Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Well it turns out the guy i got the bike from had a slight tim the toolman grunty moment of stupidity somewhere along the line, and put a 100/65watt globe in the Rf instead of the 60/55watt that is specced in the manual (and on the rear of the headlamp itself!).

Needless to say the reason my lowbeam started cutting in and out the other night is that the socket that goes on the back of the globe was melted and utterly f*cked.

spliced & soldered on a new socket, im just lucky the nimrod didn't melt the fricking headlamp moulding itself.

Yeah yeah, i know, that's what i get for buying a suzuki, assholes

yea we kno it,....u kno it.....but sum dickheads dont kno it...

i was at the servo one day waiting for the attendant to take my $$ while he was attending to sum twat...who owned sum super posho car...and he wanted "the biggest globe u got to replace my 60w halogen"....i politely advised he should stick with OEM reccomended wattage & he told me to mind my own business...so i piped up with "sorry sir..dont forget u need to change ALL 4 lights to 100w"



hope the assclown melted his whole light assembly...

haha, i like it.

If i could get a 70/60 or maybe even a 70/55 and i knew the assembly could take it, i'd think about it. Just a touch more visibility and the heat dissipation is only about 15% more heat.

But seriously, i dont do much nighttime freeway work, and leave it on lowbeam in the day.

hah neka... you should have offered to replace his halogen fluid for 5 dollars each globe too....

Should have reminded him he will need to add more electrickery fluid if he wants to make bigger light.

Its in the bottle labled "battery acid".
It just goes in that cap on the top of the engine

the best thing you can do is replace the globes with high temp versions in the same wattage

higher temp ones will give a whiter light over the yellowish light that normally comes out

the other thing is to keep the lenses clean

the other option you have is to replace the wiring with decent size stuff and a relay

the other risk you run when going to a large wattage globe is melting the headlight assembly itself

phark.....


I got 130/60watters in the car










mind you..no possums round my house...have eyes

Johnnie5 wrote:the other risk you run when going to a large wattage globe is melting the headlight assembly itself

correct..have heard of the light melting the plastic of the headlight assembly....

the extra current through the wires can be quite a problem, as going from 60w to 100w is nearly double the current which the stock wires generally wont have enough head room for, and thus get really hot and melt

Neka79 wrote:yea we kno it,....u kno it.....but sum dickheads dont kno it...

i was at the servo one day waiting for the attendant to take my $$ while he was attending to sum twat...who owned sum super posho car...and he wanted "the biggest globe u got to replace my 60w halogen"....i politely advised he should stick with OEM reccomended wattage & he told me to mind my own business...so i piped up with "sorry sir..dont forget u need to change ALL 4 lights to 100w"



hope the assclown melted his whole light assembly...

yes Neka, but what where you doing to him while you told him?

SocialSecurity wrote:the extra current through the wires can be quite a problem, as going from 60w to 100w is nearly double the current which the stock wires generally wont have enough head room for, and thus get really hot and melt

What kind of current you talking? Most wiring on a bike/car is 2.5mm ish (although it CAN be smaller), and from memory, the current standards suggest around 27A for a 2.5mm copper conductor. Obviously it can take more than that, before meltdown occurs.

Generally your fuse will operate (seeing this is what it's there for ) WAY before you get to ANY levels of current that will melt wires. Main reason things melt, is purely from the additional temperature from the larger globe. The plastic around the lamp just cant handle it, or perhaps the plastic insulation on the wires isnt rated at it. From memory, most wire insulation is usually around 90 degrees C. Fuses are there purely to protect the wiring. If you melt the wiring, you've obviously replaced the fuse with something too large for the current carrying capacity of the wire.

Benno what you say has some valid points in theory but in real world shit happens, poor connections and you get heat build up and things get hot and melt

manufacturers scrimp on wiring to save weight , they might put a 10 amp fuse in but does not meant the wiring is going to handle 10 amps as they always put bigger fuse to cover the load required plus a tolerance usually load + 50% so your 60W lights are 5 amps nominally + 50% gives 7.5amps this is to cover a short circuit situation and to also cover fuses from blowing under spikes etc [/img]

its not always the wiring that melts either.... the lens cover thingy on the lights are ussualy plastic..so even if the globe/wiring functions ok, the heat from the extra wattage can melt the fairing/lens etc...

Johnnie5 wrote:Benno what you say has some valid points in theory but in real world shit happens, poor connections and you get heat build up and things get hot and melt

manufacturers scrimp on wiring to save weight , they might put a 10 amp fuse in but does not meant the wiring is going to handle 10 amps as they always put bigger fuse to cover the load required plus a tolerance usually load + 50% so your 60W lights are 5 amps nominally + 50% gives 7.5amps this is to cover a short circuit situation and to also cover fuses from blowing under spikes etc [/img]

I'm telling you what manufacturers HAVE to do to comply with Australian Standards. Fuses are there to protect the wire. Sure, you'll get hot joints, but how many times is a wire spliced into? For your headlights, not really, unless you've added something.

5 Amps is nominal for 60w. But no way is that going to go anywhere near the wire's current carrying capacity. I dont know where you're pulling a 50% from. Usually they allow +/- 5 or 10% tolerance with cabling. It'll say whatever it is on the actual wire. Scrimp on weight you say? Sure they do. With things that dont have an element in them. Go check your car lights. Or your bike for that matter, you'll notice its larger.

I'll still stand by my point, that in 99% of cases, it wont be your wiring melting from overcurrent. Most of the melting is as Neka says, excess heat from the larger wattage globe.

Benno wrote:

Johnnie5 wrote:Benno what you say has some valid points in theory but in real world shit happens, poor connections and you get heat build up and things get hot and melt

manufacturers scrimp on wiring to save weight , they might put a 10 amp fuse in but does not meant the wiring is going to handle 10 amps as they always put bigger fuse to cover the load required plus a tolerance usually load + 50% so your 60W lights are 5 amps nominally + 50% gives 7.5amps this is to cover a short circuit situation and to also cover fuses from blowing under spikes etc [/img]

I'm telling you what manufacturers HAVE to do to comply with Australian Standards. Fuses are there to protect the wire. Sure, you'll get hot joints, but how many times is a wire spliced into? For your headlights, not really, unless you've added something.

5 Amps is nominal for 60w. But no way is that going to go anywhere near the wire's current carrying capacity. I dont know where you're pulling a 50% from. Usually they allow +/- 5 or 10% tolerance with cabling. It'll say whatever it is on the actual wire. Scrimp on weight you say? Sure they do. With things that dont have an element in them. Go check your car lights. Or your bike for that matter, you'll notice its larger.

I'll still stand by my point, that in 99% of cases, it wont be your wiring melting from overcurrent. Most of the melting is as Neka says, excess heat from the larger wattage globe.

of course thats what manufacturers have to do, but it doesnt mean that it will be all ok

as i said fuses usually run 50% over expected load , hence why in a house you will find a 16amp fuse on a 10 amp circuit

just having a check of the ZXR750 manual and the headlight circuit fuse is a 20amp which means you could theoretically run 240 watts of lighting or slightly more since the voltage is higher than 12volts so lets push that to 2 x 130 watts , my bet is the wire will melt down

but since our lights are opnly 2 x 60 watts then our 20 amp fuse is twice what is required again back to my point to guard against spikes blowing the fuse

all depending on wether you have a plastic of glass headlight will depends on how it survives