Cb550f blowing main fuse

[Bryanj]

Unless they have changed the wording the side,pilot, light is the obligatory light whilst the headlight was optional, although i know the test changed to all fitted lights must work which brought car reversing lights in

[florence]

certainly when I had MOTs, they advised that if present, the side light must work but if it has been removed, not required, a bit like indicators.  There might be different rules for vehicles post 1986, not sure, but for this age, that is what I was advised.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

The nice thing about the Halo side lamp is it's bright enough to double up as a DTRL.
I have an LED rear lamp as well so riding on side lamps hopefully makes me more visible.

[deltarider]

That is a US sealed beam unit as used on cars and the pilot bulb is not required there so there is no proper fitting, you can fit any 7 inch light and go Halogen(usually H4 bulb) BUT , no matter what Delta says, you need to keep the revs up to charge the battery, you could also fit a standard 500 or 750 unit but not 400

Sir, according to my parts list even the CB550K3 model for UK had the 60/55 Watts H4. I myself never had a problem with H4, 3 Ohm coils and homebuilt transistorized ignition. In the riders reports in my archives - in total 40 times around the globe by the respondents - nobody reported a problem. It has never been a subject in the French nor in the German forum. It is a non existent made-up problem that nobody here knows of. Creating problems has always been a good strategy to profile yourself as expert. You can even sell books with it. But... it may have been become a problem since people began more tinkering their bikes - prolonged idling - than using the bike, it was meant for: riding. The mere idea that Honda wouldn't have been capable of fitting an adequate charging... You disappoint me. A simple calculation - will tell you the charging system is more than adequate. And I have pointed out more than once it is up to the rider.

[Towsejames]

What wattage h4 is best to use?

Also I like the idea of the led option but hate the colour of anything blue or white and want the traditional halogen output colour, is this possible?


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[deltarider]

60/55 Watt. Best in the market is the Philips Extreme Vision Moto or its predecessor the Vision Plus. Osram Nightbreaker is also good. Best LED is the expensive Osram Night Breaker Led Pro, but I don't know if there is enough space in the bucket.
Or if you worry about that not existent problem and provided your reflector has a Ba9s socket you can opt for what I have suggested our friends across the pond.
That 'park light' aka 'city light' or 'pilot light' or 'position' light has little use, but... can be made useful. This is what I tried out for you guys.
In the headlamp bucket I disconnected the brown PLUS wire from the position light and replaced it by a black wire to a spare black connector. Yes, there are.
I then put a switch in the green MINUS wire to the position light. I can now bring on the position light without the tail- and instrument lights. The added switch is hidden in between the speedo- and the tachometer, where it is hardly seen, so the classic looks of my bike are preserved.
In the headlight reflector I replaced the OEM Ba9s 4 Watts position light bulb by a dito 21 Watts halogen one (see pic), which you can now use as DRL. The bulb is a bit yellowish which is better noticed and highlights you're a biker.
During the day you can switch to your new DRL. All the rest remains off. Saves fuel and extends lifespan of bulbs. Realise that especially the little instrument lightbulbs do not live long and it is quite a hassle to replace them. With the taillight off, brakelight will be better noticed. The same goes for high beam flashes when you slide the PA switch. On entering a tunnel you simply slide the stock RH switch from . to 'P', which adds tail- and instrument lights. Exiting the tunnel you slide the switch back to ..
The rest remains the same, so when darkness falls, just sliding the standard switch to 'H' (headlight) brings on the 60/55 Watts H4 and switch off the DRL (or leave it on).
The arrangement is simple and the cost minimal. Some prefer a LED for that Ba9s socket. Problem is I have not seen a Ba9s LED that spreads its light as nice as a halogen bulb. The ones I have seen are just disappointing dots (see pics).

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

What wattage h4 is best to use?

Also I like the idea of the led option but hate the colour of anything blue or white and want the traditional halogen output colour, is this possible?


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Not all LED lamps are blue, once you have tried a decent LED lamp the traditional  lights look quite yellow.
I have used Night breaker bulbs on our previous cars, great light output, they often fail quite early.
This is anecdotal evidence, I'm not saying it's a fact, just my experience, my dip beams would fail after about 18 months.

[K2-K6]

What wattage h4 is best to use?

Also I like the idea of the led option but hate the colour of anything blue or white and want the traditional halogen output colour, is this possible?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you do want to stay with non LED bulbs, this Hella unit has a good lens structure and beam pattern.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176287167008?shprz=EBAY_GB_131090&_ul=GB&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&toolid=20006&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338986375&loc_interest_ms=&loc_physical_ms=9217597&adtype=pla&customid=CjwKCAjws_DTBhB_EiwAXZknGZp9yeIu73BosllX1NNQBEwuJtNOBgUwcyk7j1ycp0IDeOvmdfzvqBoC_YwQAvD_BwE|null|null&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24080271004&gbraid=0AAAAADcddnaPOX4iO0eJ7xZQG9SjrQ134&gclid=CjwKCAjws_DTBhB_EiwAXZknGZp9yeIu73BosllX1NNQBEwuJtNOBgUwcyk7j1ycp0IDeOvmdfzvqBoC_YwQAvD_BwE

The focus of good quality and verified manufacturing for LED bulbs is almost entirely toward the more blue part of spectrum, that I can see.

The yellow offering appear on temu etc I'd not bother with.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I've always rated Hella headlamps.

The best 7" headlamp units I ever owned that would fit in a Lucas bowl were Carello Pajods, they were fitted to E-Type Jaguars as an upgrade by enthusiasts.
Back in the late 1960s-1970s the fashion was for Concave lenses like Cibie.
The Pajods were convex outer glass to the point of being almost bug eyed with a parabolic reflectors, fantastic dip beams cut off.
Carello Biode were very similar if not the same - used pairs fetch over £300 on flea bay.

[Oddjob]

The best headlight by far and tested by magazines back in the late 70s was the Cibie Z beam. The beam pattern was really good on dip but like a laser on high. They used light meters to get the beam pattern and on full it was extremely long, right down on the floor and shaped like a pencil, very narrow. Even with a normal H4 bulb in it it was phenomenal. I put an LED bulb in mine for a comparison test. The beam pattern was almost identical but the light output went through the roof. From a dingy sort of yellowish light to a pure white light. I did some pics if you want to see them. The LED bulbs were around £50 a pair a few years ago. All my mates converted to them after seeing one in my 1300. They went from struggling on dark country roads on their Harleys to being able to travel at whatever speed they wanted.

Oddly enough I just bought another 7” Cibie Z beam unit the other day, just in case mine gets broken or stone chipped.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Cibie, I always think of Oscar's & Super Oscar driving lights from the Monte Carlo era of Mini Coopers that were disqualified on a lighting  technicality by the French in 1966. No surprise that Citroen ended up winning, BL who were 1,2&3 were disqualified as was the Ford in 4th place.

[Oddjob]

If in doubt cheat. Or if you’re French surrender just in case.

[TrickyMicky]

Cibie, I always think of Oscar's & Super Oscar driving lights from the Monte Carlo era of Mini Coopers that were disqualified on a lighting  technicality by the French in 1966. No surprise that Citroen ended up winning, BL who were 1,2&3 were disqualified as was the Ford in 4th place.

  Ted, I have a distant memory telling me that at the time, French registered cars had to have yellow headlamps, but the Citroens that won by default were said to have white lights.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Cibie, I always think of Oscar's & Super Oscar driving lights from the Monte Carlo era of Mini Coopers that were disqualified on a lighting  technicality by the French in 1966. No surprise that Citroen ended up winning, BL who were 1,2&3 were disqualified as was the Ford in 4th place.

  Ted, I have a distant memory telling me that at the time, French registered cars had to have yellow headlamps, but the Citroens that won by default were said to have white lights.

Micky you are right about French Cars needing yellow headlamps back then, I remember my Dad having yellow plastic covers for the headlamps of his Vauxhall for when he drove through France to Spain.

What you say about the Citroen having white headlamps sounds typically French, as did the reply from Charles De Gaulle "Non" when we tried to join the EU.

[Bryanj]

Back when the first Goldwings came out, we had a "shop" one and fitted a Marchall headlamp unit to it, now this had seperate main and dip bulbd like the halogen spotlight bulbs.
Sneakily wiring the dip bulb into the pilot circuit meant that both bulbs were on on main beam, plus having a "rally" shop in town high wattage, highly illegalof course, bulbs could be had which meant 200 watt ish on main beam, god help anybody who left their main beam on comming towards you!