'07 Tiger Quick & Dirty Headlight Test

[Bjorn Toulouse]

This evening I took a pic of the beam pattern of the OEM 55watt H7 low beam and followed that with a pic of a 100watt H7 replacement bulb. I wanted to see if there was any difference in the beam with the higher output bulb.

The first 2 pics are the OEM followed by the 100watt unit...if you look at the cut-off pattern on my garage door, you can see that the bike was a bit to the left in the 100 pic. Hey, I tried to be exact, but it was dark outside!!

The 3rd and 4th pics are looking at the bike...again, OEM followed by the 100watt.

I confirmed my thoughts (in my mind at least) that higher wattage is not the answer to the beam shrinkage when turning into a corner, this is a function of the projector lens. I also found that the 100watt bulb doesn't cast as crisp a beam as the OEM 55watt bulb. This seems to be caused by the blue tint on the bulb. Sitting on the bike, things don't seem to be as sharply defined when illuminated by the 100watt bulb.

It looks like the way to get good light in the corners is going to require accessory lights, which sucks large scale!!


Rex

[Rincewind]

I would be worried about melting wires if you used that 100-watt lamp to replace the 55-watt stock one.  

I added a set of Motolights which I had from a previous bike - 2x50w MR16 narrow spots.  This does not give off a huge amount of light, but it does provide moderately good ambient light for riding corners at night.  I think you are correct that auxiliary light is the only way to improve it, but others at the Tiger board have claimed good success with the HID replacement systems.

[goodhawk]

from the pics, the 100 w look noticably brighter ( well, more light on road area . . .) assuming the aim was not changed, probably down road projection also better.  BUT - wiring, plastic hear resistance ?

Wonder - just fer curiosity - the wiring mod that ' turns on' the high beam, apparently adjustable to approximate having 2 low beams on - that would be way to go ???? ( still keeps ' high beam' availability.)

[Dave_S]

Wonder - just fer curiosity - the wiring mod that ' turns on' the high beam, apparently adjustable to approximate having 2 low beams on - that would be way to go ???? ( still keeps ' high beam' availability.)

The "twinlight driver"?  I have that mod, and I can't imagine riding in the dark without it.  It definitely helps out quite a bit, although the high beam idiot light stays on, but other than that the high beam functions as normal.  It also helps to adjust the low beam up a bit too.