My original plan to improve the situation was to upgrade to an HID system that has both low beam and high beam in one bulb at a color temperature of 6000K (bluish white). The system that I was looking at is rated for an average power consumption of 35W with a lumen output that is much, much greater than an average halogen bulb and doing it while generating much less heat.
This all changed when I found LED headlight upgrades on the internet. I have some LED flashlights that are blindingly bright with a lot of range so I thought, why not use this in a headlight? So I jumped on one of my favorite online stores, www.banggood.com, and bought this setup: http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-LED- ... 36130.html. The price was right and shipping is free.
Unfortunately, what I received was different from what was shown on their website, though from previous experience with this outfit, I knew that if I contacted them they would take care of the problem. But, I decided to just keep what they sent mainly because it is rated for 25W vs the 20W for the unit shown on their website. The color temperature I choose is 6000K. Unfortunately, the instructions are written in Chinese, but I didn't really need them since installation is so easy.
The LED headlight has both low beam and high beam in one unit. LED's can get pretty hot, so the headlight is made of aluminum with a heatsink and cooling fan built into the back of it. It comes with several mounting adapters to match the different types of headlight bulbs used in bikes and cars. My Blur (not sure if the Buddy is the same) uses H4 type bulbs, so I used that adapter. It also came with a rubber weather shield similar to what's used in the stock headlight assembly. I found that I couldn't use this shield in the Blur because of the way the LED mounted into the headlight housing.
Locking the LED unit in place with the scooter's bailing wire lock mechanism is kind of a pain, but it's doable.
As mentioned, there are two LED elements, one on each side of the unit. One is labelled "Up" and the other "Down". When low beam is selected, only one of the elements is turned on. When high beam is selected, both elements are turned on. On low beam only, it draws 12W and 25W on high beam.
There are three connection wires plus a connector housing which does not match the one in the scooter. I cut the contacts off the wires and crimped on some male flat blade type contacts which allowed them to be plugged individually into the stock headlight connector.
The LED voltage regulator box was ty-wrapped onto the scooter's wire harness to keep it from bouncing around.
So how bright is this thing? Much brighter than my halogen by a large margin. It easily lights up stop signs a block away on high beam. Most of the streets I ride on are pretty well lit by street lights, so I'll have to go find some dark, unlit roads to really test it out. So far, my aging eyes are really happy with the improvement in light output. Since much less current is required to power the headlight, more current is available for other accessories such as heated grips and 1000W stereo's.
I haven't been flashed by on-coming cars yet, so I guess I'm not blinding anyone (on low beam, anyway).
