What's the highest recommended wattage for low & high beam bulb?

[jskene]

What's the highest recommended wattage for low & high beam bulb?

 

I would like to get the highest power that won't melt something.

 

I plan to run them both off relays. There is a 1 volt drop in the wiring now, with a 55W bulb, which is giving me only about 67% of the rated output of the bulb.

 

Incidentally, there is an excellent article on why you should use a relay at:

 

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

[rdfrantz]

No matter how much "power" you install in the sockets, your results, what you can see, will be constrained by the construction of the Lamps.

 

Low beam spread, and cutoff, are good. That said, quite because of the spread it is dim and could be helped with more light output. However it would take an unreachable doubling of output to come close to automobile visibility values. That's not doable. Perhaps 80W is all that will long survive in a housing of that size, configuration, and materials.

 

High beam is terrible. The lensing produces a narrow, vertical stripe hardly wider than a two lane roadway a third of a mile on. No brightening of that strip will be much help.

 

Ergo, many of us have installed Moto Lights, with 75W lamps, to augment the low beams. Choices for high beam augmentation vary. HID units aren't fast enough to illuminate for me, so I like the recently discontinued PIAA 910 with 110W bulbs - and 55/60W bulbs in a similar color. Hella FF units with conventional Quartz-Halogen bulbs (Up to 80W in the FF200) match the color of the BMW standard bulbs.

 

Best wishes with your choice(s).

[DR Major]

Agree with others on the beam pattern.

 

HOwever, HID is great help!!!

2nd, mount the PIAA X1100 under the chin. That's high enough to get some light down on the road. I have Motolights and love them for the saftey factor and they light the road area up, but they don't put as much light ON the road.

 

On my RT, I had the PIAA 1100 under the chin and Motolights on the forks. The Motolights stayed on all the time. The PIAA relay was tied into the high beam. GREAT LIGHT for all occations.!!!!

[jjohnson24]

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Home/Main/main.html

 

The guy at this link makes wiring and relay kits for running higher wattage lights on your BMW and getting the full value. There were some tests of his stuff over on Adv Rider. Stuff makes a difference.

[270]

Don't know what you ride, so I can't make any recommendations. I do know that the later reflectors and housing do not like the added heat from higher wattage bulbs. You are best off with going with an HID kit. No, they are not legal, but neither are higher wattage bulbs for high or low beams. There are some decent kits out there. I have both high and low beams configured in HID on my 1150RT. I can't recommend the high beam as there are some careful modifications that need to be done to accomplish this. My high beam isn't as straight as I'd like it to be, but it is bright and is reasonable well aligned. I also have PIAA 1100's under the nose and Hella FF50's above the mirrors. The FF50's are on with the high beams, and the PIAA's are selected with the fog light switch from the factory. It's a lot of light.

 

Back to your original question: I'd stay away from higher wattage bulbs. An upgrade to a relay and wiring from the battery is very easy. It should cost about $10 with parts sourced from your local NAPA store. It should take no more than a few hours to accomplish.

[kioolt]

I don't know what model K-bike you ride but I can tell you that I ran a 100/55 H4 in my 91K100LT for years without any problem.