Kawi2strokes.com Forum

My H1A headlight is about as bright as my girl friend in High School, dim... very dim. Mostly it is the condition of the bulb and not the wattage.

In fact the whole headlight is pretty rough.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Joe Byrd

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Using a poorly conceived idea along with bad mechanical practice is not an upgrade but rather a recipe for disaster.

How much do you need to have the stock headlight size? If you will install a 7 inch setup I can give you several ideas the H1A charging system will support.

J

I am pretty much locked into the standard headlight ears, I guess I should measure the 7" on the H2 and see how bad the mismatch is. Thanks for the reply.

_________________
Using a poorly conceived idea along with bad mechanical practice is not an upgrade but rather a recipe for disaster.

Joe, is an H1A headlight the same as an H1D?
If so, I converted mine to an H4 65w Halogen for about $18.00.
I can post pics if they are the same.
The H1D sealed beam has a metal back, I removed the filament and soldered a Halogen bulb into the original sealed beam. Looks stock, but very bright.

^^^^^ I tried that with a modded '69 reflector (the one with the removable bulb). It was bright to look at but the focus/pattern was not good (filament in the wrong position to the reflector). Hopefully you made out better.

Joe, FWIW, The inexpensive chrome 3 hole headlight mounts from reproduction decals will accommodate your 34mm tubes. If you go to the 7 inch setup you can mount an H4 lens which opens several options. The Cibie H4 lens possibly has the best light patterns.

J

I didn't do a '69.
I'm very happy with the'73 , that I did.
It wasn't a replaceable bulb type. Used the original reflector.

Mine is of course a sealed beam and has a 1 1/2 inch bulb visible inside, Retro, didn't you break the lense out of one and glue a bulb to the metal backing once?

_________________
Using a poorly conceived idea along with bad mechanical practice is not an upgrade but rather a recipe for disaster.

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Answers are here: http://kawatriple.com/

Mine is a sealed beam.
The back is medal, I heated the solder and removed the 'socket' part of the internal bulb.
Then I crushed the internal bulb with a wooden dowel.
After cleaning out the pieces, I packed an old polishing T-shirt into the sealed beam.
I chucked the T-shirt in my drill motor and buffed the inside reflector and lens.
Then I soldered in an H4 Sylvania Halogen bulb.
I sealed the joint with grey silicone.
I wanted to keep the factory look, so I didn't like the 'stitched' filler around the outside of the beam that was shown on the post that Mraxl posted.
I also replaced the gauge lights, turn, tail lights with LED to offset some of the draw.

battleax,
Just a reminder,
Your CDI pulls power directly from the battery/charging system (unlike the H2/H1D systems that charging and CDI power are separate).

The H1A charging system is very limited. As such even with all lamps replaced with LEDs (I'd leave the charging light a regular bulb though) you will be limited to about 45 watts for a better headlight. If you try to exceed this value your bike will likely suffer performance issues. A dedicated headlight circuit with a control relay will save your old High/low beam switch/wiring and give the brightest light possible.

J