Spotlights on a Yamaha YBR 125 55 reg

[John]

Electrickery is not my strongpoint.

 

I’m wanting to see and be seen on my little Yammy YBR 125 55reg. The OEM lights are awful and I know LEDs are out of the question. So I’m thinking of upgrading my bulbs to halogen and sticking a couple of LED spotlights on the front. My questions are, which halogen bulb is likely to work with my bike and give me greater luminosity, if that’s the right way to term it? I’m also wondering if my battery has got enough power in it to work the spotlights?

 

[Stu]

Hi and welcome to the forum 

 

The battery is the least of your troubles its whether the charging system can cope to keep the battery charged and run everything else 

 

Although LED's will use little power so if you can change to LED you would probably find that you have a better setup 

 

Don't write off LED headlight bulbs too as you can get them to fit 

[John]

I thought LED lights generated too much heat for some bikes?

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I have a Halfords 200% brighter headlight bulb. It is better than standard but I wouldn't say it's twice as bright. It is said they fail quicker but I've had it in for 4 years now. I live in a rural area so riding on unlit roads it does make a difference. 

 

In terms of being seen the best thing I've found is a light that wobbles slightly.  It creates the same effect as a flicker and that certainly catches motorists' attention.  

 

The next best thing is to create a triangle of lights. I have two small leds mounted on the forks. They are wired into the dipped beam circuit. 

[John]

I’ve found a website that appears to be legit and I’ve emailed them for info on LED upgrades and they have been very helpful.

They are a bit pricey in comparison to some sellers, but they seem reputable.

 

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/

[RideWithStyles]

Like for like LED dont create more heat, less if anything but HIDs which were the next best thing do at the time.

The other problem with hid other than  lots more heat is they needed a ballist to (bit like a transformer) to generate the high volts and ampage that got hot for the units to work, pain to hide in a car and worse for a bike, plus all the extra wires and the blubs were bigger/longer which made choices difficult with bikes.
Plus they need time to warm up so for the first 5 or so mins they wernt better than a decent normal setup until they got working, not good for short journeys.

 

the next problem with retrofit LEDs to oldschool lights is first the std system will be pumping out too much and not often enough, hence why you need a resistor kit if you change your indicators from a filiament blub to a led, sometimes you can get away with just swapping out if it's moderately modern (a few years old) to the tech but most of the time its just too different...

for the headlight blub id just get good brand one that has better gas in it, like bullfrog said with the halfords or osram.m are quite good.
Just to wary about colour... white doesn't mean brighter, technically the slightly yellow tinge ones are actually brighter to comparatively same lums, so the whiter you go you need mor lums to do the same range and dont get me started on the purple tint ones... purple ones are againt the law too by the way.

technically by law you can only go so far with the luminescent power, but police hardly test these much to the annoyance of anyone whos retinas have been destroyed infront of a german branded car thats had headlights modded...

 

the other thing with leds that they are generally very narrow apread of beam, so finding that perfect sweet spot for them is difficult.

Edited August 30, 2023 by RideWithStyles