Wiring a headlight ktm. Help

You can skip all that capacitor nonsense he was experimenting with. You need a voltage regulator, inline fuse, battery and a switch for the headlight.

Your alternating current coming out your stator goes to the regulator, 12v DC will come out to battery. Now when the bike is started, the battery will charge. You need to ground the battery to the chassis.

From here you can run a positive 12v to anything. So in your case a simple headlight. Note any accessories added need to be fused or have a circuit breaker. With just one accessory, I personally would just add a small inline fuse you can access easy.

So a positive 12v wire runs to your switch, then from the switch to the light, the light then needs another wire ran back to the ground on the battery or another ground point like the coil mount that is near by. Thats it other than making sure, the switch/wires you use can handle the amps the light pulls, if not you will need to ad a relay. If you need to do that, you basically add the relay in between the switch and light.

Note: If the light does not provide a amp rating, It more than likely will provide the wattage. Watts divided by volts = amps.

60 Watts / 12v = 5 amps

Another thing. I would definitely use some OEM components KTM sells on other models as much as possible. That plastic batter tray would make things a lot simpler too.

Markee wrote:

You can skip all that capacitor nonsense he was experimenting with. You need a voltage regulator, inline fuse, battery and a switch for the headlight.

Your alternating current coming out your stator goes to the regulator, 12v DC will come out to battery. Now when the bike is started, the battery will charge. You need to ground the battery to the chassis.

From here you can run a positive 12v to anything. So in your case a simple headlight. Note any accessories added need to be fused or have a circuit breaker. With just one accessory, I personally would just add a small inline fuse you can access easy.

So a positive 12v wire runs to your switch, then from the switch to the light, the light then needs another wire ran back to the ground on the battery or another ground point like the coil mount that is near by. Thats it other than making sure, the switch/wires you use can handle the amps the light pulls, if not you will need to ad a relay. If you need to do that, you basically add the relay in between the switch and light.

Note: If the light does not provide a amp rating, It more than likely will provide the wattage. Watts divided by volts = amps.

60 Watts / 12v = 5 amps

I’ve read that you can skip all that and bring it straight to a ktm headlight? Is this possible. If so I’d love to skip buying all that stuff .. thanks

Markee wrote:

You can skip all that capacitor nonsense he was experimenting with. You need a voltage regulator, inline fuse, battery and a switch for the headlight.

Your alternating current coming out your stator goes to the regulator, 12v DC will come out to battery. Now when the bike is started, the battery will charge. You need to ground the battery to the chassis.

From here you can run a positive 12v to anything. So in your case a simple headlight. Note any accessories added need to be fused or have a circuit breaker. With just one accessory, I personally would just add a small inline fuse you can access easy.

So a positive 12v wire runs to your switch, then from the switch to the light, the light then needs another wire ran back to the ground on the battery or another ground point like the coil mount that is near by. Thats it other than making sure, the switch/wires you use can handle the amps the light pulls, if not you will need to ad a relay. If you need to do that, you basically add the relay in between the switch and light.

Note: If the light does not provide a amp rating, It more than likely will provide the wattage. Watts divided by volts = amps.

60 Watts / 12v = 5 amps

Also, do I need to have a battery? Could I not just run it straight off the regulator without a battery, and just have it running when the bike starts? Thanks

Question, do you plan to run an led bulb? If so, go with a regulator/rectifier from a place like Trailtech or Baja Designs. That will convert your power from ac to dc. Leds do not function properly on ac power. Not sure if the bike you are looking at has estart or not, but if it does not here is the route I would go. Route the power from the stator to the regulator/rectifier and then on to a capacitor. Why a capacitor? Just preference for me, but they can be tiny (about the size of a D cell battery) and can be mounted anywhere and unlike a battery, they never need to be charged up or maintained in any way. With this setup I prefer to run the power to the lights with no switch. The reason is that capacitors store a lot of energy and when you shut off the engine, with no switch to the lights it will drain the last of the power out of the capacitor as the lights go out. That will keep surprises from happening later when you clean your air filter or whatever and mistakenly put a screwdriver across the positive and negative terminals on the capacitor. It gives quite a shower of sparks compared to a battery and will scare the shit out of you. There are terminals on the capacitor just like a battery so you can run a simple positive and negative lead to your light (with fuse if you like) and then the same on to the tail light.

This was the setup I used on my son's '04 KDX200 and it was flawless. He had an 85 watt stator that we used to power a large 8" 60 watt led off road light along with the tail light. We plan to do the same to his XR400. As to the video you attached, yes the light does not operate at full power at idle, but it takes very little revs for it to be at full brightness.....basically as you ride the bike you virtually cannot ride it at low enough revs to get anything but full brightness out of the light. That was our experience anyway.

outerlimits wrote:

Question, do you plan to run an led bulb? If so, go with a regulator/rectifier from a place like Trailtech or Baja Designs. That will convert your power from ac to dc. Leds do not function properly on ac power. Not sure if the bike you are looking at has estart or not, but if it does not here is the route I would go. Route the power from the stator to the regulator/rectifier and then on to a capacitor. Why a capacitor? Just preference for me, but they can be tiny (about the size of a D cell battery) and can be mounted anywhere and unlike a battery, they never need to be charged up or maintained in any way. With this setup I prefer to run the power to the lights with no switch. The reason is that capacitors store a lot of energy and when you shut off the engine, with no switch to the lights it will drain the last of the power out of the capacitor as the lights go out. That will keep surprises from happening later when you clean your air filter or whatever and mistakenly put a screwdriver across the positive and negative terminals on the capacitor. It gives quite a shower of sparks compared to a battery and will scare the shit out of you. There are terminals on the capacitor just like a battery so you can run a simple positive and negative lead to your light (with fuse if you like) and then the same on to the tail light.

This was the setup I used on my son's '04 KDX200 and it was flawless. He had an 85 watt stator that we used to power a large 8" 60 watt led off road light along with the tail light. We plan to do the same to his XR400. As to the video you attached, yes the light does not operate at full power at idle, but it takes very little revs for it to be at full brightness.....basically as you ride the bike you virtually cannot ride it at low enough revs to get anything but full brightness out of the light. That was our experience anyway.

Thanks for the answer,I don’t plan on an led bulb, and don’t have an estart on my bike. Are you saying to turn it to dc with a rectifier? Or just run the ac through a regulator and capacitor? I won’t really be using the light, it’s just lights are a must have for enduros, so what’s the simplest, cheapest way to have a light, the light I’m looking at would be something like this..... https://m.ebay.ie/itm/Headlight-Mask-Headlight-For-KTM-EXC-F-XC-W-XCF-W-125-200-250-300-450-500-530/232958800270?hash=item363d6d318e:g:560AAOSwv5xbvGUp thanks again

outerlimits wrote:

Question, do you plan to run an led bulb? If so, go with a regulator/rectifier from a place like Trailtech or Baja Designs. That will convert your power from ac to dc. Leds do not function properly on ac power. Not sure if the bike you are looking at has estart or not, but if it does not here is the route I would go. Route the power from the stator to the regulator/rectifier and then on to a capacitor. Why a capacitor? Just preference for me, but they can be tiny (about the size of a D cell battery) and can be mounted anywhere and unlike a battery, they never need to be charged up or maintained in any way. With this setup I prefer to run the power to the lights with no switch. The reason is that capacitors store a lot of energy and when you shut off the engine, with no switch to the lights it will drain the last of the power out of the capacitor as the lights go out. That will keep surprises from happening later when you clean your air filter or whatever and mistakenly put a screwdriver across the positive and negative terminals on the capacitor. It gives quite a shower of sparks compared to a battery and will scare the shit out of you. There are terminals on the capacitor just like a battery so you can run a simple positive and negative lead to your light (with fuse if you like) and then the same on to the tail light.

This was the setup I used on my son's '04 KDX200 and it was flawless. He had an 85 watt stator that we used to power a large 8" 60 watt led off road light along with the tail light. We plan to do the same to his XR400. As to the video you attached, yes the light does not operate at full power at idle, but it takes very little revs for it to be at full brightness.....basically as you ride the bike you virtually cannot ride it at low enough revs to get anything but full brightness out of the light. That was our experience anyway.

yz8103 wrote:

Thanks for the answer,I don’t plan on an led bulb, and don’t have an estart on my bike. Are you saying to turn it to dc with a rectifier? Or just run the ac through a regulator and capacitor? I won’t really be using the light, it’s just lights are a must have for enduros, so what’s the simplest, cheapest way to have a light, the light I’m looking at would be something like this..... https://m.ebay.ie/itm/Headlight-Mask-Headlight-For-KTM-EXC-F-XC-W-XCF-W-125-200-250-300-450-500-530/232958800270?hash=item363d6d318e:g:560AAOSwv5xbvGUp thanks again

Gotcha. Ok, so if your bike already has a lighting stator and you just want basic lights to "get by" then really you just need an ac regulator (I think they are around $20...check Baja Designs, Trail Tech, Ricky Stator etc) and no battery. The power wires from the stator just go to the ac regulator prior to going to the lights. You can run a switch or not. Your bike would then be wired like any other kick start bike that came from the factory with lights and no battery. Just be aware that most tail lights on the market now are led so you would just need to find one with a regular filament type bulb, but they are out there. An led tail light will run on ac, just not well and will usually have a shorter lifespan if run that way. Might be a good idea to run a 10 amp fuse in line on the positive lead to the light.

outerlimits wrote:

Question, do you plan to run an led bulb? If so, go with a regulator/rectifier from a place like Trailtech or Baja Designs. That will convert your power from ac to dc. Leds do not function properly on ac power. Not sure if the bike you are looking at has estart or not, but if it does not here is the route I would go. Route the power from the stator to the regulator/rectifier and then on to a capacitor. Why a capacitor? Just preference for me, but they can be tiny (about the size of a D cell battery) and can be mounted anywhere and unlike a battery, they never need to be charged up or maintained in any way. With this setup I prefer to run the power to the lights with no switch. The reason is that capacitors store a lot of energy and when you shut off the engine, with no switch to the lights it will drain the last of the power out of the capacitor as the lights go out. That will keep surprises from happening later when you clean your air filter or whatever and mistakenly put a screwdriver across the positive and negative terminals on the capacitor. It gives quite a shower of sparks compared to a battery and will scare the shit out of you. There are terminals on the capacitor just like a battery so you can run a simple positive and negative lead to your light (with fuse if you like) and then the same on to the tail light.

This was the setup I used on my son's '04 KDX200 and it was flawless. He had an 85 watt stator that we used to power a large 8" 60 watt led off road light along with the tail light. We plan to do the same to his XR400. As to the video you attached, yes the light does not operate at full power at idle, but it takes very little revs for it to be at full brightness.....basically as you ride the bike you virtually cannot ride it at low enough revs to get anything but full brightness out of the light. That was our experience anyway.

yz8103 wrote:

Thanks for the answer,I don’t plan on an led bulb, and don’t have an estart on my bike. Are you saying to turn it to dc with a rectifier? Or just run the ac through a regulator and capacitor? I won’t really be using the light, it’s just lights are a must have for enduros, so what’s the simplest, cheapest way to have a light, the light I’m looking at would be something like this..... https://m.ebay.ie/itm/Headlight-Mask-Headlight-For-KTM-EXC-F-XC-W-XCF-W-125-200-250-300-450-500-530/232958800270?hash=item363d6d318e:g:560AAOSwv5xbvGUp thanks again

outerlimits wrote:

Gotcha. Ok, so if your bike already has a lighting stator and you just want basic lights to "get by" then really you just need an ac regulator (I think they are around $20...check Baja Designs, Trail Tech, Ricky Stator etc) and no battery. The power wires from the stator just go to the ac regulator prior to going to the lights. You can run a switch or not. Your bike would then be wired like any other kick start bike that came from the factory with lights and no battery. Just be aware that most tail lights on the market now are led so you would just need to find one with a regular filament type bulb, but they are out there. An led tail light will run on ac, just not well and will usually have a shorter lifespan if run that way. Might be a good idea to run a 10 amp fuse in line on the positive lead to the light.

Thanks so much! I’ve been searching all day for this! One last thing- when you say the led don’t run well, do you mean flickering or what? Cheers

Also, does anyone know where to find a non led rear fender light??

Also, just after finding this on eBay .... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Regulator-AC-DC-15-52V-to-DC-12V-3A-Waterproof-Module-Power-Supply-Converter-uk-/251547073520 will this work and then I could power leds? Thanks all

yz8103 wrote:

Thanks for the answer,I don’t plan on an led bulb, and don’t have an estart on my bike. Are you saying to turn it to dc with a rectifier? Or just run the ac through a regulator and capacitor? I won’t really be using the light, it’s just lights are a must have for enduros, so what’s the simplest, cheapest way to have a light, the light I’m looking at would be something like this..... https://m.ebay.ie/itm/Headlight-Mask-Headlight-For-KTM-EXC-F-XC-W-XCF-W-125-200-250-300-450-500-530/232958800270?hash=item363d6d318e:g:560AAOSwv5xbvGUp thanks again

outerlimits wrote:

Gotcha. Ok, so if your bike already has a lighting stator and you just want basic lights to "get by" then really you just need an ac regulator (I think they are around $20...check Baja Designs, Trail Tech, Ricky Stator etc) and no battery. The power wires from the stator just go to the ac regulator prior to going to the lights. You can run a switch or not. Your bike would then be wired like any other kick start bike that came from the factory with lights and no battery. Just be aware that most tail lights on the market now are led so you would just need to find one with a regular filament type bulb, but they are out there. An led tail light will run on ac, just not well and will usually have a shorter lifespan if run that way. Might be a good idea to run a 10 amp fuse in line on the positive lead to the light.

yz8103 wrote:

Thanks so much! I’ve been searching all day for this! One last thing- when you say the led don’t run well, do you mean flickering or what? Cheers

Led bulbs are kind of directional and ac power alternates in both directions. I'm no expert and don't know a good way to explain it, but with ac power an led bulb only recognizes the power in one direction and not at all in the other direction so with ac power they do tend to flicker even if you can't tell that it's happening. Sometimes what you'll see with your eyes is that the light just isn't as bright. Supposedly ac power is hard on the circuits of an led bulb which shortens the life span. My brother currently has an led bulb in the tail light of his XR, which is ac and says it does not flicker or strobe, but is not as bright as it otherwise would be.

If you just want to give it a go and see what happens you could go with a cheap tail light such as this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-Tail-Light-Brake-Run-Fender-Red-LED-Clear-Off-Road-Dirt-Enduro-Bike/132829859584?hash=item1eed46cf00:g:s34AAOSwx3dboxgs:rk:3:pf:0 . Maybe it will last long enough for you. Put a switch in your wiring so you are not running it at times when you don't need it and it might be enough for you. I just realized you're in Ireland? So maybe some of my references are not useable to you locally there, but you will find the proper pieces in your ebay there. The ac regulator you linked to will not handle enough power. It only showed about 24 watts. Do a search for a universal motorcycle ac regulator and you'll find something similar to this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trail-Tech-Universal-ATV-Motorcycle-Ac-Voltage-Regulator-7003-AC01/352391808042?epid=171191820&hash=item520c30442a:g:lG0AAOSwNOJbNSJc:sc:USPSFirstClass!92129!US!-1:rk:14:pf:0

outerlimits wrote:

Gotcha. Ok, so if your bike already has a lighting stator and you just want basic lights to "get by" then really you just need an ac regulator (I think they are around $20...check Baja Designs, Trail Tech, Ricky Stator etc) and no battery. The power wires from the stator just go to the ac regulator prior to going to the lights. You can run a switch or not. Your bike would then be wired like any other kick start bike that came from the factory with lights and no battery. Just be aware that most tail lights on the market now are led so you would just need to find one with a regular filament type bulb, but they are out there. An led tail light will run on ac, just not well and will usually have a shorter lifespan if run that way. Might be a good idea to run a 10 amp fuse in line on the positive lead to the light.

yz8103 wrote:

Thanks so much! I’ve been searching all day for this! One last thing- when you say the led don’t run well, do you mean flickering or what? Cheers

outerlimits wrote:

Led bulbs are kind of directional and ac power alternates in both directions. I'm no expert and don't know a good way to explain it, but with ac power an led bulb only recognizes the power in one direction and not at all in the other direction so with ac power they do tend to flicker even if you can't tell that it's happening. Sometimes what you'll see with your eyes is that the light just isn't as bright. Supposedly ac power is hard on the circuits of an led bulb which shortens the life span. My brother currently has an led bulb in the tail light of his XR, which is ac and says it does not flicker or strobe, but is not as bright as it otherwise would be.

If you just want to give it a go and see what happens you could go with a cheap tail light such as this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-Tail-Light-Brake-Run-Fender-Red-LED-Clear-Off-Road-Dirt-Enduro-Bike/132829859584?hash=item1eed46cf00:g:s34AAOSwx3dboxgs:rk:3:pf:0 . Maybe it will last long enough for you. Put a switch in your wiring so you are not running it at times when you don't need it and it might be enough for you. I just realized you're in Ireland? So maybe some of my references are not useable to you locally there, but you will find the proper pieces in your ebay there. The ac regulator you linked to will not handle enough power. It only showed about 24 watts. Do a search for a universal motorcycle ac regulator and you'll find something similar to this https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trail-Tech-Universal-ATV-Motorcycle-Ac-Voltage-Regulator-7003-AC01/352391808042?epid=171191820&hash=item520c30442a:g:lG0AAOSwNOJbNSJc:sc:USPSFirstClass!92129!US!-1:rk:14:pf:0

Thanks a lot, I think I’ll buy this... https://www.ebay.ie/itm/4-Wire-Full-Wave-Motorcycle-Regulator-Rectifier-12V-DC-Bike-Quad-Scooter-/112959482903 and I can then get leds, I think this will work, straight from stator to lights...