UPDATE: 07/02/14- The cause of the damage has been discovered. See post #18 in this thread! Here is another photo of the damage. Anyone else had this happen to your TR650?
I have seen it on trucks that were running the high and low beam at the same time. I would check the bulb and confirm only one element is working during high beam. If both elements are working the bulb generates too much heat which melts sockets and plastic lens.
Baddrapp is correct, both filaments could be running at the same time. I've seen it happen before, and personally had a housing catch on fire on an old Triumph. In that case, it was faulty wiring that was providing power to both filaments. If this is the case for you, I would suspect that you'd find damage to your socket, which is going to pose a much bigger risk to you and your bike than the lense. Pull the socket and check it out. Throw a meter on the terminals and see what kind of voltage you're getting, and test that your Hi/Lo switch is functioning correctly by ensuring that the voltage switches when you actuate the switch.
Thanks Fellers for the advice. I'll check it out. For sure, the hi/lo switch works, with different light output, and the hi/flash button works too.
As well as ensuring that there is different light output between low and high, you need to doublecheck that the low is going off when the high is on. The 3 possible combinations are Lowbeam - low only. Highbeam - high only. Flash button both low and high beam. You can check correct operation of this by putting the lights in low beam, pressing the flash button and then with the flash button still pressed switch it to high beam. When you switch to high beam the low beam should extinguish and leave only the highbeam on.
O.K., as suggested above, I tested the headlight in all possible combos and it works fine. Sooo, I have a hypothetical to propose. I noticed the melted headlight on the ride back from the bike getting the updated MOSS tool flash. That took about 45 minutes at the dealer. Here is my postulation: Could the tech have left the key on during the service and with the headlight on (maybe even on hi-beam), could the plastic have melted during that time? Now, I did not observe the process, so I have no idea whether the ignition is off or on during the MOSS version update process. Has anyone watched the process? I am just thinking out loud here, not sure if this is even a viable possibility.
Possible, sure. But I've left my key in the ignition with the light on for about an hour before with no ill effects.
O.K., just a thought. It was too much of a coincidence the service and then discovering the melted headlight. The Service Mgr. checked ALL the lights and signals when I brought it in. We both looked the bike over before it was taken in to be serviced and neither of us noticed anything unusual on the headlight, at that time.
I'm glad I caught this thread as just a few days ago while riding in total darkness I noticed I could run both the high & low beam at the same time if I held the switch just so. I only did it for a few seconds as I figured there had to be some ill effect of doing so.
My understanding of the TR650 service and diagnostics procedures is that the bikes can and are left running at idle in the workshop for a very long time. When the mechanic came back from attending the TR650 maintenance courses the Australian importer was running for the techs, he told me that even in the workshop during the course they were letting the engines run until the exhausts started glowing red (probably not something you'd notice in daylight but you would in a workshop).
I'd like to do some heat testing to see what kind of temps I get in my assembly, however I recently converted to an LED bulb, so my results would be useless. Anyone with an IR thermometer want to go take some measurements to see how hot your assembly gets?
Badrapp and I are using the same one. I get a little scatter on the high beam, but the low beam works better than the high beam on the stock bulb. http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/3600-Lumen-H4-H6M-LED-Headlight-bulb-_p_83.html
I was going to play with the bulb this week. I am going to try the bulb set at different depths inside the headlight. It might be a tad to deep causing the light to scatter a bit.
UPDATE: So, I took my Strada to a BMW/KTM mechanic and he took one look at the melted headlight and knew immediately what happened to it. The headlight was on during the MOSS service, and melted the plastic cover. During the MOSS tool software update, the bike is put on an external power source BECAUSE the ignition is left on for 45 minutes to one hour to do the job. The TR650 headlight STAYS ON when the ignition is switched on, like KTM bikes. This mechanic has seen several KTM melted headlights because the high beam was left on during a service. He said it is not a problem for BMWs because they use glass headlight covers. His shop is VERY careful to check that the LOW BEAM is selected during a ECU/mapping service on any bike, just to avoid problems like the one I experienced. The shop where the damage occurred is ordering me a new headlight, as they concurred with the conclusion of the independent mechanic. CONCLUSION: If you have the MOSS tool service, be sure that the headlight switch is positioned to LOW BEAM ONLY. Or your bike might suffer the same damage, as pictured above.
Unknown, the tech did not write it down and I called a few days later to find out, but they could not locate the information. Sorry.
