Night Riding Lights

[Steveo]

Hi, I have a 2003 Ec 200 and looking to do some night riding and the current headlight doesnt seem man enough for the Job.

Anyone got any recomendations ie a replacement unit or Helmet lights etc.

Thanks stevo

[INABIL]

I ride mainly at night and have a stock headlight. I used to have a 10 watt Mtn. bike headlight I would wear on my helmut but it slipped off and got eaten by my rear sprocket, lost forever. A helmut light is key to riding at night so you can point to see where you are gonna go and helps when going over logs. I was able to ride a gear higher with the helmut light too. I think the next one I get will be the double light by I think is Night Sun, one is 10 watts and the other is 15 watts and I'll wing nut it on to my visor this time.

It would be nice to have a brighter headlight too.

[snoogans]

The thing you need is HID lights! Here in Sweden we ride alot in the dark and have great lights now a days. Most riders who race run one or two 35W HIDs on the helmet and one 35 or 50W on the bike. We use mainly parts from the car industry and we mount them in 70mm lights on the helmet and 8 inch extra light on the bike. This require that you make a modification on the stator that floats the ground or you rewind the wireing on the stator. Then mount a rectifier and a battery.

If you just do a "floating ground" mod you get enough power to run one and if your lucky two HIDs. If you rewind the stator you get power to run 3 if youre an agressive rider but you can run 2 without any problems.

The other thing you can do is to buy a 3-phase stator and get about the same power as if you rewind the stator. This stator has MASSIVE power on high rev but doesent produce much on low revs.

My lights are home made, but there are a many that sells HIDs here in Sweden, the prices are in the range of 300 and 750 USD(150 and 375 BP). I build my own alot cheaper!

[Steveo]

Thanks for the Replies, im gonna start with a new Stock Headlight as the reflector doesnt look great and take it from there, Snoogans, i will drop you a mail re your Hid setup.

Thanks Steveo

[Leon_gasgas]

Hi!

You don't need to do any stator mod on the 200-250-300. Do a forum search for DC conversion... If you really want to use just the stock headlight go with the 2005-2007 model which produces ok light for a stock enduro headlight and much better than the previous headlight. The other option is to use an acerbis dual halogen headlight.

[bergerhag]

If you are gonna run anywhere else than on the road a helmet light setup is absolutely essential. A helmet HID is what I prefer.

[Steveo]

Ive contacted my Local Dealer in the UK and a Stock Headlamp is £55 , a 2005 Headlight is £120 and the Acerbis Dual Halogen is £90

Will i be able to fit the Acerbis Dual Halogen Headlight which is 55w without any alterations ?

cheers Steveo

[Leon_gasgas]

If you live in UK then for sure you have the EC model with the bigger stator. Take off the tank and check in the wire harness above the cylinder head for a free taped white wire. Remove the tape and plug it to the harness after you unplug the yellow wire coming from the stator. Install the dual halogen acerbis headlight and use two 35W IRC (they correspond to 50Watts each... tried!) Osram lamps (1 with 10 degree and the other with a bigger angle for the lens). Make sure they are on when the engine is on.. not to fry the oem regulator. Then you can use a similar 20W lamp (corresponds to 35W) as a helmet light.

I was using this setup for two winters. The lights were OK but they don't compare to 35W HID lights. The ECs can run 2 HID lights without any stator mod. Do a search in the forum for DC conversion and you will find all the steps and what parts you need to buy.

[Steveo]

Hi Leon,
This maybe a completely dumb question but what does removing the yellow wire from the stator and connecting the white wire into the loom do ?

I assume the DC conversion is required for the Hid lights ?

[Leon_gasgas]

Hi!

Just find the post I am talking about and follow this wiring for DC conversion without touching the stator. In 30 min you can go back to oem setup.

The yellow wire from stator offers less power. Enough for the oem 35W headlight plus taillight. The white wire offers max power from the stator. In the winter setup I am using only the white wire (tape the yellow wire.. make sure it doesn't touch anywhere) connected to a DC rec/reg. Running 2 trailtech hid helmet lights (26W total) plus a 35W hid headlight without any problems with a 1,2Ah battery. The path is generally slow with some technical rock gardens. I would know by now if there was a charging problem.