New to forum, need help with headlight problem

[Ryder]

Greetings:   I have had my Super 8 for about 2 years, and love it. The only problem I have with it is the fact that, in order to save usage of the small battery, it is designed so that the headlight dims down to almost nothing when the bike is at idle. For city dwellers this is not an issue, but I live 20 miles outside of town and need to go over a small mountain pass to get home from town. The downhill side of the mountain is  very steep and curvy, necessitating the use only of the brake on the way down. Of course there are no streetlights there, and when the headlight dims there's not nearly enough light for me to see where I am going, so I am unable to come home from town after dark.

I need a resolution to this problem. Attach an additional headlight to the bike somehow, whether wired in to the battery or not? It would have to have an on/off switch so that it did not run all the time. I only need it going over the mountains at night, which is not daily, and when I do it only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to go over the pass; then I could switch it off.

I talked to the scooter dealer here, who said they had never heard of anyone having this problem before (guess they only sell to city riders) and couldn't help me. Two scooter repair shops have said they had no idea what I could do.

Surely I am not the only person who wants to be able to ride a Super 8 over a little mountain pass at night?
Can anyone here give me some advice on this?
Thank you.
Ryder

[super8_wv]

I was also looking for a solution to this problem, the lighting is just not great on this bike.
I was thinking of doing something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Projector-DRL-Daytime-Running-LED-Projector-Fog-Lights-Kymco-Super-8-150-50-/180891213702?hash=item2a1df4df86&item=180891213702&pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&vxp=mtr#ht_11971wt_1396 and wiring it to a switch.
I was looking for a way to upgrade the bulbs to LED or something else but the information on this is pretty scarce.

[super8_wv]

Maybe fit these http://www.amazon.com/AHI-AHI_678-Motorcycle-LED-Lights/dp/B0051UOZ1Y to the stupid ufo DOT blinkers?

[Psycho]

With my Urban Classic, I bought a pair of auto driving lights and mounted them by the main headlight (hope pic comes out clear).  Wired it to a switch and the battery, and now I really light up the road!  Just don't leave it on for more than half an hour cuz it will drain your battery down...

[DoubleSC]

I live towards the top of a hill and have the same problem when coasting towards the bottom, or even slowing as my lights seem to cut out even when slowing on flat ground to around 20mph. 

They key is to lower the loading on the rest of the system to allow the headlight to be on all the time without draining the battery.  In my case, I ended up replacing all the other lights (tail, turn signal, dash) with LEDs, changing the turn signal relay to an LED type (not just adding load resistors, which defeats the purpose of using LEDs in this case), and bypass the light control module to force the lights to always be on.  Instead of a simple bypass, you could also wire up a relay that turns the light off while the start button is pressed, which will insure all available power from the battery is made available to the starter when starting.

Depending on where you are and what the regulations are, you could also reporting this issue to the DOT as non-compliance issue and see if that forces Kymco to properly address this issue by replacing the stator with something more heavy duty and capable...

DSC

[Vivo]

Ryder, I have exactly exactly the same problem as yours (Hey! we might be neighbors! Lol!) As of today, I am converting a projector fog light from an H3 bulb to an LED. Non-projector fog lamps cannot be made into LED because of the beam pattern it will produce. I will post pictures later, but for the meantime this is the fog lamp I will be using:



and this is the super bright led I will be using....
presently installed as my park light



I will be using this T10 holder...




By the way, my fog light lens is yellow and that will give better visibility. LEDs consume very little power and I won't have any worries on battery drains.  Remember, buy the projector type fog lamps so that the light beam is focused.

Hope this helped.

[zombie]

I am in the same process right now. It's all been ordered except for the lenses. I know the cost can be as low as three dollars for them, and they are the same lenses that are in the 80 dollar aluminum mounted sets. So I'm still looking into those... What's the link? I may not need mounts.

[Vivo]

I am in the same process right now. It's all been ordered except for the lenses. I know the cost can be as low as three dollars for them, and they are the same lenses that are in the 80 dollar aluminum mounted sets. So I'm still looking into those... What's the link? I may not need mounts.

You can search them, DLAA LA2010.  This is one of the products we import from China bro. Sell them for around $15 a pair. Three lens colors available blue, yellow, rainbow. Two body colors, black or silver. I got the last stock.. pulled it out from a customer's store... fortunately he agreed  (bad!). I don't know if the factory still makes this model.  Might see some in the net.

[rbalagtas]

Here is a way to disable the headlight dim.

http://www.motorcyclephilippines.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178768

hope this help

[Vivo]

Here is a way to disable the headlight dim.

http://www.motorcyclephilippines.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178768

hope this help

Uy, may pinoy na ko na kasama...hehe may kakampi na ko dito...

Pictures lang maintindihan nila dyan bro sa link mo...hehe.. puro mga porenggers dito...

[Ryder]

Thank you to everyone who replied.

I talked to a mechanic today who said he was familiar with the Super 8. He said that anything that I wire into the battery will dim just the way that the headlights do if the bike is idling, because the battery can only produce enough power to light them up when the bike is turning over a certain # of RPMs. (He also said that the Super 8 is a poorly made bike and I'd be better off with a Honda). If that is true about the battery, then the only way to add a light would be if it ran on its own batteries. Can any of you tell me if this is true?

If it is true, then perhaps one needs a super bright LED light mounted on the bike that runs on its own batteries....say AA batteries or larger, which you just replace when they wear out. Would that be a viable solution?

I am not mechanically inclined, and can only to the work myself if it is very simple, or if I have very detailed instructions, so although the idea of cutting the load on the battery in other ways sounds good, I am not in a position to do that work.

Thanks again for the help!
Ryder

[skishades]

Kymco made Honda scooters before Honda decided to make their own... your mechanic is an idiot.  He is thinking of the Chinese made scooters and thinking made in China is the same thing.  There is a relay that dims the bulb... it is not hard wired into the battery.  Otherwise, brake lights, turn signals and even the horn would noticably struggle when the bike idled... the only time it pulls directly from the battery is before you start the motor and after you kill it with the kill switch.

Switching to LED bulbs would pull less amperage from the bike... which means it might not dim at idle since it needs less to be fully lit.  If you can't find bulbs that work the way you want at idle, you need to work around the relay.  It will draw power from the battery at idle however and could shorten the battery life since it will always draw from the battery, unless you can work in a relay that detects when you are going downhill.  Good luck.

[Ryder]

Thanks for that injection of logic.
I had a feeling that mechanic (who is not my mechanic, but just one I called up on the phone) was probably wrong about that. He kept saying that the scooter would cause me all kinds of trouble and be hard to fix etc.......so you are right: he was talking about cheap Chinese scooters. My Super 8 has never given me a moment of trouble since the day I bought it, and it was used. It's a little workhorse that just keeps going. Good friend of mine has one too and feels the same way.

Right now I am looking into bright LED lights made for bicycles that could be mounted on the bike and operated with a switch. some seem to have rechargeable batteries as well.

Wondering how bright the light should be. I suspect as bright as I can get it. I found one that is 1800 lumins.....is that bright enough? Keeping in mind that the only time I will need it, I will be going slowly.
thanks again
Ryder

[Vivo]

To reiterate the previous link, This is the Light Control Box or module of the super 8. This is responsible for the dimming of the light. What you can do is by-pass this module so there will be no more dimming.
Just remove the plug and insert wires from the output to the input.  Very easy.

[Vivo]

Finished my LED conversion and tested the LED projector fog light. Will paint the fog light flat black and install it maybe under the fairing/belly pan.

See how focused the yellow light is?