A few months ago I removed the fuse from my highs beam to effectively make an off switch for my headlights.
The two day-running-lights still remain on keeping the bike legal. So now I only run the headlights at night or in the rain.
If I ever do need high beams then it would only take me 10seconds to refit the fuse under the back seat.
Call me paranoid but I do this to the SV because I think that with a lot of low RPM city riding the bike might not make enough juice for the dual 60w headlights.
Being a big twin it’s takes a bit of extra power to crank over so keeping the battery topped up helps.
Just wondering if anyone else does anything similar?
Good idea or crappy idea?
Do you need DRL to be legal? There’s a trick on the 990 to fit 950 switch gear, giving full headlight control including off. Very useful for fitting HID kits.
I’m soon to be fitting a HID conversion to the CBF’s dipped beam and I’m not keen in having the dipped beam always on. So I’m thinking about adding a pair of LED running lights switched through a SPDT 5 way change over relay. This way I can have the running lights on by day and the HID dipped beam at night all at the flick of a single switch
Another thought process involves additional proper bright LED stop/tail light which will switch on/off with the HID.
Just want to see and be seen down all these unlit country lanes.
If I was thee I’d fit a switch into the headlamps +12v feed or, maybe we both have some lighting paranoia :ermm:
Why not get a trickle charger and put it on trickle of a night if your worried? I wouldn’t want to be without lights, my safety is worth more than the possibility that I may or may not get a flat battery.
Most bike charging systems should be able to cope with both the headlamps on and the cooling fan running
The ecu detects a demand and keeps the rpm up slightly unlike a car where most the rpm drops
You could fit a waterproof switch inline to the headlamp live feed and stik it close in the top fairing
Being a triumph owner that has seem many a fried generator and regulater I have fitted a volt meter to monitor the generator output
If and when it drops to 12.5 volts I know to switch off all unnesseccary eletrical stuff and I got roughly 1:30 mins of battery left
Slight hijack, Art for hids you need to check how the bike lights work when starting. If you key on and the lights come on but switch off for cranking you will likely have a problem. Most ballasts detect this brief interrupt as a problem and disable the lights indefinitely, leaving you in the dark once the engine is running or you’ve just recovered a stall. Hence the need to switch the lot off with a switch, start the bike, then power on the lights.
There’s an EU wide directive that covers cars and light vans manufactured after 2011, buses and lorries manufactured after 2012. Vehicles already in production are exempt until a facelift version or new model is introduced. There is no requirement for vehicles not covered by the directive to be driven on dipped beams during the day.
possible of interest, motorcycles first registered prior to 1931 do not need to have a headlamp :w00t:
Why not just measure it and be sure? If the bike shipped with an inability to turn off the headlights but cannot charge the battery in that situation then it is broken and installing a headlight switch doesnt fix it.
If the bike is electronic then it’ll always produce loads of power because EFI systems get pissy when thats inconsistent.
fun fun fun!