Tenere Headlights
 

Having ridden a few evenings now with my two week old Tenere and having fiddled with the hieght adjuster, can I confirm with other riders that the headlight unit just looks better than it works.

On dip the spread is excellent and certainly works well enough for a single bulb. On main beam there suddenly appears a huge whole of blackness imediately infront of the bike, the beam narrows to a single spot and the main beam seems not to penetrate any further than the dip.

If I raise the lamps so the main beam works well ahead on the road (black hole even bigger) that leaves the dip setting so high that I just get flashed by all and sundry.

I am assuming that this is just poor design on an otherwise excellent bike and that there is basically nothing that I can do about it. If I am wrong . . .

Only having ridden my bike once in the dark a few days ago I effectively tried the lights performance. The dip is very good but unlike you when I had it on main beam I felt it lit the unlit roads fine. Yes I agree there is a big black hole immediatly infront of the bike (on main beam) but you dont look there when riding, your focus is far into the distance so it really should not be an issue. If you are going slow and require lighting closer it usually means you are in traffic and the main beam would not be on.

For me the lighting is good and perfectly fine. I have been following all threads and there is a very smart mod you can do by adding additional lighing on. It's not for me but there is as excellent solution out there and made my G.U.L.G.O. on this forum. Have a look, see if its for you.

Yes you are correct the lights on the Ten are poop i have fitted HID dipped beam and aux lights on main. paid 90 quid for the HID from HIDS4U.com and bought the aux lights from halfords. Now i have a bike that sees well and can be seen.

Cheers

Jim

Not sure there was a problem with being seen as loads of people have been flashing me. And when parked in traffic behind someone you can see that your blinding them in their rear view mirror but thats just the height of the lens.

Think I will have to wait until after next week when I have taken the bike 'off island' to Wales and back away from our 35mph speed limits and narrow roads to make an informed decision. No doubt there will be a little more fiddling yet as well.

Cheers

yep they are ****e, as above fitted HID and spots

Self promotion?
 

Here's one solution, much much cheaper than the TT offering.

http://www.xt660.com/showthread.php?t=11683

They're not terrible, you just have to change the way you ride at night. I found that the worst part of the beam spread occurred when dropping the bike into tight bends. It turned out that the best place to look was right on the outside edge of the beam pattern as that lit the road up the clearest round the bend. It's really hard to describe, but they aren't terrible.
The lights on my g/f's Bandit 600 are terrible, the lights on my Hayabusa were shocking; trying to hustle at 3 figures down unlit roads at night was a nightmare.
As for being seen, if I could turn them off in the day I would. Makes very little difference to whether someone has seen you or not because it comes down to if they've looked.
The height of the headlamp on the bike means that, as mentioned, the beam really catches car driver's mirrors in the same way a 4x4 or van headlamps do. I always try and keep back from drivers in traffic as it's no fun being blinded through your mirrors.

Looks nice, but you'll still have to buy lights and then try to get the electrics to work.

I'm not so technical when it comes to the electrical part.
As TT has all the instructions, wiring and protection stuff included, i'm going for that.

I can supply you with the electrics also (switch, relay), all made up, sealed and of the right lenght with all the connectors fitted and instructions.

You then get to choose your own lights, here in the UK we can get them for as little as �30 for the set, so that would be a total (lights, brackets and wiring) for �63.99 + Postage !

It is your choice, this is just an alternative.

[quote=DickyC;110354]Not sure there was a problem with being seen as loads of people have been flashing me. And when parked in traffic behind someone you can see that your blinding them in their rear view mirror but thats just the height of the lens.


My thoughts on being seen are more about during the day, The HID lights stand out really well and definatley get you seen. I also put on the spotties if i am over taking a large queue of cars just for added visibility. I think any light will be seen in the dark but its the daylight i worry about a bit more.

Cheers

Jim

HID Lights
 

Well worth fitting IMO...Made a big difference have a clean white light.....

For �30 it really is a good investment....

Heres the setup I had on my GS ...if you still cant see me coming then you would have a eyesight problem!

http://i34.tinypic.com/2coj3fq.jpg

Can't see anything :HeyHey_GOO2MN:

Have just come back from a day around Wales (again!!! second time this week) after fitting the HID 50 light kit on my dip beam. All i can say is this makes riding SO much easier as car drivers pulled to the left as i passed them so much i am thinking of changing my screen name to MOSES.....
Crystal clear blue/white light right to the end of the beam throw. A bit disconcerting at first seeing the beam pattern projected onto the road under heavy braking into bends IN BROAD DAYLIGHT......
Will have do something about filtering though as i came close to melting a few mirrors:002:
Crusty

I have halfords fog light fitted with the bracket named before and they're very good.

no more dark area in full beam and a very nice addition for visibility.

I read that JMO put 100w bulbs in hers and rode all over the states with them and no problems. might pay to check with her about it.

My 100W 'blue' bulb certainly improves the dip but was not massively better on main beam.

I'd tend to agree - I think the problem with the main beam is the shape/pattern of the reflector to be honest... like you say, a 100w bulb on dip beam gives a nice broad and white spread (great off-road btw.), but the main beam really doesn't light up the road (or trail) in the same way - it's better on a completely dark road (or desert), but really could do with being better...

Personally, I'd say the best solution is to run a pair of HIDs (I can't believe I said that!) - one on constant as the dip beam, and one as a high beam that switches on and off - it's not impossible to wire this using a relay and rerouting the wiring from the switchgear, but it isn't a job for everyone perhaps...

The other option of course is to wire in a pair of driving lights either with the main beam, or independently?

J xx

The problem with the HID option is it's technically illegal. Extra driving lamps should do the trick but of course by the time you have enough light you're drawing more power than the bike can provide.
Of course 2 35w HID driving lamps should be ok, and they'd come with a lense designed for them. That would be my option if I needed the extra light.

I've taken the other approach and moved to an island with a top speed of 35mph so I'm traveling at a spead where I can stop within the distance I can see :) (It can get 'ruddy dark here withougt streetlights or any light pollution and narrow lanes to negotiate :)

One easy fix is to switch the low-high switch with the pass (flash) switch. In this way, when you switch to high beam, both beams will be on. When you flash, the beams will alternate (which is far more visible from the distance)

have fun. i can supply pictures if necessary

That is a really cool idea...!

xxx

Are you sure this will work Stege? Some pictures or step-by-step would be nice.
I would like this conversion while adding some brighter lightbulbs.

Its an easy fix. I will post pics as soon as possible. I cannot get pictures out of my cam right now. Just open the left command block, locate the plus cables for low-high and pass and switch them. trial and error. Im no mechanic or electrician but its that easy.

Ive tried xenon too, but the headlight is so well designed so the xenon only give a 5% in brightness (ive used 4300 HID). Additionally, the bike being so compact, the ballast will inevitably hang in plain view somewhere on the bike. I removed the HID. Stock is simple, easy to maintain and/or fix.

I love this idea, and I'm no electrician either, but I don't see how this is going to work?

http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/r...ightswitch.jpg

If you look at the wiring diagram above, the headlight flash/pass switch (#50) bypasses the headlight relay (#44) and sends the current directly to the high beam bulb... this doesn't need a relay as it's presumed only to be ever used momentarily?

The Hi/low switch (#49) is an either/or, never both - therefore it can't send current to both bulbs?

The only way I can see it working is if you join the wire either side of the low beam side of the #49 switch (eg. LW to Lg) - thus it stays connected even when you switch the rocker to hi? That is if the relay can handle sending enough current to both bulbs continuously?

I'm quite happy to be proved wrong though!

J xx

Are you sure you are no electrician? Cause you sure sound like one?
I think you are right though, this will be a little more complicated. I hope someone comes with a solution cause I like the innitial idea of stege.
It would be nice to have both hi and low beam burning.

I replaced the stock H7 bulbs (not thanks to the owner manual which just says halogen bulbs and doesn't specify which ones... ) with Halfords Extreme Brilliance.

they're 55W bulbs but claim to be up to 90% more brilliant.

I can confirm that they make a big difference compared with the stock bulbs.#

and since they have an offer "buy one, get one free", for 25€ you can't go wrong :)
(much cheaper than the "bike specific" H7 that they sell for 35€ each (see here

Alternativly,

Unplug the dipped beam feed from the bulb and tape up with some amalgamating tape (to seal against the wet stuff). Put a relay, wired the same as an auxilary circuit, to feed power to the dipped beam as soon as the engine is started. Sorted. No need to cut and mess about with the bikes wiring and easliy reversable.

Main beam will carry on working as it should.

I'm a firm believer in reversable modifications - makes your bike more 'saleable' at the end, and you can get some cash back by selling the mods!

------

I've put a pair of them 'Night Racer' bulbs in the Ten, realy just to see if there is a difference at all, unfortunatly I'm still waiting for some other bits to arrive before the bike gets re-assembled........ so I've not tried them.

I've just ordered these:

http://www.powerbulbs.com/product_detail.asp?prod=81

Hmmm good price - I've ordered some too


Just commuted home from Dartford to Colchester in the rain and dark - abysmal headlight! (mind you the TDM wasn't any better - just used to a car with two lights I guess :alien: )

Fitted the bulbs suggested by Titbird.

First commute home tonight in the dark/rain/country backroads...Brilliant*, I can actually ride at legal speeds quite safely now - very effective upgrade that.

Good find for the money Titbird :coolsmiley:





*pun intended

A few quid cheaper here (sorry to those that have already got them)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-X-Tr...7044715&sr=8-2

er-yeah. Thanks. :violence:



:toothy5:

:016:

Hello,

My friend Jacek mounted these to improve the headlights:
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4585/lampki.jpg

these are HELLA MICRO DE.
http://www.expeditionexchange.com/hella/DSC08581.jpg

You just need to replace the standard 'H3 12V 55W' bulbs with 'H3 12V 35W' ones, because Tenere's battery might have problem with 55W ones.

To mount it he used this thing he made himself:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2461/montaz.png

He said that this works great. I have already bought same thing for my Tenere :)

The Hellas are great lamps (although a fog beam pattern lens can/does have limited use on a bike, due to the sharp cut-off, especially when leaning over into corners...)

I saw the Vision-X Solstice lamps on the Adventure-Spec stand at a show recently, and was very impressed with the build (they are aluminium) and brightness - they are LED, and only consume 10w - so you could run them off the side-light/indicator circuit if you wanted!

http://www.adventure-spec.com/shop/v.../prod_207.html

Seriously, check them out, you'll be impressed...

Jen xx

I also have the hella's but then the ones from TT.

@JMo: i dont have any problems, as i dont go fast when its dark or foggy.
Why are those VisionX thing so damn ugly? why are they square?

Fair enough - it was really general information - my point was that a fog beam in general tends to have a marked cut off, whereas the Hella HID 'driving lamp' version has more of a round flood beam... with fog lenses, you can end up lighting the tops of trees, rather than the verge on corners...

As for the VisionX's - they actually look a lot neater in the metal - they are very small - about 2 inches (50mm) square, or rather cubed - and they idea is you can connect them together in pairs (or more, such as a four block should you desire)... and the mounting bracket can fit on any of the four sides, which means if you go for the wider angle (eliptical) beam pattern you can still mount them horizontally or vertically... They really are very small and neat, and I was impressed how well one of them lit up the ceiling in the Excel exhibition hall, when the show was open!

J x

Thanks Uncle Ricky - just ordered new bulbs...

:icon_sunny: