Passing Lamp Sealed Beam Options

[PrairieStar]

Hey All. I've been looking for a pair of passing lamp sealed beams in Halogen to replace the incandescent beams on my '06 RSV. All I can find are 55 watt beams and I'd like to find something in a lower wattage to ease the strain on the stator and yet get more light than I'm getting right now. I'd like beams that will fit the factory Yamaha light buckets. Is this possible or am I looking for something that doesn't exist. Thanks in advance

 

Rod.

[FreezyRider]

Here you go:

http://www.jpcycles.com/productdetail.aspx?PID=310-144&cs=Harley&GID=f50291fb-213e-4385-a2cb-e6db00522737&store=&page=&search=

 

I have these, and they are brighter than stock and don't drag your charging system down. Priced right too.

[V7Goose]

You are smart to look or something lower than the typical 55 watt bulbs. I have posted several times about the limited charging capacity of the RSV, and I have recently added a new set of lights that illustrates this problem even more.

 

I have the standard Yamaha driving lights that used to be on all the time. I now have a set of mini bullet driving lights that are wired to come on with my high beams, and the Yamaha driving lights are only on with low beams. My ammeter and electronic volt meter make it very clear that the 55 watt lights are a problem, even when the carb heaters are off. The bike barely keeps up with that load at 3,500 RPM. I switched to a nice little set from JC Whitney with 50 watt bulbs, and these do OK at 3,000 RPM. I'm satisfied with this load for high beams, but I absolutely would never run two 55 watt driving lights all the time.

Goose

[PGunn]

A week or so ago one of my driving lights went and I started looking around locally for a replacement. Talk about sticker shock.. NAPA 25.00 plus tax . So I checked here and saw the JP Cycles link and checked them, 18.00 plus shipping that came to more but getting a halogen over a standard one would think was a fair deal. But I was still thinking that was still too much for a 4.5" bulb and I spent around 45 minutes searching the internet. Well I found 1 site after another where the prices were 15.00+ each plus shipping. I did finally find 1 site that makes the others look like true over priced specialty lights, they are not specialty lights.

I was also surprised at the average life of these lights:

Standard = 300 hours

Halogen = 2,000 hours

Halogen Xenon = 5,000 hours

Now this site http://www.1000bulbs.com/search.php?search_data=par36&cat=&x=73&y=5 has the prices almost anyone can afford (6.85 - 7.98) and with wattage rattings from 2.5 to 150 and 6 - 28 volts. I purchased the Halogen Xenon lights 35 watt lights. Now one draw back to this site is you have to spend 20.00 not including shipping.

Well I was switching types and would need 2 for the bike and figured ok 1 for a spare to meet the 20.00 purchace requirement for a total price 35.73 including shipping not bad I thought. I then noticed a price reduction if you order 4 or more so I added a 4th and the priced went to 36.62. I ordered 4 and received them 5 days later and now have a lifetime supply for around 10.00 or less over the total cost of 1 from most other sites.

[DkKnight]

I ordered 4 and received them 5 days later and now have a lifetime supply for around 10.00 or less over the total cost of 1 from most other sites.

 

And they will fit inside the Yamaha passing lamp housing?

[PGunn]

Yes they most certinally do. I received mine yesterday and they installed with out an issue. I wanted to wait until I had installed them before I posted here and I do have the stock Yamaha passing lights also.

[Wi Venture]

Paul, What beam spread did you purchase? And how do they compare to the standard lamps you replaced? Just wondering as I have been wanting to change to the Halogen driving lamps. I'm looking I think for the narrower beam spread as it will give me more viewing distance ahead. Any comments?

[PGunn]

I haven't used them at night yet but the ones I bought came with a 5 deg spread which would make them more of a spot light. They do have wider angled ones on the site up to 60 deg I think but I don't think I would go over 30 deg. Just looking at them in the day light the light it self looks whiter then the stock one.

[V7Goose]

These lights are certainly priced right and interesting, but one thing to think about is that they do not appear to be designed for highway use. Highway lights have a lens that causes the light spread to be cut off level on the top and spread down and to the right. These lights seem to be simple spots and floods that spread in a full round pattern. The narrow spot with 12 degree spread might be OK for high beam use (when you should never have them on facing oncoming traffic anyway), but not for full time use. Only pattern testing and real time night testing will tell for sure. You might want to call their customer service and talk about it. Good luck,

Goose