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Old April 1st, 2020, 06:41 AM   #1
ssrsupermoto
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Name: Brad
Location: Zanesville Ohio
Join Date: Mar 2020

Motorcycle(s): 2004 Ninja 250

Posts: 74
2004 headlight bulb upgrade

Looking to upgrade my headlight bulb to something brighter. Want something that will drop in with little to no modification. Some of the LED headlight bulbs have a giant cooling fan on them and I don't know if the stock rubber grommet will fit over them. Let me know what you guys have used.
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Old April 1st, 2020, 09:07 AM   #2
DannoXYZ
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Motorcycle(s): CB125T CBR250R-MC19 CBR250RR-MC22 NSR350R-MC21 VF500F CBR600RR SFV650 VFR750F R1M ST1300PA Valkyrie-F6C

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MOTY - 2018, MOTM - Nov '17
Only high-quality H4 halogen bulb will work. Avoid HID or LED bulbs as they are not designed for specific reflector headlight on bike. Will end up with lots of above-horizontal glare into eyes of oncoming traffic. Making for very dangerous situation for you. Unfortunately there's no better replacement headlight, which is usually the best upgrade to start with.

Narva and Flosser bulbs are good. Vosla, Osram Nightbreaker or Philips are good. .
Avoid Sylvania Silvertars, those are crap.
Avoid boutique coated bulbs like PIAA, 4 out of 5 filaments are out of place on those things.
Look at lumens output ratings

All you need to know about lighting: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html

Try to find Osram Rallye H4 70/65w bulb. Its higher efficiency puts out 2000/1850 lumens, about 50% more than regular H4 bulbs. Got one about 2-yrs ago and it's best output out of them all*.

Last futzed with by DannoXYZ; April 1st, 2020 at 04:02 PM.
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Old April 1st, 2020, 05:04 PM   #3
DannoXYZ
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Name: AKA JacRyann
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MOTY - 2018, MOTM - Nov '17
For better light output, bulbs makes least difference and should be upgraded last.

1. Best upgrade is to replace headlamp with more modern reflector design such as e-code. For bikes with 7" headlamps, it's simple to replace with Cibié e-code lamp.
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/show...33#post1255133

Even better and more modern upgrade is to do HID retrofit with matching HID reflector and HID bulb.
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=335983
https://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64230

2. Next best upgrade is short heavy-duty harness taking power directly from RR for highest voltage before it's split off to charge battery and run other lights and accessories. Factory wiring has power leaving battery-terminal where it's already lowered by sharing with charging battery. Then it goes to ignition-switch and back to fusebox, through headlight-relay and finally back front to high/low-beam switch and finally to headlight. Peel back rubber cover behind headlight and measure voltage at back of headlight socket with bike running and headlight on. If you're not getting 13.5v at headlight socket, you're leaving A LOT of light on table.

Here's example of Cibié e-code headlight upgrade and heavy-duty 10ga relay harness using exact SAME bulb before & after. No bulb alone can spread out light-beam and give you more lumens on road.




3. Finally upgrade bulb to get +50% more lumens onto road. Without previous mods, you'll still have flashlight-beam output and brighter bulb just gives you brighter spot in middle; not as useful as wider beam.
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