I am considering fitting two additional lights to my K100. The one's I am looking at ate 55w halogen and they will operate with my head light.

My battery is 28A/hr. Altenator is stock.

Will this be too much of a power drain on my elecrtrical system?

I know LED's would probably be better, but the halogen lights are far cheaper. Also, would using  35w bulbs lessen the load on the electrical system?

Lights will not be used for night riding; mainly as hi-viz day driving lights.

Many here have done hi viz dayrunning with cheap as, strip LEDs in various home made housings. CF and others

do the park light with cheap LEDs. These all draw minimal power and in my humble are quite striking in daylight.

Search for those or someone will link Ya.

Found one! Sometimes I even amaze myself!

https://www.k100-forum.com/t5442-mirror-mounted-leds

It shows CFs park light mod too.

Ghost who rides wrote:Many here have done hi viz dayrunning with cheap as, strip LEDs in various home made housings. CF and others

do the park light with cheap LEDs. These all draw minimal power and in my humble are quite striking in daylight.

Search for those or someone will link Ya.

Found one! Sometimes I even amaze myself!

https://www.k100-forum.com/t5442-mirror-mounted-leds

It shows CFs park light mod too.

Thanks for the response. But:

My K100 is a naked bike. I only have the small fairing around the (round) head light. No flat surface to mount lights on (LED's or conventional). Been thinking of mounting the lights on little extensions I screw into the top crash bar fitting on the engine.

35 watt is fine for daytime attention getting
they are quite bright and don't suck the power much at all  

and an added benefit is you could use them for night time fill on the close proximity to the front ....given that night time riding is not a common event with them on around the city ...but country  and infrequent opposite direction travellers  seem to have no issue with the 35 watters ...only ever been flashed  once at night with them on in the country ...but I switch them off when possible passing opposite direction travellers

caféracer62 did similar to what you are proposing ...and it looked good to me

 
ask  the northern aussie guys ...most have seen them 
a good notice gaining addition in my opinion
good luck

Apologies for being a noob. But: My alternator is rated at 33A/460W (according to the haynes manual). With all the other things using power on the bike, will 2 x 35w riding lights and 1 x 55w main beam not be excessive power consumption?

I cannot really assist you as to whether your charging system will cope with the extra load of the driving lamps you propose using, but one thing you ought to consider is how you are going to switch these lights. There are plenty of posts on the forum regarding the use of relays to control the headlight.  Normally there are no relays, and all the current goes through the switches on the handlebars.  This is not good for the switch contacts and causes voltage drop; put an extra 5+ amps (2 x 35 = 70, 70 divided by 12 = 5) through those contacts/wiring and you have a recipe for meltdown.

If you do not wish to fit relays, and that may not be the easiest job on an unfaired machine, then I would suggest you go for the LED option, as they have minimal current drain.  Those 35W halogen lamps may not be so cheap when you factor in the necessary relays.

I have fitted relays, daytime LED running lights, and a couple of halogen driving lamps, but my bike has a high output, Police specification alternator.

not at all mate ...most of us have the same equipment

here a simple way to work it out

lets just suppose that the electrics (ecu's, fuel pump, ignition pull 10 amps ) lets put that aside as running costs

so 35 watts   by ohms law   = 35 /12  = something like just under 3 amps each
so 55 watts  by ohms law    = 55/12  = something like  just 4.6 amps

so including other things like instrument illumination ...rear tail lamp ..etc ... possibly total all up
might be something like  15 amps total

plus running stuff maybe  25 amps total current .... so well under the 33 amp capacity of the alternator

this allows for charging the battery and all that stuff,  all within reason

but start adding things like heated vest ...heated hand grips and more that might put it over the limit

but being sensible unless you use them all at once ...not really an issue

hope that helps ....(not actual figures for running current required but a good allowance )

as mentioned above relays are a god send ...the wiring for switching all that stuff (lights etc )  happens mostly through the right hand switch assembly ...but nearly all of us have experienced interesting results to melting switch gear ....once relays are fitted the current through that switch is reduced to about  1 or 2 amps .....instead of 10s of amps

look around ...you will find many recommendations in the forum

use the "search " feature  "relays "

gunsports wrote:Apologies for being a noob. But: My alternator is rated at 33A/460W (according to the haynes manual). With all the other things using power on the bike, will 2 x 35w riding lights and 1 x 55w main beam not be excessive power consumption?

I ran 2 x 55W driving lights and a 55W headlight on my K1100 with a 460W alternator and it coped with the load OK.
I am now running a 720W alternator and it has improved for night time riding a bit.

The first question to ask is why do you want to add aux lighting?  a) to improve your bike's visibility/conspicuity in traffic or b) to get more light on the road at night?

No one aux light will do both well.

Based on my experience with numerous K bikes, a K bike with a 32A alternator has somewhere in the neighborhood 125ish "spare" watts so you can run a pair of 55W aux lights but when you throw in heated grips and maybe some heated gear then you'll run out of spare watts which results in draining the battery when riding.

(Nothing gets damaged if you exceed the alternator's output capacity. It just doesn't have enough juice to power everything so any additional load beyond its capacity drains from the battery.)

The assumption that LEDs cost more than conventional lights is no longer valid.  

I recently purchased four of these for $53 shipped on Fleabay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4X-12V-24V-Flood-Round-US-Cree-LED-10W-800LM-Work-Light-Offroad-Driving-Boat-SUV-/380779374820?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item58a83828e4&vxp=mtr

And then used some longer bolts and stainless or aluminum spacers to mount them on the forward fork reflector bolts.

Since a pair only draws roughly 2A I did not have to bother with wiring them through a relay and they can be controlled via an OEM switch on the dash pad. (The heated grip switch handles about 44W so running 20W through a dash switch is a non-issue.)

Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I plan to use relays on the aux. driving lights. No, I have no heated grips etc. The only ascessories that I plan to add to the bike is a GPS; which is fused at 1A.

If I can help it, I do not ride at night. These lights are intended as day light riding lights to make the bike more viable to traffic (in addition to a high viz vest, etc., etc.)

I recently bought a pair of two white LED semi-flexible strips of about 280mm (+/-11") each in length. I'm wiring one of them into the 'parking' light circuit because it has minimal current draw. This strip is getting mounted just underneath the headlight below the front fairing. I'm seeking visibility to other drivers more than an increase in what I can see as I've noticed a marked increase in lane intruders (crossing into me from the sides & front) since the days have grown shorter and we're all commuting in darkness book-ending our work days. A test light up shows it to be quite noticeable both from the front and at the sides.

Out the back, besides an LED brake/tail light conversion which adds, effectively, the light of two bulbs instead of one to the 'running' light, I've added some cool, black reflective sheets to fit the back outline of the panniers, which, when hit with light, turn bright white.

http://www.motoequip.com/RK.htm

Will any of this stop the bastards? Nuh, not all of 'em, but at least they'll see me before the bump.

Gunsports,

   Yes, they had aftermarket fork-mounted Bosch 55w lights for the K100. These do pop up occasionally on E-bay.

I purchased a set last year and mounted them to my RT, you can read about the process by clicking on the link below in my signature line. 

There are two ways to wire them up, as a fog light/driving light combo (original), or as a duo fog light or duo road light pair. If you read about my experiences you'll discover the two different wiring schemes. 

As for lighting up the road, I am very satisfied with my road lights, basically I own the night.  When lit, the three-lamp system focuses primarily on the lane ahead and makes it very clear to oncoming traffic that this is a motorcycle. I can tell a few interesting stories about being chased by another motorcycle on a dark highway, as the other bike had poor lighting and couldn't keep up with me on the curves.

I will also use the road lights on occasion in the daytime in congested areas where I want increased visibility.

The other thing I like about fork-mounted lights is they can be swiveled in parking lots and for other purposes when the bike is stopped.

Cheers!

Last week I came across. 30W H4 LED headlight bulb. As soon as I fit it and know the results I will post a link. I expect 30w LED to be fairly awesome.

92KK K100LT 193214 wrote:Last week I came across. 30W H4 LED headlight bulb. As soon as I fit it and know the results I will post a link. I expect 30w LED to be fairly awesome.

I see those listed on eBay as for "daytime driving" so I suspect it may not put out much light at night - at least in the desired direction.  The reflectors in our K bike headlights are optimized for how halogen bulbs emit light.

Will be interesting to hear about your results.

Duck:

Those Cree lights that you mounted off the fork reflectors...

Would you say they were for conspicuity purposes only?

Do they do anything for you at night?

Thanks,

Brad

Brad-Man wrote:Duck:

Those Cree light that you mounted off the fork reflectors...

Would yo say they sere for conspicuity purposes only?

Do they do anything for you at night?

Thanks,

Brad

For me, I installed them for conspicuity only. I don't know for sure since I don't use them at night but I suspect, being floods, that they don't shoot light out very far.

For driving lights I've got some Hella FF50s that I converted to HID and tied into the high beam.

duck wrote:

92KK K100LT 193214 wrote:Last week I came across. 30W H4 LED headlight bulb. As soon as I fit it and know the results I will post a link. I expect 30w LED to be fairly awesome.

I see those listed on eBay as for "daytime driving" so I suspect it may not put out much light at night - at least in the desired direction.  The reflectors in our K bike headlights are optimized for how halogen bulbs emit light.

Will be interesting to hear about your results.

I am hoping they should be ok because the LEDs are arranged in the same configuration as the halogen pattern to make use of the reflectors. I have a set already that I tried in the car and they were fine, better than 60W but not as good as 160W....!!

In the spring of  2011, I picked up a set of used PIAA 1000X Platinum Series driving lights from Craigslist.  These are rugged, compact 55W quartz halogen lamps similar in size to the Catz XLOs, evangelized on Motobrick.  The main feature that I looked for was size but equally important was to find driving lights where the mounting tabs allowed the lights to be suspended from the fender mounting bolts.  The PIAAs had both features ... and came at a great price too!



I fabricated a mount from M6 x 110mm fillister head stainless bolts, and a length of ASTM AS213 / AS269 3/8” OD by 0.065” AW seamless SS tubing that fit beautifully over the M6 bolts.  I cut peices as standoffs from the fork legs and spacer between the enclosure mounting tabs.



PIAA decided to stop producing the MR16 bulb that is used in this lamp so, luckily, a standard LED MR16 bulb fits in the enclosure. I purchased two Philips 7W LED bulbs from Home Depot.



The light intensity of this bulb is equivalent to a 35W halogen bulb, sufficient for use as fog lamps or visibility markers.  The beam pattern is incorrect for use as driving lights because there is no lens on the front of the PIAA to produce the correct cutoff pattern. The lights have worked flawlessly since I installed them.