Valkyrie Headlight

[J V McLure]

I have finally found something about my Valkyrie that I don't love. I was riding today and it got drak. The headlight seems to leave much to be desired. I thought perhaps it was dirty and found it was clean.  

I might just be spoiled by my GL1800 Wing. It lights up the road and then some.

Is there a solution? If not, I might not be doing much after dark riding on the Valkyrie.

I do have a set of fog lights on a lightbar on each side of the headlight.

[sandy]

If those fog lights are 4" sealed beams (par 36), you can swicth them out for a 36 watt halogen flood or spot light. I also added a mini spot (20 watt halogen). Check www.1000bulbs.com for a full list of par 36 bulbs in various configurations.

[DFragn]

I use Wagner H7604 Spots. These are a 50w ea. halogen bulb within a sealed beam. See my archive link below for aiming instructions. These are small aircraft landing lights. With criss-cross aiming you'll light up the road without ever getting flashed.

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/tech_archive.cgi?read=1172634

I use the landing spots for night and the 50w fork mounts for daytime running along with my highbeam.

[MP]

+1 on the 50w.  Great lighting.

MP

[John U.]

Your headlight bulb might be old and tired, mine was when i bought my bike. These are one alternative to stock bulbs: http://store.candlepower.com/64205.html

[Disco]

Hey JV,

I replaced my stock headlight bulb with a PIAA Xtreme White and got more light out of the headlight alone than I had with the stock bulb + lightbar.  There are several options for brighter headlight bulbs.  While you're in the bucket, it's a good time to do the headlight/starter switch relay mod.  I know there are several guys & gals in DFW that need to do that.  Could be a wrench party in the making.

DFG

[J V McLure]

Thanks guys for all the help!

If I install these, do I need to do anything to beef up any of my wiring or switches? I sure don't want to go from not enough light, to plenty of light and then all the sudden to no light!

This forum is a great resource. It beats the hell out of trial and error or the school of hard knocks.
J V

I use Wagner H7604 Spots. These are a 50w ea. halogen bulb within a sealed beam. See my archive link below for aiming instructions. These are small aircraft landing lights. With criss-cross aiming you'll light up the road without ever getting flashed.

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/tech_archive.cgi?read=1172634

I use the landing spots for night and the 50w fork mounts for daytime running along with my highbeam.

[DFragn]

Thanks guys for all the help!

If I install these, do I need to do anything to beef up any of my wiring or switches? I sure don't want to go from not enough light, to plenty of light and then all the sudden to no light!

This forum is a great resource. It beats the hell out of trial and error or the school of hard knocks.
J V

You can use your existing wiring as long as your drawing power through a switched [ignition source] relay [add-on]. Preferably not tied in with your headlight circuit.
Some lightbars came with a relay and instructions, others not. If your not sure yours has you may want to back trace your wiring to determine.

If you need assistance look here: http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/foglites.html
Chet has provided tremendous assistance to us apprentices. I especially liked his 4-way flasher conversion.

[X Ring]

I used the power wire for the headlight before the hi/lo switch to activate the spotlight relay.  The advantage of using this wire is the spots will turn off when you push the start button just like your headlight.  This will allow maximum power to the start and ignition circuits.

[Robert]

There is another option I too have the running lights but boosted the headlight to 80/100 bulb and I have no problem with light. To do this you will have to get the heavy duty bulb socket from Napa and put that on and I would also recommend a relay in the circuit to cut the load on the switches.