Headlamp Upgrade

General spannery stuff
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Lol57
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Headlamp Upgrade

Post by Lol57 »

With the nights drawing in I got to find out what the headlamp was like last night and I was not impressed
Would it be possible to upgrade the bulb or in anyone’s experience is there a better solution?
nickst4
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Re: Headlamp Upgrade

Post by nickst4 »

You have a V-Raptor, I think? I'm not familiar with that but whichever model or indeed make of bike, I'd go for modern LED bulbs. You can get high output halogen bulbs but they are still relatively-weak, hot and power-hungry, while HID are simply too unreliable (I have one HID still operating out of at least six kits fitted).

Go for an LED bulb that has heat management, either by heat-sink or fan. Any LED bulbs that don't have that will be very low power output. The beam pattern may be altered somewhat because of the way the light is generated, and you might need to play with the installation to get the best pattern possible. I'm guessing that there's plenty of clearance behind the reflector in the V-rap, so a fan-cooled LED ought to fit in.

Good luck!

Nick
Lol57
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Re: Headlamp Upgrade

Post by Lol57 »

Hi Nick
Thanks
Yes it’s a v - raptor, ive got a place near me that specialises in led lights for cars etc so that seems like sensible way to go
I couldn’t believe how bad the original was, probably ok for Street lit areas but not much use in the sticks
Let the group know how I got on
Thanks
andybaggies
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Re: Headlamp Upgrade

Post by andybaggies »

I've also got a V-Rap and have investigated LED headlamps and found there was pretty much no space for the cooling gubbins. It's quite crowded behind the bulb connector with the mounting bracketry.

I ended up just using a standard 10 times brighter blah, blah (or whatever Halfords et al advertise) than a standard halogen but one thing to do is make sure the bulb is correctly aligned. It makes a hell of a lot of difference.

Don't let this put you off mind because if you do get something to work I'd be interested to know how.

Andy B
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V4mp
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Re: Headlamp Upgrade

Post by V4mp »

I bought mine from this site years a ago.
https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/ ... p_169.html
You have to cut grommet to make it fit, but otherwise its bolt-on.
Don't ride faster than your angels can fly !
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