What headlights you use to see clearly at night?

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dumpstercrusher

New Member
What kind of headlights are you guys running that ur able to see CLEARLY at night like you do in a car? I have one 300 lumen flashlight coming and i know i need more power but this is to help me get by along with the one i already have on the bike.
 
These are the ones I use. Each light has four 3 watt led bulbs and each light is rated at >800Lm. They are so bright that it lights up the darkest street or trails. I have mine wired to a 48 volt battery.
 

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I'm old school and like incandescent lamps and big housings. I have two bikes that use a 35 watt sealed beam and one that has a huge 55 watt headlamp. I power them with either a 7.5 or a 10 amp hour, 12 volt SLA battery. I can get up to an hour of motorcycle quality light from these and have no trouble seeing what's out there in front even on unlit streets.

Tom
 
Easy Rider said:
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=46719&page=13
If you go to post number #128, you can see how I did it.
The good thing about these lamps is you can use any volt battery as long as its between 12-90 volts. One light is enough to light up any dark road.

Here's the link to the light

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-...ies&hash=item3ccbe25da0&vxp=mtr#ht_822wt_1018
Click to expand...

thanks for the post! i do like the lights and being able to mount on the handle bars seems like a plus, but i wouldnt know how to hook it up to a small enough battery that would fit on the bike.
 
I use a 55 watt automotive type halogen light. You can get them at the auto dept at wal-mart for about $20/pair. I power them with two 10 amp/hr sla batteries. One would be enough, really. But with two, mounted on either side of the wheel, it gives better balance plus 3 hours of run time. That's more than I ever use so the batteries are never drained very far.

I mounted the light down low in order to avoid blinding oncoming cars. I also run three standard bicycle LEDs up near handlebar level so that oncoming cars aren't fooled by the low light into thinking that I'm a motorcycle much further away than I really am.

It seems that I've uploaded a photo of this setup in another thread. If I've figured out how to link properly, then this should get you there;
http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=49578
 
The CDI only puts out high voltage for the spark plug. The magneto produces the smaller current. The blue wire will see something in the range of 80 volts, give ot take a few. That is the ignition primary voltage. The notorious and often infamous white wire will give you something in the neighborhood of 4 to 9 volts A/C (alternating current) depending on engine rpm, at just under 3 watts. Many of us have no use for the white wire and either cap and wrap it or cut it off at the magneto coil. 3 watts isn't going to give you a lot of light.

In all fairness there have been some who have successfully used the white wire and through some fancy electronics have used it for lights or for charging a battery. There are more of us who rely on batteries like those mentioned above and charge them in our shop or garage after a night ride.

Tom
 
Hi, the white wire will give u 6VAC (or there abouts) when its loaded. If u just measure irs output without it working over a load u'll get pretty inaccurate readings as the only load it will see is the internal resistance of the volt meter. It outputs about 0.3A before it starts draging down the CDI's supply as the two coils are series wound (even if they werent it would drag it down), so it will supply 6V at 1.8 watts (actually 1.79 watts). Bicycle lamps for use with a typical bottle generator generaly use either a 0.4 watt or 0.7 watt bulb & for a motorized bicycle are practically useless, as is trying to run an incandescent light directly off the white wire & hoping to be able to see with it. It can however be used to charge a battery quite well. I rectify its output with Schotky diodes (they have lower forward voltage drop across them than standard diodes), then charge a 6V/4.5Ah SLA battery directly off it. No regulator is needed as it wont cook a battery due to the low current output. I then power a 6V, 26 Watt Halogen incandescent off the battery. This gives good enough light for riding at reasonable speed on unlit roads. I havent tested duration past 20 minutes or half hour, tho the battery is still good at that duration. U could also use the white wire to charge the 8.4V battery for the LED light from SBP quite easily I imagine by using a voltage doubling type rectifier into an adjustable voltage regulator to give the nescessary voltage, or a rectifier/regulator/voltage pump that someone gave instructions & daigrams for building on this forum a while back. Hope this helps. Cheers
 
I just used one of these
http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/fog-litz/10181489?gclid=CKy65cL9v7kCFahcMgodpHwAng

Comes with 2 9v batteries. If it's the only thing on the line, it's bright enough to see about 30 feet. I run it with a rear LED tail light (actually its an LED clearance light but it just so happened that the bolts matched my rack's reflector mounts) which dims the headlight quite a bit, only bright enough to see maybe 10 feet ahead (not nearly enough for 30mph travel) and gets easily drowned out by street lights, but in darkness it's alright for low speeds. Legally speaking, you only need a light bright enough for people to see you, so I'm legal in that sense, but I'd rather be able to see that 30 feet as well. Perhaps being wired in series would work better than parallel?

Anyway, total cost: $50, plus a spare fog light so if you count that I only used one light, it's $30 for the setup, and counting battery clips, crimps and wiring, maybe $35. I'll be wiring up some LED turn signals as soon as I pick some up, I'm looking for short ones, I can only find the walmart stick-ons 36" in length for $18 (packs of two, so I'd need two packs).
 
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