Square to Foxeye Fairing Mod

[Fazerider]

That's a nice neat job you've done there davec, looks like a really well fettled bike.


As Limax says, a 10A fuse is marginal. The initial resistance of a cold 60W 12V filament is only about a tenth of an ohm, so the fuse is in a race with the headlight as to which one lights first. The last thing you want as you gas the bike down a country lane and flick to main beam is to be plunged into darkness instead!
A shorter run of thicker cable is good for getting the power to the bulbs but gives the fuse a harder time as the initial current is much higher, the higher resistance of the old cable run limited that current. The fuse is there to protect the cabling rather than the load, I don't know what wire gauge you've used but judging from the photos it looks beefier than the original so a 20A fuse should be regarded as a minimum.

[davec]

Thanks Fazerrider.The wire is thicker it's 28/0.30, 17.5 amp.So ,I'm going to order a couple more fuses today.I'll get a couple of 15/30amps and a couple of 20/40amp.It was the continuous amp and fusing amp that confused me when I went to order them.I just assumed a 20amp fuse was just that!

[Fazerider]

Current ratings of cable and fuses are a minefield of confusing information.
The cable rating assumes that it's in a bundle with no cooling and so is extremely conservative, it is actually capable of carrying vastly more than that figure suggests.
As a rough rule-of-thumb fuses will carry their rated current indefinitely, twice their rated current for about a second or ten times their rated current for about 15 milliseconds.
Adding up the estimated resistances for your wiring, connectors, relay contacts and a couple of cold tungsten filaments in parallel gives a total that might be as low as 0.15Ω. That means the initial current as you switch from low to high beam (or vice versa) could be 90 amps! A 10A fuse will cope with that for perhaps 20ms... probably long enough for the bulb filaments to heat up, but the fuse will only survive for a limited number of cycles. A 20A fuse is still more than enough to provide decent protection against shorts but will handle 90A for a tenth of a second.
Unless you have an independently fused circuit supplying another source of light, LED driving lights tucked below the fairing for example, I really wouldn't consider using anything less than a 20A fuse.

[limax2]

Thanks for that explanation Fazerider  .
 I was hoping someone with a greater depth of knowledge on the subject than me would come along and clarify it. Just what was needed.
I must check what fuse I used on the one I did.

[Fazerider]

I try to avoid going into full-on nerd mode most of the time, but have always had a fear of the lights going out.


That's partly because almost half the riding I do is at night and partly because of a chap called Rex at the motorcycle dealership where I bought spares for my Honda CG125 when I first started riding. Lovely, helpful bloke who was adept at operating the till with his hook. One day he mentioned he'd gambled on getting home after one beam on his bike had failed, unfortunately the remaining filament packed up at an inconvenient moment... and that was why he only had one arm.

[davec]

 Almost finished now.All lights working just needs to be tidied up a bit and a right hand side fairing infill.Thanks once again to Limax2 for his help.

[limax2]

Further proof on what Fazerider posted on fuse size (not that any was needed), I can now report that I had fitted a 15 amp fuse and it has now blown. Fortunately not in the dark  .
I have now replaced it with a 20 amp fuse. (I guess that's continuous as it's the only figure given).
 Just to make sure there was no short circuit I temporarily fitted an ammeter into the circuit. No short found and as predicted there was a quick jump in amps above the normal when switching  on and also when switching from dip to high and vice versa. I can't say what the top figure was as it was just a quick flick of the finger on my old dial type ammeter. The steady reading with the lights on was about 10 to 12 amps, but my gauge might not be very accurate.
You done a nice job there Dave and a very nice clean looking bike. Out of curiosity what are those things on the floor each side of the side stand?

[davec]

Thanks Limax.Yeah,I've put a 20 amp fuse (continuous) in mine and it seems good,I'll carry a spare with me just in case.I didn't bother with the 15 amp after all.The two brackets are bolted to the floor either side of the side stand and a bar is put through to stop the bike lifting and falling over in the wind,as happened a couple of years ago.It seems works well.

[unfazed]

When I had a 2000 boxeye I did the old green wire from the switch fix which brought on two dims but the main beam still was not great. I picked up a broken headlight from a local breaker open itand remover the right side reflector and other bits . Then opened my own one (carefull use of a heat gun to melt the glue holding it together) and removed the left reflector and replaced it with the right one from the one from the breaker.
A little bit of fiddling and setting up but I finally had two H4s like the Fox Eye and the Fazer 400 and now much better main beams. Took me nearly a full day to do, but was well worth the effort.
I am at present in the process of converting a European specification Fox Eye headlight to a Irish/English specification one by changing the reflectors. This is even easier to do than the box eye. Still trying to get my hands on a broken fox Eye headlight as I one I got had one cracked reflector.
 

[apage16]

Hey all. First post!

Loving my Fazer and loving this forum even more!

 Unfazed, how are the reflectors actually attached to thr headlight unit? I'm thinking of upgrading to projector style lenses andwas hoping it might be easy to take out the old reflectors and manufacture a mounting plate to attach the new lenses and maintain aim adjustment . Think it'll be easy enough?

Thanks in advance!