Headlight/aux light upgrade, differently.

[whodat]

Looks good! None of what I've done has been for people to see me, it's all for me to see them (although if I hit high beams it's definitely an attention grabber). I'm planning the back of the bike now, and that's going to all be about seeing me.

 

[troop]

I'm just as concerned about cars turning in front of me as I am on getting ass packed . I do have this kit on the back of my F3S. Works good.
https://tricledusa.com/collections/spyder-f3-lighting/products/f3-rear-run-brake-turn-signal-led-2

 

[whodat]

That’s a valid point. I haven’t gotten to there yet, but I will be adding some dazzle to the front for left turner avoidance. I just haven’t decided exactly what yet. My buddy came over for (awesome) steak the other day and we did a direct comparison of his lights vs mine. No question mine are better, but I have to say the CanAm aux lights are pretty well controlled, albeit not very bright.

 

[whodat]

Final(ish) update. You'all better appreciate this, I was swapping lights and bulbs all afternoon to get you comparison pics. Ok, so when last we left our intrepid explorer I had ordered some DDM Tuning Saber ProX 55w LEDs to replace my 40w by the same manufacturer. The whole ordering process was sketchy, and they apparently rode the slow boat from china (literally) and just arrived. So I figured I'd go ahead and swap them out. First I decided to measure the current draw so I could figure out the watts, simple enough. Volts times amps equals watts. They were advertised as a 55w bulb. At 12.5v (my test battery) that should equal 4.4 amps. Nope, they were less than three. Hmm, let me run it a while and warm up the bulb. Highest I saw it draw was 3.1a, for 38w. I was ready to go into a full on rage. Also on the old bulb both low and high lit on high, on these only the respective emitters lit up.

40w on low

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40w on high

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55w on low

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55w on high

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I was raging. 3.16a! Where are my watts! Anyway I figured I was already this far in may as well install one so I could do a comparison. Then I figured If I was doing that I'd pop a halogen back in so I could show you back to back comparison pics. As per usual all pics were taken with my ipad because it's easier to upload pics to Flickr from that. Autofocus/autoexposure was disabled, and were set against the barn door with the lights on for a standard of reference. Then lights were turned off and each bulb tested in turn.

Halogen, Low beam (one bulb)

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40w LED low, one bulb

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*55w LED low, one bulb

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Halogen high, one bulb

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40w LED high, one bulb

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*55w LED High, one bulb

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I was pleased. So I went ahead and swapped the other *55w in, tidied up the wiring and buttoned the bike back up.

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And here's the current result. Low beams:

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High beams

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Aux lights by themselves, low beam

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Aux beams by themselves, high beam

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The full monty, low beam

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And high beam

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They may need adjusted, the halogens seemed a bit higher than the LEDs but I'm going to run with it for now and see how it does. The 40W LEDs go into the wife's Ryker.

 

[whodat]

Total side note. On the F3 there's a small panel under the driver's seat that's held on by a clip and a push-pin. BRP isn't very good at building these things, and they put an undersized push pin in with a rubber washer to try to take up the space. They fall out every time I take the side panels off. I bought a 200piece assortment of push pins, and went one size up and it fits perfectly. Why they couldn't have done this from the factory I don't know.

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I'll add this to this post to avoid post count padding. Here's a comparison of the 40w and 55w LEDs.

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40w chip design

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55w chip design

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