Classic Headlight Upgrade

The W800 is a beautiful motorcycle, and Kawasaki did an excellent job in creating something that is more resto-modded classic than retro-styled modern. Attention to detail is everywhere, from the old-style switchgear, to the classic turn signals and tail lamp. One area, however, that I suspect fell victim to parts-binning is the headlamp. Sure, it's big and round like on an old bike, but it is still very obviously a modern headlamp, with a clear lens, several lighting chambers, a bright white output, and an ugly "cyclops-eye" ...thing... in the center. The headlight being such a prominent design element, I felt it completely ruined the classic looks of the bike. Time for a change!

What to Replace It With?

Boy are there a lot of options. One obvious option was to swap the entire thing out for the headlamp assembly from an older W650. That's a classic-styled lamp... but that's because it is a classic, incandescent lamp. No thanks; I'm not looking for a lighting downgrade! I briefly considered swapping out just the lens for a fluted lens off an older lamp, but that would ruin the optics and beam pattern. There are also a plethora of aftermarket 7" lamps to choose from online, but most of them are, if anything, even more modern, and even uglier than the OEM lamp.

I eventually settled on Holley RetroBrights. If you follow my Caterham Blog, you'll have seen that I upgraded the 7" lamps in my Caterham with RetroBrights, and I was very happy with them. Designed by Holley in conjunction with Morimoto, they pair a classic-looking, fluted lens with modern LEDs (in both 3000K and 5700K variants). I ordered the LFRB135, because I wanted the classier 3000K color temperature.

Removing the OEM headlamp was pretty straightforward. Two bolts held the chrome trim ring in place (at the 4 and 8 o'clock positions). Then it was four bolts holding the black headlamp bracket in place, plus the long vertical adjustment bolt underneath.

Unplugged the headlamp, and out it came. Installation of the new unit was just the same process in rever...NOPE! Two issues here:

1. The Holley uses a standard H4 connector, whereas the OEM lamp uses a smaller 4-pin connector. (Hmm, why 4 pins? We'll find out later!)

2. The OEM unit is designed to bolt to a black mounting ring, whereas the Holley is meant to be held in place by a band clamp at the front of the headlight housing.

   
   

(I had already swapped the connector before I took this photo, so picture a big fat H4 connector on the new unit, rather than the Denso connector you see in this photo.)

A Connector Swap

I always aim for non-destructive modifications if possible - especially when it comes to wiring, so rather than hack up the existing harness, I decided to convert the H4 connector on the Holley to match the bike. A quick reverse-image Google search identified it as, weirdly, a Toyota/Denso Ignition Coil Connector. So I ordered the matching male side, and swapped it for the H4 connector on the Holley. (Yes, I could have created an intermediate harness, but space in the headlight housing is limited, and I wanted to leave as much room as possible for the fins to dissipate heat).

The Factory Service Manual came in quite handy for identifying wires without the need for testing circuits:

• Holley

  • White: Low Beam

  • Red: High Beam

  • Black: Ground

• OEM

  • Red w/ Yellow Stripe: Low Beam

  • Red w/ Black Stripe: High Beam

  • Black w/ Yellow Stripe: Ground

  • Note: The fourth wire (Brown w/ Yellow Stripe) on the OEM harness is for separate, low-power "filler" LEDs. Their purpose is simply to illuminate the bottom half of the housing in low beam mode. This is purely aesthetic, and the Holley doesn't need it, so it can be ignored.

Simply cut the H4 connector off, strip back the black sheathing, crimp on the new pins (don't forget to slide the rubber seals on first!), and then slide them into the new connector until they click into position. The order should be Black, Red, White from left-to-right if you have the connecter oriented with the tab on top. The fourth spot will remain unused.

A Whole New Mount

The more complicated job here was figuring out how to mount the Holley properly. In the end, I designed a two-piece, 3D printed solution that sandwiched the Holley at the front (where it is designed to be secured), and mimicked the mounting points of the OEM lamp (both the top and bottom mounts, as well as the left-right adjustment points on one side.)

The STL files for both halves can be downloaded here and here. Some notes if you plan to print them yourself:

• Both parts can be printed without any supports.

• W800 Headlight Ring

  • This installs on the front of the Holley. The two tabs closest together should be at the bottom of the unit.

  • There are recesses for six # 4-40 nylon insert lock nuts to be inserted partway through the print. There is a 0.2mm thick layer above those recesses. You should be able to pause the print at that layer, insert the six nylon nuts, and then continue the print. The printer should print one full layer on top of those nuts to secure them in place (assuming you're printing at 0.2mm), which can be easily screwed through later.

• W800 Headlight Mount

  • There are three cutouts internally which will align with features on the back of the Holley. This serves to lock the Holley in a vertical orientation.

  • It should be screwed to the Ring using six # 4-40 x 3/4 bolts with # 4 washers.

With the adapter printed and installed, I transferred over the black mounting ring from the OEM headlight, and the unit was now ready to be reinstalled.

A Whole New Look!

The final result is... well nothing groundbreaking, but that's the point! It's amazing how such a simple change can have such a drastic impact on the character of the bike, but then again maybe it isn't that surprising given how prominent of a feature the headlight is. Between the fluted lens, and the yellower 3000K output, I think it perfectly suits the classic character of the bike.

And of course, for those of you wondering, I did my best to take some comparison photos, as seen below. Left side is low beam, right side is high beam. (I used Pro Mode on my phone so that I could lock the shutter speed, ISO, and color temp to identical settings.)

The low beam output is significantly brighter, and improves illumination to the sides of the bike as well. It also throws much less of a "reflector pattern" on the ground right ahead of you, which I found a distracting feature of the OEM headlamp.

The high beam is a bit of a mixed bag. It does throw more light than the OEM lamp, however two things I'm not a huge fan of. First, much like the OEM headlight, it throws a bunch of light on the ground right near the bike. It isn't blinding or anything, but it is brighter than what the OEM headlight did, and it probably doesn't help distance vision. Second, there is an annoying dim strip between the low and high beam patterns. That dim area is actually still lit better than with the stock lamp, but it would be nice to see them revise this unit to eliminate that "dead spot" entirely. Also it's worth noting if you go with the 5700K variant instead you get even brighter output, but I really wanted the classic color temperature.