As many of you guys already know, the CBR 1KF lacks on many markets both lowbeam lights. This is the case on my market (Sweden). Only the left side shines on lowbeam. I took some fairing parts off today to have a look on how it´s been disconnected. One cable is missing in the right side socket and cableharness, the white/black one. Looking at the wiring diagram in the service manual, this white/black cable is single when coming out of the relay and divides into two on it´s way to the bulbs. There is no obvious cable "cutoff" somewhere to be seen, and I don´t feel like stripping off all insulation tape from the wiring harness. Couldn´t I just use an Y-connector on the existing white/black cable directly before the socket and hook on a piece of cable and route it to the right side bulb socket? Maybe I should hook up a fuse to protect the wiring harness from frying, but where? Right next to the Y-connector, or at the relay?

The reason why the bike had only one lowbeam is Swedish law, but that law has been changed for 6-7 years ago. I spoked to the guy at "Swedish Vehicle Testing Agency" (Svensk Bilprovning) who performed the every other year mandatory Traffic Security Test on my bike about the lack of lowbeam on one side. He looked at his rulebook and could not find anything prohibiting double lights, so he definitly recommeded me to connect both sides. "- You will be easier to see!" was his argument.

 

My concern would be this: the places where double low beam is standard probably use a 14 to 16 guage wire coming off the split, which is probably a 12 to 14 wire. I don't know if a wire after the split could handle the extra draw coming through it without melting.

 

I would recommend hooking up next to the Y connector so as to protectas much of the rest of the electrical system as possible. Better toblow fuses than frywires.But I doubt this would do you much goodif you were to continueusing stock bulbs of 45/45W cos they just arent bright enough.

 

It is also standard for the places with double low beam to use 55/60W bulbs.

My 1991 UK spec bike has double low beam - uses standard H4 bulbs rated at 55/60W.

I have changed to some halfords super brilliance bulbs which although claimed as 50% better are not that much brighter but are a whiter light.

If you feel the wire is too thin - you could always use the standard wires to power a relay - then put in a correct sized feed direct from the battery
through the relay to power the lights.

 

My '96 UK spec bike has the double low beam 60/55w bulbs but I'm using Ring Super Xenon bulbs which are a big improvement over the stock bulbs which weren't that bad to start with. I get car-like levels of vision on Dip and Main. I can't understand why some specs ever had a single dip beam.

 

The main reason I wanna do this is to be better seen, not to see better. I´m leaning towards installing an extra relay and switch it with the low beam cable, powering it directly from the battery. This would probably improve the currant coming to the bulbs too. My bike´s specs on bulbs is 55/60W. The OLD law on one low beam for motorcycles had something to do with Motorcycles=one light...........Cars= two lights. What´s really strange is US market using 45/45W bulbs, but then again, seems like crappy lights are a tradition in US, I´ve seen that on several cars too (yes, I have visited the USA, three weeks and all I did was drive, it felt like atleast).

 

I suspect that there may be regulator issues to be considered. The cbr 1000f does not have adjustable regulator output, but other bikes do have. I suspect that the reason for adjustability of a regulator output is to take care of extra demand the owner may want to place on the circuit.It could be that the RR of the cbr 1kfadjusts automatically what level of undrawed voltage to convert to heat. Orthat the level of output is fixed,in which casethere is the potential of permanent undercharging whentoo muchdemands are put on thesystem.Does anyone know for sure?

 

I did the converting today. I did it the safe way, I used another relay, hooked it up directly to the battery, poked out the metal connector in the socket and put 2 new ones in, one on each side which I connected to the relay. The old existing low beam cable I used as trigger cable on the relay. If the charging system is to weak for this, how can you ever use high beam lights, that actually use more power?