New to me - ‘95 Honda Shadow VLX600

[gggGary]

Figgered I was late but yeah there's a bunch of different light distribution patterns for those little LED bulbs. sometimes a bit of foil in just the right spot...
I just ordered an H4 LED headlight bulb with dual color temps, 3K on low beam 6500 on high beam. I'm thinking it'll look period (incandescent) on low beam but light the road decent on high,
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...st_main.5.39a21802amYvm3&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
you'll have to wait for the breathless reports.

 

[bosco659]

https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-light-bulbs-universal-finder/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/ba9s-led-bulb-4-led-ba9s-retrofit-car-classic-car-bulbs-ba9s-x4-x-xvac-car+volts-12V~ACDC+color-Cool~6500K+packamt-Single+beam-90°

Wow they have lotsa options for a 194 bulb. I’ll post a pic of the illuminated Speedo head. It’s not terrible, just brighter at the top. The light bulb is positioned Center top so it’s no surprise it’s brighter up there. At least it can be read now. The 158 incandescent bulb was pathetic.

 

[bosco659]

Figgered I was late but yeah there's a bunch of different light distribution patterns for those little LED bulbs. sometimes a bit of foil in just the right spot...
I just ordered an H4 LED headlight bulb with dual color temps, 3K on low beam 6500 on high beam. I'm thinking it'll look period (incandescent) on low beam but light the road decent on high,
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...st_main.5.39a21802amYvm3&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
you'll have to wait for the breathless reports.

Sounds like an interesting bulb. I never heard of that before. On my XS I replaced the H4 halogen with an LED H4 I had in stock. Much better light but my voltage was running on the high side so I put the halogen back in. I rarely ride at night but the LED is certainly a nice upgrade. I ran a pair in my Vstrom and with dual lights, the road was nicely illuminated. Right now, on the three bikes, they're all halogen . I think the Honda might be a a sealed halogen bulb, otherwise I could throw an LED in there. I’ll check tomorrow - I sense another project coming.

Well lookee.. it is a replaceable halogen. The headlight shell is small so I’ll have to see if the led will fit..

 

[Kevin Werner]

Tires on the bike are originals, circa 1994! Tried taking the front one off but wasn’t successful because I don’t have anything to hold the wheel while prying the tire off. Sidewalls are super stiff, maybe from age. May cut it off since it’s trash anyway.

Unless you can break the bead cutting may not help. Local bike shops may do a cheap dismount for you this time of year. Cheers.

 

[bosco659]

Unless you can break the bead cutting may not help. Local bike shops may do a cheap dismount for you this time of year. Cheers.

I managed to cut it off. Separated the tread from the sidewalls and it all came apart with limited effort. It was a hack job and felt bad doing it this way but thought better this way than damage the rim. I’ll post some pics tomorrow.

When ordering a tube there’s two valve stem styles for an 8mm stem - TR4 and TR6. The differences I see are the TR4 has a round base and the TR6 is oval. The TR6 might have flats on the stem too. Are they both interchangeable?

 

[40north]

Just a remark about the LED route. It is just a remark, as I can't know, but only suspect...

Ok, when a power supply is designed, as for a bike or a radio or anything else, there are assumptions about the character of the load. There is also regulation in most cases....look at the old 3 brush Harleys and follow how they regulate... One of the assumptions, very ordinarily and especially in old designs, is that there will be a nice fat resistive load, such as an incandescent head and tail lamp. This resistive load does "brute force spike damping"... if most of the resistive load is eliminated, I would expect high voltage spikes that would tend to damage electronic elements of the machine. If I fitted LED I would want to assure that I was not making for myself a trap, I'd want resistor in parallel and also to put a scope on the system while running on dyno.

I ran 3 brush for many years. Worked fine.

Some LED use dropping resistor. Not the same thing, as these are in series.

I may be too cautious...just my 2 cents.

 

[gggGary]

Yes especially with PMA alternators, load balancing is a thing. Buuut... lead acid batteries make a pretty darned good voltage spike absorber.
That's why Pete was pretty adamant about not using a Pamco on capacitor only electrical systems.
If you are real worried about sensitive electronics, paralleling a Zener diode with a resister in series to ground makes a quick and dirty local voltage regulator. I first used this circuit as a kid on a tire powered bicycle headlight, it would blow out bulbs going down the "Oak street hill". Losing a bicycle headlight on a steep hill is a seriously attention getting event.

 

[40north]

Yes especially with PMA alternators, load balancing is a thing. Buuut... lead acid batteries make a pretty darned good voltage spike absorber.
That's why Pete was pretty adamant about not using a Pamco on capacitor only electrical systems.
If you are real worried about sensitive electronics, paralleling a Zener diode with a resister in series to ground makes a quick and dirty local voltage regulator. I first used this circuit as a kid on a tire powered bicycle headlight, it would blow out bulbs going down the "Oak street hill". Losing a bicycle headlight on a steep hill is a seriously attention getting event.

Yes, PbO damps nicely. Nevertheless, call me conservative, and noting that transients have potentials for wire harness coupling that may act as an induction coil local to a vulnerable device..and there's capacitance all over the place. Potenital "tank-circuits".. "radio frequency transients"... I'm just leery of making changes to pretty good already... Thanks old man

 

[Kevin Werner]

Yes especially with PMA alternators, load balancing is a thing. Buuut... lead acid batteries make a pretty darned good voltage spike absorber.
That's why Pete was pretty adamant about not using a Pamco on capacitor only electrical systems.
If you are real worried about sensitive electronics, paralleling a Zener diode with a resister in series to ground makes a quick and dirty local voltage regulator. I first used this circuit as a kid on a tire powered bicycle headlight, it would blow out bulbs going down the "Oak street hill". Losing a bicycle headlight on a steep hill is a seriously attention getting event.

The rubber tires from 1/25th scale car models fit over the generator drive wheel was my simple solution to saving headlamp bulbs.

 

[gggGary]

Yes, PbO damps nicely. Nevertheless, call me conservative, and noting that transients have potentials for wire harness coupling that may act as an induction coil local to a vulnerable device..and there's capacitance all over the place. Potenital "tank-circuits".. "radio frequency transients"... I'm just leery of making changes to pretty good already... Thanks old man

For that reason at least one XS650 electronic ignition maker strongly advised keeping it's 12 volt tap well away from the ignition coil's+12.
Rabbit hole; kettering ignition ringing @TwoManyXS1Bs introduced me to the concept. I miss having him hang round here.
I'll get you started. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/h...lectronic-Servicing-1976-02-OCR-Page-0020.pdf

 

[bosco659]

Since electronics are not my strong suit

Just a remark about the LED route. It is just a remark, as I can't know, but only suspect...

Ok, when a power supply is designed, as for a bike or a radio or anything else, there are assumptions about the character of the load. There is also regulation in most cases....look at the old 3 brush Harleys and follow how they regulate... One of the assumptions, very ordinarily and especially in old designs, is that there will be a nice fat resistive load, such as an incandescent head and tail lamp. This resistive load does "brute force spike damping"... if most of the resistive load is eliminated, I would expect high voltage spikes that would tend to damage electronic elements of the machine. If I fitted LED I would want to assure that I was not making for myself a trap, I'd want resistor in parallel and also to put a scope on the system while running on dyno.

I ran 3 brush for many years. Worked fine.

Some LED use dropping resistor. Not the same thing, as these are in series.

I may be too cautious...just my 2 cents.

that said, the Halogen H4 stays on the XS. One less project

 

[40north]

Since electronics are not my strong suit

that said, the Halogen H4 stays on the XS. One less project

If there is no problem, Brother, then there is no problem. They'll probably do fine.

 

[bosco659]

Sounds like an interesting bulb. I never heard of that before. On my XS I replaced the H4 halogen with an LED H4 I had in stock. Much better light but my voltage was running on the high side so I put the halogen back in. I rarely ride at night but the LED is certainly a nice upgrade. I ran a pair in my Vstrom and with dual lights, the road was nicely illuminated. Right now, on the three bikes, they're all halogen . I think the Honda might be a a sealed halogen bulb, otherwise I could throw an LED in there. I’ll check tomorrow - I sense another project coming.

Well lookee.. it is a replaceable halogen. The headlight shell is small so I’ll have to see if the led will fit..

View attachment 258511

I popped the headlight out of the shell and there’s no room for the led bulb and wiring so I’ll stick with the halogen bulb.

Here‘s a pic of the Speedo with the led bulb. If the oil light wasn’t on, the lighting seems to be acceptable. With the 158 bulb in place I thought it might be a multiple bulb set up with one or more burned out. Just thinking if the oil light was out, the overall light distribution in the Speedo head may look better. Will check on next startup.

 

[bosco659]

New front tire on. Fingers crossed I didn’t pinch the tube. After airing up I saw a 1-1/2 psi drop after a couple of hours but attribute that to a fairly big temp differential between the space used to mount the tire and where the bike is parked. I’ll check later to see if it keeps dropping.

I’m kind of running out of stuff to do to the bike. Maybe I should be looking for another or get back at the beetle.

 

[bosco659]

When the tire says I ain’t coming off….

 

[Melnic]

How did you accomplish that?
Are you going to wire tie method to put the new one on?

 

[Jim]

How did you accomplish that?

Common utility knife does a fine job of it. It's my preferred de-mounting procedure...

 

[bosco659]

Common utility knife does a fine job of it. It's my preferred de-mounting procedure...

That’s what I used, but got a sore wrist doing it. I tried tire irons on it but the tire was close to 30 years old and not very flexible. Did this rather than damage the rim. Rear tire still has to come off but I think I’ll take that to the pro’s.

Many years ago I had a similar issue with the run flat tires on my Toyota Supra. The short, stiff sidewalls and deep draw on the rim, made them impossible to remove. I tried 3 different tire shops with high tech equipment and they boogered one of my rims trying to remove them. The only way I could get them off was cut the sidewalls with a jig saw with a metal cutting blade, then bolt cutters to cut the beads. I don’t have pics but the sidewalls were at least 1/2” thick.

Question - the front is a 100/90-19. The rear is 170/80-15. Would the rear be more difficult to pry off vs the front (wider but smaller diameter - same age)?

 

[40north]

That’s what I used, but got a sore wrist doing it. I tried tire irons on it but the tire was close to 30 years old and not very flexible. Did this rather than damage the rim. Rear tire still has to come off but I think I’ll take that to the pro’s.

Many years ago I had a similar issue with the run flat tires on my Toyota Supra. The short, stiff sidewalls and deep draw on the rim, made them impossible to remove. I tried 3 different tire shops with high tech equipment and they boogered one of my rims trying to remove them. The only way I could get them off was cut the sidewalls with a jig saw with a metal cutting blade, then bolt cutters to cut the beads. I don’t have pics but the sidewalls were at least 1/2” thick.

Question - the front is a 100/90-19. The rear is 170/80-15. Would the rear be more difficult to pry off vs the front (wider but smaller diameter - same age)?

Longtimeago I had a problem with tube-less tires on tube rims...equipment wheels not bike...anyway they leaked and were troublesome - so I mounted the tires with P&L construction adhesive. Even that didn't work... but they were very difficult to dismount! In the end I bought tubes...

 

[bosco659]

After having installed the front tire, I have been monitoring the pressure for fear I may have pinched the tube, I originally aired it up to about 35 psi to seat the bead (that was tough to do for lack of a good mounting lube). I checked it later that day and noticed a pressure drop of 1-2 psi. Now I’m really worried but after 2-1/2 days it seems to be stabilized at 32 psi. When I installed the tire, the area I was working in was 18-20C? The garage is currently closer to 9C where the bike is stored. I’m hoping the 10C temp differential is the root cause of the pressure drop. Other thing is I’ve checked pressure so many times, I’ve probably released a psi or more. Valve isn’t leaking. Keeping my fingers crossed I don’t have to disassemble it again. Jacking the bike is a pita.