I am fusy about having high visibility when riding at dusk or dawn in deer country. Has anyone installed any LED lighting on their VFRs? I installed standard 100Watt driving lights on my 2001 CBR 1100 Blackbird but when used for more than an hour the battery drew down dangerously low. I have not had this problem on my Goldwing or my BMW 1200 GS but they have very large alternator output. THe 09 VFR I have has a feeble 475 watt generator so I was planning to install two 6 bulb - 15 watt LEDS (see pics below)[image: IMG_2414.JPG]
[image: IMG_2413.JPG]
that are ourageously bright compared with stock halogen lamps.. THere does not appear to be enough room under the stock headlight to install the LED Bars without risking crushing them if the front shocks bottom out and changing out the stock bulbs in the headlamps to 100 watt or 110 watt Halogen bulbs like I used to do with my V65 Sabre may melt the reflectors or the wiring on these modern bikes.
I am proposing to install brackets to mount the LEDs under the mirror posts and have the LED lights hang below the mirrors. I can adapt the mirror extenders available on E_Bay to hold the new brackets unless someone has a better off the shelf mounting system.
I thought about those when i was working in central jersey next to farm land but couldnt accept having lights hanging off the bike. What about hid's with projectors? It gives more light, around the same draw & all fits inside the headlight housing
I thought about those when i was working in central jersey next to farm land but couldnt accept having lights hanging off the bike. What about hid's with projectors? It gives more light, around the same draw & all fits inside the headlight housing
Then re-wiring the light switch to control the upper "high beam" lights seperately OR have them come on together with new HID hi-beams you will now have in the low beam housing (and not cut off the low beams lights as Honda has it wired).
The lower lights were originally a low/hi-beam light H4, and the upper lights were originally supposed to be driving lights at least as I understood it, that's how it was wired overseas but not in the US. And with the lower power requirements of HIDs, you'll have no worries running both the HIDs and your now upper driving lights at the same time.
I'm also tossing around the idea of these high intensity LED Lights, The trouble with them is finding a good install that does not make the bike look like it belongs on a farm.
This may not help your question on where to install the LED lights but my brother just put a set of those exact LED lights on the front bumper of his Dodge Ram3500 and they are ridiculously bright. If you can find a good spot to mount the lights I'm sure there will be many a deer transfixed and blinded by the light of your oncoming bike.
Because the OP has a 6th gen I wouldn't bother with aux lights because frankly there not needed when there is an alternative. I have 6000k hids installed as my low beams & honestly they light up the road so much I don't even bother with high beam & I live in Australia so we probably have more wildlife that want to cross in front of you than anywhere else. My night vision sucks which is why I went with hids & compared to the standard lighting the hids feel like it's day time for me.
On saying that depending on your laws if you can't have the hids low beam so constantly on only fit them to the high beam or if you really want light fit them to both low & high beam, the good part is they use less current draw than the standard globes (only suck current at start up) & now there all digital you get instant on not the warm up cycle of old. One hint is if you go this way buy the thick ballast type there much more reliable & don't have the extra igniter box on the wiring like the slim ballast. I originally had the slim ballast & had nothing but trouble with them changed to the thick & there 100% reliable.
You can simply buy them from Ebay H4 kit for low beam & H7 kit for high beam you don't buy the bi-xeon there a combined low/high.
If doing both low/high beam I would do low 4300K & high 6000K (better spectrum of light) the ballast that you buy are 35W or 55W either is good as the bulbs are the exact same for both.
& now there all digital you get instant on not the warm up cycle of old. One hint is if you go this way buy the thick ballast type there much more reliable & don't have the extra igniter box on the wiring like the slim ballast. I originally had the slim ballast & had nothing but trouble with them changed to the thick & there 100% reliable.
zRoYz, This sounds just what I was thinking about, could you give me the actual brand name you ended up using,
Tom
I am fusy about having high visibility when riding at dusk or dawn in deer country. Has anyone installed any LED lighting on their VFRs? I installed standard 100Watt driving lights on my 2001 CBR 1100 Blackbird but when used for more than an hour the battery drew down dangerously low. I have not had this problem on my Goldwing or my BMW 1200 GS but they have very large alternator output. THe 09 VFR I have has a feeble 475 watt generator so I was planning to install two 6 bulb - 15 watt LEDS (see pics below)[image: attachicon.gif]IMG_2414.JPG[image: attachicon.gif]IMG_2413.JPG that are ourageously bright compared with stock halogen lamps.. THere does not appear to be enough room under the stock headlight to install the LED Bars without risking crushing them if the front shocks bottom out and changing out the stock bulbs in the headlamps to 100 watt or 110 watt Halogen bulbs like I used to do with my V65 Sabre may melt the reflectors or the wiring on these modern bikes.
I am proposing to install brackets to mount the LEDs under the mirror posts and have the LED lights hang below the mirrors. I can adapt the mirror extenders available on E_Bay to hold the new brackets unless someone has a better off the shelf mounting system.
Those look very boxy though and won't blend into a VFR's styling....Does anyone out there make LED lights with more aerodynamic enclosures and lenses??
TomG33 the brand doesn't really matter as most are made in China & repackaged, the thick ballasts that have the igniter built in are becoming harder to find as the slim ballast type seems to be the norm now. I had major problems with the thin ballast type with my 6th gen either one would cut out or both at intermittent times & I tried 4 different ballasts thinking I just had a bad set. I even went as far as installing seperate mains wiring with a relay just to make sure it wasn't the wiring harness playing up. I originally used the thick ballast type years ago which worked perfectly powered straight from the bikes wiring harness & they are still working on a friend bike but he did have to change out 1 ballast after about 3 years.
I bought my latest set from AUS seller Ebay just do search Ebay only Australia & you will find a set just buy the thick ballast type & the main difference you can see in picture is the wiring from ballast to connect to hid light doesn't have that extra black box which is the igniter, the thicker type have that built in (installed them & again zero problems & operating from bike wiring harness standard light power sockets). On the 6th gen the LHS fairing behind the blinker has more than enough room to mount the ballasts, I just made a bkt & cable tied then onto it as there is a bkt with mounting slotted hole support frame to attach your bkt in that position.
[image: hids]
hids
End of thread · 13 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 6 Apr 2013
