DR650’s BUILD FOR RTW – PART 6

Posted byrtwpaulPosted inUncategorized

Over on DRriders, I’d seen a LED headlight mod by n2o2diver, without even seeing the headlights I knew they’d be crap, so I followed his lead and bought his suggestion for headlights.

This is where the problem began, the seller or manufacturer had changed the design a little. In his write up he had made substantial modifications to the headlight mount, I sat down and figured a way to use the LED and if for any reason you wanted to you could still use the same housing and return to stock…with his version you can’t

Take your headlight apart and remove the mount, have the adjuster screws facing the back of the bike instead of the front. and bend the original mounting tab up out of the way.

[IMG]

take some angle and mount it on the (new) top with a couple of bolts

[IMG]

and that one bolt in the middle will mount to the ‘new’ headlight mount bar – this is where the difference is in the new light design

[IMG]

now mount it as normal and remove the springs from the adjuster screws then screw them all the way in until they hit the light body and make your adjustment, the light is mounted and is rock solid

[IMG]

To fit the surround you need to make two small cuts on the inside for it to fit over the angle that you added

[IMG]

and there you go new headlight

[IMG]

its a plug and play so you low and high beam work as normal, no having to play with wiring

[IMG]

[IMG]

A lot more light for $18

After this a little test, Watts = Amps x Volts for reference – I’ll use 12.5 volts as my reference number

stock light on low beam 4.12 amps or 51.5 watts

[IMG]

high beam stock light 4.56 amps or 57 watts…this bike had a 55/60 bulb

[IMG]

new LED low beam 0.89 amps or 11.125 watts

[IMG]

new LED on high beam 1.60 amps or 20 watts

[IMG]

and to take it one step further I added a 2000 lumen LED light bar to the high beam (both on full) 2.02 amps or 25.25

[IMG]

…so a gain of 31.75 watts, those heated grips or heated seat or heated jacket look like a much more viable option now don’t they without having to do a stator upgrade?

I’ll do a night time light set up once the bikes are done, but from a little further back it looks like this

[IMG]

[IMG]

[IMG]

As I was up front I added a tug strap to help with those moments when the bike takes a nap and isn’t easy to pick up

[IMG]

[IMG]

9 thoughts on “DR650’s BUILD FOR RTW – PART 6”

  1. I think you mounted that upside down, shouldn’t the low beam actually be the lights that are in the lower side?, and I can actually see the word “TOP” in the front glass beeing upside down.

    Like

    1. yes you are correct but if I mount it the other way it actually makes no difference, but the way I mounted it, I can have a low beam that can see over my fender pack and I don’t have to destroy the stock housing if for any reason I need to return to stock

      Like

    2. Also keep in mind this is a generic light it IS NOT made for the DR so Top and Bottom have no relevance, aligmnet is the key once its mounted

      Like

      1. I see, you got low beam from up the fender bag, but I was thinking that the low beam will dazzle everyone that came from the front so you will probably get a lot of high beams on the road from angry drivers in front of you.

        Like

      2. If you read the article you will see that the headlight adjusters are still in place so therefore the headlight can be adjusted to any angle that is required to work and light the best way possible and not blind oncoming drivers. Exactly how a stock headlight works on any vehicle

        Like

    1. decided against it and grabbed some spots I had on the shelf, the original plan was a simple mount off the lower triple tree with a bracket I made but when I added a fender pack it didn’t work.

      Like

Comments are closed.