Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

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7portfan
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Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#1 Post by 7portfan » Wed May 06, 2015 6:36 pm

Having been a Yamaha fan since 1974 when I got into bikes as a spotty faced teenager riding a fantastic RD200 I finally got around to buying the bike of my dreams, namely a derestricted RZV500R using 47x pipes etc late last summer! Unfortunately I didn't get much riding in at that time as I had my hands full trying to sorting out a poor running Kawasaki H1b that I also own. With the Kawa sorted (after, using an Ivan's performance jet kit, and plenty of blood sweat and tears messing with various jetting set ups) I have recently been improving the way my RZV runs and handles by getting to know the bike via your excellent forum, and a copy of a UK service manual for an RD500.

I have replaced the soft Japanese home market fork springs with a new set of Hagon's Yam XJ600 springs(as recommended by a couple of users of this forum) and fresh 5wt fork oil that have transformed the front end as I am so much heavier than you typical Japanese rider! Man the original folk oil(gunk!) was black and smelled horrible compared to the fresh replacement oil. Perhaps it hadn't been changed for 20 years or so!

My question is about what I consider to be a rather poor headlamp, i.e. it's about as bright as the one on my old RD350 F2 which is dissapointing if you want to ride at night. I must confess that I haven't looked to see if the Bulb is the original one from the 80's but I wondered if it can be up graded or not? I have heard that as the electrics have got a lot to run with the 2 sets of power valves, 2 extra sets of coils and plugs etc that the lighting wasn't that good when the bikes were new.

Any thoughts or tips would be welcome!

:grin:

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nzminis
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Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#2 Post by nzminis » Thu May 07, 2015 3:39 am

you can get those fancy h4 bulbs or just get a cheap h4 hid kit and stick it in

heaps of options out there

7portfan
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Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#3 Post by 7portfan » Thu May 07, 2015 4:49 am

OK thanks for the tip, I'll try one of the Osram Night Racer 110 Halogen's and see if that helps. :smile:

dave55
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Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#4 Post by dave55 » Thu May 07, 2015 8:12 am

7portfan wrote:Having been a Yamaha fan since 1974 when I got into bikes as a spotty faced teenager riding a fantastic RD200 I finally got around to buying the bike of my dreams, namely a derestricted RZV500R using 47x pipes etc late last summer! Unfortunately I didn't get much riding in at that time as I had my hands full trying to sorting out a poor running Kawasaki H1b that I also own. With the Kawa sorted (after, using an Ivan's performance jet kit, and plenty of blood sweat and tears messing with various jetting set ups) I have recently been improving the way my RZV runs and handles by getting to know the bike via your excellent forum, and a copy of a UK service manual for an RD500.

I have replaced the soft Japanese home market fork springs with a new set of Hagon's Yam XJ600 springs(as recommended by a couple of users of this forum) and fresh 5wt fork oil that have transformed the front end as I am so much heavier than you typical Japanese rider! Man the original folk oil(gunk!) was black and smelled horrible compared to the fresh replacement oil. Perhaps it hadn't been changed for 20 years or so!

My question is about what I consider to be a rather poor headlamp, i.e. it's about as bright as the one on my old RD350 F2 which is dissapointing if you want to ride at night. I must confess that I haven't looked to see if the Bulb is the original one from the 80's but I wondered if it can be up graded or not? I have heard that as the electrics have got a lot to run with the 2 sets of power valves, 2 extra sets of coils and plugs etc that the lighting wasn't that good when the bikes were new.

Any thoughts or tips would be welcome!

:grin:
Hi, why 5wt oil in the forks, was this recommended by Hagon ? i to have a UK based RZV and just about to rebuild the forks with XJ springs from them. Did you leave the anti dive in ? mine is all working so going to leave it as standard for now.

Cheers Dave
1984 RZV500R
1985 FZ750 FN
1986 VF500 F2
2016 BMW S1000XR ( i need speed/brakes/handling :)

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jackson.40
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Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#5 Post by jackson.40 » Thu May 07, 2015 8:47 am

Worth a look

http://www.rzrd500.com/500phpBB3/viewto ... f=4&t=8952" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

7portfan
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Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#6 Post by 7portfan » Thu May 07, 2015 9:57 am

Hi Dave,

I decided to used 5 wt oil as that's what Yamaha recommend in their service data, and yes my anti-dive is still connected.

Rather than strip the forks as the seals are still good, I drained them via the screws at the bottom of each leg and added fresh oil in the usual manner. However bearing in mind how bad the original oil was when it came out I decided to do another change next month on the basis that any traces of the remaining original oil will have mixed with the fresh oil and should drain out completely on the next change! The fact that I had twice the amount of 5wt oil than required in my garage also helped me to make that decision.

I have read that other owners use 10 or 15 wt fork oil, but I thought I'd try the 5 wt first to see how I get on. With the Hagon springs fitted I have set the fork top adjusters at number 1 and the anti-dive on the lowest setting which seems to works fine for my 17+ stone body weight.

I also live in the UK, but hadn't worked out how to put that on my profile!

dave55
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Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2015 4:05 pm
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Re: Newbie with a question about the Headlamp!

#7 Post by dave55 » Thu May 07, 2015 10:09 am

Cheers for the info Guy's

just waiting for my new re-chromed legs back and away we go again :smt003

Dave UK
1984 RZV500R
1985 FZ750 FN
1986 VF500 F2
2016 BMW S1000XR ( i need speed/brakes/handling :)

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