| Author |
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Starter
| | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 09:39 pm: | 
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Back to the reflector oxidising, has anyone though of having it nickel (or any other reflective metal) plated? |
Barkandbite
| | Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2004 - 09:49 pm: |
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Here's what I'm doing -- under the fairing for that stealthy look without having to mount to the forks. I think I'll wire it to the fog light relay. I'm thinking about the clear foglight vs. the driving lights for greater beam width -- 95 degrees.
http://www.piaa.com/Lamps/Lamp-pages/2100xt.html
4.75 Inches wide and 2 1/8" high. 3.75" depth.
Decently priced for the pair and they are H3 55 Watt bulbs; I think they will offer a stealth look with good lighting.
Chris |
Fdl3
| | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 10:01 am: |
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Starter: Sounds intriguing. How much would something like that cost? I spent $40 on a replacement headlight (see below).
Barkandbite: Let us know how you mount those lights.
Darthane: The ACC O/W wire can be used to power the high-beam without tripping the ACC 7.5A fuse. The question then becomes where to splice into that wire. BTW, the manual shows that wire powering the front flasher unit, so I used the terminal for that in my testing.
All: I have replaced my low-beam unit with a high-beam unit. I will know for sure tonight how much of an improvement the new unit makes over the old unit (which had severe deterioration of the reflective back-plate). In eyeballing it, it would appear to be so much better - to the point that I now question whether it would be better to just replace the whole headlight rather than trying for brighter bulbs. In fact, I plan on replacing my "good" high-beam light because, in comparison, it looks bad now. |
Sparky
| | Posted on Monday, November 15, 2004 - 12:02 pm: |
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I talked to Erik Buell Saturday and mentioned the degradation problem with the 9R's low beam headlight and the fact that HD's extended warranty does not cover it. He wasn't aware of a problem but said he would look into it.
So, I guess, I'm not sure if the factory is even aware of this degradation. This seems like a case of planned obsolescence where a part goes bad after the first year of use and the owner has to buy a new part to replace the worn out one -- that went out in the fifties. Perhaps we could help document this situation by taking our bikes to the dealer and insist on making a warranty claim for low output headlight? If enough owners complain, eventually the factory will respond, won't they? |
Darthane
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 08:49 am: |
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Fred - excellent.
That O/W white SHOULD exist somewhere in the fairing area other than the flasher. I know it's there on XB*Ss, I suspect it is there for XB*Rs (I'm just not willing to tear my fairing off right now to check).
If you can find the lead of the O/W wire that goes to those non-existant position lamps, then use that one. Otherwise, do a centerline splice on the flasher with some 20GA wire and run it to the High Beam. If you can snip the W wire that goes to the high beam far enough back to simply route it to a point on the O/W wire to splice it, great, otherwise just add some new wire.
Would you like me to send you the terminals and relay to add to your block for the aux lights, then? I'll label everything and give you a little set of instructions/schematics to go along with it.
If you can find it, what's the current draw on the aux lights you want to add? If its comparable to the high beam, then we'll just use that feed and you don't have to worry about adding a new fused lead for them.
Henrik, if you want something similar, just let me know and I'll make them both at the same time. |
Fdl3
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 11:41 am: |
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Darthane: My new high-beam light (in place of my low-beam) makes such a HUGE difference, that I am now thinking I will just add the AUX lights in with the high-beam circuit. Based on the performance of the new headlight, I am going to order another high-beam unit to replace my existing high-beam unit. When I do that, I probably won't need the AUX lights (yes, the difference is THAT good); but, I am going to install them anyway. I just need to decide how I want to do it.
A real simple way would be to fabricate a wire that has a single lead to plug into the existing high-beam wire, and two leads to feed the high-beam headlight and AUX lights. (Of course, I would fabricate a similar wire for the ground side).
Another way would be to use the supplied AUX light relay and: a) use high-beam wire for the coil switch; b) use the supplied wire with inline 20A fuse attached to the battery as a power source and; c) feed both the AUX lights and high-beam from the above power source.
Since this is your area of expertise  , which way would you do it, and why? |
2k4xb12
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 12:02 pm: |
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Perhaps we could help document this situation by taking our bikes to the dealer and insist on making a warranty claim for low output headlight? If enough owners complain, eventually the factory will respond, won't they?
Try here:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ |
Darthane
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 12:08 pm: |
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Fred - you should definitely use the latter option, making use of the relay and a new, independent fused battery feed. The only thing that I would change is to leave the high beam as is (just splice into that wire somewhere to power the coil of the relay). That way it is easy to return to stock should the need ever arise (al you do is snip and seal that lead, rather than having to reroute to the high beam). |
Fdl3
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 12:59 pm: |
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Darthane: I'll take the latter approach then. |
Bud
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 01:32 pm: |
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or am i kicking a dead horse 
it's the same as i did to my lights, the pic's are not mine but from a fellow badwebber
and i like it allot
gr, b |
Fdl3
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 02:21 pm: |
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Bud: Yeah, I've seen that thread. Dave L. used Hella 90mm headlights to replace the stock ones. That is probably a better and more permanent fix, but a little too drastic for me right now. |
Henrik
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 09:31 am: |
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Sorry for the late reply; I've been off to VIR crashing myself silly...
Fred; my plans for aux lights were for my S2. I found even the high beam hopelessly inadequate for mountain riding. It's mostly a problem in tight turns, so I was planning on mounting aux lights (most likely PIAAs) to the upper fork leg. But I'd prefer to mount them as high as possible to hide them a bit under the fairing.
Brian; thanks for the generous offer, but as mentioned I'm trying to work something out for the S2, so the XB connectors etc. probably wouldn't work. I'll dig the wiring diagrams out again, and check the physical layout of the wiring, and maybe pick your brain for problem solutions.
Henrik |
Darthane
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 01:32 pm: |
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Henrik - chances are the S2 relay block (if such a thing exists) uses the same terminals. If not, I might be able to scrounge the right ones for ya. I've still got connections. |
Henrik
| | Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 10:02 am: |
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Brian; the S2 uses the old HD type relays instead of fuses. Don't know if there is a relay block similar to the XBs. I'll do some wire tracing this weekend and let you know.
Henrik |
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