Breva Headlight Upgrade

[flower_king001]

Best upgrade to my Breva 1100

Do away with the stock headlight all together!

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

what kind of headlight? plug & play? was the shell included? what mods where required?

[Rebochi]

On my 1200 Sport I used a  Humstar H7 LED Bulb  for the low beam and a Sealight S1 series 12X LED H9 for the high beam. Brighter than the stock bulbs and less current draw. Both were ordered from Amazon. Probably cheaper than replacing the headlight and  zero modifications to make it work.

[flower_king001]

On my 1200 Sport I used a  Humstar H7 LED Bulb  for the low beam and a Sealight S1 series 12X LED H9 for the high beam. Brighter than the stock bulbs and less current draw. Both were ordered from Amazon. Probably cheaper than replacing the headlight and  zero modifications to make it work.

the problem with the OEM headlight is not the bulbs nor the current draw but the actual design of the reflector/projectors.

[flower_king001]

what kind of headlight? plug & play? was the shell included? what mods where required?

Step by step of the conversion can be found here using the same components as the original poster:

https://www.guzzitech.com/forums/threads/headlight-conversion-for-the-1100-breva.18970/

Headlight bucket I ($55) used came from here:

https://shop.revivalcycles.com/7-vintage-lucas-headlight-bucket/

And here is the headlight ($39)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-7-CREE-LED-High-Low-Light-Projector-Headlight-for-Harley/112110579411?fits=Year%3A2007%7CMake%3AHarley-Davidson&hash=item1a1a4faed3:g:B6YAAOSwgZ1XwUcN:rk:1:pf:0

I can tell you it's night and DAY now !

[Rebochi]

   There might be a design problem with the reflectors but replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDS does make a huge difference for not a lot of effort or money.

[flower_king001]

With the stock unit i had to adjust the headlight higher in the vertical position and still was not adequate.  I could leave the high beam on to on coming traffic and it never affected anyone. After the head-shell upgrade I can now ride in full confidence at night without even using my auxiliary driving lights.

[Kiwi_Roy]

   There might be a design problem with the reflectors but replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDS does make a huge difference for not a lot of effort or money.

The brightness of an incandescent is something like Voltage to the power of 5 so every fraction of a Volt is critical.

An LED lamp only needs a few Volts, any excess is just shed by the Voltage regulator. If you look at the specs it will say something like 9 to 40 Volts, anything over 9 is just gravy. You don't need headlight relays with LEDs the current is so low the dimmer switch and tiny wires can easily handle it.

[Rebochi]

   On most motorcycles including Guzzis the headlight wiring and switch gear is sized for the current draw of the stock lights and no more. If there is any corrosion or bad connections any where in the system the head lights will dim. Any thing that decreases the amperage draw will negate the voltage drop problem.
 The startus interupus problem has the same cause, under idea conditions it works fine but any resistance in the system and it will develop problems.

[F-22]

I hope replacing bulbs with LED ones does not cause any problems. Depending on the model, it can be quite a big difference in power (60W front headlight high beam, 5W on the rear always-on bulb, guzzi often used two on the rear so 10W, then one or two 5w bulb to illuminate each gauge, and the headlight park/contact bulb another 5W... together this can come to around 100W). The listed headlight is 12W, and I doubt the other bulbs together add up to 20W total.

So where do the other 80W go? That's probably enough to power another ECU... I guess the battery is constantly fully charged, which means the regulator is constantly burning up the extra power. Regulator is constantly burning the excess, and I guess it is not designed for that (normally, the power production is balanced with power consumption), so my guess would be that it may eventually cause it to fail sooner.


I'm no electrician, so I'd be glad if someone knows better...


Shouldn't be a problem with the older models with the alternator with brushes - in my understanding, the regulator on those simply shuts off the electromagnet on the rotor and practically shuts down the generator. This is impossible on permanent magnet generators, regulation is by converting excess power into heat. I think easy regulation is a big reason why cars still use classic electromagnet alternators. Motorcycle regulators were always a very common failure, regardless of the brand or age...

[Kiwi_Roy]

I don't think you could say "the regulator is burning up the extra power"
Power is Voltage x Current, the regulators control charging by eliminating one or the other.
Series Regulators open the circuit to minimize the current, Shunt regulators short out the alternator to minimize the Voltage.

You might have trouble with LEDs in place of the flasher lamps, some systems interpret low current as a burnt out lamp so the LED vendors sell a resistor to load up the circuit.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/motorcycle-accessories/motorcycle/
You would use these on a later model Guzzi e.g. a Griso where the flashing is taken care of by the dash, earlier models e.g. a loop just require a different flasher relay.

[Texas Turnip]

I hope you never have the low beam go out on a foggy night and can only use the high beam that shines a mile off and not in front of you. Poor set up IMHO. With all the other Guzzis I've had in 40+ years you could lower the headlight bucket when the low beam went out so the high beam was like a low beam. Most KERA  members will never put on enough miles to wear out a headlight.

Tex

[mechanicsavant]

Quite a bit of good 411 can be found @ Eastern beaver.com
My wife was surprised that it wasn't a porn site!

[flower_king001]

I hope you never have the low beam go out on a foggy night and can only use the high beam that shines a mile off and not in front of you. Poor set up IMHO. With all the other Guzzis I've had in 40+ years you could lower the headlight bucket when the low beam went out so the high beam was like a low beam. Most KERA  members will never put on enough miles to wear out a headlight.

Tex

Absolute...obvious others have no idea what a good headlight looks like but i can tell you in my 40+ years of riding the stock Breva 1100 is by far the worst! I could drive into oncoming traffic with highs and no once even notices. Here is a simple upgrade...take it or leave it