DR650SE Index Topic # 9 ELECTRICAL/LIGHTING

Not for the 6 months I ran my 55/60 + 55w.

I have had issues with the hi/lo on my DR. The Hi/Lo feature on the first bulb went bad after about 5000 miles, so I only had Lo. The current one has about 20000 on it and, when it's cold (below about 30 F) it gets a bit cantankerous - once it warms up it's OK.

I should note, too, that I now have a Shorai battery and it seems it is less affected by and recovers more quickly from a heavy drain. When it's cold enough (below 20 F) I usually have my Gerbings liner on, my heated grips on and, since I'm commuting in the dark, my headlight and my Solstice LED's on and it seems to do just fine (voltmeter registering no lower than 13.6 and usually around 14.2 - fluctuates as the grips and jacket liner cycle). With the standard battery I simply had to choose something to shut down or on my 20 mile commute it would tend to run down to the low 13's.

On a side note, my Vapor doesn't like the cold either - won't work (speedometer only) below about freezing. Haven't a clue.

even better price on the same awesome Deka AGM battery.
$60 shipped. for that price no reason try use any other battery!
http://www.tristatebattery.com/product_info.php?cPath=36_96_235&products_id=973

Man, thats cheap. Actually less than a Walmart battery. Wow...

I bought my last battery from Babbit's Suzuki. It's the stock Futaba (made in Japan) sealed, maintenance free battery. You add the acid and charge it when you get it, so it's fresh. Mine has been flawless but now after 3 years I believe is starting to go, but it's not ever run down.

Not sure if they still sell the same battery. It was $60 when I bought it .... now they list it at $49. Anyway, just another alternative.

http://www.babbittsonline.com/suzuki-motorcycle-parts#/Suzuki/DR650SE_%282006%29/BATTERY/022770001/56022770022

TPI had the Parts Unlimited AGM around $40 something a while back. I do like the Deka and how it feels, its a solid unit. Here is a pic of the stock battery in my 2007. I guess its a Futaba too... or FB/MF brand?



I've even had good service from the Walmart moto batteries too. The one I had last looked very much like a Yuasa..... go figure. I sold the bike after two years with the everstart, my atv has had one for 3 years.

I like the Deka terminals better though. I'll buy more of them now that I know about the suckers. I'll gladly pay more for products built near home. Jobs are hard to find, I'll support my neighbors in the NE when I like the product.

VERY GOOD reason to buy the DEKA battery. I'm in. I missed the "Made In USA" part before.

Worth supporting a good US made product. We all need to try and "think different" if anything is ever going to change. Jeeez ... even my Apple computer is made in China! :eek1

I'm too impatient to send the high/low back, so I just stripped the harness of the relay and extraneous wiring and ran it like the single setup --powered directly from the headlight plug. It was quick to install and runs fine on low.

Now, to install my new PC8 fuse box and finish running my accessories.....

So I finally received my 35W 5000K Hi/Lo HID kit from DDM today, or should I say China... They friggin shipped it from china. I figure that would be why I had to pay so much for shipping...

Anyway, not to my surprise due to what I've heard on ADV about the crazy harness they send you, it was pretty bad. I had ordered up the H4 kit for a car because I could always put it in my car if I didn't like it in my bike, but still to my disliking DDM sent me a harness designed for two lights, and there was a great deal of unnecessary wiring.

I laid everything out and ended up cutting off a few connectors from the harness and splicing together several wires to make everything work out; and it did. The difference is night and day, and I really like having the high beam, it totally refocuses the beam.

In comparison to ADV Grifter's install/setup; the way I cut and spliced wires in was really simple. Grifter's install is for the Low beam only, which means you just plug and play the light bulb, ballast, and the stock H4 light bulb adaptor. It's easy, neat, and clean. With the Hi/Lo Kit there really is not much of a difference except you need to hook up the light bulbs solenoid to the high beam switch. This just moves the bulb back and forth changing the beam pattern.

This is where is can get tricky... I hope I can explain this well in writing.... Read carefully... and have a few beers...

Starting from where you unplugged the halogen H4 bulb, this it the H4 socket as pictured

You must plug in the H4 adapter (pictured below) sent with the HID kit, in my case, I cut it off of the harness that came with my kit and spliced it to the correct wires.

Now it's important you take note that the three wires used with the H4 connection are a high beam, low beam, and ground. You must wire the ground and the low beam to the HID ballast. To connect the wires to the ballast I once again just cut the connector off of the harness I was sent, spliced it together, and plugged it into the ballast.

From this point you just plug the wires coming from the ballast into your light bulb. On the Hi/lo beam light bulbs there will be an extra plug-in for the solenoid that operates high beam. This is the plug-in that gets wired to your High beam switch. The solenoid plug-in is the one with small gauge wiring as pictured below.

Now to wire in the solenoid, go back to the H4 adapter you plugged into the stock H4 socket. There was one wire you should still have unused, this is the wire that is normally used for high beam. You must wire this as the positive (RED) to the solenoid connector. Once again, I cut off the connector from the harness that came with the kit and used it. At the solenoid connector you now have a black wire than needs to be spliced into ground (Negative). You will need an electrical wiring tap as pictured below.

Simply run a wire from the solenoid connector and use the tap to connect the solenoid wire to the ground (Negative) wire running to your HID ballast. Confusing, but very simple...

At this point you are basically done except for one thing. If you test your light you will find that the light will run on low beam, and will turn off on high beam, but the solenoid still works for high beam. This is okay, you just need one more of the electrical taps (pictured above). When you switch to high beam, it opens the circuit with low beam, and closes a circuit with high beam, but since the low beam wire is running your HID bulb and ballast, the circuit must remain closed at all times. TO DO THIS: Use the tap to electrically connect two wires running from your high beam switch. One wire is SOLID WHITE, the other is YELLOW+WHITE STRIPE. No wires need to be cut, just install the tap between the two wires. What I did was followed the wires down near the headlight area and tapped them there. Where you tap them is your choice but it must be those two wires.

Your HID light is now ready to be used, and there is not a crazy harness with too much wire all over the place.

Here are some of my end result photo's:

Stock Low Beam


HID Low Beam


HID High Beam


Front of Bike, Note the running lights I've just installed...

I discovered that hooking the Nuvi 550 directly to the battery will run the battery down if one does not keep it on a maintainer. That is because the "hot-fix" feature of the 550 requires a slight but continual power supply to avoid a complete reboot and re-acquisition of satellites the next time the unit is turned on.

So, the options are (1) wire to a switched source, or (2) remove the GPS from the bike each time I get home.

I would just as soon wire to a switched lead.

What suggestions can any of you offer for hooking into a switched lead under the headlight cowling?

Thanks in advance,
Rick

There's a black plug with a brown and a black/white wire behind the headlight. It's used for the park light, which we don't have, and it's switched.

MTW .110 connector (2 pin) http://cycleterminal.com/110-connectors.html

Right on! That's a good plug ... I use it for my heated grips. There are some other switched wires free but all are around the battery area.
I would only use GPS when on the road ... so taking it off the bike at the end of every riding day is a given no matter what. Only takes a few minutes to re-acquire the birds, no?

Thanks for the several replies.

At home I park in an enclosed garage so I can leave the unit on the bike without any theft worries.

Most of the time when out riding I am only stopped for a few minutes and I'm usually in the woods someplace. That said, if I do happen to stop someplace where theft might be an issue I can pull it and stick it in a pocket.

ER70S-2, I'll look for that tach wire. Thanks again!

I really liked how your front running/signal lights turned out. I went to my local NAPA to buy the same 1157 sockets and they couldn't find a match. Do you have a part # for those?

Google the writeup that MXRob did on his DR's LED conversion.

Yes, the speedo has a backlight.

I replaced my dash illuminator bulb with a red LED from www.superbrightleds.com. I also replaced my high-beam and neutral indicator bulbs with LEDs (blue and green, respectively). I tried to use an amber LED for my directional indicator, but I still have to wire in a diode to get it to work properly for both left and right.

I swapped to a no-load flasher relay so that I can use LED signals. It was cheap and easy...Less than $15, and the toughest part of install was removing my seat. The flasher I bought plugged right in.

Most indicators I see have bullet connectors on them. We have a moto shop in the states that carries adapter wires to plug bullet connectors into the Suzuki harness...or you could just cut the Suzuki connectors off the moto's harness and crimp/solder on some bullet connectors to fit the indicators.

Thanks for the tutorial to AdvGriver - I followed this to the letter and now have a functional headlight! The only thing that I found to deviate form this post is that the same two female plugs that Grifter used didn't work for me, I used the two on opposite sides. My light is now on when I'm switch to the hi beam and switching to low turns the light off....

oops, maybe that's why..

I've got a DDM Tuning kit coming some day, slow boat from china....

So could you just kill it with the hi/low switch instead of a seperate toggle kill switch?

How many miles has a DDM 35 watt lasted on a DR650?

My DDM 35 watt bulb is still going strong! About 5000 miles now ... which includes a Baja ride with quite a bit of off road.

Being uncertain how the HID bulb would handle shock from wash board roads ... I brought along my stock bulb ... just in case. With the stock system you have a back up if the Lo bulb burns out. Switch to High beam.
Not so on the single bulb HID system. That's why I brought along the stock bulb. But ... of course any Auto parts store will sell you a bulb.

The best news? A Spare 35 watt HID bulb from DDM tuning is $12 last I checked.

My set up works with the LO/Hi Suzuki switch in the LOW position.
Switching to Hi beam is OFF.

I always turn OFF HID light before I kill the motor. Then, on re-start I start with HID OFF then switch on once bike is started up. (saves battery and I believe eliminates possible voltage spikes) Working so far.

PS: My Triumph HID is also still going, over a year now.

Thats good to hear, I orderd the 4500K 35 watt DDM single kit. I'm sick of the stock low beam, I should have done it a long time ago but, I've been busy doing other crap.

Maybe it will come in a few days before my next trip.