[antonis]

Hi there,

Apologies if the subject is already mentioned, but I failed to find anything before posting.
I rode in the night and I found the overall lights of my bike worryingly weak; the high beam is hardly noticeable, not high in angle and not capable of more than 100 m.
The dealership told me that there is nothing wrong with that and suggested not to compare with cars.
I also had installed the fog lights, mostly out of security reasons (to be seen) but the high beam is a strong disappointment.
The installed heated grips along with the fog lights do only allow for 36W consumption out of the also installed 12V outlet.
So I don't know how to compensate for the missing strength as most additional strong lights come to wattages like 60 and 90!

All ideas and comments welcome.

cheers
antonis

 

[Axel Johansson]

Are the head lights aimed correctly? I would think having LED's would be putting out good light. They aren't difficult to adjust yourself or to your satisfaction but you don't want to blind on coming traffic

 

[PitaSmit]

I've found most motorbike lights to be inadequate. This is due to the complex reflector designs for new shapes mostly. In the old days I'd shove a H4 130/75 W into the glass lens round housing but with plastic lens you need to be more careful. I'd like to go HID (I prefer it to LED) but it's illegal where I live.

 

[Axel Johansson]

I cut down my reflectors to just keep the adjusters and added in projectors with HID's lighting up both sides, we don't have issues with conversions here. My avatar is the HID's. Don't know much about the LED's other than what I read, any chance of picking up better quality ones I've read how many are crap the way they throw the pattern out

 

[antonis]

The headlights are correctly adjusted (angles and everything, they showed me in the dealership) but they are weak. High beam is used when there is no oncoming traffic (highway) and no other vehicles ahead in a dark road in the night.

 

[Axel Johansson]

The headlights are correctly adjusted (angles and everything, they showed me in the dealership) but they are weak. High beam is used when there is no oncoming traffic (highway) and no other vehicles ahead in a dark road in the night.

I was trying to do some digging about your headlights and from Kawasaki it looks like they can't be replaced, can you verify that? They sell the unit as a whole, no listing for bulbs only one wire connection going in on the left side

2022 Kawasaki VERSYS 650 (KLE650HNFAL) Headlight(S) | Kawasaki Parts Warehouse

Shop online for OEM Headlight(S) parts that fit your 2022 Kawasaki VERSYS 650 (KLE650HNFAL), search all our OEM Parts or call at 618-464-3896

www.kawasakipartswarehouse.com

 

[OtherRoad]

I've only ridden a couple of times at night and even with my aging eyes considered them adequate.
I don't know if the European spec. is the same as mine.
Compared to the Honda in my shed with a single 7" H4 Sylvania Silverstar Ultra, they seemed both whiter and brighter.

Lighting is very much a personal thing, the above noted Honda originally had a Stanley H4 bulb that seemed like a glow worm to me, but the previous owner thought it was fine.

I typically, trial and error, aim my bike high beams on a deserted flat road at night to suit myself, although I have yet to do that with the Versys. In my experience bike lights are typically aimed low as delivered, probably for legal reasons. I don't worry about the low beam aim unless the cut off is obviously high or causing people to flash lights.

 

[antonis]

It had been previously advertised that headlight is LED, and the european Kawasaki server displays a price of € 1200 for the unit, so I already knew that I cannot simply replace bulbs as I invariably do in our cars.
As I already loaded the bike with a dual dashcam, I see little possibility for additional lights in both the appearance and consumption dimension... But I challenge anybody with the recent model to try night-riding at 100 km/h (62 mph) on a dark highway and report the impressions ;-)

 

[OtherRoad]

I'll take you up on the challenge, but it will have to wait to Spring. )-:
I've only been on straight well marked, but unlit roads, I've not tried navigating a winding road at that speed.

 

[PaddyD]

My KLR's light are weak as well. I noticed if I run the highbeams my addon volt meter progressively drops too. What I did to get better lighting was stop using highbeam and added some low wattage by comparison, led running lights. They don't seem to tax my battery and really light up the road at night, especially the ditches where those deadly whitetail deer jump out from. I run one flood on the left and a spot on the right.

 

[antonis]

yeah, straight roads do need high beam, on winding ones I don't need 200 yards to see my way... but perhaps I becomewith age pedantic ...

 

[twowheeladdict]

Hi there,

Apologies if the subject is already mentioned, but I failed to find anything before posting.
I rode in the night and I found the overall lights of my bike worryingly weak; the high beam is hardly noticeable, not high in angle and not capable of more than 100 m.
The dealership told me that there is nothing wrong with that and suggested not to compare with cars.
I also had installed the fog lights, mostly out of security reasons (to be seen) but the high beam is a strong disappointment.
The installed heated grips along with the fog lights do only allow for 36W consumption out of the also installed 12V outlet.
So I don't know how to compensate for the missing strength as most additional strong lights come to wattages like 60 and 90!

All ideas and comments welcome.

cheers
antonis

If you are going to do a lot of night riding, and find the lights inadequate, you might want to upgrade to the Versys 1000 LT SE+ which also includes cornering lights.

I don't ride a night often, but when I did I had to put a piece of tape over the blue high beam indicator because it was causing my eyes to not adjust to the night.

 

[Fly-Sig]

Upgrading my 2015 V650 to LED headlights made a big improvement. Also, the headlights needed to be aimed properly.

Note that normally the low beam is used whenever other vehicles are near, so it does need to be properly aimed low. But the high beam is only used when there are no other vehicles ahead, so it can be aimed as you like, and can be very bright. This may not be legal in your country, but it would be safe.

The reflector shape is not good for most LED bulbs. It is possible a different bulb would project a better beam.

LEDs only use a small amount of power. Here in the USA, LED bulbs are advertised with the equivalent wattage of the incandescent bulb. For example, 55 Watts. The old fashioned bulb would draw that much power, but the LED bulb of the same brightness only draws about 10 Watts.

 

[jaaklucas]

Like Fly-Sig said. The system of advertising the wattage of LED aftermarket automotive "bulbs" is far from standard and can be confusing. All are made in China I believe so some language issues. Equivalent wattage compared to incandescent bulbs. Fly-Sigs example,10W LED will produce 55w incandescent equivalent in terms of brightness. So big power consumption saving which also means a lot less heat which is wasted energy that has to be produced and expelled. Just saw a post from someone here looking for opinions on aftermarket headlight bulbs. I looked at the specs, 100W LED per bulb. Cant be right. They are trying to say that it is equivalent to a 100W incandescent I imagine. So look at the specs, lumens=(brightness). Power consumption = Watts or Amps( which is a good expression for comparing the power draw compared to a horn or heated grips, etc.) Take a look at the specs of an established brand like Denali and see what you're looking for.
On the Gen 3 650 the reflector (housing) is inefficient and putting more Lumens into it has a point where it doesn't make sense as in putting in more Watts( like 100W LED!) Like hull speed on a boat, the hull design dictates speed not the excess power put into the prop. So we come to the Gen 4 650 OEM headlights which is really an integrated "array" of lighting. This is the way LED is supposed to be done like the modern cars. Because the array designs are most-efficient they produce little heat which is what gives it long life. But still not bright enough? I guess Kawi has vanilla standards to adhere to for road blinding. For my Gen 3 I got some standard 18W LED per unit aux. lights that are 'spot" (reflectors) that shoot further ahead without "wash". A Data dimming high-low switching system all the better if you wanna run them as daytime running lights that need little power to be effective.

 

[fasteddiecopeman]

After working for several hours to 'aim' them, I got the lights in my '08 to be excellent. On my Gen 3 '15 V650 - ONLY average.

 

[Slower and Slower]

My V650 is the same as the model as Antonis,the OP, I don't need to ride at night.
But the stationary lights are very bright to look at them, and I see bounced back reflections from the back of vehicle tailgates as 2 white circles.

In 2020, I changed from my 2016 Ford Mondeo car (nth American's know it as the Fusion). The older car had halogens, produced a brilliant white light on the road and side on low beam and like a searchlight on high beam.
The Focus with LED's, and extra cost special optioned LED's that actually turn as you turn a corner, were a major disappointment on low beam.
No white light, more like a transparent purple haze in fact. Driving it was like have no lights when oncoming cars approached.
The high beam was better, but nothing like the Mondeo.

After a while, I remembered that it was equipped with an auto dipping feature using the cruise control radar detector to individually turn off a number of LED elements which would normally blind oncoming cars when on high beam.
The old Mondeo would switch high beam off when it spotted the car was too close and flick back to low, but with the Focus today, I just use high beam all the time, and I've so far had no one flash me back, so it works, and I can see a lot better. Reflections off road signs are a negative though.

I expect bikes in the upper cost scale like the ones with radar cruise that keeps the gap constant, and LEDs (thinking of the Ducati Mulistrada here) probably do the same.
Tonight I'll open up the garage and try the V 650 & Z900 light up the backyard. It's raining today, tonight and tomorrow, but I will give it a go a report back.

Rob.

 

[jaaklucas]

No white light, more like a transparent purple haze

LED light is naturally purple in the color spectrum. They add a yellow coating(phosphor) to change it to white. The Kelvin rating system is used to express the color of the finished product. 6000K(Kelvin) is what I should expect for for bright white LED light in the specs for my headlight. Older LED technology has been known to be not so white or have a defective phosphor coating that degrades after time getting more purple. I've never encountered this but remember a time seeing purple headlights!

 

[Axel Johansson]

@jaaklucas

but remember a time seeing purple headlights!

Before the LED's started coming out I'd seem purplish headlights but I believe they were HID's The higher Kelvin are really useless, above 6K

 

[Slower and Slower]

My V650 is the same as the model as Antonis,the OP, I don't need to ride at night.
But the stationary lights are very bright to look at them, and I see bounced back reflections from the back of vehicle tailgates as 2 white circles.

<<< SNIPPED OUT >>>

I expect bikes in the upper cost scale like the ones with radar cruise that keeps the gap constant, and LEDs (thinking of the Ducati Mulistrada here) probably do the same.
Tonight I'll open up the garage and try the V 650 & Z900 light up the backyard. It's raining today, tonight and tomorrow, but I will give it a go a report back.

Rob.

Hi All,
Did the test of the Gen 4 V 650, just lighting up about 30 metre's of backyard, and V 650 was very acceptable to me. On low beam, it was very white broad stream of light, and high beam much the same.
The Z900 looked a bit different as there was not a clear path (things in the way), but I think both on the road would be No issue to me at all. Sorry Antonis, can't say I have a bad bike like yours.

In comparison, the 2020 Suzuki SV650 with a halogen lamp, gave a mediocre spread of yellow gloom, same place.
In a prior Gladius SV650 version, I swapped out the stock lamp with an aftermarket 25% brighter with the same wattage good quality name lamp (can't remember the brand), but that evapourated the coating of the silvered reflector all over the insides, leaving a milky plastic residue.
Actually, to be honest, Suzuki changed that lamp housing under warranty, but with the new one, the same happened again, so I swapped it out back to stock.
The claimed wattage was 55/60, same as stock lamp. Not easy to clean out the insides, let me tell you !

Rob.

 

[jaaklucas]

test of the Gen 4 V 650, just lighting up about 30 metre's of backyard, and V 650 was very acceptable to me

Great to hear that.