Sat down yesterday and knocked out some progress on these after my TRS package came.
Pretty quick install, it was nice hearing a single headlight for a change.
Brackets were absolutely beautiful and fit perfectly. Huge thanks to Jasper for those.
Will likely throw these on the bike later this week and level everything out.
Thanks to all that have contributed to this forum, made this a true Retro-Quick.
Couple of notes as I don't know if they have been outlined in this thread. The brackets on my 2012 848 differed from the 1098 brackets shown in the photos. Not sure if that was due to year or model, but it's worth noting. Also, I had to use M4 hardware not M6. So when you go to buy bolts, verify your brackets and take that into consideration.
Well done! Good observation on the change in OEM brackets.
In fact, since 2011 Ducati updated the headlights for 1198 and 848's with the black lens housing you have. Inside they reduced the weight of the bracket by using stamped metal ones. The older 1098 and 848 had a black bracket with rubber bushing and brass threads that is quite heavy!
Well done! Good observation on the change in OEM brackets.
In fact, since 2011 Ducati updated the headlights for 1198 and 848's with the black lens housing you have. Inside they reduced the weight of the bracket by using stamped metal ones. The older 1098 and 848 had a black bracket with rubber bushing and brass threads that is quite heavy!
Thanks for the info, that's an interesting bit of history, what was the housing color before? I thought all the 848/xx98 had black housings.
I just ordered my euro headlight switch, should be here later this week. Dreading the garage though, we saw snow this morning, so I'm addressing a heating solution for the garage to make it a bit more appealing for winter car and bike projects.
Borrowed your picture-
The center part where you see black is clear on the older models! Talk about snow we've been having a blizzard here for two days straight. Time to take out the snowboards and hit up the mountains! :yo:
The center part where you see black is clear on the older models! Talk about snow we've been having a blizzard here for two days straight. Time to take out the snowboards and hit up the mountains! :yo:
Got it, never noticed that before. Looking forward to hitting the slopes soon, I have 3 days left in the office and I'm done for the year!
On a more bike related note, euro switch came and looks and fits perfectly, just need to reroute a bit of wiring and this project will be wrapped up.
FYI, I bought this switch on eBay, different part number from the one found earlier, but the same part at a third of the price, no issue with fitment, and it uses the same 8 pin connector. Just in case anyone wants to spend 50 vs 150
Progress has been slow as the weather here has been dropping into the teens. Finally moved the bike over into the main bay for the evening to test out the positioning of the lights for adjustments.
Just waiting on my 8 pin harness connector to show up so that I can finish up the wiring.
Video of them pre adjustment ( though they were pretty close) overall, very happy with this set up!
Just remember to do the adjustment on a wall 10m away as recommended in the manual. I tried to do it in the garage like you with only a couple of meters (4m in my case) to the wall and got a horrible result.
The reason I believe, is that you are adjusting your settings almost at the focal point of the beam, thus creating a totally wrong setting at the 10m mark. At least I had my projectors 35 degrees off and blinded everyone first time I rode. Doing a proper adjustment on a wall far enough away corrected that.
Just remember to do the adjustment on a wall 10m away as recommended in the manual. I tried to do it in the garage like you with only a couple of meters (4m in my case) to the wall and got a horrible result.
The reason I believe, is that you are adjusting your settings almost at the focal point of the beam, thus creating a totally wrong setting at the 10m mark. At least I had my projectors 35 degrees off and blinded everyone first time I rode. Doing a proper adjustment on a wall far enough away corrected that.
Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll be doing final adjustments outside the garage with the bike further down the driveway facing back towards the door.
Housing is all buttoned up, cooling overnight. And my 8 pin harness came this afternoon. Hoping to wrap everything up this week.
Finished wiring everything up today. Used the wiring instruction for the euroswitch to keep the wiring as close to factory as I could. Took a while but managed to keep all the existing wiring tied into existing looms. Switch is wonderful, though the relay for the TRS has about a 3-5 second delay before the lights are allowed to fire, so if you arnt in the habit of turning your ignition on and leaving it for an extended period of time, the euro switch might not be necessary for you.
I also went ahead and got the lights aligned tonight, and took it around the block with the headlight bolted up. Unbelievable how much of a difference these made vs the factory single halogen lamp.
I'll take decent shots of the light output when I can ideally have a second person taking the picture so I can level the bike I was trying to take them with the stand, but they were angling the lights quite a bit lower.
Install complete. No leftover bolts, buttoned up perfectly. The only visual difference looking over the bike is the wire looms leaving the headlight housing caps. Overall very happy with this install.
A lot of you asked me what ballast you should get and whether you should go to 55W. To summarize my research so far, different ballast/bulbs warms up at different rates and also give out different wattage. What that means is a poorly made 55W ballast may put out less lux than a 35W ballast. The problem is only further exacerbated by a poorly made bulb.
So in most cases, you certainly get what you pay for - with one exception. I have been quite happy with the fastbright F3 ballasts. They are cheaply found on ebay but well made. Not surprisingly, at 35W they give out more than many generic branded 55W ballast.
Currently I am using a 35W F3 Fastbright ballast which you can find at this affiliated link here: https://goo.gl/rakmlQ
For the bulbs, I am using the Morimoto XB 5000K bulb at this affiliated link here:https://goo.gl/6HxB7K
Finished wiring everything up today. Used the wiring instruction for the euroswitch to keep the wiring as close to factory as I could. Took a while but managed to keep all the existing wiring tied into existing looms. Switch is wonderful, though the relay for the TRS has about a 3-5 second delay before the lights are allowed to fire, so if you arnt in the habit of turning your ignition on and leaving it for an extended period of time, the euro switch might not be necessary for you.
I also went ahead and got the lights aligned tonight, and took it around the block with the headlight bolted up. Unbelievable how much of a difference these made vs the factory single halogen lamp.
I'll take decent shots of the light output when I can ideally have a second person taking the picture so I can level the bike I was trying to take them with the stand, but they were angling the lights quite a bit lower.
after 2 years i finally got around to installing mine that another member here did the work on..... WOW! i wish ducati would just make the bikes with real headlights from the factory, the OEM lights are board line dangerous.
Finally completed my upgrade to the bi-xenons thanks to this post and few others on the forum. Kudos to the original ideas and to the issues they faced and overcomed.
However, facing a strange issue. My lights stay on during the ignition, but as soon as I start the bike, the battery starts to drain upto 12+ ish. If I rev the bike till 4-5k the voltage goes up till 13.8-9. Any higher and I think the ecu kills power to the lights. If I kill power and back on, light comes on fine.
Happened to check prior to the installation and everything was normal. Battery stayed at 13 odd at ignition and 14.2 on idle.
Anyone else faced/facing this issue too? Any ideas?
P.S. I have checked the stator and R/R too. Both are okay. The connectors were burnt and Im changing them atm as Im writing this down.
Thanks in advance. Attached a few shots of how it looks.
Cheers
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