[tombstone]

Anyone else think their headlight is dim? This has annoyed me since I purchased the bike brand new.

My friends comment all of the time that they struggle to see my headlight in the day. I've tried raising the beam a little but it's still pretty dim. When sitting behind a pickup truck at a traffic light in the day, I notice I can see the passing lamps refection in the trucks tailgate but not the main headlight. I've tried a "brighter" halogen H4 bulb in it but it still seems dim. It has since I bought the bike new.

Anyone else experience the same?

Thanks,

Tombstone

 

[Fulltilt1]

Is the GND the same for both light sets? Do your lights change when you go high to low beam? Have you checked all the connections? When I ran my driving lights wiring I ran it through a relay so I could bring a good ground from the battery to the headlight case.

 

[tombstone]

The ground is the same. In fact it's an OEM passing lamp set so the wires all plug in together. When I turn on the brights, the passing lamps extinguish. There is also an on/off switch on the lamps and turning them off doesn't change the brightness of the headlight. In fact, I purchased the passing lamps because the headlight was so dim. Again, It's been like that since I got the bike new. The bright seems bright enough. I've often wondered if it's the lens cover assy that directs the light too low or dissipates the light. It does have several sort of opposing grid patterns etched into the lens.

Just wondering if anyone else had the same experience.

 

[Fulltilt1]

I know that my Low beam doesn't shine very far out, but if I aim it up the high beam is shootin down airplanes. My intensity is fine though. I know that the ridges in the lense do direct the light. I think its called a Fresnell effect learned about it from LightHouse research. I was wondering with the previous post if your light beam was changing I was wondering if they were hooked in series instead of parallel. have you checked the color codeing of the wires in your headlight. Have you looked at the bulb for stains? If handled with bare hands fingerprints will burn into the bulb possibly staining, When I ran mine I ran the wiring myself separate power and gnd from the battery relay switched by the light power for both high and low beams. I also have the switch on my light housing that can turn the lights off.

 

[DMTJOY]

I think that the lens of the headlight just defuses the light too much on low beam. During the day I always ride with the highbeam on. tough to do if the passing lamps are wired to go off on high beam.
Another option is to find the brighter halogen lamps. I have gone with the super white lamps, they seem to help some.

 

[danman]

lights

My bike has the OEM passing lights also but my passing lights stay on when you switch to high beams. I bought the bike used so I dont know how they are wired, but I too am not happy with the out put of the lights. I was thinking of trying the high output white light, but I dont know if they make one for motorcycles.

 

[Fulltilt1]

Another thing to try to evaluate your problem is to remove the light, unplug it and jumper it straight to the battery. This will let you know if there is a problem with the wiring or if the bulb just isn't bright enough. When troubleshooting electrics I always try to half step, then I know which half to look at. Then keep half steppin till its just goes-into and goes-outta. Then if you got your goes-into and no goes outta, the part in the middle is bad.

 

[Sugar Bear]

Brighten up Headlight

Anyone else think their headlight is dim? This has annoyed me since I purchased the bike brand new.

My friends comment all of the time that they struggle to see my headlight in the day. I've tried raising the beam a little but it's still pretty dim. When sitting behind a pickup truck at a traffic light in the day, I notice I can see the passing lamps refection in the trucks tailgate but not the main headlight. I've tried a "brighter" halogen H4 bulb in it but it still seems dim. It has since I bought the bike new.

Anyone else experience the same?

Thanks,

Tombstone

Here is what ol Sugar Bear did, he was not happy at all with the dim looking light, he adjusted the light to the highest it would go, still not good. There is some play in the headlight, so he put about 1/4 inch of foam pipe wrap under the leading edge of the headlight rim, now perfect Maybe this simple thing will help you. Ride safe.

 

[linerdave]

Dim light

Not much experience here but does the light and bulb look white? If the light is white it is probably as bright as it is going to get. If there is a small voltage dorp somewhere then the bulb would start to burn a little orange. If so look for a bad connection some where.

If your passing lamps are 55 watt bulbs then maybe they are so bright they make the head light look dim? Stock bulbs are 35 watt but lots of people change them.

I have some higher wattage bulbs but I never used them I was afraid the heat would damage the light.

I think your generator is 33 Amps at 5,000 RPM. Just in case you need to know.

Dave

 

[tombstone]

The reason I put the passing lamps on was because of the dim headlight. Again, this has been the case since I rolled it off of the show room floor.

I've tried both of these bulbs with minimal apparent improvement:

- PIAA H4 60/55W - PN: 70416 "Super White" - "Performs like a 110/100W bulb" - $39.00
- PIAA H4 60/55W - PN: 70426 "Star White" - "Performs like a 110/100W bulb" - $43.00

I suspect it's the lens and the "Fresnell effect" that FullTilt was talking about but don't know of any way to test that except remove the lens and see how that effects it.

 

[itstime]

I too added passing lamps in the first week I bought the bike. Just couldn't see anything with the basic headlight.
I just found a basic "tri bar headlamp" on ebay that is the entire housing and light assembly and added that . (An 89 dollar fix) which included shipping. Its listed as an H-D knockoff and fit prefect to the v star bracket. I could probably illuminate a rock concert with the light they all give off together.
Was told before I bought the bike, by the dealer, that there are two things wrong with the vstar. Oil filter location and bad headlight....they were right...great bike otherwise.

 

[tombstone]

Itstime, could you provide a link to that headlight assembly please? I did a search but cam up with quite a few hits.

Thanks a Million

 

[Fulltilt1]

Here's one I came across. $89

http://www.metricthunder.com/Mercha...ct_Code=2149&Category_Code=LI39&Store_Code=MT

Here's another one. Yamaha P/N and free shipping $80

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YAMA...otorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_500wt_956

 

[DMTJOY]

Here's one I came across. $89

http://www.metricthunder.com/Mercha...ct_Code=2149&Category_Code=LI39&Store_Code=MT

Here's another one. Yamaha P/N and free shipping $80

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YAMA...otorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_500wt_956

I like the looks of these lights. I would like to hear from someone that has installed them, on how well they actually work.

 

[Fulltilt1]

we'll know soon, I've had one on the way for a couple days the E-bay one. I think there were three or four left.

 

[vstar23]

I would like to see how they mount, do they come with any mounting bar or just mount to front bar of bike

I bought a light tree about a month ago from ebay and it didnt have necessary mounting hardware to adapt and mount the blinker lights. to mount using the bar as is would have covered blinkers

i am interested in improving my low level headlight also on my 2000 vstar 1100 custom .

if you have any pics please publish

thanks to all, your comments are very helpful

 

[Fulltilt1]

Haven't seen it yet but it looked like it will just fit in the existing shell and replace the existing lense and reflector, but I do know this the Tri-Bar driving lights did not fit the standard driving light housing without modification. I had to cut down the hollow mount bolt (shorten the head portion of it). Bolt head was about three normal bolt heads high.

 

[itstime]

Sorry I didnt get back to this sooner, was out riding. The light I got was listed as the following:
Item:MOTORCYCLE CHROME BILLET 5 3/4 HEADLIGHT LIGHT NEW H-D it was sold by motorcyclecollector.
American Motorcycle Parts out of OK.
I have no affiliation with this company other than I purchased the light from them and was happy with the transaction. I didnt use the bottom adapter and it fit my 2008 custom v star 1100 perfect. I did have to wire it vs. plug. It included the housing , bulb and mounting hardware. 10 minute project and looks good. It is 5 3/4 inch the same size as the stock one.

 

[itstime]

here is the link for the current one .

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MOTO...rcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a05eb0325

 

[tombstone]

Here's one I came across. $89

http://www.metricthunder.com/Mercha...ct_Code=2149&Category_Code=LI39&Store_Code=MT

Here's another one. Yamaha P/N and free shipping $80

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YAMA...otorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_500wt_956

Thanks Fulltilt. I ordered the one (model 2149) from Metric Thunder. With shipping it was $101.00 and it says:

"FITMENT: Yamaha V-Star and Road Star Models"

I'm not thrilled with the shipping time. The guy said he is waiting to receive it from Kurakyn and then will ship it on to me. I chose the UPS Ground shipping and I'm glad I did because I would have been pissed if I had paid for overnight shipping and still had to wait a week for Metric Thunder to receive it and then overnight it to me.

Just something to keep in mind when buying from the web. Overnight or 5 days doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means.

Anyway, I'll post my impression after I receive it. I'm hoping for no later than next Friday the 4th of June.

Thanks again all for your comments!

Ride safe!