changing head light bulb

[welshman]

can anyone tell me the pros & cons of changing my S4 headlight bulb to a much brighter one i.e 90 w is this safe or will it melt me bike

I know nothing about electrics as you can see

ta

john

[Will]

can anyone tell me the pros & cons of changing my S4 headlight bulb to a much brighter one i.e 90 w is this safe or will it melt me bike

I know nothing about electrics as you can see

ta

john

I think that a 90 Watt headlamp bulb will be illegal - someone may disagree though.

[McMONSTRO]

I have 90w H4 bulbs in the car, much brighter! I think that 55/65w is the highest you can legally fit for the road, but I guess its unlikely that anyone is going to take your headlight apart to check!

As far as putting 90w in the bike....mmmm, knowing how bike electrics seem to be designed to power just what they are designed for and not a lot more and the number of threads that list "duff battery" I decided against it!

I've put a PIAA Extreme White H4 bulb in the S4R avaliable from

http://www.nippynormans.com/products.asp?dept=325rom

Not cheap, £40, but legal and guaranteed against vibration and claims to put out the eqivalent of 110w, it is MUCH brighter and has a much more White/Blue light to it than the standard bulb, bit like the Xenon lights.
Saw a review in a bike mag a few months ago and it came out tops in thier tests! Reccomended!

McMonstro

[welshman]

cheers for the info , and the link , I thought it maybe doggy to mess around with ,

once again cheers , lots of good sound advice from the club

john

[Zimbo]

Also try something like Philips Vision Plus, about a tenner, legal wattage but much better beam than the standard bulbs. Halfords own brand top Xenon bulb is good too, but no cheaper, given a choice I'd use the Philips one.

[Kiwi]

I think that a 90 Watt headlamp bulb will be illegal -.

it is illegal but who is ever going to find out

best to run the headlight wiring thru relays and thicker wire than standard if you are running that higher wattage bulb

just running relays and thicker wires often gives a good result by itself by gettinga full 12 volts to the headlight

[Will]

Aside from the legal aspects, a 90 Watt lamp will be taking almost double the current - the wiring and the connectors may struggle - also how much spare capacity does the alternator have?, will it still be able to charge the battery as well as power the bigger bulb?

Just playing devils advocate - it's what us Engineers are well practicesd at :worried:

[Stafford]

Also try something like Philips Vision Plus, about a tenner, legal wattage but much better beam than the standard bulbs. Halfords own brand top Xenon bulb is good too, but no cheaper, given a choice I'd use the Philips one.

Do you know if the S4 headlamp requires a H1 or H4 or H7 lamp?
Cheers
Q

[Bunny]

S4 uses an H4 bulb
I would use the phillips bulb, although a 90W bulb should not do any harm, only about 2 Amp difference from a 65W.