Slabby Headlight update

[Rossco(Iceman Josros)]

As the nights start drawing i'm looking for an upgrade to the standard lights on the old slabby what can be done / has been done? open to all suggestions bulb upgrades / HID / LED etc.

 

thanks in advance

Edited August 25, 2015 by Rossco(Iceman Josros)

[Paulm]

Osram night breaker plus,just got one of those led bulbs for the ET,not tried it yet though,night breaker plus in the car are very good

[Rene EFE]

Stay away from Xenon/HID; the old loom doesn't like it, as I found out in the dead of night on the M25 

[vizman]

good way to have a fire by just sticking in any old bulbs....some of the new ones will need a relay/extra loom

[Ben Slabby]

From what you've said before, Ross, your slabby lights are switched direct from the clusters without the relays in some (most?) slabby looms. As others have said, beware of simply fitting larger wattage lamps. Youve already had one fusebox scorchio incident.  Could you look at replacing the headlight assembly with modern reflectors and lenses? I know the originals lose some of their high mirror finish over time. The clear lenses and prismatic reflectors like the new bandit has might look good if you can find the right diameter.  

[Rossco(Iceman Josros)]

Hi Ben I've sorted the wiring now and have no intention of just back to high watts, I'm going to add the relays as per the UK spec loom.

Modern bulbs is where my mind is as I want to keep the looks but I'm also interested in what others have done :)

[markfoggy]

Ok, I may as well wade in here as I've been researching and trying to apply the latest technology for the last 10yrs, mainly centered around 180mph bikes.

First thing, current draw is not usually an issue. HID's generally draw 35W, LED will go down to 12-15W. Various Xenon etc, tend to be standardish consumption. Solenoids are a bonus, but not necessary on the race bikes.  Switch gear that will handle 45/55W should stand up.

Where these things are getting their perceived output from is in the colour of the light. Standard bulbs and Halogen tend to give a familiar warmish flood of light. Think Yellow, Xenon, HID and LED are very White types of light that pick out definition and create shadow really well, but are not that easy to live with in some ways. You'll see light colour referred to in lumins which are ranges of wavelengths of light, these have vaste numbers associated with them so generally are abbreviated to 5000k, 6000k etc. The really Blue end of the spectrum may go up to 1200k, beware, great for boy racers that want their headlights to look good, but fuck all use in the real world. After about 25yrs old you'll not be able to see colours this bright, 8000k or less is really important if you want to see where you're going. 6000k is more than enough and certainly on my car I fit these for low beam, but keep traditional for high beam, that ways when both are on I get maximum spread of available information, I'm getting old enough to need it. Don't bother fitting HID or LED 'white' lights in fog lamps, the water particles will just reflect it all back and make you worse off.

HID and Led lamps will not flash, Xenon etc will. Xenon is just the purest gas available for fitting inside bulbs and allows tungsten filaments to burn much closer to white heat than traditional vacuum bulbs, hence the white light. HID and LED require capacitors to get them up to the extreme temps that they're generating within more exotic wire filaments. HID is king at the moment, but you tend to get a cigarette sized box hanging off them that does all the work. Can be a bit of a limiting factor as they're really sensitive to cable length, you can't just cut and shut them for easy mounting. LED's are all solid state and can nowadays fit everything into tiny PCB's that exist within the glass bulb itself.

Here's where the problems lie. Headlamp shells, particularly older ones are carefully designed around a filament that runs horizontal to the road and at a fixed focal length from the reflector. Everything else is just trying to get as much light generation into the bulb itself as possible. What this tends to mean is that  the reflector is trying to deal with light from all the wrong places and as a consequence, they're bright as a new born star, but the light is going everywhere but where you want it.

I find older lamp shells are pretty much self defeating here, particularly Hi/Low shells. There are HID Low, filament High that can allow flashing, but I've heard of poor reliability, plus you get a scattered Low beam. I'f you could get a pair of shells that are designed for high and low seperately (Triumph) you could probably get great results out of HID's in this arrangement. Fit a pair of projector lamps and you'll really start to see the benefit and some have swivelling reflector units inside that will really work, think later R1.

This is state of the art, but I'd doubt that you'd want it fitted to a road bike, can't see this look catching on somehow.  

There are World Superbikes that would kill for this set-up, but must retain original profile on the bike

Upper is a  Hella Projector lamp with a £30 per pair HID kit in it, 35W and it'll skin a rabbit at 200m.

Lower is a World Rally driving light, LED 15W that spreads a flat beam of light that looks like the Enterprise about to go ito Warp. Not cheap.