I bought these: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7936410576&category=33710&sspagename=WDVW

They are for my dual Buells, but only one bulb lights up at a time...I think a 200 watt light might cause some serious damage...not just to my stock wiring harness but to oncoming drivers as well.  

So has anyone tried a 100 watt headlight and will they work with the stock wire gauge?  I know what to expect: fried wires, drained battery etc.. but I think I might wire in a headlight switch so I can turn off the headlight for starting and then turn it on once the bike is running off the stator.

EDIT:  Srinath, I read the thread about your neighbor's Harley with the headlight switch, bad idea.  I like the potentiator idea.

I ran a 130/125 for about 4 months.  I want to add that I do have a new battery. It had no harder time starting then with the original bulb. Also I had no electrical fires, but I have not opened my switch to see if anything has burned/melted.  I can say, it still works perfect.

As for the the neighbor, his Harley was made with special Harley plastic that has a lower melting point than our japanesse plastic. They do that so when your fixing it (you will be fixing it) you buy the "better" and more expensive screaming eagle parts. That way, they can sell you better junk for even more money. I love Milwaukee iron!

Actually, I am only kidding. Harley makes nice looking bikes.

Quote from: Briggs
Actually, I am only kidding. Harley makes nice looking bikes.

Your kidding, right??? :lol:

Well, I ran the bike for a little bit and nothing felt hot, not even warm.  I was worried that I would have smoke and melted wires the second that I started the bike, kinda like when I double grounded the switch on my forklift lights.

Yea 100 watter, no problem ... I ran that 130/90 whihc worked fine, but one fine day ~1/2 mile from home the headlight went, and in an instant nearly all the lights went too ... 1/2 the dash lights, the tail eerything that was on at that time ... the extra current must have surges and killed it all ... I put in new bulbs in all and its been fine since. Last year I started screwing with higher power ones... I run brights in winter ... seems to work fine so far... BTW the sylvania super whites or whatever ... use 45 watts and look brighter than the 90 watt other ones.
Cool.
Srinath.

I have heard others talk about the sylvania super whites. I would like to try those. It seams that the generic "hyper whites" that I have been using burn out after about 4-6 months. Probably because of cheap construction. How have the Sylvanias been working?

With stock wires the 100W bulbs won't do much good, cause the wires are so thin they act as a resistor and cause a large voltage drop - so the voltage on the bulbs is only 9.7V (measured on my bike with two 55W bulbs ON). That would make a 100W bulb work at only ~50W!!!

See http://www.gs500e.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2285 how I did my own wires for the headlight - it made a world of difference!

 D.

you guys need to look at lumens, not watts.  watt is just the power that the bulb uses.  lumens is the actual light output of the bulb.  

the reason your 90 watt bulb isn't as bright as the 55 watt sylvania silver star is because it is not as efficient.  it probably also has the blue coating which absorbs a lot of the light output from the red end of the spectrum, in order to shift the color temperature towards the blue end of the spectrum.  i can't say enough about the silverstar's and piaa's.  

i definately would not try and run two 100 watt bulbs on the stock wiring harness.

i use sylvania silverstars on my car and won't go back.


I put one in the left and left the stock in the right, and the difference is amazing.  The light isn't blue like a lot of 'ricer' bulbs... more of a white-white with a hint of purplish... rather than yellow-white of stock, and blue-white of ricer bulbs...

Quote from: jiggersplatyou guys need to look at lumens, not watts.  watt is just the power that the bulb uses.  lumens is the actual light output of the bulb.  

There are three major problems with 100W bulbs:

1. They are not street legal in most countries
2. Not many vehicles have wiring strong enough
3. They don't last long

But a 100W bulb will give more lumens than a 55W bulb - not twice as much though. Unless it's a generally different technology (a 35W HID for example kicks all halogen butts).

While Silverstars sure are a little brighter then regular H4's, I'm sure the '+50% brightness' is just a marketing hype.

Quote
the reason your 90 watt bulb isn't as bright as the 55 watt sylvania silver star is because it is not as efficient.

I replaced stock headlight with stock H4 through dual headlights with two Silverstar H4's. And the new setup was not brighter until I rewired the headlight.

I never ever tried a higher wattage bulb on my bike.

Quote
 it probably also has the blue coating which absorbs a lot of the light output from the red end of the spectrum, in order to shift the color temperature towards the blue end of the spectrum.

The 100W bulbs I use in my car have no coating and they are brighter then Silverstars - they are cheaper too (probably cause they are not street legal here).

But I don't think the bike could handle that much current - not only wiring, the generator is a little underpowered too.

  D.

Yea the output is low from alternator ... I'd suggest LED's for all lights, tail, dash, T/S and a nice new sealed battery, and re wire headlight into a independent circuit with a 10 guage milti strand wire ... and run the monster 100 watt sylvania silverstar (yea no such thing ... but I can dream ... ) ... AKA scorch the retina's of everyone infron of you ...
Cool.
Srinath.

There is another problem that high-wattage bulbs may cause - melting the headlight reflector and/or housing.

I think most reflectors are made of metalized plastic these days...

D.

I ran a PIAA 80/80 SuperWhite and it burned out in about 4-5 months. When I went to replace it I noticed the plug end had melted a bit. This was significantly brighter and whiter than stock, and also not road legal.

I use Silvana Silverwhites in my car and in my bike. I had some blue-green light in my bike that was kind of funky, I like the silverwhites better, but I'm not really sure what color they are, because I don't see my bike or my car oncoming

But they are whiter/brighter than normal headlights, and I noticed a visibility increase at night. I wanted a light that was more blue, but the silverwhites are pretty white so it's not too bad.

My main gribe with the blue-green one was that it actualy made it a little harder to see the road at night, because of the color. Plus it looked funky.