Headlight Relay Harness

[Bob_Roller]

Has anyone  used one of these relay / harness kits from Eastern Beaver ??

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Wiring_Kits/H4_Kits/h4_kits.html

Ordered one for the '87 Guzzi, the headlight is weak on the bike and I do a fair amount of night riding .

Very undersize OEM wire for the headlight circuit .

The harness is a 'plug and play' type, no cutting and splicing the bikes wiring .

[montmil]

Haven't done any business with The Beaver. I find him to be pretty pricey and japan is a long ways from Texas.

For the price of a simple horn relay from FLAPS, a few feet of wire and some terminals, I fabbed up an new horn wiring harness for the R65s and my Triumph Trophy 900. Way less cost and wasn't necessary to cut away the excess length in the Beaver's fancy harness.

I also relayed the headlights on my 1986 VW Cabriolet and the increase in lumens was amazing.

Why not just do your own DIY harness and call it done?

[Bob_Roller]

I made up a wire harness for an airhorn, the relay  (15 amp) and plastic socket were over $30 at NAPA, this was 7 years ago .

So with two relays, one high and low bean, I would be at $60 already .

Cost for the harness and shipping was $62, so I figured it was cost efective to get the premade harness .

[montmil]

My 20 amp relay for the Triumph's horn harness was seven bucks at Auto Zone... last week. Not sure what "socket" you're referencing but my local NAPA store is pretty proud of their parts n' pieces.

The Cabrio took two relays for the lights.

[Bob_Roller]

The plastic socket or holder that the relay plugs into , it didn't come with the relay.

I went into the local O'Reilly's auto parts store, and they were not helpful at all in this, that's why I just ordered the harness .

[steven m]

I ordered and installed the Eastern Beaver kit a few years back.  Very easy plug and play install.  I posted about it because I didn't use enough insulating tape and shorted out one of my handlebar controls.  So, just maker certain you have everything wrapped up when you put it in the headlamp shell.

Very noticeable improvement in lighting.

Monte's install is actually more elegant, and simpler, ultimately, but the Eastern Beaver kit is well made and I have had no problems with it.

Steve

[montmil]

The plastic socket or holder that the relay plugs into...

Now I gotcha. My horn relay wiring uses insulated female spade terminals attached directly to the relays male terminals.

Quoting our man Steve Hawkins... Lighter. Faster.  

[nhmaf]

I used their horn relay harness kit several years back on the R65LS - I could have wired something up myself but wanted to see what they provided and do a test run for some other friends.   The kit was good, and arrived in a very surprisingly short amount of time, considering they are based in Japan.  Maybe they have a distribution point in CA of something, but it only took a few days to show up - and shipping costs were reasonable, too.

IF one doesn't have the ability or time to search out proper wiring, connectors, and relay(s) at local parts stores, it is definitely worth using their product, IMO.

[Bob_Roller]

I didn't want to cut into the wiring harness on the Guzzi, it is all quite brittle due to the heat, it's been an Arizona bike since first being sold .

This harness, you remove the connector from the headlight, plug the harness into it and the other connector on the headlight, run the leads to battery and you are done .

Shipping cost was $10US to Phoenix, they ship directly to you,  most likely through the U S Postal Service .

The site states that usual shipping time to the US is less than one week .

[bruce_launceston]

I made my own, firstly on the V65 Guzzi because the undersized wiring was reducing the light output, I installed a neat double relay for high and low beam. It made a great improvement.

I did a similar upgrade on the R65 a few years ago, again increasing the wiring size and wiring straight from the battery via a relay swithed with the original headlight wiring. It didn't make much difference to the BM's light output, I thing I need to polish the reflector maybe.

[Bob_Roller]

Got the wiring harness today, ordered the kit on Oct 26, Oct 27 in Japan and it arrived on Nov 3 .

Has the appearance of being top notch and professional looking, hope to get installed on the Guzzi tomorrow, I'll be able to ride the bike in the dark !!!!

After reading Montes post, I'm going to do some more searching for relays locally .

[Bob_Roller]

Got the harness installed, once I got the fuel tank off, it was a 5 minute installation .

Thr bike has an LS type fairing around the headlight, easy access to the headlight bulb .

Too light out to tell how much brighter the head light is, but with the lights off in the garage and the door closed, it looks like a 300-400 % increase in light output without the engine running .

I'll get out for an early morning ride on Saturday, I'll know for sure then .  

I would recommend this type of installation, if you have a dim headlight .

The wires in the harness are about 3 times the size of the OEM wire to the headlight .

[Ed Miller]

Cool.  I notice he has one with the option for running lights, and even sells one for positive ground bikes like my Triumph.

To me most lights are dim, except those of on-coming traffic.