Better headlight

JPaganel

XS400 Addict
Top Contributor
Messages
438
Reaction score
116
Points
43
Location
MINNEAPOLIS
I really couldn't stand the original headlight. At night it was as good as riding blindfolded.

First, I tried to get a Candlepower conversion. That failed because there is more than one type of sealed beam on the XS400, and the Candlepower unit is for the late production ones. The early ones, like my 1978, have brackets in a completely different place.

So, I went looking on eBay and found a complete with bucket headlight for about $30. It's smaller than the stock one, and, unlike the stock one, is all metal, not just the bezel. It is Biker's Choice part 410313, a 5 3/4 inch headlight for Harley. It uses an H4 bulb.

http://www.cyclesolutions.net/product/sku-AA-410313

The bucket mounted right up. The ears just squeezed together a little. The light doesn't have the side-to-side adjustment of the original, but the aim is good and I saw no need to adjust it. The light has an indicator bulb in the housing, but I took that out since I hooked up the original indicator in the tach. The warning light pod covers that part of the bucket anyway. To compensate for the power draw I changed the taillight and instrument bulbs to LED.

The wire colors do not match at all. Green on the new harness is ground, white is low beam and blue is high beam. On the bike black is ground, yellow is high and green is low.

The only issue is that since the hole in the bucket is small I could not route the wiring into the bucket, like original, so I just kind of tucked it up behind it. I'm undecided if I'm going to do something about that or not.

The light is awesome. I can see where I'm going. I can actually tell the light is on in the daytime.

I think it looks pretty decent, too.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0392[1].jpg
    IMG_0392[1].jpg
    301.9 KB · Views: 306
Back
Top