Modern Buddy

I have a 125cc buddy riot. Just swapped out my 35w head light for a 65watt. Well this damage my bikes battery, stator, or headlight housing?

Can I swap in an led or will I need to switch from ac to doc some how?

What did you do to upgrade your headlight?

Switching to a higher wattage incandescent bulb will of course increase the amperage requirement from the scoot's generator, which in stock form produces only a modest amount of current. Along with the increased current draw will be more heat generated. Some people, including myself, have made this change with no ill effects, but keep in mind that you will have most likely used up any current reserves from the generator. This means any additional lights or anything else requiring power will most likely put too much drain on the battery for charging system to keep up.
A while back I changed from a halogen head lamp to using an LED module. This module converts the AC that normally goes to the headlight to DC in order to power the LED. It also has a built-in fan to keep everything nice and cool. The current draw is about half of what the stock 35W bulb drew. As far as I can tell, the light output from the LED is much greater than the 60W bulb that I used beforehand. It is definitely a much whiter light that is more noticed by other drivers on the road. The amount of times of being cut off by other drivers has reduced significantly because they see me now.
If you do go to LED, get one of the more current versions that has 3 LED elements in it. These produce a more even light pattern. My 2 element setup is just OK as far as light pattern, so I'll probably get one of the new ones soon.

A second option is to go HID which is also much brighter and whiter than stock. The current draw is about the same as a stock bulb so heat won't be an issue. In theory, an LED should outlast a HID bulb, but the HID bulbs in my car have been pretty long lasting and I've only replaced one due to an external electrical problem that caused it to fail prematurely.

babblefish wrote:Switching to a higher wattage incandescent bulb will of course increase the amperage requirement from the scoot's generator, which in stock form produces only a modest amount of current. Along with the increased current draw will be more heat generated. Some people, including myself, have made this change with no ill effects, but keep in mind that you will have most likely used up any current reserves from the generator. This means any additional lights or anything else requiring power will most likely put too much drain on the battery for charging system to keep up.
A while back I changed from a halogen head lamp to using an LED module. This module converts the AC that normally goes to the headlight to DC in order to power the LED. It also has a built-in fan to keep everything nice and cool. The current draw is about half of what the stock 35W bulb drew. As far as I can tell, the light output from the LED is much greater than the 60W bulb that I used beforehand. It is definitely a much whiter light that is more noticed by other drivers on the road. The amount of times of being cut off by other drivers has reduced significantly because they see me now.
If you do go to LED, get one of the more current versions that has 3 LED elements in it. These produce a more even light pattern. My 2 element setup is just OK as far as light pattern, so I'll probably get one of the new ones soon.

A second option is to go HID which is also much brighter and whiter than stock. The current draw is about the same as a stock bulb so heat won't be an issue. In theory, an LED should outlast a HID bulb, but the HID bulbs in my car have been pretty long lasting and I've only replaced one due to an external electrical problem that caused it to fail prematurely.

Thank you.! I have a dead lights conversion kit and I noticed since the switch that she has had a harder time starting up. This explains a lot. Could you please tell me the model of led you are using I would like to grab myself one, sounds like it's everything I need.

I'm pretty sure the particular LED kit I bought is no longer available as better units are now on the market. Just do a search on eBay for "motorcycle LED headlight conversion" and you'll get a bunch of hits. My Blur uses H4 type bulbs, not sure what the Buddy uses. Some of the kits come with adapters in order to accommodate different bulb types. One thing to keep in mind, the new 3 and 4 element LED units will draw more current than my 2 element one. I'm looking at an 3 element setup on eBay that looks pretty good for only US$22 with free shipping. It draws 45W with all elements turned on, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem since I rarely use high beam so average current draw should only be 30W (two elements on). Two element LED conversions are still available if want to keep power draw to a minimum and don't mind a bit of beam scatter.

If you want to see the installation of my current LED setup, do a search here for "installed led headlight in my blur". I would normally provide a link, but I'm on my tablet and have no idea on how to copy and paste links with this damn thing.

I believe the Buddy uses an HS1 bulb. Similar fit to an h4, but lower wattage.

Be careful running a higher-wattage halogen in the Buddy's small headlamp, the lens and reflector are plastic and can deform/melt if the temps are high enough. LED is probably the safest option.

babblefish wrote:I'm pretty sure the particular LED kit I bought is no longer available as better units are now on the market. Just do a search on eBay for "motorcycle LED headlight conversion" and you'll get a bunch of hits. My Blur uses H4 type bulbs, not sure what the Buddy uses. Some of the kits come with adapters in order to accommodate different bulb types. One thing to keep in mind, the new 3 and 4 element LED units will draw more current than my 2 element one. I'm looking at an 3 element setup on eBay that looks pretty good for only US$22 with free shipping. It draws 45W with all elements turned on, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem since I rarely use high beam so average current draw should only be 30W (two elements on). Two element LED conversions are still available if want to keep power draw to a minimum and don't mind a bit of beam scatter.

If you want to see the installation of my current LED setup, do a search here for "installed led headlight in my blur". I would normally provide a link, but I'm on my tablet and have no idea on how to copy and paste links with this damn thing.

Care to share that eBay link?

The LED kit for US$23 is eBay item 142047923776. You will have to do some modification to the electrical connectors because they are different between the LED and scooter.

This LED kit uses the same connector as the scooter so should plug right up with no mods: 322217300046. Plus it's cheaper at US $15. At that price, I'd be a little suspicious of the quality though.

I just ordered this LED headlight conversion from Banggood for US$19, shipped.

http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-LED- ... 35011.html

It has the correct electrical connector to mate with the existing harness, so should be a plug-n-play affair.

Some specs:
Power draw: 30 watts
Brightness: 3600LM
Color Temperature: 6000K
Life Expectancy: 50,000 hrs
Mount: universal (comes with several adapters)

The nice thing about this one is that it uses 5 LED elements while the one I'm currently using only has 2. This should make the projected light pattern more full and even. If the 3600LM brightness is accurate, it should be much brighter than the 1800LM of my current setup. I'll report on it's performance after I get it installed.

For anyone interested, this is the one that's been in my Blur for a little over a year with no issues (other than a not-so-optimum light pattern):

http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-LED- ... 36130.html

Piaa 35W HS1, best light available IMO.

The HID kits make some very bright light, but the reflectors are all wrong and make for a sometimes awful pattern.

That would be my concern with LEDs too. If you just throw a bunch of light everywhere, you annoy other divers without necessarily getting light where you need it.

Finally got my new 5-element LED headlight. Installing it was a little bit of a pain as I had to remove the front fairing in order to allow access to the locking spring clip for the bulb. Other than that, it was a plug-n-play affair. The only potential issue was that the electrical connector that plugs into the harness was a little loose and might vibrate apart, but I took care of that by tie-wrapping the two connectors together.
What a great upgrade over the older 2-element LED. The beam pattern is more even across the road, pretty much the same as my old halogen bulb, except much brighter and drawing about half the current.
As far as blinding on coming drivers, the way the Blur reflector is designed, the beam is cutoff at the top by the reflector. As a matter of fact, the bulb itself is not really visible to on coming traffic anyway. Besides that, the LED bulb does not have any elements facing forward, unlike a normal halogan bulb which throws light everywhere including forward. There is no random light scatter as the beam is controlled by the reflector and not dependant on bulb design.
Best bang for your lighting dollars, as far as I'm concerned, especially if this one is as trouble free as my previous setup. I'll never go back to incandescent again. I've even eliminated incandescent headlights from all my cars by converting them to HID. Huge difference for much less money than premium halogens.

I just got the PIAA HS1. Very bright, works fine.