Modern Buddy

I switched out to sylvania silverstar car light bulbs on my '07 buddy since it has a heavier duty h4 conntector. The bulb is a 55 watt low beam 60 watt high beam. I've run about 200 miles on them and at night I gotta say the extra light is great. The high beam throws so much light out it's as bright as driving your car so I have no problem going down dark streets at 55 mph. So far I've got no problem with it draining my batteries or melting headlight components. The only snag was the locating tabs weren't an exact fit so I just smashed them flat with a pair of pliers and that worked great, you shouldn't have this problem if you go with their motorcycle specific h4's though. Some of you guys who drive in the dark should consider switching to a higher power car or motorcycle bulb. Just don't get any of those ricer blue bulbs they are usually some insanely high wattage like 100 watt low and 120 watt highs and their dark color tint heats the bulb so much that your electrical connector and reflector can melt!

I thought about going with one of those but didnt know if it would fit

Yep they do fit but like I said you have to smash down a couple of locater tabs and then you're golden, or get the motorcycle specific ones, they have 40 watt low beams and 65 watt highs, not as bright lows but a little brighter highs, good thing though is they'll drop right in.

ThisDude wrote:Yep they do fit but like I said you have to smash down a couple of locater tabs and then you're golden, or get the motorcycle specific ones, they have 40 watt low beams and 65 watt highs, not as bright lows but a little brighter highs, good thing though is they'll drop right in.

So this then begs the question - what are the stock '07 bulbs putting out? Anyone know?

-jetboy

I think the front lamp is a 35 watt halogen on the 07, not certain what the difference is between the high and low output is.......

The stock are 35 low and 35 high. So no difference in actual light output between low and high. Plus the sylvania sylverstars put out 20 percent more light than standard halogens of the same wattage because of their increased efficiency. So that 60 watt high beam is equivalent to having as much light as a 72 watt bulb in there without conuming more power. There really is a visible difference.

Besides the obvious advice to watch for any sign of overheating I'd be very nervous about the nearly doubled power consumption of the light, especially here in the US where the DOT requires the light to always be on. PGO didn't engineer much excess generator capacity in its scooters. I'd use a battery tender regularly to recharge the battery.

-Mark

I made sure to measure the charge voltage of the scooter, stock when the engine is revving it is 14.2 volts and with the new bulb it is about 14.15 with the high beam 14.2 with low beam so it doesn't look to be overstressing the electrical system. And I've put on over 500 miles on them and haven't been experiencing any dieing battery.

I'm a dummy when it comes to lighting, but my buddy is sorely in need of brighter lighting. You mentioned an H4 style bulb. Is there a specific model number for the car bulb, and secondly where would you find a motorcycle specific bulb that would fit. ? Supplier & model or bulb number. Great post!

Here's an ebayer selling the motorcycle specific bulb so you don't have to smash tabs and be "quasi-legal" like me although they do have higher wattage it's only by 5 watts on the high beam.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H4ST-Syl ... dZViewItem

Here's a link to a reputable store to order one from, this one is the car only, so you gotta smash tabs and be a legal daredevil like me.

http://autolights4less.com/sy-h4st.html

These are the silverstar bulbs and I swear by them, I have them in my car my truck, and all my previous motorcycles and scooters. They don't burn up your connectors and blow fuses like ricer blue headlights, don't cheap out and get those, you'll be sorry really quickly. Even if they're the correct wattage they'll throw out less light, generate more heat, and burn out quicker.

Like I said I'm new to this, and think I would like to try the car version,but what do you mean by squashing the tabs. Are the tabs to be squished on the bulb or on the connector. Anything would be better since at night you can only see about 20 ft in front of the scooter with the low beams and about 30 ft with the high beams. We have two Buddy's that we like to drive after dinner, and it is almost always dark when we are getting home.

Thanks for the post ThisDude. Great info. How many miles are you up to now? How's the light holding up?

Well this morning it was up to 2875 and the light and electrical system held up fine for the 2000 or so miles I've ridden it, unfortunately my scooter is now at noho awaiting a new crankcase seal because in the past weekl I've been seeing lots of oil on my wheel and this morning an oil stain on the ground. It's been an on going problem but now it was just too much oil to ignore. Turns out I lost half my oil in the past week of riding, so for at least the past couple of days I was down to only 400 cc's of oil. Hopefully no engine damage has happenned. I hope also that Mike can fix this problem relatively quickly, since this is the first time he will actually be taking a Buddy's engine apart, he's sold hundreds and this is the first one coming in for engine problems. Lucky me to get the bad one.

oh bummer... i hope you get your scooter back soon.

ThisDude wrote:Well this morning it was up to 2875 and the light and electrical system held up fine for the 2000 or so miles I've ridden it, unfortunately my scooter is now at noho awaiting a new crankcase seal because in the past weekl I've been seeing lots of oil on my wheel and this morning an oil stain on the ground. It's been an on going problem but now it was just too much oil to ignore. Turns out I lost half my oil in the past week of riding, so for at least the past couple of days I was down to only 400 cc's of oil. Hopefully no engine damage has happenned. I hope also that Mike can fix this problem relatively quickly, since this is the first time he will actually be taking a Buddy's engine apart, he's sold hundreds and this is the first one coming in for engine problems. Lucky me to get the bad one.

So how's the bike now? Okay?

Got an Ivory '07 myself, and am going to switch over to the H4 Silverstar headlight lamp ASAP; usta use em on my MC's, and liked them a lot.
You've had no problems with the electrics, using it?
I take it that you did not use any special relay box or anything like that, right? Just popped in the new bulb, right? Miy Budd's only got 200 miles onnit and is still under warranty, and I don't wanna do anything that might screw that up...

Thanx,

We own two matching orange Buddy 125's. Night vision was the pits. Partly because from the factory the headlights are aimed pretty low. The dealership did not set them when they did the initial service. I put in the Silverstar H4ST's this weekend. A world of difference. I actually feel safe riding at night now. They require disassembly of the upper body plastic to get to, and the two small locator tabs on the bulb are a little narrower on the Silverstar's and required bending them out to about 45°, but other than that minor detail, they are simply drop in replacements. I decided to try them after hearing of 2800+ miles of no problems by another post. I only have about 50 miles on the conversion, but so far I have no apparent negatives. I really do like being able to see at night.

nice. i'll probably switch mine when it starts to get dark earlier, too.

It's been 9 days without my Buddy so far, it still sucks driving everywhere in my truck. 21 days to go till I go for lemon arbitration.

woa... so the oil problem is significant i take it? was there any engine damage? do tell...

Mikes telling me there's been no engine damage but the seal is near impossible to get and appears it'll have to be shipped in from Taiwan and is back ordered so it'll take a good long time.

ThisDude wrote:Mikes telling me there's been no engine damage but the seal is near impossible to get and appears it'll have to be shipped in from Taiwan and is back ordered so it'll take a good long time.

I had this problem waiting for a part for my Buddy. Took the better part of 3 months.

Regarding the headlight thing, has anyone done any headlight mods on an '06 or ealier Buddy 125? Everyone who's doing the mod seems to be on '07s.

You can't on the '06, you can only replace them with some cheapy halogen bulbs, still beter than nothing though. The h4 bulbs are only an option on the '07 Buddies. Maybe as a lighting upgrade for the 06's you can punch out those front rack holes and install some foglights in them you can use somthing like these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FOG-LIGH ... otohosting

I had these on my metropolitan and when I turned them on they were dazzling, and draining, I switched them to leds after. Two of them with 20 watt mr16 bulbs and the high beams on the buddy will equal about 60 or 70 watts of light, very bright.

ThisDude wrote:I made sure to measure the charge voltage of the scooter, stock when the engine is revving it is 14.2 volts and with the new bulb it is about 14.15 with the high beam 14.2 with low beam so it doesn't look to be overstressing the electrical system. And I've put on over 500 miles on them and haven't been experiencing any dieing battery.

Voltage would have little to do with anything. It's going to be 12-14ish volts no matter what you do. Unless the battery is really, really dying.

What you need to be concerned with is the WATTAGE and Amperage your drawing, and how much the Buddy alternator is able to supply.

Too much Amps, and you'll toast your wiring. Too many Watts and your charging system will not be able to keep up and you'll be draining the battery.

Well the minimum voltage to maintain a float charge on a 6 cell lead acid battery is 13.8 volts, if voltage at the terminal of a battery is less than that you'll be draining the battery for sure. You don't want to drop less than 14 volts in reality because 13.8 is just barely breaking even. It's true for all charging systems like cars, motorcycles boats, and especially nuclear submarines which I had to maintain their battery systems in the navy so I have all too much experience in lead acid battery charging. Now whether the charging system can supply that without overheating is a different issue, because it can definitely supply the power, but I rode more than 2000 miles without any trouble whatsoever, so I think it'll be good.

JeremyZ wrote: Regarding the headlight thing, has anyone done any headlight mods on an '06 or ealier Buddy 125? Everyone who's doing the mod seems to be on '07s.

See this thread
viewtopic.php?t=492&highlight=headlight

I have the original back in, if that tells you anything. If anyone has tried something other than the halogens from Motorsports in the 06's with better luck, let us know!

sorry, joining this thread late. it seems that the headlight on the buddy is an item for the "con" column when considering what scooter to purchase. would this be why someone suggested buying the yamaha vino in another thread?