BABailey's Rebel 250 Projects
Lighting Installation Page 3
LIGHTING UPGRADE - THIRD TIMES THE CHARM:
In spite of my adaptions and even with using a spot beam the bottom line was that each of the lights were still only 35w sealed ebam units and the stock low beam was still anemic - i wasn't really happy - liked the look but not the range (or lack thereof) - and to be honest the burnt out high beam still nagged at the back of my mind pretty regularly - then one night i happened to hit the switches in the wrong sequence and had all 5 of the 35w lights on at the same time while switching over the auxillary units for entering traffic and *POOF* blew the fuse plunging me into total darkness (well i had other traffic around me and streetlights that allowed me to pull off into a convience store lot under a light post) - apparently what i could do while parked for photos was not doable while under way at speed - the engine draw combined with 5x35w=175w of lighting was simply too much for teh circuit and the fuse gave up the ghost - luckily i had a spare fuse in the holder and it was a simple fix to replace and be back underway in less than 15 mins - but i was grumbling all the way home ...
And then one day i saw the light
found a $40 set of 55w H3 halogen offroad truck bumper lights that were listed as 5.5" WOOO HOOO lets get a pair and see if these puppies would retrofit the stock rebel shell ...
I could have simply replaced the entire stock shell with one of the new units totally - but the new ones were plastic - i wanted to keep the original metal chrome shell and the visor i had added to it - so some gut transplant was in order - turned out the rim of the new truck light reflector unit glass and the lip of the rebel stock shell were EXACTLY the same diameter - grrrrr - since i had spent $40 and it was close to fitting i went and got my channel lock pliers and wrapped the jaws in duct tape to prevent scratching then did some judicious slight bending all around the rim of the stock shell to enlarge the rim a teeny bit - just enough to let me wedge the new reflector glass unit into place - of course i also needed a longer screw for the retaining collar ring clamp as well - turned out it wasn't a prefect seamless fit - but it was indeed close enough for gov't work (or night riding as the case may be)- i now have a replaceable 55w H3 halogen bulb unit in the stock rebel shell (and even an entire spare assembly for backup in the event of a rock pinging crack)- with a MUCH MUCH better beam pattern too - and WAY brighter - adjusted it to suit and it's twice as good as the original was ...
this brings me to the second part of my story...
First i want to thank Duke for the time and patience he spent on explaining to me about the use and function of relays, introducing me to the fact there are automatic reset circuit breakers that can be used in place of fuses, and suffering from endless revisions of my amateur sketches of the wiring diagram
a true saint
he also linked me up with a RELAY TUTORIAL page for valkyries
the setup i had been running for my "high beam" under the second incarnation with the tractor utility lights was 3x35w=105w - since teh new 55w unit was doing so much better than the stock 35w i figured i could try 2x55w=110w and get better range with another pair of the truck bumper lights to replace the tractor utility light pair - and if i used relays hooked to a circuit breaker fusebox tapped off the battery to carry the load on new power runs rather than go through the switches i had rigged up then the load on teh stock fused circuit would drop dramatically and i could even use the stock hi/lo switch to trip the relays with minimal draw on the original lines while almost tripling the wattage of the high beam output - so pulled all the auxilary lights off the highway peg 'light bar' mounting platform - i replaced the 35w sealed beam tractor utility lights with another set of the 55w H#3 bulb truck bumper lights like i had used in the stock shell for the low beam - wiried up a 10ga(fat dull red wire in the bottom back of pic) battery tap to a circuit breaker junction box i placed in the rebel's airbox (good thing i had previously gutted the stock air filter with my smaller cheaper modification LOL) - i fished the wires through the air intake snorkle -i also placed the two relays in the airbox and proceeded to hook them up ... the stock rebel headlight light has 3 wires blue(hi) white(lo) and green(ground) - i had a bunch of wire on hand from the various previous kits i had for the various light sets i had taken off the rebel - i set up a 5 wire run from the airbox to the front of the bike by the headlight inside a plastic wire loom tube: Blue, White, bright Red (no green on hand) from the previous kits(16ga)for the switch hook ups and two black(14ga) wires to carry the actual power from the relays to the lights - one for the 'low beam' single 55w unit in the original headlight shell and one for the dual 55w units on the mounting peg struts for the 'high beam' - hooked the switches up to teh relays - hooked teh power up to the lights - and VOILA! it actually worked - HOO YAH - click the stock switch to lo and the one original headlight shell with the 55w unit is on - click the stock switch to hi and the two 55w units on the sides come on while the single center original shell unit cuts off ... i also put a set of 2x20w=40w mini spots on the original lighted switch auxillary line from the stock fuse box - these are for use with the lo beam if needed and are angles slighty to the sides to light up the sides of the road and to act as sorta brite marker lights - for situations like where i need to watch for deer on the sides of the road but can't use my highs because of traffic - or when in heavy city traffic in daylight to add extra visiblity - just like the original auxillary pair of cateye fogs were used for before the stock highbeam burnt out on me
Take 3 ReDefined
Modified the setp up from 'Take Three' same three 55w beams (stock = 'low' 55w ... new outside = 'high' 2x55w) ... folded the mounting pegs up to put the high beams together over the top of the stock low beam - to increase the visible impact of the 'high' beams to oncoming traffic so that it's obviously my high beam and not just auxillary spots - i was getting a lot of blinks at night cause the 'low' beam 55 was visually 'brighter' due to the higher angle it was mounted on - the side mounted 'high' beams had a flatter angle and weren't in their eyes and since all 3 are equally bright 55w bulbs it was not apparent to oncoming traffic that i WAS in 'low' mode ... so i went from fat and wide to tall and narrow in my set up to cluster the two high beams together and make them visually more 'massive' and also to make their angle higher (ala SUV) i am also considering putting xenon 55w H3s in the two high beam shells as well ... so now teh 'high' beams are the physically higher beams and there is no doubt when i flick hi/lo which mode i am in to oncoming traffic ... only drawback is that the small mini spots no long have a place to mount and i have them stuffed in the front fork bag for now - i can get another pair of clamps and mount them on the side again in the spring when its time to ride again ... one side effect is the higher mounting position covers the gap that was from the higher mounted small sport windsheild too ... haven't rode it other than a frozen test ride - so am not yet sure if i will leave it high center mount or change it back to low side mount - spring rides will tell
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