| Author | Message | ||
     Fdl3 |
Thanks Darthane! Any help would be greatly appreciated (and my Buell is probably counting its lucky stars, too). I have a history with fidgeting with electronics...just not a good history.  | ||
| Darthane |
Hey, *I* drive with my fog lamps on all the time! Truck doesn't have DRLs - so I use those.  No problem, Fred. I will get it done, just might not be for a few days. | ||
| Road_thing |
Bomber, it's simple--some people live their lives in a fog! rt | ||
| Outrider |
Like the fix'n'upgrade concepts and all, but it does not address the issue of the deteriorating reflector plates. Is this really a quantifiable faux pas or just a rare occurrence? Regardless...Is it covered by the basic warranty? Why is it not covered by the extended warranty? Is the reduced light output in violation of any Federal or State Laws? Would think that you will find some answers if you follow that logic path with either Buell's Customer Service Department or with Court Canfield as a last resort in your communications with Buell. Guess at this point I am glad to have an X1 with one of those big beautiful BMW headlights. Although, I don't imagine the cost of the replacement part is very much if Buell is true to form concerning parts pricing. | ||
| Glitch |
Bill, I'm wondering the same things. I've noticed a lot of XB*Rs that have poor headlamps, too bad too, because they didn't start off being the brightest in the bunch. Shred took his apart and re-painted the inside with chrome paint, it helped a little. | ||
| Fullpower |
to answer the earlier question about my auxiliary lighting: the Piaa set came with a relay, and fused power lead.power comes direct from positive battery terminal, through fuse, relay and then to Aux lights. trigger wire for relay is connected to the hi beam wire right at headlamp connector. so this takes care of the hi-beam situation very nicely. low beam is still barely adequate. waiting for an HID setup to arrive from canada. understand they are now illegal in US. when adequate lighting is outlawed, only outlaws will have adequate lighting. | ||
| Darthane |
If/when mine finally goes, it's getting replaced with another high beam assembly, and the people in front of me can just plain deal. 95% of the time once dusk hits I've got the brights on anyways. I almost had an idiot in a Durango run me over last night on the way home from work. Saw he wasn't slowing down and squirted in between the lanes. He veered into the lane to the right and just about hit me with his mirror anyways. I thought maybe my brake light was out (I was sitting still, but am in the habit of 'pulsing' the light to get people's attention). Nope - he just wasn't paying enough attention. ANYTHING you can do to make yourself more visible, front or rear - and this goes for 4-wheeled vehicles also (hence me running around with my running lights on all the time) - is a GOOD THING. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Fullpower: I guess I could do that, too. The aux lights I bought has the wiring, inline fuse, and relay needed to install them. If I move the high-beam over to the low-beam circuit, what can I do with the wire that used to go to the high-beam light? Since it leads back to the high-beam switch, anything I hook up to this wire will not get power unless the high-beam switch is on. So could I use this wire in place of the aux light switch wire? Or should I bypass the aux light switch and wire the high-beam wire into the aux light relay in the place of the aux light switch wire? (Or have I said basically the same thing?) | ||
| Darthane |
I think you said the same thing. Did the aux lights come with a switch? If so, simply substitute the high beam switch for the aux light switch and you've got aux lights that run in place of the high beam. I still think you should think long and hard about simply popping the high beam onto the same circuit as the low beam. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Darthane: Do you think I would be better off leaving the high-beam on the high-beam circuit, and adding the aux lights on the high-beam circuit, too? | ||
| Spike |
While getting my bike inspected a few weeks ago I noticed my headlight was quite dim. I just bought a PIAA "super white" bulb to see if that helps but I have yet to install it. Whenever I get around to installing it I'll have to check if the reflective surface inside the headlight is still intact. Mike L. '04 XB12R '99 Z50R | ||
| Fullpower |
i plan to install some "superbrite" LED in my turn signal housings. red in rears, and clear in fronts. will wire them into tail light circuit. i had done similar on sportster, and it very greatly improve d the visibilty of the bike at night. i have the led's not sure what resistance to use in series, but i will report back with results. | ||
| Darthane |
If you're not going to create a new feed for the highbeams, then yeah, I'd say so. But then you don't get what you wanted, which was high beam on all the time and extra lighting when you flip the switch. There might be a better place to grab that feed, rather than running it off the switched ignition -=grabs service manual=- Yeah...if you want to run the high beam off of the Accessory feed (Orange and White wire), you could probably sneak by with that, and not risk losing half the bike if you blow a fuse. It's a 7.5A fuse right now - if you do that, I'd suggest upping it to 10A. Since you have a US market bike, there should already be an O/W wire up by your headlights - they feed the position lamps that are used in the Euro market. You could snip the HB feed (white) and splice it to one of those wires. ...course, you could just replace the low beam with a high beam. You'd at least partially solve the problem of abysmal regular lighting with that. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Darthane: I didn't realize the accessory feed ran to the front. I am glad you brought that up. Definitely something to consider. Spike: Whatever you do, do NOT try to "clean" your reflective backing. What looks like dirt on mine was actually where the backing had degraded. I tried "cleaning" what I thought was grime only to worsen the degradation. Of course, the bulb itself can be replaced without having to go through the trouble of getting to the headlight assembly. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Darthane: I am confused. You mention drawing up a schematic on using a relay to power both the high and low beams off of the low-beam circuitry. How would a relay prevent overloading the low-beam circuit? | ||
| Darthane |
The current powering the high beam comes from a different source - only the coil of the relay (that turns it on) is powered by the low-beam feed, and it is only a quarter amp or so vs. ~5A for the light itself. | ||
| Darthane |
Like this...  | ||
| Fdl3 |
Darthane: Ah, pure simplicity! Now I see. The switch inside the relay does not turn the high-beam on until the feed for the low-beam is powered. When power is supplied to the low-beam side of the relay, the switch is thrown, providing power to the high-beam side of the relay, thus turning on the high-beam light. Where is a good place to pick up a relay like this? And how do I identify this kind of relay? What about using the accessory wire to power this relay for the high-beam in place of the battery feed? Seems this would provide a fuse (7.5A) that could be used in place of your diagrammed inline fuse. And is the LB Feed a splice into the existing low-beam wire? | ||
| Darthane |
1) You can get standalone relays like this at most auto supply stores - or I have both standalones as well as the terminals needed to add it to your existing relay block. You want a 'Half-ISO' relay. If they stare at you blankly, it's the smaller kind of relay - shaped like half a cube with four or five pins sticking out of it instead of a whole cube (a 'Full-ISO' relay) 2) You could use the Accessory feed to supply the power, but will most likely need to increase the fuse size to 10A. I'd suggest a battery feed with an inline fuse for safety's sake, but in all likelyhood that is a perfectly acceptable way of doing it. 3) Yes, the LB Feed is spliced from the existing wire that powers the low beam headlamp. | ||
| Henrik |
the terminals needed to add it to your existing relay block  please explain? Sounds like there is a very elegant way of doing this? Henrik | ||
| Fdl3 |
1) Is the only difference between a 'Half-ISO' relay and a 'Full-ISO' relay the size of the cube? 2) Not having my service manual handy, where exactly is the existing XB9R relay block you mention (I rode into work today, so I want to actually take a peak)? It sounds like you have all of the needed relays and hardware to add additional relays to the XB9R relay block. This would be really nice and professionl-looking. 3) Somehow, I need to have two(2) terminals on the high-beam circuit in order to power two(2) aux lights. Splicing into the existing wire is one approach; but, can I use a relay to accomplish the same thing? Say, the relay that comes with the aux lights? | ||
| Darthane |
1) and 2) The relay block in a XB9R is on the left of the dash, that black plastic cube-looking thing. If you pop the cover off of it, there should be three half-ISO relays already in the block, so you can pop one out to take a look at it if you like. The function of a Half vs a Full ISO relay is the same, but a Full-ISO can handle roughly 40A while a standard Half-ISO will only handle about 17A sustained current before it melts. The Half-ISOs I have in my bag back at home are rated for 25A - but I snitched those while I was in Japan (Shh!). 3) If you take the approach described above and use the Acc feed to power the relay for your High Beam, Fred, you can simply route the white High Beam wire into the relay that came with the Aux lights in the same manner as shown in the schematic above. Just replace "From LB Feed" with "From HB Feed (white wire)" and "To High Beam" with "To Aux Lamps" and you'll have the correct schematic for that scenario. The Aux lights most likely came with a ring terminal to hook to the positive battery feed with an inline fuse - if not, you should add one. Henrik, I'll have to double check, but I should have the terminals to fit the XB relay block, meaning you would crimp them onto the wires and then put them in the block so that you don't have a standalone relay dangling somewhere. If I were doing something like this, it's how I'd do it, but then that's what I do for a living. -=shrugs=- | ||
| Henrik |
Thanks Darthane I'm ... uhhhh ... particular (yeah, that's the word ), so that's how I'd do it as well. Henrik | ||
| Darthane |
Henrik (and Fred), I'll check on them when I get home. I've got spools of high-flex, high-temp wire at home, too (I DO do this for a living after all). Provided I've got all the parts, I'd be happy to make you the overlay and send it along. All you'd have to do is plug and splice it in. I'll do a little digging regarding the Accessory feed as well and see if I think it really can handle the extra load from the high beam. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Wow, that would be exceptional! I'll send you a PM with my address information. Be sure to include your own address so that I can send you back a little "thank you" compensation! | ||
| Darthane |
Fred, Henrik I've got the terminals, but they're take-offs from some Mustang prototypes I did a while back (I'll have to splice them - NDB, just not as clean a solution as I'd like). It looks to me that you should be able to run the high beam off the accessory feed without any problems. I suggest, if you get the time, to do a 'test run' of this theory before actually cutting anything up. Pull the fairing, locate the O/W wire, disconnect the white wire from the high beam, and jumper the O/W wire to the bulb. Power on the bike and see if the light comes on and you don't blow the 7.5A fuse. If you do, try stepping to a 10A and see if that solves the problem. The wire itself should be able to handle 10A without a problem. If that works, just wire the O/W wire to directly run the high beam and we'll use the relay to power the aux lights. Note: Doing this will make your high beam come on if you turn the key to park (providing I'm readin their key diagram correctly). | ||
| Fdl3 |
Darthane: That is a good idea. I will be able to do that when I replace my low-beam headlight with a high-beam one, hopefully sometime this weekend. I will let y'all know the results. It will be NBD if the high-beam comes on in the "Park" key position. I have yet to use "Park" anyway. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Henrik: So how are you thinking about mounting aux lights? Personally, I don't much like them on the fork tubes (like Fullpower has done); but I have not ruled that location out. Really, I want to mount them somehow under the fairing of my XB9R. That way they are stationary in the sense the aux lights would not move when the forks move (like in turns). One idea I have is to use some "L" brackets mounted to the base of the front turn signal stalks (where they bolt into the magnesium fairing stay). Eyeballing it, it looks like the "L" brackets would have to mounted outward such that the aux lights hang right below the turn signals. It would be neat if the "L" brackets could be mounted inward so that the aux lights hang right underneath the fairing, but I don't think there is enough clearance with the fork tubes (at least with the aux lights I have). What are your thoughts? | ||
| Fullpower |
fd: yeah, fork tube mounting is not the most aesthetically pleasing posibility, but it seemed like a good use for the reflector that was already an ugly birthmark there. they do function well in that location. it aint a show queen, bike is dirty most of the time anyway. | ||
| Fdl3 |
Fullpower: I hear ya on the dirty bike! Can't seem to keep it clean. I want to ride it more than I want to clean it!! If I cannot come up with a solution to mounting aux lights under the fairing somehow, your solution will be used. |
