standard V Halogen lightiing

[i.p.phrealy]

Right, I have a Chinese bike (stop it now) and it has a BA20D fitting 35w bulb. considering how crap the beam on it is, is it worth bunging the same wattage Halogen in there, or is there something even better?
preferably without messing a shedload of the wiring about.
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it is impossible to lick your own elbow...
and if you just tried you need professional help.
Finally allowed a big bike 19/03/14!

[daemonoid]

Another option would be LED. Although I can offer no advice about suitability.
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[lukamon]

theoretically a hologen bulb is much better and an obvious upgrade however you need to get the bulb out first and check the fitting. car and bike halogen headlaps have set fitting and connectors known as H1, H4, H7 ect, which your bike could have a unique bulb fitting. for example, my old cub 90 had a wierd fitting standard bulb, and the only way i could get a halogen fitment was on the owners club where a guy was specifically mamking small numbers of those bulbs for other members.
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[Ichy]

[G]

[Raffles]

OP, type ''BA20D'' into the search BCF facility.
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A good loser will always be a loser.

[Vincent]

If you get a halogen bulb, don't forget to keep yer greasy fingers of the bulb - (unless they've changed in recent years making it now safe to do so).

Can you get LED bulbs for High/Low beam?
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Space Is Deep

[Noxious89123]

I'd imagine that LED would dazzle the fook out of other road users, even though the ebay ad says it won't...
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'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[U_W v2.0]

what chinese bike is it?

i had the same fitting on my chinese hn125-8 and changed to a halogen bulb.

the brightness wasnt really any better but the light was more "white light" than "orange/ellow light"

i'd go with a HID kit, but you may need a new bowl and lens depending on heat. having not installed a HID kit i dont know the heat generation of the HID bulbs.

when i was looking at upgrading the headlight teflon mike essentially said that a better lens would help improve things. i.e something from honda ect.
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[Im-a-Ridah]

HID and adjust the headlight aim down.

[Ichy]

[U_W v2.0]

if its anything like mine then the problem is the extra load over the wires.

i can freely state that even the copper wiring on the chinese bikes leaves some to be desired. and i would not want to risk running a 50watt halogen over these wires in fear of fire

however until op delivered on bike details cant be sure.
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[symonh2000]

When you buy the bulb, try not to buy a generic ebay one.

From experience they are far inferior to the brand name ones such as Phillips, Osram, Ring etc...
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[i.p.phrealy]

the bike is a Sukida SK125 (don't laugh) commissioner (yes, really, commissioner. fook knows where they came up with that one).
it's a clone of the Suzuki CG125.
I have looked now at halogen and payday is friday, (Thank fook) may try and source a Suzuki lens too.
I had already thought that sticking a 50w in would be a really bad idea, i knew it would probably burn the loom out and probably damage the lens and casing. seen good and bad things about LED, and HID looks like it will require a fair bit of rewiring, that TBH isn't worth it on a bike i may be chopping in for something bigger once I have my test out of the way.
Halfords is about 200 yards from my flat so I may pop over one evening in the week and see what they have on shelf.
...then ask the guitarist of my band to get me one with his staff discount!
____________________
it is impossible to lick your own elbow...
and if you just tried you need professional help.
Finally allowed a big bike 19/03/14!

[i.p.phrealy]

who's OP by the way?
____________________
it is impossible to lick your own elbow...
and if you just tried you need professional help.
Finally allowed a big bike 19/03/14!

[Vincent]

[symonh2000]

[U_W v2.0]

installing a HID kit isnt to bad.

for the most part its relatively simple in terms of the install depending on the hardware you already have.

some bowls require a bit of modification to fit a H4 bulb fitting, some require a whole new bowl and lens to handle the heat generation.

i know teflon mike and a few others have installed HID kids before, check out youtube for some HID installation videos as well.

to be honest, if your looking for a cheap and easy solution, you can always get some spot/fog lights, however there are laws around the use of these on public roads to worth looking into this aspect as well.

as you said, a 50watt bulb will cause damage to the loom and possibly other mechanical parts of the bike such as the generator.

people on here have actually advised me against LED bulbs for the headlamp as its something i considered for mine. something to do with MOT's, dazling road users and lack of dip/main beam directionality changes.
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[Ichy]

[i.p.phrealy]

[bridgedino]

Hi, I tried various types of bulbs in a Varadero 125 which takes the same 35w bulb as you are talking about. The halogen ones ( available in Halfords at around £6) are slightly better but only just, the equivalent Xenon bulbs are better still. As for he LED ones, forget it. They simply shine out and forward, no rearward refraction at all. You get almost zero projection of light, trust me, I ought and tried then. The best you could get without HID are the Xenon ones

[tahrey]

Just as a maybe relevant contribution:

As part of me picking up parts for doing out my CG, I also ordered some new bulbs - a 35/35w halogen and 45/40w incandescent from WeMoto, and a 50/50w halogen from an eBay supplier (BitzforBikes).

I've previously found a 35w halogen upgrade to be a pretty good choice for a smaller/slower bike doing some limited non-streetlit work without having to limit yourself to 30mph everywhere. Unfortunately the quality of those bought from Halfords was dire, they never lasted any amount of time before having some kind of fault. Couldn't then find any brick-and-mortar place selling anything better than a 35w incandescent in that fitting.

Hopefully one of these three will be some cop (if the 50 works without either melting itself, the reflector, my wiring or battery I'll be made up, but will settle for one of the others being usable). I'll report back.

Also I got some LED dash lights to free up a few crucial watts in the system. Bridging an example one across the output of a 12v transformer worked well, so I've got high hopes for them. Might see if I can replace the "pilot light" (aka sidelight) with one as well, given that it's basically pointless and only installed as a legal requirement.

(I definitely have enough power in the system to run 36w hotgrips on top of the standard bulb without draining the battery, so hopefully there's that additional 5-10-15w left over, or whatever amount it needs to be with the LEDs in place)

[tahrey]

[map]

Came across this thread as was looking for better illumination for daughter's Vespa LX50 and the lad's XL125V.
As far as I can work out both use the BA20d (aka 395) 12v 35/35w bulb.

So for about £5 ballpark I'm getting them some Xenon bulbs that use the same bayonet fitting.

So changing this...
https://images.wemoto.com/full/BULB_12V/10005040.jpg
for this...
https://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server1200/111df/products/111/images/250/H6M-BA20D__67705.1325696493.1280.1280.jpg

(just as examples, may end up buying from elsewhere!).

Opinions welcome
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[Rogerborg]

Stock BA20D 35W:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/__DYtEEjm5wE/SdPeCERUCgI/AAAAAAAAACY/Hi0Y4oAPCyA/s320/dim_lights.jpg

50W 7500K halogen:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/__DYtEEjm5wE/SdPeFoQbyVI/AAAAAAAAACg/jF32MofLYcU/s320/bright_lights.jpg

Do iiiiiit.

The only thing I found was that the dipped and full beam were t'other way around. The bulb is handed so it wasn't going in the wrong way. I assume that the stock one was crazy, and swapping the wires over (at the nearby bayonet connections) sorted it.
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