I've joined the growing crowd...

of people that have done the dual headlight mod. Did it today, and it took about an hour from opening the tool box, to clean-up. Getting the plastic covering off of the "flag connector" took the most time. I went with the light green wire hook-up so the low beam turns off when the high beam is turned on.
I love the way the bike looks now, and won't have to hear "hey, one of your headlights is out!" any more. Even got a couple of pics.

Low Beam:


High Beam:

I don't understand, both your lamps are lit in both pictures, aren't they? You said the low beam shuts off when you have the high beam on? Since I'm asking questions, is there a change in brightness when you ride at night?

I may need to do this mod, I just got to where I tell people thanks when they point out I have a headlight out.

Rich said:

I don't understand, both your lamps are lit in both pictures, aren't they? You said the low beam shuts off when you have the high beam on? Since I'm asking questions, is there a change in brightness when you ride at night?

I may need to do this mod, I just got to where I tell people thanks when they point out I have a headlight out.

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The Lh lamp is 'Low beam' & is on at all times. The RH lamp, as standard, only lights when the 'high beam' switch is selected.

Also, as standard, the RH is equiped with a dual filament build 55/60w. The mod is to light the Rh 55w element when the switch is set to low.

There is a humungous thread on this mod on this site in the 'Mods' forum. All you could ever want to know & more.

Mart Man FZ6 said:

I love the way the bike looks now, and won't have to hear "hey, one of your headlights is out!" any more. Even got a couple of pics.

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Yeh I got flashed a couple of times yesterday, I've got to get the mod done sometime.
Its very annoying, especially as on the way to work the people coming from the other direction used only to flash if there was a speed trap, but now a days I really don't know.

Looks good Marty.

Thanks guys. RICH, as PEDWARDS said, the mod allows the unused low beam element in the right hand bulb to operate (as Yamaha should have done it in my opinion). In the second photo, the low beam has shut off, and the high beam element is now on. This was achieved by tapping into the light green wire out of the high beam selector switch. Some of the other members have tapped into the low beam power from the left light. This also works, but when you switch to the high beam position, both elements light at the same time.

PSEUDO, I would highly recommend doing the mod. It looks way more scary than it really is. I'm really parinoid about doing things like this on my own, and I really had no trouble at all. I could have saved a bunch of time by purchasing the flag connectors without the plastic covering. I saw a bag of connectors, but they didn't look like I expected without the plastic on them. Once I got the plastic off (real PITA) I realized they were the same as the ones I saw. The other thing that took a bunch of time was covering the PINK wire I used (hey, it's just what I had on hand) with electrical tape. If you started with black wire, and had the "flag terminal" already connected to the wire, you could easily do this mod in under 1/2 hour.

I would certainly agree that Yamaha should have done this to begin with. Especially considering that they designed the reflector around the High Beam so even when you do this mod you'll notice that the two lights don't look exactly the same or throw the same light pattern.

Mart Man FZ6 said:

PSEUDO, I would highly recommend doing the mod....... If you started with black wire, and had the "flag terminal" already connected to the wire, you could easily do this mod in under 1/2 hour.

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Marty I must admit I still had slight reservations about doing the mod (yes after all this time) as I know how infuriating it can be getting blinded by someones headlights. I lived for a year and a half in Ramsgate (UK) which is a cross channel (to the continent) port. Anyway whenever the ferry unloaded a lot of foriegn cars would drive off without having deflectors on thier headlights and blind everyone, (deflectors are opaque stickers that redirect your beam from left to right or vice versa). Anyway I thought it would be a problem with doing this mod, that you would blind other motorists/motorcyclists.

Well today I had a word with my dealer and he reacons (off the record) that you should be able to readjust the left lamp to shine more to the right and hereby cutting out the glare to other motorists. I will have to look into doing this but it can't be too difficult.

Another minor point is that I don't have a garage, so I'll have to wait for good weather.

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll definately be getting it done sometime soon.

I'm going to call Yamaha on Monday and see if I can get an answer to the question why they aren't using the RH low beam. it seems there is a lot of debate on this issue. from the forums to the mags there seems to be people on both sides stating opinions on each side of the fence. I've always thought the mod would essentially be the same as riding with your high beam on. after looking closer in to it (thanks to you know who you are) I'm more intrigued then before and have started contemplating doing this mod myself. although I do like the one headlight look (it matches my T-shirt) I ride in the dark as much as in the daylight. if this mod could increase my visibility without blinding the oncoming traffic it would be worth doing. we'll see what Yamaha has to say and go from there.

to be continued...

Thanks for the feedback, it looks like something I might do. I hate the headlight-out look.

sportrider_fz6 said:

I'm going to call Yamaha on Monday and see if I can get an answer to the question why they aren't using the RH low beam......to be continued...

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Heard anything yet Danny?

I spoke to a couple of guys at my work and they have both carried out this mod on there bikes (not FZ6's), and readjusted the beams, but they both had (dual) circular headlights, I don't know if this makes a difference. Well I won't speculate any further.

I'm curious what Yamaha says.