The headlight on my revival while not bad isn't bright enough to really be considered safe to be out on the road during the night they don't illuminate the roads enough and are incredibly dim. I was wondering if any of you know if its possible to upgrade to a brighter bulb or even a led bulb ? What would you recommend ? Is it possible to swap the revival housing bulb to something brighter like 55 watts?
Absolutely.
Your revival's electrical system is powered by regulated AC power from an 80W magneto (~2/3 of which seems to be for headlight + taillight + accessory lights; power for brake light and flashers come from the battery via a rectifier):
https://www.myronsmopeds.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/Tomos-Wiring-2002-07-Revival-100dpi.jpg
Stock bulbs appear to be 36/36W (high/low; only one active at a time). A 35W halogen BA20D bulb would be a super easy upgrade. Halogens emit a higher percentage of their energy in the visual spectrum compared to traditional incandescent bulbs; roughly 25 lumen / watt compared to 15 lumen / watt, so they should appear about 60% brighter.
If you want to use LEDs (can be brighter for the given wattage), you'll either need to find an AC capable bulb (most are DC) or rectify the AC to DC. Your bike already has a rectifier/regulator (Tomos P/N 230844), but you'd have to rewire it to use the rectified DC output, and I can't find any specs on how much wattage that unit can provide. (edited)
If you find a good BA20D led that lasts I’d love to know. Every one I’ve tried ends up flickering due to the vibrations, and that was even using a 12v battery to power and it still eventually went out.
Personally, if I wanted to go LED on a bike like this I'd use one of the full lens replacement units (like this
They're a lot more reliable than LED bulbs in my experience. That doesn't help for rectangular headlight bois unless you want to replace the whole bucket, alas. (edited)I think it was Maize that turned me on (har har) to those bulbs? Anyway they're awesome. Super bright, and I've yet to have one die on me. (edited)
> b to the eff wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Personally, if I wanted to go LED on a bike like this I'd use one of the
> full lens replacement units (like this They're a lot more reliable than
> LED bulbs in my experience. That doesn't help for rectangular headlight
> bois unless you want to replace the whole bucket, alas.
The problem with revival/arrow/streetmate round lights is that they are the big boi 6” circles so you’d have to replace the whole system. Not hard by any means but will cost more.
I guess I'd make a bezel on my lathe if I had that problem, or replace the bucket, but point taken.
> Garrett The Kid wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> If you find a good BA20D led that lasts I’d love to know. Every one I’ve
> tried ends up flickering due to the vibrations, and that was even using
> a 12v battery to power and it still eventually went out.
I just bought one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DQP7LZC/
One of the LGN folks said that the 1156 bulbs from the same folks are rock solid. So we'll see.
Want to post in this forum? We'd love to have you join the discussion, but first:
