Calling all electrical (lighting) gurus...

[The Other PaulG]

Riding through some pretty dark, unlit and very winding forestry roads at night on my 1100 at the weekend, something occurred to me:

• the 1100's low beam is great for close-up and wide stuff, but rubbish for distance (of course)
• high beam is great at distance, but leaves a BIG hole in the 'foreground'
• if I carefully go from low to high beam, there is a middle switch position that gives both low and high simultaneously, and it's absolutely perfect.

Now I didn't hold it for long, because it seemed to me to be a really good way to blow a fuse or start a wiring loom fire... both very sub-optimal in a dark forest at night... But it did make me think.

So... my question is, is there a known wiring mod that allows the low beam to stay on when you switch to high beam, without frying your circuits??

Surely it's possible with just some wire, a fuse and maybe a relay??

By the way, please don't suggest fitting auxiliary lights - that's not what this thread is about, I'm thinking about a mod that costs closer to £10 than £100 and doesn't add more weight to my bike...

Paul G

 

[brassmonkey001]

It should be easy enough to do. However, you'll burn your headlight bulb out rather quickly with both filaments lit at the same time.
I'm assuming it's a H4 bulb?

 

[littleredrooster]

It used to be a common mod with the (car) rally crowd. Wire the light with both filaments on for high beam - no serious downsides other than battery drain and slightly shorter bulb life, apparently.

 

[Richard J]

Search for "Eastern Beaver" they do varrious headlight relay looms including one where both filaments are lit for high beam.

Rewiring with a relay direct to the battery boosts light output considerably

 

[brassmonkey001]

I'm thinking about a mod that costs closer to £10 than £100 and doesn't add more weight to my bike...

Paul G

Eat more carrots.

 

[Slowdown]

ride slower?

 

[The Other PaulG]

Eat more carrots.

ride slower?

Under no circumstances....

 

[Bikerbaz78]

Hey mate,
This one should be fairly simple 
Take a 12 volt relay and a feed direct from your battery with an inline fuse. So that’s about a tenners worth of equipment (gotta keep on budget you know!) We can use the power from the output of the high beam switch to trigger the relay feeding the low beam lamp with power at the same time. I also recommend adding an additional negative feed to the bulb holder and connecting it directly to ground. The original negative wire supplying the bulb would only have been rated to supply enough (or a little more) current for one of the two and not both. The bike wiring loom will not be affected as the feed is additional thus not extra loading apart form the battery which will not be an issue.

Now for the wiring; As of this second I don’t own and have never owned a GS (Maybe this weekend???) I am assuming that the complete chassis and headlight bracket is all grounded and that the “common” / Negative connection of the head light bulb is also constantly grounded? I would be VERY surprised if not!

Diagram below;
(Lets hope this image works out?)

 

[(RIP) Yamaha1]

Search for "Eastern Beaver"

I'm always searching for beaver - and don't care much if it's Eastern or not at my advancing years!!

Mike

 

[(RIP) Yamaha1]

On a serious note now - that's a LOT of heat going to be produced in quite a small plastic enclosure - twice what it was designed to take.

I guess at speed, with the cooling effect of the air, it would be OK for short periods, but I certainly wouldn't want to run them both for extended periods - and certainly not whilst stationary. YMMV.

Mike

 

[buellzebub]

Funnily enough I've been pondering over doing this mod' to my MX-5 as the lights aren't the greatest, but was concerned about the effect of the extra heat on plastic reflectors, lenses, etc.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Not just the bulb, you could fry your reflector.

 

[digga]

Go the eastern beaver route..

i wired one of his relay kits into my 1150R.. that way i get almost 12v to the bulb. you are prolly only getting 9/10v!! it does make a difference.

to save you looking

 

[The Other PaulG]

Go the eastern beaver route..

i wired one of his relay kits into my 1150R.. that way i get almost 12v to the bulb. you are prolly only getting 9/10v!! it does make a difference.

to save you looking

Thanks for that, and the link.

But won't that just make the distant, or the near, light pattern brighter... I can't see how it would fill in the gaps, or will it??

Paul

 

[brassmonkey001]

Thanks for that, and the link.

But won't that just make the distant, or the near, light pattern brighter... I can't see how it would fill in the gaps, or will it??

Paul

Have you made sure your headlight aim is set correctly?

 

[The Other PaulG]

Have you made sure your headlight aim is set correctly?

Yep, all fine.

 

[Bikerbaz78]

Hey Other Paul G... did you see my reply a few posts up?

I think you should be aware of the heat issue a posted above but if the reflector is metal then you shouldnt have any issues. On that subject I wonder how long you would actually ride with both lamps on?