ST1100 Driving Lights

[Andrew Shadow]

I long ago realized Honda missed the boat on a couple items and on a couple more they weren't even close to the harbor.
The head light is one of those misses.

More to the point is that the regulators in Canada and the US missed the boat on lighting regulations at the time that the ST was released to these markets.
Europe did not have the same restrictions and therefore vehicles had better lighting. The regulations mandate that a headlamp of the design used on the ST can not have bulbs that exceed 45 W. This is not unique to the Honda ST. Quite a few other motorcycles use the same reduced wattage bulb, having the same odd-ball base as does the ST, to meet the same requirements imposed in North America.

 

[rwthomas1]

More to the point is that the regulators in Canada and the US missed the boat on lighting regulations at the time that the ST was released to these markets.
Europe did not have the same restrictions and therefore vehicles had better lighting. The regulations mandate that a headlamp of the design used on the ST can not have bulbs that exceed 45 W. This is not unique to the Honda ST. Quite a few other motorcycles use the same reduced wattage bulb, having the same odd-ball base as does the ST, to meet the same requirements imposed in North America.

20-25yrs ago I was messing around with Euro cars and found this out. The DOT regs of the time we're a joke. They claimed that the way a headlight projected it's light couldn't be defined well enough and so restricted total output and lens design. They were sticking their heads in the sand as every single European regulatory body had no issue defining and setting standards. The result was vastly superior lights, even with halogen bulbs. The difference between a sealed beam of the time and a Euro Hella with an H4 was, and still is, shocking. I had a 2000 BMW with self leveling HIDs from the factory. They were, and still are the best I've ever driven behind. Perfection. I don't know if DOT standards have caught up, but modern cars have superior lights so it seems they "saw the light"....

RT

 

[TourNut]

Whatever headlamp you use , you HAVE to MAKE SURE the replacement bulb's filament(s) are in the EXACT spot the reflector parabola(s) focal points were designed to , or the lamp's efficiency gets thrown away. When the reflector(s) aren't focused , that also throws off the lens optics . Which all can also make the FMVSS test points fail , making it illegal .
( I was an automotive lamp designer for 23 years , designed many lamps on several CAD systems to FMVSS requirements ) All external vehicle lamps have FMVSS requirements to pass , including export lamps, country reg. specific .

 

[Ron]

More to the point is that the regulators in Canada and the US missed the boat on lighting regulations at the time that the ST was released to these markets.
Europe did not have the same restrictions and therefore vehicles had better lighting. The regulations mandate that a headlamp of the design used on the ST can not have bulbs that exceed 45 W. This is not unique to the Honda ST. Quite a few other motorcycles use the same reduced wattage bulb, having the same odd-ball base as does the ST, to meet the same requirements imposed in North America.

Honda was following the US DOT specs. If my fuzzy memory serves me correctly, the spec is a total of 90 watts from a shared housing. All Honda had to do was make the 2 headlamps separate from one another. The 1100 was a clean sheet design. Then the standard 65/55 or what ever lamps could have been used. I seriously doubt Honda ever considered trying to get the US DOT up to speed on vehicle lighting design..

Yes, the US DOT standards were/are out of date tech wise. I don't know about Canada.

 

[Ron]

Whatever headlamp you use , you HAVE to MAKE SURE the replacement bulb's filament(s) are in the EXACT spot the reflector parabola(s) focal points were designed to , or the lamp's efficiency gets thrown away. When the reflector(s) aren't focused , that also throws off the lens optics . Which all can also make the FMVSS test points fail , making it illegal .
( I was an automotive lamp designer for 23 years , designed many lamps on several CAD systems to FMVSS requirements ) All external vehicle lamps have FMVSS requirements to pass , including export lamps, country reg. specific .

I know this to be true. All I can do is use the lamp the manufacturer called out and presume it will do what it's suppose to do. For the LED lamps in common use, I don't know if they meet the critical positioning for the optics since they didn't exist when the lamp housing was designed. Maybe they are just close and that's my problem with them.

 

[ChriSTian_64]

You have a 1993, ST1100. OK...

So you need to buy the small adapters (also called shims).
I got mine from ebay, for about $10, last may or june.
And also I ordered (amazon) the Katana Led headlights, as one of the suggested choice, on this forum. If I remember, that was around $80 for two. Maybe a bit more.

 

[TourNut]

I know this to be true. All I can do is use the lamp the manufacturer called out and presume it will do what it's suppose to do. For the LED lamps in common use, I don't know if they meet the critical positioning for the optics since they didn't exist when the lamp housing was designed. Maybe they are just close and that's my problem with them.

If you are putting a LED light source in a lamp designed for a bulb filament , not only do you have to be concerned about the focal point accuracy , but also the LED support structures around it blocking light to some of the parabola(s) , compared to 2 thin , stiff wires supporting a bulb's filament , giving light to almost all directions . LED lamps are designed different to take into account their more limited light output angle , but they don't take up as much room because of heat considerations and usually now last longer than hot bulbs . And there are other neat design opportunities possible .

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Honda was following the US DOT specs. If my fuzzy memory serves me correctly, the spec is a total of 90 watts from a shared housing. All Honda had to do was make the 2 headlamps separate from one another.

Besides them not being in separated housings, I seem to recall that it is more complex in that. I think that there had to be a minimum distance between the two bulbs as well before 55/65 bulbs could be used. I am not sure about that however, I can't remember what I read about this years ago.
At any rate many motorcycles, not just the ST's, did not meet all of the criteria that had to be met before 55/65 watt bulbs could be used, and therefore had the same 45/45 watt bulbs.

For the LED lamps in common use, I don't know if they meet the critical positioning for the optics since they didn't exist when the lamp housing was designed.

Whatever headlamp you use , you HAVE to MAKE SURE the replacement bulb's filament(s) are in the EXACT spot the reflector parabola(s) focal points were designed to , or the lamp's efficiency gets thrown away.

This is why @spiderman302 has been touting the F2 LED bulbs. They mimic the position of the filaments of halogen bulbs so closely that any difference has a negligible effect.

 

[rwthomas1]

In all honesty, what I really want is a custom perfectly clear, smooth lens for an ST1100 headlamp so I can do a twin HID projector conversion. That would be pretty much as good as it can ever get. RT

 

[spiderman302]

Well I hope no one tried to remove the so called Attenuator plate in their 1100 headlight. from an optical point of view that plate does nothing since it covers the top flat part of the headlight. That light only reflects down on the road road directly in front of the bike and not far down the road. I have painted that area flat black in order to help reduce close in glare. Most of the parabolic part of the reflector is on the sides which is why the LED bulbs are better. The emphasis of motorcycle beam patterns are a flat beam. if you look at a car H4 headlight the top tab is at the top and on our motorcycles it is off set to flatten the beam. This creates a third beam pattern more like euro and less like DOT.

Dot specs are misunderstood by most people. Per DOT, FMVSS for headlights only defines MAX specs for GLARE, and MIN specs for Illumination. There are NO max limits for the Hot spot of the low beam! The tungsten / halogen low beams were so weak that they could not be bright enough.... remember 108 was written in 1967. The only Max limit was for the high beam, which even halogen bulbs will not achieve. 150,000 cd is barely enough for Photopic vision at 300 feet which is the minimum distance for 70mph. They want to keep us in the Mesopic range of our vision which is where we are more sensitive to glare. H4 LED bulbs that are built like the F2 that are put into H4 halogen headlights will allow you to see the 300+ feet necessary to ride at the speed limit and not have disability glare, if you properly adjust the beam.

Do not waste your time with HIDs go LED. The F2 is the best conservative solution. The newer F3 is the same but it puts more light on the sides of the road.

 

[newtonhubcap]

I am looking for a good reasonably priced set of driving lights. I am amazed at how bad the headlight is. I swear my 86 Magna had a better light. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact I was 19 then and my vision was better. Anyways, LED would be nice but not mandatory. Thoughts?

The lights I have chosen are the Orion lights from Cyclops. The lights are not your cheap Chinese led emitters but Cree emitters. I can not say enough about their service as well, extremely competent to discuss matters with. Have only done fitment so far. Built my own light brackets to use mirror mounts (Honda police light bracket which only left is now available from Honda). Am using the extreme singe emitter (spot beam) for left side and multi eliptical emitter for ride side (flood beam). Have not decided on finish for the light brackets yet.

 

[ST1100Y]

Why the Euro shell?

EU spec pattern features a RHS upward kick (AKA asymmetric healdight pattern) to illuminate the shoulder further ahead, whilst avoiding dazzling oncoming road users...

 

[newtonhubcap]

Earlier I posted photos of the light brackets I built for my 1994 ST1100. After dismantling the bike to replace all coolant hoses I moved onto finishing the lighting. The lights I went with were the Cyclops Orion lights of which one is a multiple emitter (flood beam pattern on the left mirror) and the single emitter (spot beam pattern on the right). At the same time I installed Cyclops H4 10.0 LED's as well. Weather here in Wisconsin finally turned to bike weather for a few days (tonight forecast is 8-12" of snow) and was able to get out in the dark. Have attached a couple of photos with just the low beam H4's, another with all lights blazing, one with the daylight or lowlight (fog) covers installed.

Should anyone be thinking of adding lights, I would recommend to get in touch with the folks at Cyclops. Should you talk with Darryl tell him Wayne from Country Sports in Wisconsin says "Hi".

 

[newtonhubcap]

Last winter I purchased a set of Cyclops Orinon LED lights for my 1994 ST1100. I built a set of OEM Honda Police light brackets for them and are wired in on the high beam. The light I went with the single led emitter for the right side of the bike and the mulit- emitter for the left side. The single led emitter is more of a spot beam for distance and better lighting covering the shoulder of the road on the right side and the multi-emitter is more of a flood beam that covers from the center line and fills in the area in front of the bike. Very nice lighting pattern.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

The light I went with the single led emitter for the right side of the bike and the mulit- emitter for the left side. The single led emitter is more of a spot beam for distance and better lighting covering the shoulder of the road on the right side and the multi-emitter is more of a flood beam that covers from the center line and fills in the area in front of the bike.

Isn't it the opposite in the photo?

 

[newtonhubcap]

That was during mock up. Final configuration is as mention above.

 

[Sunday Rider]

Last winter I purchased a set of Cyclops Orinon LED lights for my 1994 ST1100. I built a set of OEM Honda Police light brackets for them and are wired in on the high beam. The light I went with the single led emitter for the right side of the bike and the mulit- emitter for the left side. The single led emitter is more of a spot beam for distance and better lighting covering the shoulder of the road on the right side and the multi-emitter is more of a flood beam that covers from the center line and fills in the area in front of the bike. Very nice lighting pattern.

Very nice set up. When do you use the amber set up?

 

[newtonhubcap]

Typically for high vis on long haul runs and in the rain. Will remove the amber cover if running late into the night. If I am correct light set only 4amps max.

 

[Sunday Rider]

Typically for high vis on long haul runs and in the rain. Will remove the amber cover if running late into the night. If I am correct light set only 4amps max.

Thanks!

 

[newtonhubcap]

When I decided to upgrade the lighting I spent time talking the folks at Cyclops lighting (Darryl, I believe). I told Darryl what I was looking for and it all happened from there. I went with there h4 setup, very white light. I also went with additional running lights which I built brackets identical to the Honda Police bike lights. The running light I went with their Orion performance set. Went with the multi illuminator on the left side of bike and single illuminator right side. This provides a nice flood beam from left to right and a pencil beam down the road sholder on the right.

This lights come with everything to plug and go and enjoyed conversing with Darryl thoughout the process.