[Skwirl88]

Hey guys new here, new to cruisers.

bought the bike yesterday (04/01/2020) and love it a lot.
two things I’ve noticed are lights need to be adjust and be waaaaay brighter. Ideas for a fix on that would be greatly appreciated. I’d like to go HID but that’s seems like a labor intensive undertaking. Looking to go brighter without a stupid looking led bar

Now for the next thing. I’m exactly average. 5’8”-5’9” 36x32 pants you get the idea. This bike setup feels stupid cramped so I’m looking to add floorboards and foot control extensions without paying for it in the tears of what used to be a happy wallet. What kinds of relatively easy installs are available for this. I’m mechanically inclined a little so I’m not afraid of a wrench but I really don’t want another project in pieces in the garage for 6 years. I found one thing that seemed to be the likes of a factory-ish bolt on for under $200 but I’d also like to have a crash bar. I’ve seen what they can save on my buddies bike when his kid wrecked it so I find them to be a must. With all of this info if one of you crazy YAMagicians can procure a potion of success and send it my way then I’d be extremely grateful.

Thank you much. -Skwirl

 

[lesblank]

Noticed this is your first post. If you post in the New Members Introduction Section we can get to know you and your bike.

To help answer your questions, what year and model of bike do you have? One of the best upgrades for headlight without going HID or LED is the Sylvania Silver Star headlight.

 

[Jspree]

congrats on the bike, what you do is add something like this to your bike , it is a crash bar with built in hiway pegs , then you can stretch out your legs.
Also look at switch back lights, it changes your front turn signals into driving lights(white light) and they switch back to yellow for turn signals.

 

[Deeksvstarclassic]

To be honest i think foot boards will give you less leg room although i have them with a 36" inseam. Forward controls are nice

 

[Hyde_me]

You must have a custom with pegs right?

I have the boards on my 650 but I put on a set of Kuryakyn mustache bars.
Very handy when you need to stretch your legs or just want to air out your butt.

 

[Deeksvstarclassic]

The switch back bulbs help in the dark at night. You have to have clear lenses

 

[Skwirl88]

You must have a custom with pegs right?

Yes I believe this is true. Rubber pegs with a brake that’s sits up a bit high for my like but that’s probably just me being used to a quad and tw200 setup

 

[KCW]

If you want a brighter headlight the first step would be to get a Sylvania SilverStar bulb for your existing headlight. Its a perfect focus replacement, and twice as bright as the stock halogen bulb. It will cost about $30. The only drawback is they burn out faster, I estimate one will last about 5000 miles (a year of use on my bike).

If you want to go brighter still then look at replacing the bulb and reflector disk together - dont bother getting a 'plug in' replacement LED for your halogen bulb, because the light element is not in the same place as the filiment in the stock lamp, therefore it will not focus like it needs to, and the lighting will be brighter, but not on the road where you need it, and you cant adjust it to pull it in, because the LED does not match the reflector.

If your bike feels cramped, where are your handled bars set? if they are back too far you will be riding in the fetal position. On my 650 I adjusted them straight inline with the front forks, like a dirt bike.

 

[Skwirl88]

I have the boards on my 650 but I put on a set of Kuryakyn mustache bars.
Very handy when you need to stretch your legs or just want to air out your butt.
View attachment 93851

I have the boards on my 650 but I put on a set of Kuryakyn mustache bars.
Very handy when you need to stretch your legs or just want to air out your butt.
View attachment 93851

I like the boards you have but that’s where I want to extend them and the controls. On a side note how do you like that hyper charger. I was looking at them and wondering if the end product performance justifies the cost and which one you went with since kuryakan seems to only made for Harley

 

[KCW]

DO not get a hypercharger unless you only intend to drag race your bike, or use it as a show bike and never ride it

with the ram air you must set the jet sizes for 100mph full throttle mixture rates
and it will run like kwrap on a stick at anything below half throttle and below 80mph

 

[Hyde_me]

I like it, doesn't make much difference normally. It adds a little when passing, but not much more than looks.

 

[bevo1981]

as someone who has a HID headlight, i can't endorse it. yes it is MUCH brighter than the stock halogen, perhaps the brightest you can get, but you will have to seriously modify your headlight to make it work which is a long and arduous journey that is probably not worth it since there are many other options that will also give you much brighter light than the stock halogen. people have mentioned the Sylvania, but there are also PIAA halogen upgrades that are much brighter than the stock halogen bulb (personal experience). and there are also full LED headlight replacements for your bike that are pretty much plug-n-play. KCW correctly warns against just replacing the halogen bulb with a LED bulb.

V-Star 1100 Wiki Knowledge Base - Lighting

sites.google.com

 

[Bobber650]

I have a plug in led bulb in the standard housing on my 650 custom. It is way better than the stock halogen bulb. I also changed my trunk signals out and am running led switchbacks - I think these help a lot...

I have also installed 4" extended forward controls from ScootMods. These made the bike a lot more comfortable and were easy to install. The most annoying part was getting the brake light switch set correctly...

 

[KCW]

I have a plug in led bulb in the standard housing on my 650 custom. It is way better than the stock halogen bulb....

Do you know which LED you used on your headlight?

your experience is not typical for most LED replacements

the light element needs to be at the focal point of the hyperbolic reflector for both the low beams and high beams - the stock reflectors are designed to match where the filaments are in the halogen bulbs, and the aftermarket Silverstar halogen bulbs have the filament in exactly the same location.

If you have found a LED that matches the stock reflector, that is excellent!

If you saved the package, or can go back to amazon or where you found it and find the supplier, you will be our LED hero.

 

[Bobber650]

Do you know which LED you used on your headlight?

your experience is not typical for most LED replacements

the light element needs to be at the focal point of the hyperbolic reflector for both the low beams and high beams - the stock reflectors are designed to match where the filaments are in the halogen bulbs, and the aftermarket Silverstar halogen bulbs have the filament in exactly the same location.

If you have found a LED that matches the stock reflector, that is excellent!

If you saved the package, or can go back to amazon or where you found it and find the supplier, you will be our LED hero.

@KCW I bought a DZG H4 led motorcycle bulb from Amazon - it was around $26. It has a cooling fan and heat sink mounted on the front of it. I'm really happy with it...

 

[bevo1981]

@KCW I bought a DZG H4 led motorcycle bulb from Amazon - it was around $26. It has a cooling fan and heat sink mounted on the front of it. I'm really happy with it...

does it throw light accurately and further down the road than the halogen without blinding other drivers? any shadows or dark spots?

 

[Bobber650]

does it throw light accurately and further down the road than the halogen without blinding other drivers? any shadows or dark spots?

No noticable shadows or dark spots that I have noticed. Have not had any one flash at me or anything to indicate that I'm blinding them. If you look at the position of the banks of LEDs vs the position of the filament in a halogen bulb, I believe that they are very similar. Another advantage to this bulb is the fact that the cooling fan is on the front and not the rear as It helps to keep the headlight bucket cooler and makes the bulb fit better - I was concerned over the wiring inside the bucket.
I can try to get some night photos this weekend of the light patterns it emits.

 

[KCW]

very interesting - looks like some of the LED headlight replacements are starting to get their act together

the amazon page says its twice as bright as a standard H4 lamp. Sylvania Silverstar bulbs are also twice as bright, and about the same price as this

when my SSS gives up I think I will try this - thanks

 

[bevo1981]

No noticable shadows or dark spots that I have noticed. Have not had any one flash at me or anything to indicate that I'm blinding them. If you look at the position of the banks of LEDs vs the position of the filament in a halogen bulb, I believe that they are very similar. Another advantage to this bulb is the fact that the cooling fan is on the front and not the rear as It helps to keep the headlight bucket cooler and makes the bulb fit better - I was concerned over the wiring inside the bucket.
I can try to get some night photos this weekend of the light patterns it emits.

maybe you found a good one, and i'm curious to see your photos, but simply not having people flash at you is not a great indicator of how the light beam is being thrown down the road. i can't count the number of times i've been blinded by an oncoming headlight only to really realize it too late for me to think to flash the driver about it. a ton of LED bulbs in reflector housings look a ton brighter but are actually throwing light everywhere instead of focused down the road. so a bunch of light up front and not so much distance. a side by side comparison between the LED vs. halogen is the best way to see what's going on. another good test is to pull up your bike about 25 feet in front of a wall and see how the light is being thrown at it. is there a distinct cutoff between the low and high beam? does it have a hotspot? is it really intense near the middle or the same throughout?

as far as the position of the LED chips, they're about in the same position on your bulb as every other LED bulb out there. what concerns me a tad is the width of the center column they are attached to. the thicker that is means there is more allotment of shadows or area where there is less light filling in. i'm skeptical of the cooling fins in general on these LED bulbs because that creates a significant point of failure. the LED chips might last forever but that cooling fan won't.

*there are a lot of customer photos of this bulb on amazon that show a significant hot spot of focused light in the middle at the expense of a pretty narrow beam pattern with not a lot of foreground and wide angle light. also not showing a very good separation/cutoff between high/low beam that could very well be blinding other drivers.

https://www.amazon.com/DZG-Motorcycle-Headlight-Conversion-Warranty-1/dp/B07BTTFN1S

very interesting - looks like some of the LED headlight replacements are starting to get their act together

maybe slow down on that assessment. a whole lot of uncertainty in this and i'm not seeing anything that makes this bulb stand out amongst the thousands of others just like it.

 

[Bobber650]

maybe you found a good one, and i'm curious to see your photos, but simply not having people flash at you is not a great indicator of how the light beam is being thrown down the road. i can't count the number of times i've been blinded by an oncoming headlight only to really realize it too late for me to think to flash the driver about it. a ton of LED bulbs in reflector housings look a ton brighter but are actually throwing light everywhere instead of focused down the road. so a bunch of light up front and not so much distance. a side by side comparison between the LED vs. halogen is the best way to see what's going on. another good test is to pull up your bike about 25 feet in front of a wall and see how the light is being thrown at it. is there a distinct cutoff between the low and high beam? does it have a hotspot? is it really intense near the middle or the same throughout?

as far as the position of the LED chips, they're about in the same position on your bulb as every other LED bulb out there. what concerns me a tad is the width of the center column they are attached to. the thicker that is means there is more allotment of shadows or area where there is less light filling in. i'm skeptical of the cooling fins in general on these LED bulbs because that creates a significant point of failure. the LED chips might last forever but that cooling fan won't.

*there are a lot of customer photos of this bulb on amazon that show a significant hot spot of focused light in the middle at the expense of a pretty narrow beam pattern with not a lot of foreground and wide angle light. also not showing a very good separation/cutoff between high/low beam that could very well be blinding other drivers.

https://www.amazon.com/DZG-Motorcycle-Headlight-Conversion-Warranty-1/dp/B07BTTFN1S

maybe slow down on that assessment. a whole lot of uncertainty in this and i'm not seeing anything that makes this bulb stand out amongst the thousands of others just like it.

Everybody has the right to their own opinion. In my opinion, this bulb is far better than the one that was fitted (it was a Sylvania Silverstar). I understand what you are also saying as there are so many options out there and so many reviews both positive and negative. Without doing exhaustive measurements and trials, it is always going to be a case of personal opinion. I'm happy with the product I bought but when it gives up in a few years time, I'll take another look at what's available and maybe I'll buy the same again or maybe I'll get something different.