Matt Placed 17th in the 2007 Iron Butt Rally

One can never have enough coherent photons spewing out of the front of one’s motorcycle. The stock halogen H4 bulb producing 55 watts on low-beam and 60 watts on high beam for each bulb may be enough for commuting around well-lit suburban areas, but it sucks when wandering the rural landscapes of the mighty West…and downright dangerous when chugging through the deer-infested mountains of Eastern Oregon.

Hella FF50 - eBay Goodness at $40

I tried adding a set of Hella FF50 lights and they improved things substantially for the $40 investment. It felt like the high beams were improved by 1/2. Instead of 110 watts I was up to about 220 watts of light and ran for some months like that.

Upgraded GE Bulbs - Not Worth the Money

I tried some different bulbs that were the same wattage, but supposedly made a bit more light. Not much of an improvement.

HID Nirvanna - Hella FF200 Xenons Rock!

I scored a set of Hella FF200 Xenon Lights. They are true High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights. Don’t listen to the cheesy sellers of traditional halogen bulbs that claim HID or HID-like. These are the suckers in high-end Mercedes, don’t have a filament, and actually produce a high voltage arc that turns a chamber of salts into a plasma. They’re normally in the $600 to $700 range, but I scored a set off e-Bay for $315.

After a bunch of futzing around I was able to get the sizable ballast/igniters stuffed into the nose without making the tupperware bulge out.

The light output on these things is nothing less than absolutely phenomenal! The HID lights actually use less watts than a halogen bulb, but produce about 3 times as much. Combined with the sizable reflector I would be using 35 watts each for the high beams and 55 for the low beams. The shot below is about the equivalent of 470 watts for the consumption of 180 watts.

Gotta Have Some Boulevard Bling - HID Low Beam Conversion
Not to be content with things, my buddy announced a group buy for converting H4 bulbs over to true low beam HIDs. Wouldn’t work for folks wanting high and low, but since I had the elephant-ear sized FF200’s doing that duty….it sounded perfect. Perfect except where to stuff the additional set of ballasts and igniters?

In some haste I stuffed them in some spots I found, but not without interfering with the up and down motion of the windshield. …ummm….I have to admit I tried to not move the windshield at night as I didn’t like the idea of losing low beams while underway.

So, since I have the bike apart it’s time to do things right! About half the reason I tore the front end off was this issue. Warchild to the rescue once again with the HID light installation farkle.

My version looks like this:

With the nose fully off I think I convenientally found a new place to mount the FF200 igniter/ballast units that doesn’t interfere with the Tupperware.  These sizable units have been a thorny problem trying to find a nook or cranny to fit them.  And I have it lucky compared to the ‘06 and newer bikes where space is even a more rare commodity.

With some zip ties I can minimize the chance they interfere with the windshield and the high voltage leads are stressed like the former position.

Next installment:  I should have this thing buttoned back up and on the road!

I like black.

I wouldn’t say I’m obesesed with black like Johnny Cash, but when it comes to motorcycle farkling black is a good color choice for deaccentuating the more aggregious add-on farkles.

After receiving some of Motorcycle Larry’s Foot Peg Lowering Brackets I thought it might be a good time go over to my buddy John and powder-coat some pieces black.
First order of business was taking off the various parts. Yamaha used a combination of gnarly locttite and a turned up screwdriver to put screws on and I promptly stripped one of the screws. So this relatively small project turned into a bigger one with lots of side projects. I found an old impact driver I bought at a yard sale like 15 years ago and have never used. One small problem. The screw bit doesn’t fit into the receiver.

The it’s a matter of finding the right sockets and adapters.

Even though I spent 20 minutes sorting things out I figure I’ve used a tool I’ve never bothered using in my toolbox….and got my foot pegs disassembled.

With all the pegs disassembled I have a substantial pile of parts. I also note that I have a peg pad thoroughly worn and I’ll replace that with an unused one.

While I’ve got things torn apart and going to be adding several of Skyway’s Hydration Systems to my passenger pegs I should do those as well. Heck, why not do my highway pegs and brackets and that bolt on my clutch?

Having dry-fitted and done a bit of grinding on the pegs to make them work properly with the brackets I realize there are a some critical surfaces on the brackets that I don’t want to power coat. Talking to John he says aluminum tape (that I used in my Datel Mirror Farkle) works very well for masking and withstands the 400 degree heat used in melting the powder coat.

I also need to do a rounded masking job and learn yet a new use for the Craftsmen end wrench I’ve had for over 20 years.

It worked pretty well. Taking a lesson from Vince and the American Chopper shows I pulled out a razor blade and trimmed the piece.

Then it was off to John’s for powder coating…..in which I totally forgot to take my camera for powder coating….maybe next time. Suffice it to say my buddy John has some neat tools and expertise including a sand blaster, powder coating set, and a spare oven in his garage. He may not have an FJR, but has helped me and Warchild out a bunch including that whole valve-ticking diagnosis time and helping me build a race car in 2003.
The results were impressive. Note the non-coated areas. Also, missing a peg which John had to redo because of my novice powder coat hanging skills. Ack.

The assembled brake-side peg. Anybody notice what I forgot to powder coat?

The rear peg sans rubber pad….just waiting for Skyway to deliver my hydration systems.

The front highway pegs:

And the overall view….which is sort of under-stated and the point I think

The next question will be whether I like the peg lowering brackets or not.  I’m hopeful that extra inch will help a bit with my knees being so tall, but also don’t want to be scraping the pegs too much.  They may be items I use in the IBR only….which is fine.

Buying an FJR and getting the bug for LD riding has a downside when you live in a 60 year old house with a detached and uninsulated 1 car garage.

…..It makes you build a new 3 car garage with a house attached and then fill it with more gadgets.  Besides being moderately expensive it makes you want to be able to surf the Internet when you’re spending all the time in your garage.

Having a nice carpeted floor (leftover baby blue from Dad’s house), a heater, and access to FJRForum.com
means you can get stuff done.  And tonight I did the last major electrical upgrade by converting over the Magnum Blasters to a relay and 12 gauge wires.  Truth is I’ve probably been wearing out my horn switch with the 10 amps of juice and risked welding it shut.  Not anymore and I even fabricated a little bracket for the relay and attached it to the coolant reservoir.  It will be under the right, lower fairing when I’m finished.

Just for an evening ego boost I reinstalled the recently modified, upgraded, and resprung front shocks from GPSuspension.com.   Can’t test them yet, but I hope to soon!

I learned a tidbit the hard way over the weekend while trying to clean up the wiring of my Hella FF200 HID lights by using a different relay. Bosch relays usually have 4 terminals on them with various numbers like 30, 85, 86, 87, and it seemed one in my toolbox had a 5th terminal with and additional 87a.

So, I know that 87 is the hot lead to the thing you want to power up. I have two HID lights and this one relay in my drawer with an 87a on it. So I think it’s just an extra 87…..a convenience so I don’t have to try and stuff two 12 gauge wires into one connector.

Wrong! Seems 87a is a circuit that’s on when 87 is off….or in other words if you wire them both to a positive….you pop your 30 amp fuse with an audible “phump….” and an old-fashioned that makes you think the paparazzi are behind you. Not good…..especially when you do it thee different times before giving up for the weekend.
A little pep talk Monday with good ol’ Warchild made me see the error of my ways and I even went on to find a good website explaining relays.

A little trimming of wires Tuesday, a big yellow female crimp spade connector, some shrink tube later, and I’ve taken a step forward without any steps back!

Now it’s on to converting the horn to a relay, powder-coating new foot peg lowerers, and installing a new lighted Sigma I all got for Christmas.

There are some check marks on my list! I wouldn’t say a majority, but I’m making progress.

The list, however, looks like a contradiction of the bike. It’s a seriously depressing sight to barely be able to recognize a bike and even suckier to not be able to ride. Who in their right mind tears apart a $14K vehicle you have nearly 3 years of payments still left on to cut wires and totally tweak things?

It seemed like I’d take the bike down for a couple of weeks, but I have an ever-increasing laundry list of things to do to the bike.

I originally thought I would take it offline for a few weeks and try and get some major farkling, maintenance, wire clean-up, and other details finished.

One of my bugaboos is that it was difficult months ago to cram low-beam HID lights in the nose of the fairing without taking it all apart. Well, I decided to do it right and this is the ugliest picture of an FJR I’ve ever seen. It scares me a little actually as major chunks of structure are now sitting on my shelf across the garage.

A little closer and you see the ballasts which are fairly big and don’t conveniently fit in the smallish nooks and crannies of the FJR nose. Fortunately, the ‘05 and earlier have more space than the ‘06 and later FJRs. I’m going to have to take a close look at Warchild’s article on the subject.