BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Found this bulb on the Amazon.com for less than 10 bucks.
Here is the link http://www.amazon.com/Hella-HLA-H831401 ... roduct_top
Does anybody uses such a high wattage bulb without any ill effect .
I am questioning the wires, switch and reflector.
The relay would help, but how about the heat factor in the headlight
In the review section of this bulb, one guy uses it on the BMW K75 and gave it a 4 stars.

I use that exact bulb on my R1100R.
Superb light output.
Not a lick of trouble.
It's lasted three years so far.

I did some research on headlight setups looking for more light.

I ended up with the Eastern Beaver headlight relay setup for starters as I read that the stock wiring is marginal, and of course the load goes thru the switch. It wasn't that difficult to install, mostly a bit of effort to get it all to fit into the headlight shell.

Given that marginal voltage is delivered to the bulb, it was mostly agreed that just the relay setup would help somewhat by increasing the voltage, as well as relieving the switch from carrying the full voltage, being used just to activate the high and low relays.

I also read that, at least in relatively smaller headlight enclosures, the Halogen bulbs gave off lots of heat that got trapped in the enclosure and in some cases damaged wiring and the socket. I don't need to create any more problems than already seem to find me, so for that reason I opted to go with a non-Halogen Hella Zenon H4 bulb and, with my luck, also opted to go with "legal" wattage. I can readily imagine the non-legal higher wattage bulbs are even brighter.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_529H140272 ... la&tp=2943

They're also available very reasonable at Amazon.

After doing quite a bit of night riding last summer on the way home from night shift, I have to give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Not only is it significantly brighter than the stock setup, I really like the light pattern. On low beam, the left side of the light pattern is rather low where it shines into oncoming traffic but on the right side of the light pattern it is quite a bit higher and does a good job of illuminating farther ahead as well as off to the side, a good thing in the heavily populated deer country I had to ride thru. High beam lights up a long ways ahead and over a wide area covering both shoulders well.

I'm sure there are folks that have used Halogen bulbs on the stock wiring and switch setup without problems, but I'd rather have as good a safety margin as I reasonably can. I don't like worrying about potential breakdowns that I can do something to avoid.

The Meromorph wrote:I use that exact bulb on my R1100R.
Superb light output.
Not a lick of trouble.
It's lasted three years so far.

Thanks for the replies. I placed an order for a couple of Hella H4 100/80W.
Regular stock bulb H4 60/55W is only 5.0/4.6 amps
Hella H4 100/80W bulb will pull about 8.3/6.6 amps
I would say that the wiring and the switch will be OK, I think.
I am not an electrician, but extra 3.3 amps I don't know?
The biggest concern to me is the heat that will be generated by that bulb.
The guy that installed Hella H4 100/80W on his K75 and gave it a good review, probably has the real BOSH headlight with the real BOSH reflector. Maybe "The Meromorph" got the same thing, real BOSH stuff.
Maybe R1100 bikes have less outsourced parts in them than in the newer bikes
The reflectors inside the headlights in our newer bikes are NOT made by BOSH, but produced in Czechoslovakia.
It is not that I have anything against Czechoslovakia, but the jobs in those EX "Republics" are still one big Social event.
I know for sure that my 2002 R1150 has better quality parts than my 2004 R1150, don't ask how I know.
I will install Hella 100/80W bulb and hope I wouldn't have to tell you guys how I spent 150 bucks on the new reflector.