H4 150mm Conversion

[m82a1]

Was wondering if anyone has found a quality H4 headlight that will fit into the 150mm Aprila rim? Would love any recommendations and source info.

Thanks in advance,

Ken

[JimF]

Hi Ken,

I believe the issue may be one of power and not fit.

Are you still at 6-volts? Assuming a narrow case bike, the most powerful electrical system delivered had 60-watts on tap. Some had as little as 40-watts. Some of that available wattage is required by the brake light/running light and some more power is needed for the ignition circuit.

Modern H4s would likely require between 55 to 65 watts.

Now all that being said, I have noticed the following product come on the market. It would be interesting to get the diameter and wattage of the product:

http://forum.porsche356registry.org/vie ... 45f45cc52e

A word of caution though, the headlight just mentioned is likely to be DC voltage only and an AC bike as many of ours are would not support its usage.


Jim

[motoital]

The headlight off my 1975 honda cb400f worked for me. Matched the rim perfect and was a compression fit no clips needed. Take your rim to the local Honda dealer and check to be sure.

Those 6v Led light buckets look sweet!

Good luck!

[DewCatTea-Bob]

[quote= m82a1 ...
" Was wondering if anyone has found a quality H4 headlight that will fit into the 150mm Aprila rim? Would love any recommendations and source info. "

____ You didn't bother to mention if you're wanting 6v or 12v version !?
__ Of-course there have already been thread-posts covering this ! _ Have you tried searching the topic yet ?


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob

[DewCatTea-Bob]

____ As I most-often do, I use the post-statements of others merely as a springboard to related comments I'm inspired to add. _ And-so I'm not directly-addressing Jim-himself.
__ I've previously addressed such concerns in the past, but it seems that Jim still prefers to continue-on promoting the long established status-quo concerning the rather commonly-accepted low-tech conceptions of the following aspects (addressed down-below), which in ACTUAL-reality however, are at-least somewhat misleading.
I-myself however can't in good-conscience help promote such simpleton-type talk-down (that's normally done to help uninclined-sorts to more easily get-by & conceive rather simplified-concepts).
So, for those who care to learn what's REALLY what, (and avoid confusion for themselves as they further learn more detailed tech down-the-line),, I feel the need to more deeply address the fairly misleading aspects of the commonly-accepted status-quo beliefs such as brought-up & touched-on by Jim, (and most-others have done). .....



[quote= JimF ...
" Assuming a narrow case bike, the most powerful electrical system delivered had 60-watts on tap. Some had as little as 40-watts. "

____ He could've stated that some had as little as '28' watts, since he's obviously going-by the claimed-figures stated within all the common manuals covering the subject.
Anyhow, ALL those factory-provided wattage-figure/amounts should be considered just as equally reliably factual as any other questionable-claim (such as 'a cup made of ice will hold hot-water') ! ...
__ In actual-fact, there is NOT '60-watts' (or ANY certain wattage-amount) always "on tap",, except perhaps, ONLY whilst kept under some PARTICULAR-condition ! _ As alternators & their associated charging-systems can't be expected to always maintain any particular amount of power at all operating RPMs ! _ Thus the CLAIMED wattage-figures are simply 'factory-RATINGS' which the factory happened to choose as being somewhat fairly representative of what their alternator may be capable-of on expected-AVERAGE !
So all such factory-claimed wattage-ratings are pretty-much meaningless & fairly-useless without also including the particular RPM at which the expected wattage becomes obtainable. _ As it's fairly well known & understood that there's much less available wattage-power near idle-RPM,, (and-yet even MORE [than 'rated'] available, during higher-revs than the factory-expected 'averaged-RPM').
So instead of the 'claimed-wattage' always being on-tap,, quite likely the claimed-wattage is rather merely about that which the factory had deemed to be a reasonable amount for the averaged-RPM.range that the factory expects the engine will most commonly be kept revved & run within. _ (As it certainly wouldn't be fair to rather just claim the MAX.wattage-amount that can only be obtained at red-line.)



" Some of that available wattage is required by the brake light/running light "

____ While of-course a running-light certainly does consume a notable portion of the 'available-wattage' from an alternator,, with a battery-supplemented system however, the brake-light circuit's actual consumption of the alternator's available-wattage/power is really next-to NOTHING, (as the battery rather provides stored-power* for that temporary-load [to a MUCH-greater degree than the alternator-alone could],,
[* which is otherwise left unconsumed, anyhow] ). _ So-thus brake-light loads themselves are-not a real concern for the consumption of alt.power, (expect for battery-less systems).
__ This seemingly questionable-reasoning is actually concludable because even in such case as when the alternator happens to already be supplying all the power it has to offer, the brake-light can STILL fully light-up with power-juice rather taken from the battery (as is always preferred, even when the alternator happens to have reserve power leftover).
So the alternator doesn't have-to supply power for the brake-light because it has ALREADY-before effectively done-so rather indirectly, by having spent excess-power (whenever it has any) to charge the battery, which in-turn provides some of that already spent-alt.power to power-up the brake-light.
So-thus the 'battery' is a far,far greater load* to be considered (* for the alternator), since only a portion of the alt.power which it consumes is left stored & available for temp.loads such as the brake-light & horn,, and the brake-light gets a far greater portion of it's power from the battery rather than the alternator,, (whereas constant-loads such as running-lights have-to more-so depend-on getting their power from the alternator's averaged power-output, [just as is commonly expected] ).



" I have noticed the following product come on the market. "

____ GREAT find !
It appears as if it could work for headlamp models which are meant to accept 'sealed-beam' bulbs.
__ TOO-bad it's so extra highly priced !



" It would be interesting to get the diameter and wattage of the product: "

____ From it's description,, "one amp" & "6 volts", those specs happen to equal '6-watts' !
__ It's 'diameter' is the real question !



" the headlight just mentioned is likely to be DC voltage only and an AC bike as many of ours are would not support its usage. "

____ Even so, electrical-adaptation ought-not be too difficult though.
And the total-cost of any additional electrical-components, would be next-to-nothing compared-to the $87.50 for that special sealed-beam replacement unit !


Dukaddy-DUKEs,
DCT-Bob

[m82a1]

Sorry guys, should have given the whole picture. Bike is a 1966 Mark 3 that has been converted to 12 volt via the power dynamo unit that includes the ignition. This set up leaves me with 60 watts for lighting. I plan on running led tail and brake light. Still marginal at best, but I am not taking any road trips on this bike. I will check out the tip on the honda bulb.

I did try the search function first.

Thanks for the help,

Ken

[DewCatTea-Bob]

[quote= m82a1 ...
" Bike is a 1966 Mark 3 that has been converted to 12 volt via the power dynamo unit that includes the ignition. This set up leaves me with 60 watts for lighting.
Still marginal at best, "

____ Then you shouldn't encounter any 'power' issues.
__ You ought consider a 65/45w H4-bulb, made by Sylvania exclusively for motorcycles !
Here's a link to a related post ... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=106&p=4632&#p4632



" I did try the search function first. "

____ Now that we know you have a 12v.system, I no-longer really need to look-up the thread-post telling-of the 6v/25w H4-bulb setup that was posted last-year,, but since it's been over a year, someone-else may care to see it,, so I'm including a link to it anyhow... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1405&p=10020&#p10019


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob

[graeme]

Hello Ken,
Probably no good to you in the US but in Australia Holden (car) made a model called HQ Premier.
This had dual lights and the outer pair (the inner were high beal only) are 45/45 watt and fit nicely in a Ducati shell.

Regards
Graeme

[m82a1]

Thanks Graeme. Like the wattage better then a traditional H4. In reality, I will be riding the bike during the day. It is just nice to be seen a little better even in daylight, that is important to me. Now I need to find a super bright LED tail light solution. A few years back someone was making a conversion for the Brevatato tail light, but have not seen them in a while.

[graeme]

I used an H4 type LED in the headlight on my RT which isn't bad for oncoming cars to see me but they don't reflect in the headlight correctly so what you see is marginal.

Graeme