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Halogen headlight upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter rputney01
  • Start date Start date
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rputney01

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A guy is selling these on E-bay. My limited experience with halogen bulbs in house lights is that they generate a lot of heat. My '79 GS1000S has a plastic bucket and a lot of wiring behind the bulb. I'd like to get more light on the road in front of me and the cost is fairly nominal ($40 U.S.).

Has anyone done this upgrade and how much risk, if any, is there from the additional heat the halogen bulb generates? Also, are they street legal in the U.S.? A friend told me that only certainly types of bulbs/lights are legal.

As always, thanks in advance for the help. Great to see the site back up and running!!
 
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If you don't already have one do an H4 housing upgrade and then buy Silverstar bulbs (By the way you DON'T have to buy the motorcycle specific H4's - the automotive equivalent is a 9003 and the bulbs appear to be absolutely identical).

Some people claim that the motorcycle specific H4's are more vibration resistant. As somebody who has used the same 9003/H4 purchased in a less expensive two-pack for going on four years (almost exclusively on "high-beam") I can vouch for the fact that any premium you may pay for a "motorcycle specific" H4 Sylverstar is money wasted.

Once you use a halogen bulb (compared to the stock sealed beam) you'll never want to go back, and the upgrade to Sylverstar from a stock halogen is every bit, if not more, impressive. I'll never use a lesser product on my bikes again.

By the way, keep in mind that because of the mirrored reflector inside the housing/light most of the heat generated by the bulb radiates out toward the front and is not transmitted to the housing. In short, while a halogen or sylverstar bulb may run hotter than a stock headlamp there isn't a significant change in the amount of heat transmitted to the housing.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,
 
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Both of the GS1000 bikes I've owned have had H-4 halogen bulbs from the factory with no heat issues.
 
I was wondering what is the housing upgrade and where is it? Is this a kit? I was wondering if it would be hard to convert to three lights on the front? I would not want to spend alot of money, I think it might look kinda cool. I hope I'm not asking to many stupid questions I have a 82 650L. I only have a windshield but will try to install the fairing I bought, may have to fabricate a new bracket, guy wasn't sure if it came off a honda or suzuki. This place is great lots of help with dumb newbe questions. I am poor or cheap :oops: and am willing to learn.
 
scrapper said:
I was wondering what is the housing upgrade and where is it? Is this a kit? I was wondering if it would be hard to convert to three lights on the front? I would not want to spend alot of money, I think it might look kinda cool. I hope I'm not asking to many stupid questions I have a 82 650L. I only have a windshield but will try to install the fairing I bought, may have to fabricate a new bracket, guy wasn't sure if it came off a honda or suzuki. This place is great lots of help with dumb newbe questions. I am poor or cheap :oops: and am willing to learn.
Click to expand...

Here ya go...

Click me for one example of an inexpensive H4 upgrade kit
 
I bought a lamp w/H4 bulb off JC Whitney for pretty cheap (can't remember exactly how much). Look in their motorcycle section. 7" lamp is direct bolt-in on many GS's. Some L models use a smaller lamp and then there are the larger lamps on others. Measure before ordering.

I've heard that some brands of bulb run hot - stay away from the versions that have stainless prongs on the electrical contact. Sylvania should be fine but Phillips is stainless i think.
 
OR you could get yourself one of those H3 headlight sets of lights with
looking glass (reflector - spotlight effect) instead of normal glass, the ones that are so popular with streetfighters. From what I've seen they're very powerful (because of the spotlight effect) and also don't get so hot. Well, temperature-wise at least. I wanted to put them on my 1k, but the damn regulation forbid it here because the bike is registered as an oldtimer and I'm not allowed to change anything, especially not put anything newish on it.
 
I just tried to order the H4 upgrade from J.C. Whitney and it is not longer available. The 7" round housing anyway. I could have gotten the replacement bulb but obviously does no good without the housing.

Is there any other available upgrades out there for a 1979 GS850?

Thanks for the help.
 
noobie said:
but the damn regulation forbid it here because the bike is registered as an oldtimer and I'm not allowed to change anything, especially not put anything newish on it.
Click to expand...

Who cares, run the good light.
Change it back once a year if you need to get inspected.
Using crap lighting for some silly law is ludicrous.
 
Osram now sells a Night Breaker which is supposedly better than the Silverstar, 90% more light, 35 meter longer reach, 10% more white light and 60W main and 55 W low, same current draw as the Silverstar also come in H4, straight swop with ordinary H4 halogen bulb.

Has anyone tried this yet?

Edit: Apparently some claim that the Night Breaker is only more expensive than the Silverstar and gives the same performance. The Philips X-treme Power is supposed to better the Silverstar avialable here http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Phil...001QQitemZ110310348144QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
 
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I'd recommend against using high wattagage bulbs since they will suck more current and run hotter. The electrical harness and headlamp plug socket is not designed for all the heat and may melt.

Not sure about the X-treme Power bulb but some of the Phillips bulbs use stainless steel contact tabs, which transfer heat into the harness plug more than plated brass contacts that Sylvania typically uses. I learned this when working at the auto plant - we had a problem with melted plugs when the supplier started using Phillips bulbs. Been leary every since.

Hope this helps someone.:)
 
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http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-d_429.html
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/conductors-d_1381.html
http://www.ssina.com/publications/fasten.html

Brass conducts heat and electricity far better than stainless, so the problem with overheating connectors probably came from stainless' greater electrical resistance.

-=-=-=-=-

Anyway, I've found heat-damaged headlight connectors in a couple of old bikes. I think it has more to do with aging plastic and creeping corrosion than the material used for the conductors.

If the connector in your bike is melted, you can get heat-resistant connectors at any auto parts store for about $10 for two.
 
Matchless said:
Then the ultimate a motorcycle HID conversion kit only 32 Watts!
Have alook here http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BI-X...021QQitemZ310099323531QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
Click to expand...

HID bulbs are taller, and reflect differently, than the typical H4 bulb. If you stick one of these bulbs in a reflector shell intended for an H4 bulb the focal point will be off and the lamp projection will be off accordingly. Not sure how much of an issue this is but I do know that the lamp assemblies with OE HID bulbs are designed for them.
 
Something like this will do nicely, as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/_Car....c0.m245&_trkparms=72:543|65:12|39:1|240:1318

The xenon bulb at 6000K output is a bright, clean, white light on the road.

A lower rating is more yellow and higher is more blue. White is best. 6000k is pretty close to daylight. (about 5800k)

This is much better than standard bulbs (yellow) and also better a normal halogen (brighter, but still yellow-to-yellowish) because the light is brighter and thus better for you.
 
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