| Author |
Message |
    
Mainstreamer
| | Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 10:14 pm: | 
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Matt, here's a couple of choices for you. I haven't ridden with either of them
so I can't comment on there effectiveness. I have seen the Motolight units and they are top quality.
http://www.saeng.com/cutters.htm
http://www.motolight.com/ |
Heads
| | Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 11:23 pm: |
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I have an 05 12R built in 04 with these rough spots also |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 02:15 am: |
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Blake: thought you were funning with me. However I generally try to do my homework before I make a presentation to the class.
Paul, thanks for the tip on the lights. For $375 I would certainly think these lights are high quality. More than I want to spend though I think. Maybe Santa will get them for me. |
Aldaytona
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 08:12 am: |
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Motolights are the ticket, top shelf construction and the Homeless Depot or not too Lowe have replacement bulbs so you'll never have to worry about spares. |
Mainstreamer
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 12:27 pm: |
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Matt, another option for ya. A very nice installation job by Motogeek.
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/239895.html?1163351147, |
Diablobrian
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 06:59 pm: |
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A sleek set-up would be to mount those where the turn signals are and put orange
LEDs in them for turn signals. Just a thought for multi-tasking. |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 08:46 pm: |
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Thanks Paul, but Brian just hit it on the head. I've been looking for lights to mount in that position to replace the turn signals, but have them integrated. It is clear to me now, that I must build them myself.
I ain't payin $300+ for a pair of lights... I will solve this for under $100 if it kills me. |
Mainstreamer
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 11:31 pm: |
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Let us see what you come up with. Should look nice.
My concern with placing the turn signal in the same unit is that the turn signal might not be visible when the lights are on.  |
Buellinblack
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 11:52 pm: |
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03' XB12R...I dont have the spot |
Diablobrian
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 12:03 am: |
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Here are a couple of possibilities:
set it up on the relay to kill the outer lights when the turn flasher is energized.
or
put the LEDs in the bezel of the lamp so they are a ring around the headlight?
With modern ultra bright LEDs it's pretty impressive how visible they can be.
I like the first option myself with the orange (amber) LEDs inside the lamp set in the
reflector. I think it would look nice and clean. |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 12:40 am: |
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03' XB12R...I dont have the spot
Ummm... you mean 2004 I'm sure.
turn signal might not be visible when the lights are on.
I don't actually care if they're visible when the lights are on, they're only to please the DMV so I don't get a ticket for not having them. The spotlights is what I'm really after. Besides, when I'm using the spots, the signals probably won't matter. |
Buellinblack
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 10:50 am: |
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oops, I keep thinking 03 because thats the production date on the tag
either way...no spot |
Bueaddicted
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 06:16 pm: |
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I rechecked my headlights yesterday and both do not have the "spot". Maybe I was lucky?!
 |
99buellx1
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 06:47 pm: |
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Or unlucky. |
Bueaddicted
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 07:28 pm: |
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99, care to explain? I don't understand.
Paul |
No_rice
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 08:10 pm: |
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i think basically that ment, if it's an update, wouldn't you want that update? |
99buellx1
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 08:24 pm: |
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If it's meant to disperse light, maybe it give a better light pattern. |
Timbo
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 11:07 pm: |
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While the discussion is on "R" headlights...
I recently had an interesting episode with my '03 XB9R...
I always keep my highbeam (both lights) on during daylight hours to increase my visibility to cagers.
On a recent, all day ride with friends, my headlights went out towards the end of the day. The usual fixes didn't "fix" it. Tried a new fuse and new bulbs even though all looked good, but nada. No light.
After getting it home (in the dark with no headlights, but that's another story) I started troubleshooting, but couldn't find the problem. I had 12.7v at the leads to the bulb, but the light wouldn't come on when installed.
Long story short...it turned out to be the connector that connects the headlight leads to the wires that go into the switch housing. The ground had melted inside the connector. It wasn't visible even with the connector disconnected. I had to cut open the "male" part of the connector to find the melted plastic and wire inside.
Note: One common ground wire splits in two to power both headlights.
The reason I bring this up is it seems the stock ground wire may be near it's max safe current load with both headlights on. I still had the original stock bulbs in the bike when this happened, and neither bulb was blown, nor did the fuse blow.
To fix this I used a heavyduty, weathertight connector and changed the stock 18 gauge wire to 16 gauge wire from the switch housing to the bulbs.
Hopefully this will prevent a similar failure in the future.
Just a "heads-up" for you guys.
Timbo |
Diablobrian
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 11:37 pm: |
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Thanks Timbo.
I will take a look at the headlight ground wires just to be sure this winter.
We had troubles with the grounds up front on our race bike for a while. We ended up
having to run an extra ground strap to the chassis. That is/was on an 04 XB12R.
In fairness though the guys who raced it before us had made a mess of the harness
to the point we replaced it last winter, and both of our street XB-Rs are fine so far. |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 11:42 pm: |
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It seems to me that higher quality wire could have been used just about everywhere on the bike. I've found wires on occasion that are almost rubbed through, and depending on location I replaced the whole section or just wrap them really good and make a note of it, in case something fails I can go right back to it.
Someday, my project will be to rewire the bike in its entirety. I just think Buell could have spent a few more dollars on this aspect of the motorcycle.
footnote: there's a guy on the aussie buell riders board that is doing this now, and he's making custom wiring harnesses, and rerouting a few things. He's said that he'll send me pics of the finished products in exchange for having scanned and emailed him all the schematics on the bike.
I'll post it up if and when he sends me his pics.
(Message edited by pwnzor on November 20, 2006) |
Timbo
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - 07:23 pm: |
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Pwnzor,
The factory probably has tough choices to make on a lot of things.
The main wiring harness and sub harnesses add up to a fair amount of weight. Going with thicker gauge wiring and thicker insulation could help durability in some areas, but at what cost in weight? It's a choice that's made based on load, fatigue, weight, cost and probably several other things too.
I'm sure they try their best to cut every ounce they can without jeopardizing reliability, or making it cost prohibitive. This is one spot that may be close though, and that's why I posted my experience.
In mountain biking, making things lighter was always a priority for us, but eventually you can reach the point of "stupid light". At least that's what we called it when parts seemed really cool cause they were super light, but then failed when ridden hard.
Timbo |
Nutsnbolt
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 06:23 am: |
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I couldn't agree with Pwnzor more. I have found numerous areas where even just the nest highest gauge wire would have done the trick.
I too am looking at doing some rewiring and rerouting.
mark |
Hkwan
| | Posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006 - 12:23 pm: |
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how come no one has mentioned the reflective material in the light housing of the R models are very ineffective though providing less output of light than it should have...
The material is not even reflective but just silver in color. Overtime it flakes off due to heat as well. Don't know if Buell has upgraded the material to something on par with 'standard' material in terms of reflectiveness. |
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