Forum

[black fingernail]

Since acquiring her in June, a fair bit has gone on.
After getting her to run properly, Carb and Timing, etc. I have set about making her my own. Parts have been obtained from our hosts, and let's say, International sources!
The following replacements, upgrades, and just things to make me smile when I look at and ride her, are as follows;-
The single seat had to go, I did not like it, plus my granddaughter and SWMBO wanted a ride, so a nice comfy custom (not American style!) seat was fitted, complete with a nice chrome grab rail.
The battery died, so I fit a Lithium ion type, simply because I already had one that fitted.
The battery box was a sorry looking fibreglass one, so, this was replaced with a chrome 8 volt? cover, that I had to shorten and re-work the hinge to fit.
A chrome chain cover fitted, and while I was there, a new chain put on.
A chrome rear brake back plate fitted, this goes nicely with the chrome brake rod, that replaced the flimsy thing that was previously fitted

[black fingernail]

This is as I got her.
Other things done are;-
A pair of chrome grab handles have replaced the single black one.
The cone air filter has been replaced with a lovely chrome oval one, I don't know what model it is from.
I have fit rubber bellows on the forks, I don't like them, I will change them back.
A halogen headlight bulb is now fitted, but it seems to be a big draw, so, I think I'll look into an LED. (not literally).
The speedo was very erratic, and did not count on the odo. so I replaced it with a smiths copy 0 to 80 MPH.
The silencer was rusty, so I found a Velocette venom one, it needs re-chroming, bur I have cleaned it up and altered the mounting a bit to make it fit, it sounds deep, but not too loud.
I'll post some pictures tomorrow after I give her a clean.

[Adrian]

The answer with your Bullet's headlamp might just be to fit a LOWER wattage bulb - a 36W/36W Q/H will be drawing less current than the more obvious 55w/60W so will be glowing at full intensity at lower engine revs - I'm assuming your Bullet has direct AC headlighting, post 1999? A fancy 55w/60W bulb is no good if it only gets enough power for the filaments to glow an unconvincing brown...

There is one immediate problem if you want to go LED for your headlamp - the current crop of LED replacements will only work on a DC power supply. You can either modify the bike's electrics so that the whole plot runs 12V DC, or else you could ditch the special AC regulator and fit a second regulator/rectifier (ideally one with a capacitor built in) just for the headlamp and main beam warning light.

As I don't think our hosts have got around to LED headlamp bulb replacements yet, a very good place to look would be Paul Goff's site, he has both British Pre-Focus and H4 replacements.

http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffyWhyNotLEDs.htm

You can also try here.

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.c ... s-shop.php

Get one with a good beam pattern if you do swap to LED.

A.

[black fingernail]

The Bike is 1998, I think it has a dc system because the headlight comes on without the engine running. It's just that the ammeter goes well across to the discharge side at low revs, I'll experiment a bit.
I took these pics today.

[stinkwheel]

I got an LED bulb from a company called classic car LEDs.

Be aware, many of them have a heat-sink on them and will not fit in the space between the back of the headlamp reflector and the speedo drive cable. I have one on my 612 bullet and I had to fit a wider chrome trim to the casquette off an electra (available through our hosts) for it to fit. It's still tight and mine is one of the lowest profile LED bulbs you can get.

Another, (seemingly controvertial) possibility would be to convert the headlamp to AC. It would mean replacing switchgear and adding an AC regulator. I for one have absolutely no issues with the light output from the AC system on my 350, it does everything it's supposed to do.

It may also be worth having a look at the headlight switches and the connectors. If your light is dull with a new battery, perhaps there is some other impediment to the current flow? I know a mate of mine fitted a headlamp relay on one of his vintage bikes (so the lamp was getting power direct from the battery, the switch was just activating the relay) and it was (almost literally) night and day different.

[Adrian]

If it's a 1998 model with the light coming on as you describe then it's a DC electrics model, and a suitable LED bulb replacement will be fine, though you could treat the bike to a new H4 reflector unit while you're at it, if the original one is a bit tired.

You can also save a bit of room in the casquette by fitting a Wipac Quadoptic reflector unit, though I've stopped using them as the bulb holder mounting in the glass fails with old motorcycle vibrations!

A.

[black fingernail]

The bulb is very bright, it's just the discharge at low revs I'm a little concerned about. it needs over 25 mph in third gear to get back to zero on the ammeter.

[stinkwheel]

The gear and speed shouldn't matter, alternator output is rev dependant.

Might be worth looking at both the voltage and current in the system with a proper meter. The on-board ammeters are more of a guide anyway, I don't think they are particularly accurate or quantatative. Be interesting to see if the number of amps you expect to be drawn based on the bulb wattage reflect reality (so a 55W headlamp, a 10W tail and a couple of 5w instrument bulbs at 12v should be drawing somewhere in the region of 6 amps).

Just a wee observation, I may be overreading things though. Should I imply from your statement "A halogen headlight bulb is now fitted, but it seems to be a big draw," that there wasn't a big draw with the original headlamp bulb? Because a halogen should put out more light for the same power. Does the wattage match the original one? If it does and you're now drawing more power, I wonder if something in the wiring has been disturbed when you were in the headlamp that's caused a problem (like maybe it's been wired up oddly and you're trying to light up both filaments, or there's a partial short on the lighting wiring).

[black fingernail]

It is a higher wattage bulb, I have dug about and sorted a lot of the wiring, it was truly appalling, it had a simple toggle switch fitted in place of an ignition switch, it didn't do much, it could be started in any position! Ammeter didn't work and only a couple of the lights worked. some individual wires were over 2 feet longer than they should have been, and strange colours. Mostly sorted now, I just need to solder proper joints and fittings instead of the crimps I used to set it up.

[Adrian]

This reinforces my original point. If you stick a 55w/60W bulb into a system that was intended to cope with, say, a 45W/45W bulb then the original (three wire?) alternator WILL be having to work harder (i.e. need to be revved more) to keep the battery charged. Maybe fit a smaller gearbox sprocket to keep the revs up?

A 36W/36W Q/H bulb will give your charging system an easier time as it will only draw 3 amps, but a suitable LED H4 replacement is still a very good idea, as it will give the best light for the least power.

When the time comes for an upgrade, a decent Lucas RM21 or Sparx 005 alternator will happily power any electrical need your old Bullet will have if you don't get on with LEDs.

I sympathize with your wiring issues, having an Electra-X to re-wire.

A.