improving/adding to standard lighting.

Losttheplot

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Just looking at the dawn to dusk in a few weeks time, and the big bike race is over night.

Quite tempted to do this, but feel the standard headlight on the XChallenge isn't really up to the job of charging about the welsh countryside in the dark.

Have any of you upgraded the standard light? or have you gone for additional light such as the vision X units?

what do you recommend to use/avoid?

many thanks,

Nathan
 
I've not used these myself but some friends have and like these

http://www.zenoverland.com/lighting/rigid_industries_dually.html

wunderlich did some halogen auxillary lights which looked nice iirc

I'd briefly thought of halogen, but issues with heat and current draw put me off, especially when you look at the LED or HID options.

The rigid industries lights look to have a better spec than the VisionX units :thumb

But are super bright spots the way forward? or would i be better having the same amount of lumens spread over a wide area (flood?), giving better peripheral vision, and would the reduction in contrast changes make things easier on the eyes?

Can you have "to much" light?
 
I removed the headlight completely and fitted a Buell unit and fitted each of the seperate lights with HID upgrades in the 35w 4300 range. They light up the road very well.
 
Try a 80 / 100 bulb over the 55 / 60 standard bulb, not got round to this yet as I don't really use the X at night but it's meant to work well. Failing that I've seen a Baja designs unit on one and it looks the nuts but will set you back muchos dollar :drool
 
I removed the headlight completely and fitted a Buell unit and fitted each of the seperate lights with HID upgrades in the 35w 4300 range. They light up the road very well.

I had HID's fitted to my 1150, and they made an amazing difference.

The only thing that puts me off is the complexity.

Where did you fit your ballast?

Nathan
 
Try a 80 / 100 bulb over the 55 / 60 standard bulb, not got round to this yet as I don't really use the X at night but it's meant to work well. Failing that I've seen a Baja designs unit on one and it looks the nuts but will set you back muchos dollar :drool

while changing the bulb looks like an easy fix, i'm not sure about the extra current drain.

Would the standard headlight assembly tollerate the extra heat from running a higher wattage bulb?

So far it look's like LED lighting maybe the way forward...
 
while changing the bulb looks like an easy fix, i'm not sure about the extra current drain.

Would the standard headlight assembly tollerate the extra heat from running a higher wattage bulb?

So far it look's like LED lighting maybe the way forward...

It's been recommended on the advrider site, as I say I've not got round to fitting the bulb yet so can't really comment on it.
 
If it is only temporary, get some Mountain Bike Single Track Lights - Come with rechargeable batteries (so you can have one on charge back at the van). Saw some on someone elses bike who did the D2D last year (cant remember who though) and it was a cheap and effective solution.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=ssc p7 bike &tag=hubmaker-21

I've just got myself one of these lights- first impressions? amazing!

hopefully test it one evening to see if it lives up to it's specified burn time.

Thanks for the link Mike :thumb
 
I had HID's fitted to my 1150, and they made an amazing difference.

The only thing that puts me off is the complexity.

Where did you fit your ballast?

Nathan

Just taken the HID out of my DRZ as I'm about to put it up for sale and have fitted it in the X Challenge along with an LED Sidelight bulb. It's a Hi/Lo HID so has an extra relay back to the battery as opposed to most these days which are just "plug and play".

On the DRZ there was room to house the ballast inside the headlight surround, but no such luck on the X. After a bit of trial and error, I've got the ballast under the (as you sit on the bike) right hand "tank" panel, sort of tucked in, and cable tied flush, against the little space where the battery is. All the cabling is then routed out to the headlight following the original loom.

It's massively brighter, and I feel much more "visible" on the road especially on these dark evening commutes. Prior to the install I always felt next to invisible and the difference in other road users taking notice of me was huge compared to when I commute on the 1150 GSA, also with HIDS.

My only gripes so far are that, as I'm still running the original front mudguard, there's a lot of upwards reflection – really noticeable when going through close, overhanging trees as the undersides get completely lit up... like going through a nicely lit tunnel!

And also, even with the ballast as far away from the cockpit as is physically possible (due to cable length) I'm still falling foul of what someone mentioned before where the firing up of the HID seems to momentarily kill the instrument display as it fires up. It always comes back on after a second or so, but it resets the clock and trip meter. A minor annoyance really and I guess I could probably fix that by installing a switch before the relay so I could turn the lights on after the engine is running.

Otherwise all good. What I also had on the DRZ were some tiny little LED lights. They were more about increasing me being seen as opposed to helping me see if that makes sense. Yet to fit them to the X, and still deciding whether I'm going to...will see how it goes.
 
http://www.adventure-spec.com/default/led-auxiliary-lighting-visionx-solstice-solo.html

I have two of them for the dark, but I try to avoid riding in the dark.


Those VISION X Leds are IDENTICAL to ours......in fact, the first ones we had through as samples came with the same logos on the packaging as the Vision X website :D

(We do a pair plus a switch for £160 though :augie)

LED's are the way forwards, particularly on a bike that has the H4 bulb setup.....There's an intrinsic problem with fitting HID to an H4 light unit.

Basically, the reflector is designed to throw light from a Halogen bulb's focus point.....An H4 HID relies on having an element that physically moves (usually through using a solenoid to either angle or cover the element)

That means that on one of the beams, dip or main, the light will be spot on and considerably better (just as in an H7/H1 bulb ) but when you switch to the other option, it will be crap, as the element is no longer concentrated where the reflector is designed to throw the light from.

So the options with an H4 are limited....crap MAIN beam and great DIP, or great DIP and crap MAIN, depending on which HID version you get....there has to be a compromise and you can't achieve that without changing the reflector lenses or adding projector lenses etc.

SO you either have to change lamp units altogether, as some above have said, or find the version of H4 HID that works best for your needs, or put in an illegal but brighter bulb

On my K, I've done the latter and have a 90/100W H4 in the H4 unit.....it's a really good light now, but not offensively bright at all, even though I know it's illegal.

For off-roading or some form of riding with specific needs (EG small country lanes or longer, more open fast roads) you can pick whichever sort of superbright LED lamp that fits the needs best....I have floods on mine to give a wider but shorter light spread in the back lanes I use all the time.....If I was commuting on faster, open roads mostly, I'd swap them out for the longer, narrower beamed spot version.

The LEDS are so small and neat that there's no reason you can't have two pairs on without looking silly IMO, then you can cover the bases and have floods AND pencil beams.

The new generation of LEDs only draw a little over an amp PER PAIR, so there's no need to muck around with relays either, you can tap into the main and/or dip beam circuit, throw a switch inline and have a very robust reliable wiring system without miles of cable and multiple connections for relays etc.

There are some spectacular multiple superbright LED headlamps coming out on the market now, with 20+ 10W leds in them, covering dip and main beam, but the only ones I've seen are still stupidly expensive (£500+)

They will get cheaper fast though, as more and more main manufacturers start putting in LED headlamps as OEM kit.....LED technology is moving on really fast, driven I guess by the way it can be used, its simplicity of wiring and low power draw :clap

As for light colour, you CAN get LEDs in other colour temperatures to the standard 'white' 6000Kelvin, but none of the light manufacturers I've seen are selling them...Durite, who we stock, say they have no plans to introduce other temp colour lights.
 
I've just got myself one of these lights- first impressions? amazing!

hopefully test it one evening to see if it lives up to it's specified burn time.

Thanks for the link Mike :thumb

Hi
Which one did you get

There are 6 or 7 on that link :thumb
 
That means that on one of the beams, dip or main, the light will be spot on and considerably better (just as in an H7/H1 bulb ) but when you switch to the other option, it will be crap, as the element is no longer concentrated where the reflector is designed to throw the light from.

Exactly the reason I junked the HID from my bike. Main beam was brilliant but dip was worse than a standard H4 bulb.

Why can't they develop a HID H4 bulb that works the same way as a standard one?
 
Why can't they develop a HID H4 bulb that works the same way as a standard one?


It's old technology....the design of the original H4 bulb with its twin filaments won't allow it.

That's why H4s have largely disappeared from new vehicles and have been replaced by single filament H1, H7 etc etc.....the downside in design terms is that you need two bulbs , one for main one for dip, rather than one twin filament bulb, but with projector beam lenses and better reflector design, that actually comes out a LOT better.
 
Update.

Been using this cree head torch quite a bit over the past week or 2.

So far it's managed 2 hours on a charge with no signs of loss of power.

This evening i put it on while putting the bike away- and it is much brighter than the standard XChallenge headlight.

The Cree unit i have is a 1200 lumen unit- i've just seen that there is a 3800 lumen unit available for under £40 :D

So far these seem like phenomenal value :thumb2
 
Been using this cree head torch quite a bit over the past week or 2.

So far it's managed 2 hours on a charge with no signs of loss of power.

This evening i put it on while putting the bike away- and it is much brighter than the standard XChallenge headlight.

The Cree unit i have is a 1200 lumen unit- i've just seen that there is a 3800 lumen unit available for under £40 :D

So far these seem like phenomenal value :thumb2

I found a 1200 lumen Cree unit that is wired for 12v external power....for £16.99 on ebay!!!! Needless to say, 2 are on there way to me now :thumb

Here is the link

The 3800 units look great but have not seen them with external power yet, though I'm sure that could be solved with a little ingenuity :augie
 


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