po18guy
-
Posts
1,252 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
28
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Community Map
Posts posted by po18guy
-
-
And no takers??? You can part it out for that much!
-
9 minutes ago, luhbo said:
We definitely do so. Definitely interested. Definitely not wanting to piss off anyone
Really, in fact I'm a bit tired of reading or writing about different Hawker types for instance, I rather fancy a topic like this one
No one here is really inventing anything. Rather, attempting to apply existing and advancing technology to practical use.
-
1 hour ago, GuzziMoto said:
I am skeptical that an LED retro-fit bulb will ever give as good a light pattern in a headlight originally designed to use a Halogen bulb. It is physically not possible. It will always be a compromise, as luhbo points out.
Now, a replace headlight made to use LED, that is a different situation. I still am not that interested, as I am not a fan of the horrible light LED currently produces. But at least it is possible to get the required light pattern.
Well then, why not sit back and enjoy our labors and failures, or successes? The units I chose use some of the latest, tiny Phillips ZES LED chips, arranged in the exact location and shape as the wire filament in a halogen bulb. This is crucial, as the reflector neither knows nor cares how the light it reflects is created - only that the light emanates from the same position within the reflector.
The problem with 90% of the early LED units is that they did not use such "filament-sized" chips, and did not locate them in the proper focal plane. This caused the well-known scattered light patterns. I believe that the LED producers have done, in the more recent designs, a remarkable job of adapting current technology to reflector units designed for the now-ancient halogen technology H4 bulbs. A light unit which is purpose-built for LED illumination can do an even better job - two of the OEM LED-lighted cars that I own demonstrate this.
Most all LED 9003/H4 units allow rotation of the unit in the mount, until the best light pattern is achieved. As we see from docc's low beam pattern, it nicely replicates the halogen unit, but with greater intensity and substantially less power consumption. Hard to find fault with that. I began driving on 6V incandescent bulbs, which were about like the parking lights or DRLs on modern cars. 12V was a good improvement.
Halogen was yet another step ahead, but it is now 50+ years of age and getting rather long in the tooth. HIDs had too many limitations, such as the cost of drivers and bulbs, as well as warm-up time. Like compact fluorescent bulbs, they had their day. I see LED lighting as a 21st century parallel of Thomas Edison's 19th century perfection of the glowing wire lamp.
-
1
-
-
6 hours ago, luhbo said:
While I follow your guys' experiments with great interest I follow them also with equally great scepticism. Cooling is a big issue because the issue starts directly below the light emitting stuff itself. A fan one inch behind the HOT spots cannot help if this primary bonding is somewhat suboptimal.
So, being keen myself on finding a good LED replacement for my H4 bulbs I'm afraid that this won't happen. Mainly because of two reasons: it's more than tricky to pack several relatively big and hot LEDs on a spot small enough to match the reflector's geometry, second an H4 headlamp is a closed system, screen and mirror build a rather sealed unit, what makes proper cooling even harder.
So my strategy would be: either keep it cheap and make compromises or spend bigger money and buy a reliable, lasting professional replacement headlight. But then it's 600 bucks and more, I guess.
Of note, the housing is aluminum and flows into a heat sink - in the middle of which the fan is located. The fan draws in from the back of the unit and blows out past the vanes of the heat sink. I can only say that this design is also the one used (or pioneered) by PIAA in Japan - who seem to know what they are doing.
-
So far, so good. Really nice cutoff on low beam. Perhaps a little left-right adj on the high and that bright spot will light up a very decent distance.
-
We're up to 63 watchers now, but no one willing to pull the trigger. Apparently, they do not realize that life is as short as it is.
-
14 minutes ago, docc said:
Yeah, if it was the rare, desirable Silver, there would be 1.
Well, like spam spam spam eggs and spam, it's got silver in it. You can see it if you wear rose-colored glasses.
-
1
-
-
A lot of torque to feed through that MG trans. But - finally! A Guzzi with an accessible oil filter! I see that the flyscreen really is a screen. The wiring...well.
I find it reminiscent of this homebuilt V8.
-
5 hours ago, footgoose said:
looks like a good one. you should give her a home
She'd look pretty next to the Ballabio, but I'd have to find another place to live...
-
2000 w/19K miles. Looks like collector-owner. Started at 4K, but dropped to 3750 obo. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2000-Moto-Guzzi-V11/123933392343?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
-
2 hours ago, GuzziMoto said:
...I was happy to find a place with so much knowledge about the V11. It is beautiful, but support for it locally is horrible. What a wealth of information this place is.
Was a place in Seattle called Moto International. They were the gurus of Guzzi. Then the owner retired and the building was shut up. Nothing at all for several years, except to ride/trailer to Portland, Oregon, 180 miles (270km or so) distant. Unacceptable! Now we have an "official" Seattle-area Guzzi dealership, but I doubt they've ever had their hands on a V11. So, the collective genius of the membership sustains us locals.
-
2
-
-
The world is full of critics. I know this because I am one. This bike has been aimed at a cost-sensitive market. Good for business, but bad for the bike. Honestly, in my mind, to wear he legendary name of Interceptor, it should be a true 750cc and have USD forks and dual floating discs.
-
And, with the ever-so-popular 270º crank, it has the classic sound of a...
...Guzzi. I wonder if they engineered some valve clatter into it?
-
On 10/14/2019 at 12:55 PM, Nihontochicken said:
Not likely now to score any of the below, though I do have a 2004 V11 Sport Naked consolation prize in lieu of number three. My grail bikes in decreasing order of beauty:
Always had a special place in my heart for the chrome tank Oily Enfield Interceptor. From the monstrous engine w/massive flywheels, to the jaunty angle of the mufflers to the cheeky little kick up at the tail of the seat...
-
3
-
-
Since cooling is an issue with LEDs, I did a little experiment with an "Infitary" fan-cooled H4 bulb mounted in a Kawi EX500 headlight. Forget which beams I used, but after 1/2 hour and then 1+ hours, the IR thermometer read 80ºF - with no physical airflow except the fan. I think that most of the car-type LED cooling features may be intended for those units which reside close to automotive transverse engine exhausts and heated radiator air. Being fairing mounted, the EX headlight essentially hangs in the air - lots of cooling. Those in a shell or bucket might warm up more, but I just did not see the heat issue on a bike.
I would have used the undoubtedly HQ Japanese PIAA unit on the Goose, but the driver will not fit inside the bucket and I did not feel like boring holes into it.
-
1
-
-
Am thinking cooled intake charge more than any velocity increase. Cool air, like me, is dense. While I might make less cognitive HP, the bike
willshould make more. Reciprocal aircraft engines use cooled air to great advantage. Except for carbureted aircraft. Then, heat is your friend, as ice-makers should be confined to refrigerators, not intakes. Anyway, I am glad for theories.-
1
-
-
Might be a bit of showboating, but am checking to see if red silicone turbo hose can be run from the airbox inlets to the cool air above the oil cooler, so as to breathe "not heated" intake air. Oh, and maybe some alloy velocity stacks to cap it all off.
-
3 minutes ago, LowRyter said:
po18- there is thread here about airbox mods. Mainly three teardrops across the top of the box.
Cool. Will look it up.
-
My recent Japanese experience has been with GPz500s/Ninja 500Rs. They were hot-rodded by Kawi with good-sized carbs and reasonable cams, 10-something compression/4-valve heads and ports about as large as can be done. Young fellows are always seeking that big boost - and it just ain't there. 5%, maybe close to 10% improvement with some free flowing cans, and air filter, a slight mod to the airbox and that is about it. They run about 53-54 HP at the rear wheel on dynos and given their relatively ancient architecture (in the Japanese world) dating to about 1985, combined with a long, whippy crank and thin cases and one soon finds the limits. I added WebCam (the old Webco) 245º cams, as one of my rockers ate the OEM intake cam. So much for infallible Japanese engineering and manufacture.
Guzzis strike me as being more like an air-cooled slice of Chevy/Holden V8. Basic mods can net a nice boost, but there is real HP hiding in there if one cares to go in $earch of it. Looking at the airbox on my Ballabio, I see two snorkels poking out of it, but not running quite far enough forward to be entirely out of the heated air. Daydreaming, I see some red silicone car turbo hoses with perhaps short velocity stacks capping them. Probably no real boost, but they might look very cool.
Q for the cognoscenti: Is there an air filter that is a good ompromise of both flow and filtration? Very familiar with K&N, but they tend to flow better than they filter. Uni makes a Guzzi filter, but only for some of the pre-V11s.
-
1
-
-
Looks like a mid-70s BMW R90S rreplica.
-
Bought a pair of PIAA LED 9003/H4 units a few years back. 23/23W draw. Problem on my Kawi is that they fool the reserve lighting device into thinking the bulb is out, so the RLD switches randomly from low to high. Bought a couple of the cheap 9003 LED units on eBay after examining the PIAAs. What I looked for are the separate driver, fan cooling (although not exactly necessary) and something like Phillips ZES chips. Those chips are some of the latest and three of four of them in a row basically duplicates the shape and positioning of the filament in the incandescent bulbs. Thus, the beam pattern will closely replicate that of the halogen unit. One pair has COB chips, which are very bright,and seem to throw a good beam, but not as precise as the ZES chips.
Thing about these LEDs is that most can be rotated to achieve the best beam pattern. Some will give only two positions 180º apart, but others have a double silicone seal between the light unit and the H4 mount plate that is secured in the headlight reflector assembly by the wire bails. The only caveat here is that the OEM rubber sealing ring may have to be compressed to seat the light unit; said pressure possibly tending to cause the light unit to back out - thus changing the beam pattern. This requires a little garage experimentation and only time on the road will tell.
-
On 10/12/2019 at 1:14 PM, Nihontochicken said:
My two scooters are a Suzuki DR650 and a Guzzi V11 Sport. Both have the turn signal and horn actuators on the left grip module, but the positions are reversed. Has resulted in some problematic situations when I forget the difference and try to operate the Guzzi turn signal with Suzuki muscle memory.
Since both are momentary switches, I could reverse the high beam flasher and horn, but that would leave me with a rather oddly actuated horn. This will require some pondering.
-
2 hours ago, Kane said:
What a great red.....is it the same red as Ferrari?
Is there relief to the eagle and letters? They look raised rather than a flat decal.
They do stand up just a bit. It is very close to the red used by other Italian makers. Am thinking of finding a close match and doing a wrap of the (removable) seat cowl. Maybe stripes or swooshes of fluorescent orange flanking the headlight in homage to the original 850 LeMans. Nothing permanent - just the vinyl wrap.
-
7 hours ago, Tinus89 said:
I have, a Ctek XS 0.8, which only delivers 0.8A max...
Wires are fine, it is really the contact between the fuse holder and fuse which get hot. The fuse itself was barely molten. I'm guessing it is Chinese, bought it at an automotive store. It is one of those watertight ones, which is nice, but also prevents any heat from escaping.
Could something like this work? Dutch website, sorry...
While it would work, there is still the underlying problem of excess voltage or excess resistance. I forget if you have checked battery and alternator voltage/amperage?
H4 LED + other LED lighting
in Technical Topics
Posted
Nah, just making counter-points. I'm Scotch-Irish, which would make me a drunk, except the Scotsman is too cheap to buy the liquor. My primary belief here is that brighter, whiter light for less watts is a good thing. Having partaken of four clinical trials, I like research. Got some skin in the game. And, as Albert Einstein reportedly said: "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research." When all is said and done, and the brilliance (pun) is revealed, give all credit to docc.