Got my electrical system working and took the bike for a spin at night to check out the lights. Not good, just as many have already said. I got a 6V LED headlight online and wired it up. Nice and bright, but since its designed to receive DC current, not AC, it strobed at low revs. It was solid, but a little shimmery above 4,000. Even in a shimmery state, I think it would be too distracting for oncoming traffic, not to mention headache inducing for me.

My question is this: what is the simplest way to keep the beam solid at all times? Wiring directly to the battery? Installing an in-line rectifier? I already have a 6v regulator installed per service bulletin spec.

good idea \connect direct to the battery thru the off /on key and just let the charging system do its thing

So if I wire the headlight to the battery, I would have to tap into the brown wire and have it (instead of the yellow wire from the magneto) go up to the day/night switch? Electrical components are not my strong suit.

On my never ending "to do" list...I bought the Octane lighting halogen, plus a couple different temperature LED's, plus a bridge rectifier. There it all sits in the box, waiting for me to figure out what combination makes the light more better. I like these headlight conversion posts. Maybe it's just mine, but the original headlight is like having a smudge pot duct taped to the handlebars.

I hadn't considered going direct the battery with the LED. Sufficient juice on the lighting coil for this?

Attaching a couple photos of what I'm working on (excuse the temporary wiring mess).

I picked up the headlight on Amazon for $9. Listed as a 6v h4 led motorcycle headlamp with a temperature of 6000k. I put it in a conversion headlamp I also found on Amazon for about $14. The bulb fits perfectly in the headlamp. Getting it all into the headlight frame/housing (not sure of the correct term) is a little tight, but it works. Light is VERY bright, especially on the high beam setting.

In regards to the battery wiring thought, my guess is that if I only use the headlight at night it should be fine. I can't imagine the LED will draw too much juice from the battery, but I don't know. I'm hoping I can just tap into the brown wire that powers the horn and taillight and be able to start testing.

I have not tested it, but an LED draws a boatload less power than incandescent. That being said, it should be able to be connected to the battery directly (after the key of course) and work fine, as the power being drawn should be less than the charging system needs to stay charged.

You might get to the same place if you ran the lighting wire through a separate rectifier to make it pure DC, but I am not electrically savvy to know if that would solve the strobe affect. It seems it would, but . . . If you did that, it would remain on it's own separate circuit, keeping the design mostly as conceived, but simply rectifying the current to DC. If you do this, pleas post up results as I have a project in the garage that would benefit from the end result!

Do you have a link for the conversion headlamp? Did you use the 7 inch headlight conversion? I have already ordered the LED, light, but the link for that would also be helpful.

Ok, I had some time to work on this today. I wired the headlight to the battery (after the key) and its working fine. For me, the wire I tapped into is brown. I still have the voltage regulator wired in, but I guess that might not be necessary any more.

Here is a link to a video of the headlight on while the bike is running LINK .

And the links to the headlight shell and bulb I used. If there are issues with the links let me know and I will correct.

Shell
Bulb

I'll try to do a night test soon and update.

Glad this configuration is working for you! I have been trying to find a solution to the dim low and high beams on my 68, even after converting to a H4 35w/35w halogen bulb. A couple of nights ago I rigged up an AXA blueline 30 switch dynamo bicycle light mounted between the Speedo and Tach and wired to the brown horn wire and grounded to the frame. I could finally see at night! It only draws about 3 watts so the charging system had no problem. It looks a little odd and I will not stay with this rigged system but it does give me confidence that the 6 volt system can power sufficient light for safe night riding we just need to develop the right components for a viable system.

Huh! I actually thought about using a bicycle light as a temporary measure. It's certainly good to know that there are a couple of potential options to get decent lighting from a 6V system.

Here is the result of my night test. Surely bright enough for night riding, and an improvement on the incandescent original. Low beam was not working though. I'll have to go back and double check the wiring. I assume it might be possible to rig up an LED tail light too, although that isn't as important.