New Spotlights?

[mchaggis]

The spotlights on my bike are made from Chromium plated plastic, as I found out from binning it and cracking them. They take some funny chinese bulb 12V 15W, with a fitting I have not been able to find at all. The only bulb with the same fitting was a twin filament scooter headlamp bulb, 6V 23W

I replaced an original with one of those, which was fine if a little bright . It popped and burnt out after a hundred miles or so, including warping the reflector in the light. The original remaining 12V15W bulb in the other side had warped the other reflector too, though not as badly.

The lights I have in mind look exactly the same as the ones present, and should bolt straight on. I imagine I should be able to clip and strip the present wires and rewire the new spotlights in?

The present wires are two-core which should be work for halogens I should think, but what are the chances that the original wiring cannot take 12V 55W halogens when it was originally used for 12V15W single filament?

Any ideas?

https://www.mandp.co.uk/netalogue/photos/large/500202.jpg

Proposed new lights.^

https://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=500202
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[stinkwheel]

Ok, so 55w at 12v is roughly 5A draw. Which is frankly, not a lot and your wire should be ok. This is assuming the wire for each spot comes straight through from the battery BUT

Chances are that there is one wire going to the switch supplying both spots, the headlamp and the tail lamp. So that is going to be 2x55w plus 55w plus 10w making 175w. That works out at just below 15A so the wire would need to be at least that or preferrably a bit higher. It is currently carrying 2x15w plus 55w plus 10w making 90w which draws 7.5A. So fitting those spots would essentially double the current in the wire supplying the switch. Hmmm, doesn't sound so good when you put it that way huh?

Simple solution. Use a double throw relay and hard-wire the supply to the spots to the battery using 15A cable and an inline fuse.

I reckon the takeoff for the current spots will be inside the headlamp so it would make sense to put the relay in here. Use a "five blade twin make and break" relay connected as follows:

30--> Supply from battery with inline fuse and 15A cable.
85--> Existing power supply to the spots (or just one of them and blank off the other if there are two). Now acting as the "switching" voltage.
86--> Earth.
87 and 87--> Supply to the spots using 8A cable.

Nice and neat and nothing to worry about then.

EDIT: N.B. Just remembered that you are on a 125. The above will work from a wiring point of view but I have serious doubts as to whether your alternator has that much current to play with. You should look for some lower powered spots!

You might get your bulbs here:
https://www.vehicle-wiring-products.co.uk/VWPweb2000/lights-3/lights-3.html
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