K11 Owners Group

[Stoked Steve]

After reading Duck's tech sticky about adding relays to the stock headlights, I ordered a kit from Eastern Beaver.

Duck's post.

http://www.k11og.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6445

Eastern Beaver link

http://easternbeaver.com/Main/Products/H4_Kits/h4_kits.html

He has a great website that explains things I never had a clue about, namely the weakness of our stock headlight systems.

I ordered the H4 Heavy Duty Single Headlight Relay Kits with Ceramic H4 Socket kit for $49.50. With shipping it came to about $58.30. He is in Japan and ships via regular mail for only $8.80 and I received it in less than a week! An email inquiring about which kit to use was promptly replied to.



As his website shows, he only sells high quality kits with top notch components. Everything was first rate and of solid build and materials.

I printed his installation instructions off his website and installed the kit today. It took about an hour and was very easy to do. Most of that time was pulling the brains to access the battery (to disconnect it) and removing the usual body panels to remove the gas tank. I kept the gas lines connected and just set the tank in a plastic chair next to the bike so I didn't have to drain it.

The kit itself was easy as could be to install, and I'm a self professed electrical whimp when it comes to tinkering with the black art of electrons. The kit has a plug that conects to the old socket that used to plug into the bulb and a new (in this case high temp ceramic) socket to connect to the bulb. There were no wires to cut (although he does provide posilock connectors if you want to cut out the old plug for a slightly more compact connection), but you need to thoroughly tape up the old socket once its connected to the new plug so that it doesn't accidently touch any metal. Then I connected the red power lead to the positive alternater screw inside the "black box" for a completely concealed connection. You can also run it directly to the battery, but I like to keep those cables simple and uncluttered. Then you connect the ground lead to the master ground screw under the gas tank. Then I zip tied all the wires and relays to the existing harnesses under the gas tank and made sure nothing was rubbing or pinched when the handlebars were turned all the way. Put everything back together and Shazam, worked like a charm.

Now I don't really do any night time riding and it was hard to tell any major differences in bulb brightness during the day, but I'm sure the stock headlight is brighter and for the other reasons of reduced wear and tear on the switches, I'm glad I did this mod. I can also now run a higher watt bulb without frying the stock wiring. I took some pictures, but the ones on Jim's website are great and the photos of the headlight brightness don't really show much as cameras have a hard time capturing direct bright light.

A great, quality kit and easy installation, two thumbs up.
_________________
Steve
Virginia Beach, VA
93 K1100RS Mystic Red SOLD
12 Suzuki DL650A VStrom

[Sonu]

+1

I did this upgrade a while back and am very happy with it.

Also got a similar kit for my fog lights

Sanjiv
_________________
1997 K1100LT "Ziggy" _GarminGPS_Corbin saddle_K Guards _Hyperlights_Fog lights_Eastern Beaver Relays_Cee Bailey_4"speakers_Michelin PR4's_MoS2_Spiegler lines_TPMS_VDO

[Stoked Steve]

I did see his auxiliary light kit as well and thought I'll definitely get that when I'm ready to upgrade to some Catz. I'm a bit concerned about the power draw of those babies on my '93 lesser output alternator though...
_________________
Steve
Virginia Beach, VA
93 K1100RS Mystic Red SOLD
12 Suzuki DL650A VStrom

[SugarHillCTD]

Hey Steve,

Looks like our next upgrade.

BTW, NICE license plate.

John
_________________
John & Cathy

'92 K100RS4V Pearl White SOLD
'04 K1200GT
IBA Several-SS1k, BBG, 50CC NYC to S.F.

[Stoked Steve]

Hey John, our RS's are almost twins, same year, same color scheme, same license plates....cue the twilight zone theme.

Bet mine stays in a warmer garage though, forecast high of 79 tomorrow! Is your snow all gone? We had two, less than 1" dustings this year.

My 3 year old son has never had real snow to play in yet! And my 8 year old daughter has only seen one 4" snow! Maybe next year, or maybe not with the current rate of climate change.
_________________
Steve
Virginia Beach, VA
93 K1100RS Mystic Red SOLD
12 Suzuki DL650A VStrom

[Scott_Anderson]

[Jim]

Steve - I've had Jim's relay installed for a few years now - I'm quite happy with it. If you want better lighting without going to a higher wattage bulb, get some Sylvania SilverStar bulbs. I use them in the K and the Honda. http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProducts/AutomotiveLighting/Products/Halogen/SilverStarProducts/

You can definitely tell the difference.

In a recent review of the Jim's relay in MCN, Dave Searle reported 12.0 volts at the headlight before the relay was installed, and 13.86 after the relay was installed. Although not a great difference in voltage, there was a 50% improvement in light output - "and the light was whiter as well as brighter." The Sylvania engineers claim that bulb life drops rapidly when fed more than 12V - in this case from 7500 hours to 1400 hours.

That's not my experience. I installed the relay and the Silverstar bulb several years ago - I'm sure I've put at least 30,000 miles on the bike since then - and I might have changed the headlight once - maybe. I don't keep track of headlight bulb replacements. I do keep a spare bulb kit on the bike at all times. I run a headlight modulator (unless I'm behind Drake) during the day, and the high beam is on at night whenever possible.
_________________
Jim
1997 K1100LTSE 94,000 - still has gremlins!
1995 R100RT Classic 16,650 crashed - repaired!
1992 K75RTP 46,000

"We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed."

[Stoked Steve]

Thanks for link to the bulb, I think I've seen those in the auto parts store and thought I'd upgrade to one of those, but keeping the wattage the same.
_________________
Steve
Virginia Beach, VA
93 K1100RS Mystic Red SOLD
12 Suzuki DL650A VStrom

[Flying Duck]

[Jim]

[Jim]