TE 450 Headlight upgrades

Hey all,
Im looking to upgrade my shoddy 35w stock headlight. Best case scenario would be something MUCH brighter like an HID or something, but i do not want to replace the whole assy. Are there brighter bulbs i can just switch out? or do i need to do some modifications to the electrical system? what have you all done?
thanks
Angus

Go to General main forum, page 2. LED head light first post by mike kay see thumbnail photo, then page 2 1/2 way down by palmer84one see difference as to what you have and the difference. Later George

needs to be street legal

Some experiments with brighter bulbs have melted things, just a FYI. There aren't that many DOT approved alternatives.

I put the LED on my bike. Even if not legal you can always change back to the stocker and get the fixit ticket written off.

Search "Coffee"s posts either here or at thumpertalk (I don't remember which one) - he did some simple mods to the stock light and recorded pictures of the results.

I settled on the 45W/45W bulb - same base and size as the original. I had no melting issues BUT it's cold up here in the fall. I have since drilled one hole at the bottom of the reflector and one larger hole at the top of the reflector to provide cooling.I covered the top hole with a square of open cell foam (cheap stuff you find as a dust guard over a computer fan) and a shot of air filter oil to waterproof. I also removed the tiny 5W running bulb and replaced it with a roll of the same open-cell foam.

The biggest improvement was a set of cheap China-junk round DOT foglights I bought at Princess Auto - replaceable 55W H3 bulbs with brackets/relay/harness for $29 - that I nestled and tiewrapped (LOL) to the inside portion of my Moose brushbusters. I wired in the relay to the high beam so I have "flash to pass" on the street (or "don't pull out" in my case) and a great combo in bush.

I kept the stock harness intact so I could remove one of the fogs from circuit if the battery started getting too low (have not had a problem yet with 55+55+45 forward beam) or was smashed. I bought a set of 35W replacement bulbs to replace the H3s as they burn out but I haven’t had that problem either. I didn’t improve the mounting system because it worked PERFECTLY and provided enough give to allow the lamps to rotate out of the way after minor impact. I eventually crushed one with a tree – bought another pair for full price ($49) – and swapped the new assembly in about 3 minutes.

The best part is the “flash to pass” and having 145W of light to do it with. I don’t mind getting wrapped up with a tree - but eating the side of a car is a no no.

I purchased 12 of the 45/45w bulbs for just over $2 each through an electrical supplier to Eiko Canada (Eiko #6245B A7379). They took 2 weeks.

MAT

Well then put all smog crap back on and get rid of the power-up parts. Don't want to be breaking the Law.
Want to see where your going afterdark put on some good lights.
Later George

what i meant was it cant blind oncoming traffic... i dont care at all if its dot/legal.

If it does simply adjust it down. Several on here have thousands of miles on them and no issues. Later George