always say "for off road use only" on them, and can be blinding to oncoming traffic at night. The kids here are using them on their little Hondas and Toyotas, and run them on all the time for the looks, and it's annoying as hell. The cops are finally starting to pass out tickets for it.

Even though the headlight replacement is the correct answer, driving lights do add to the safety for a motorcycle with both extra light down the road, and extra visibility to others. I think on the VX you could run the stock headlight with a pair of 35w driving lights (60+70=130w total lighting) Or 20w driving lights with a higher output bulb (100 + 40 = 140w of total lighting) but I'd put the extra power into a light that works better for you. I would not go past the 130-140w range, especially if you do a lot of slower in traffic riding (unless you put the lights on a switch for such situations). If you have electric clothing, you need to figure on that too. At lower speeds, the battery could suffer and go dead on you from lack of charging.

All sorts of small round driving lights with 50-55w bulbs use the same dicroic bulb (bulb and
reflector in one unit) used in household track lighting. The good news here is the track lighting
bulbs come in 50w, 35w and 20w varieties, as well as spot and flood light patterns for about $5 each so you can change out the bulb to lower the wattage and change the beam patter that you install on the bike. I found some "micro" driving lights, same story, but come with the 20w bulbs (also track lighting, but are smaller in size). I'm using them for visibility, as they don't do anything impressive about getting light down the road.

You can get many many driving lights that require the standard H3 bulb, but most are 55w and up. I did see that a 35w H3 bulb is available, so you could convert them to a lower wattage.

As if you couldn't tell, lighting is a bit of a passion for me, I like to see ! If anyone has an
more questions, feel free to ask on or off list.

"The ride is the reason,
the destination is only the excuse"

Glen Farney
GS650GLD, VX800M, GS750ED
SOC-USA Connecticut State Coordinator
ICQ #9867478
AOL "Farnster"
Coventry, CT