Make your Scooter Headlight Brighter

I have been using Honda Activa 125 scooter to commute to office – a commute of 40 km each way and on my return journey, the incandescent bulb of the headlight was useless. It probably, merely, served to tell people of my presence on the road.

I decided to switch to a halogen bulb from stock HS1 35/35W 12V bulb, and I started research for this over the internet. Then I released that I need to update the stock bulb to halogen H4 60/55W 12V bulb.When I usually invest money in buying something  I make sure the  results are worth that value. While searching, i came across this Philips CityVision Moto H4 bulb which is designed for city riders.

I asked expert opinion about changing the stock bulb to my friends and mechanic but some people said it will be useful and will work well, some said the headlight power will decrease and some said if I’m riding at low rpm the brightness will decrease. After all these comments in decided to spend 500 bucks on the bulb and give it a try. If it doesn’t work I can revert to stock settings. After all H4 bulbs can be fixed to new Activa in the stock HS1 bulb holder.No wiring or electricals has to be altered.

I bought this bulb over Amazon and went to a mechanic to change the bulb. He said the headlight performance will decrease. I told him to give it a try and he changed the bulb.Now the headlight is very bright and I’m happy with the visibility that new bulb provides.

Problem:
Activa uses AC system to power the headlight and so there is no reason that battery will drain away but headlamps get AC voltage, so it dimms and brigtens up until rpms are bit high.Some bikes use DC system to power the bulb and hence, the suggested system will drain the battery.Honda alternators doesn’t pump up the 55W bulb to full glory so at low RPM. You can probably design a circuit to switch over the power supply to DC at lower RPM’s and AC after certain RPM’s.At low RPM’s 55w bulb will not help much unless you go ahead rewind your alternator.

Solution:
This problem can be solved by changing the indicator, brake light and tail light to LED bulb which can reduce the load on the alternator.I will be doing that soon.