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Headlight conversion for the 1100 Breva

john zibell

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GT di Razza Pura
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
9,934
Location
Huntsville, AL
I finally got tired of not being able to see the road at night and decided to go for a LED headlight. Let me start off by saying the schematic from Guzzi doesn't correctly show how the headlight is wired. It only shows the blue as ground for the low beam and power is applied to all bulbs. This is not how it really is.

The schematic should show that blue is ground going to the high and low beam. A brown wire is spliced to the blue going to the parking light.
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The LED I purchased has an H4 connector, plus leads for the parking light. However I discovered that when the parking light is activated it actually illuminates the low beam, and when you turn the key on the tail light illuminates along with the low beam so I decided to disconnect the parking light.
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To install a new headlight bucket, I had spacers made from 3/4 inch 303 stainless steel. For this particular application the thread to the bucket is M8x1.0 and the holes for mounting screws to the bike are M6x1,0 and the thread depth is 15mm. The spacers were installed using loctite 242 and with jam nuts to prevent them coming loose.
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Next came the point of no return. I cut the wires to the headlight with enough left to re-install the stock headlight if it is desired in the future.

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Not knowing at the time I would be using the parking circuit I soldered on an extension for it along with an H4 connector. All connections were covered with heat shrink tubing.

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From a section of inner tube I made a protective cover for the wiring as the headlight bucket does not have a grommet at the entry point.

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Next came mounting the headlight bucket. I mounted the bucket with two M6x1x30 Allen head screws. I also coated the threads with anti seize since stainless has a nasty habit of galling on fasteners.

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Last came the step to assemble the ring to the bucket.

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All that remains is to adjust the headlight aim. I can tell just be running the bike in the garage this headlight is much brighter that the original and should do well at illuminating the road at night.
 
Be interesting to hear just how much better it is on a dark road. Beam, spread and cut off come to mind. Brightness alone can mean little.

Agree Brian, Let me put it this way. The pattern in the garage was good. With the stock light I needed to light a match to see if it was lit. Getting it out after dark will be the ultimate test, but a flashlight would be better than the stock headlight. I wasn't impressed with the 18 gauge wire in the bike harness, but it is adequate for LED lights.
 
Be interesting to hear just how much better it is on a dark road. Beam, spread and cut off come to mind. Brightness alone can mean little.

Brian,

I was able to take the bike out on un-lit two lane and 4 lane roads tonight. The difference from the stock headlight was awesome. Low beam gave a good pattern and the road surface for some distance was well illuminated. On High beam I could see a very long distance. At 70 mph (on the 4 lane divided) I don't think I was even close to out running the headlight. If anything appeared at the end of the illuminated area I would have had plenty of time to stop. Much more confident riding at night with this light.
 
Well that is good news. I suspect some of your problem previously was low voltage at the bulb filament. 1 volt drop equates to something like 20% drop in light output.
 
Well that is good news. I suspect some of your problem previously was low voltage at the bulb filament. 1 volt drop equates to something like 20% drop in light output.


Makes you wonder why Guzzi builds these bikes with only 18 gauge wire to the headlight. I would much prefer 14 gauge. Also I shouldn't be surprised as even on older Guzzi bikes I would add relays triggered by the bikes wiring to deliver full voltage (provided by a separate fused line directly from the battery) to the headlight. It would make a big differences especially on EV models.
 
Excellent post John! I placed this upgrade for my Breva on the top of my list.
 
Makes you wonder why Guzzi builds these bikes with only 18 gauge wire to the headlight. I would much prefer 14 gauge. Also I shouldn't be surprised as even on older Guzzi bikes I would add relays triggered by the bikes wiring to deliver full voltage (provided by a separate fused line directly from the battery) to the headlight. It would make a big differences especially on EV models.
is it possible/worthwhile to replace the 14 gauge from the light relay with 18?
 
is it possible/worthwhile to replace the 14 gauge from the light relay with 18?

The harness on the bike is 18 gauge which in my opinion is a little light and results in too much resistance and thus voltage drop. 14 gauge would result in less voltage drop. The simplest solution is what I've done for older Guzzi models as described above.
 
The harness on the bike is 18 gauge which in my opinion is a little light and results in too much resistance and thus voltage drop. 14 gauge would result in less voltage drop. The simplest solution is what I've done for older Guzzi models as described above.
ah right. the wires on the other side of the relay would still result in the drop. thanks.
 
Start a conversation with me and we can discuss it.
I didn't find any pm?
The Breva I recently got has a cracked housing and light road rash on the chrome ring and apparently no way to fully disassemble, Thinking I would repair & paint, still possible but challenging. ebay has a couple ranging 250-280, looking for something less?
Any way Thanks for the write up which is a good direction as well....

eh
 
I didn't find any pm?
The Breva I recently got has a cracked housing and light road rash on the chrome ring and apparently no way to fully disassemble, Thinking I would repair & paint, still possible but challenging. ebay has a couple ranging 250-280, looking for something less?
Any way Thanks for the write up which is a good direction as well....

eh

I started a conversation. I also explained you how you can start one.
 
Did this upgrade last weekend following John's instructions here and all i can say is WOW....I can now see the road and all around me! Thanks again John for your efforts to the Guzzi community!
 
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