Not as effective, nor as expensive as a HID. But better than stock. Requires only basic electrical cut-join work + an additional battery.
After 3.5 years, it was high time for me to change the faded (read: ineffective) reflector. Coughed up Rs 625 for the genuine TVS spare. Decided to combine this with some DIY electrical mod. The first thing was to make a battery - head light direct connection. Doing this is a sure shot way of reducing the longevity of the battery, but at this point, the stock battery is well past it's useful life (3.5 years - life of the bike). So, I did not care much about killing the battery. I put a 3 - way switch to choose between the stock connection (from the alternator) or directly from the battery. The direct connection works better than the stock, in spite of the battery being old (which means much greater internal resistance and lesser p.d.). Then, after reading about Hits and others using normal non-automobile batteries for their bikes, an idea struck me. I bought an ordinary sealed lead acid battery of 3.3Ah capacity for Rs. 600 and put that in parallel to the existing old battery (placed it in the documents compartment next to the battery compartment and secured it). This is going to put greater load on the charging unit, and hence the batteries will take longer to charge. I checked the voltage across this parallel connection with the engine revved hard - and it is a healthy 15-16V, so charging will happen during running, but it may be slower. But considering that most of the bike's running happens during day time, this is not a concern. So, in effect, I have a new 3.3Ah + old 2.5Ah battery that can directly power a 55/60W headlamp through a switch. During day time travel, this setup must help power a better horn as well (something I have been thinking about ever since I bought the bike). Cost of new battery = Rs 600. Note that I anyway had / have to replace the old lead acid batt. sooner or later. If this second (cheaper) battery can power the rest of the electricals for some more time, it has earned back the investment. In case the bike's charging unit cannot charge both batteries (especially since an older battery takes longer to get charged even when connected alone), I have another plan for that. An old PC SMPS :) The next step would be to get a coil rewinding done and maybe put in a 90/100 :D Cost = Rs 1000. Considering... Sending to BP and BN, so common members will get two mails. Please do the excuse :) -- Kailas Shastry. -- !! -- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
