2003 R1150RT Headlight Bulbs?

[DesertRoads]

I recently acquired a 2003 R1150RT and wanted to swap out the headlight bulbs for something brighter--exploring LED's as well as brighter halogen.  What are all the bulbs in the housing?  Seems like I see a low beam up front, then two high beam bulbs, and on the dash there is a switch for more lights?  They all function (except the parking light is burnt out), but I want something brighter that helps me get noticed.  Thank you in advanced!

[Lowndes]

Cyclops has very good motorcycle LED headlight bulbs.  I've tried a bunch of different types/brands and for the money they are the best, brightest, longest lasting.  They are not the cheapest until you have replaced the cheapos about 4 times and the Cyclops is still going.  Some motorcycle headlight bulbs are a real pain to change, too.

 

https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/Cyclops-100-H4-LED-headlight-bulb_p_192.html

 

For the turn signal, brake light, and dashboard lights, SuperBrightLEDs has a huge variety of every type, color, lumens, size, and shape.  They also have a very good "vehicle bulb finder" for motorcycles that has been very accurate for ALL the bulbs on my bikes.

 

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

[strataj]

I have https://stores.advmonster.com/h7-plus-led-headlight/#ProductReviews  in my 14R1200RT it has a great pattern and is very bright 6000 lumens..  I think it about 40,000 sMiles

[RPG]

The original low beam should be a H7. It's relatively simple to change, but the high beam (H3 I think) is a b**ch.

 

 

[DesertRoads]

Thank you guys for your input on lighting recommendations.  Much appreciated. 

[dirtrider]

39 minutes ago, DesertRoads said:

Thank you guys for your input on lighting recommendations.  Much appreciated. 

Morning Dave

 

Just be careful in what you choose. You don't want to go any (or much anyhow)  higher on the H-7 wattage (current draw) as the 1150RT's have a tendency to burn up the wire  terminals & connector at the H-7 bulb even with a stock bulb.

 

 

[DesertRoads]

27 minutes ago, dirtrider said:

Morning Dave

 

Just be careful in what you choose. You don't want to go any (or much anyhow)  higher on the H-7 wattage (current draw) as the 1150RT's have a tendency to burn up the wire  terminals & connector at the H-7 bulb even with a stock bulb.

 

 

Thank you D.R.  I'll be careful what I install.  

[Lowndes]

Another reason to use LED headlight bulbs - much less current draw plus more light.

[Miguel!]

I can vouch for the Cyclops. I've been using the Cyclops 10K on my R1100RT for 15K miles over hte last 3 years. The R1100RT has only a single bulb with two "filaments", one for low and one for high. It's 10,000 lumens (quite bright!) on both low and high beam and only takes 27 or 37 Watts on either setting. My local independent BMW dealer has been installing them on the oilheads, including police oilhead, bikes he services and has seen very few problems with them. It's MUCH brighter than the OEM incandescent bulbs which required 55/60 Watts..The R1100RT Cyclops has a fan which I was skeptical of but I'd buy this bulb again. I don't know about the bulbs for your bike but I recommend considering teh Cyclops. Mine was $70 on Amazon. 

 

Best

Miguel

[RogerC60]

On 3/9/2022 at 7:52 PM, DesertRoads said:

I recently acquired a 2003 R1150RT and wanted to swap out the headlight bulbs for something brighter--exploring LED's as well as brighter halogen.  What are all the bulbs in the housing?  Seems like I see a low beam up front, then two high beam bulbs, and on the dash there is a switch for more lights?  They all function (except the parking light is burnt out), but I want something brighter that helps me get noticed.  Thank you in advanced!

The bulb in the very center in the center of that reflector is the high beam bulb, an H3. It's very difficult to replace that one with an LED (AMHIK). Finding an H3 bulb that is both bright enough to serve as a headlight and narrow enough to fit in the housing is a challenge.

 

The low beam bulb is hiding behind that reflector, but changing it to an LED is pretty easy. The recommended H7 bulb from superbrightleds fits, but the heat sink is too large to allow the plastic housing cover to snap back into place. I used a Hikari H7 LED I bought from Amazon; it has a much smaller back end with a fan and fits perfectly.

 

The other two bulbs off to the side are fog lights, operated by that switch on the left side of the dashboard. They are also H3. I replaced them with amber LED bulbs and run with them on all the time for increased conspicuity.

 

[DesertRoads]

8 hours ago, RogerC60 said:

The bulb in the very center in the center of that reflector is the high beam bulb, an H3. It's very difficult to replace that one with an LED (AMHIK). Finding an H3 bulb that is both bright enough to serve as a headlight and narrow enough to fit in the housing is a challenge.

 

The low beam bulb is hiding behind that reflector, but changing it to an LED is pretty easy. The recommended H7 bulb from superbrightleds fits, but the heat sink is too large to allow the plastic housing cover to snap back into place. I used a Hikari H7 LED I bought from Amazon; it has a much smaller back end with a fan and fits perfectly.

 

The other two bulbs off to the side are fog lights, operated by that switch on the left side of the dashboard. They are also H3. I replaced them with amber LED bulbs and run with them on all the time for increased conspicuity.

 

Thank you for the lighting explanation and recommendations Roger.  Much appreciated!  Just trying to figure out now how to access them.  Remove all plastic?

[RogerC60]

I needed to remove the tupperware to get access to the fog lights. In addition, my bike came with stereo speakers, and these made it more difficult to get to the fog lights. Since my bike didn't have a radio, I just removed the speakers.

 

For headlights there is no need to remove tupperware. Reach under the speedometer past the steering head and remove the oval black plastic cover. It helps to have an extra couple of joints in your arm between elbow and wrist. (I'm joking!) (No I'm not.)

 

Replacing the low beam headlight is not extremely difficult. There's another post on this forum that is very well written: 

 

 

The high beam was much more difficult for me to get to. Here's a post that includes some pictures showing what the parts look like that hold that bulb in place:

Oddly enough, the parts fiche for the R1150RT doesn't show these parts. But the 2004 K1200LT uses the same parts, and they do show up in the fiche for that bike.