It's good to see.
And it's good to be seen.
Headlight upgrades and motorbike auxiliary lighting not only improve
visibility dramatically at night, but they can be a huge
safety feature at daytime because you can be much more noticeable to car drivers.
We will look into various easy budget options for motorbike headlights up to around the $200 mark.
Lets start with what should be your first step, a motorbike LED headlight bulb.
We tested some five years ago and they were still crap, but today they have really hit the mark.
We've had very good results with the Cyclops LED, designed specifically for motorbikes.
There are a few reasons we think it should be your first option.
Why? Because it looks legal.
Rules vary between different states and countries.
The more your bike looks stock, the less hassles with the cops.
It's just plug and play.
Simply pop out your old adventure bike H4, tuck the new wiring away, and off you go.
No relays, dimmers, transformer modules or extra electronics.
At 2500 lumens the Cyclops is much stronger than the stock adventure bike lighting,
but only draws 28W.
The stock bulb draws 60W.
So if wanted, you can add an extra 30W of lighting just using your existing wiring.
It has a fan to keep things cool.
Any quality LED with a good output will run very hot,
the Cyclops comes with a fan to extend its lifespan.
For $10, there's also an ultra version which keeps the low beam on when you switch to high beam,
resulting in 5000 lumens and a draw of 56W.
We advise against cheap LED headlight bulbs,
they often don't last long and may not throw the light properly.
E.g. blinding oncoming drivers on low beam.
Cheaper options for your adventure bike headlight bulb?
Some manufacturers put halogen bulbs with a 100w high beam and 90w low beam.
However this could overload the wiring on many bikes.
And not be very effective as the stock wiring may not allow enough draw.
Next? Ultra bright H4 motorbike bulbs.
Some manufacturers Sylvania, Phillips and Osram make premium halogen bulbs,
claiming anything from 30% to 100% more light.
In our experience they don't seem much brighter, although
opting for a whiter light than the standard yellow halogens can help.
It must makes sense to spend a bit more and go LED nowadays.
Next... auxiliary lights for adventure bikes.
There are very expensive kits out there, but you can do it very cheaply too.
For example, we spent just $30 for two
5W LED spot lights then wired them into the existing high beam for plenty of extra light.
If you run the Cylops H4 LED, you can mount two 15W spotlights and still use the stock wiring.
This would provide a crazy amount of light.
Plenty of options here.
Lightbars.
Two spotlights.
And you can choose narrow or wide beams.
After this, things start to get more expensive, or more complicated, or both.
You can replace the entire headlight unit.
Or you can fit relays to safely allow a lot more current and really turn the night time into day.
But we'll leave for that for another video.
What has worked for you?
Do you have further ideas for budget setup?
We are keen to hear your tips.
Let us know and we'll put them in the pinned first comment on Youtube!