Gen 1 headlight switch / starting issues

SlippySlappy

Joined Aug 2008

32 Posts | 1+

Chessington, UK

Discussion Starter
• Jan 30, 2014

• #1

After 6 years of ownership, I'm sick of the starting problems I have with the Gen 1, especially in the winter. :banghead
The 2004/5 model I have has the headlights permanently on, and I'm thinking of fitting the L/H switchgear from an earlier model that incorporates a switch to allow the lights to be turned off. I figure this may help save a bit of juice when cranking - might make a little bit of difference.
I've found some second-hand examples on flea-bay, with 2 connector plugs at the end of the wiring.
Just wondered if anyone else has done this mod, and if so is it a straight "plug-n-play" or am I going to have to cut & splice some wiring?

Any other great ideas to get over the starting problems would be very much appreciated!

 

Tifa

Joined Jul 2008

1K Posts | 26+

• Jan 30, 2014

• #2

Have a mooch around on AF1.
Do a quick search, I'm pretty sure you'll find the info there.

 

YevJenko

Joined Jan 2014

176 Posts | 3+

Nooo Zeeeelund

• Mar 7, 2014

• #3

How did you get on?

 

SlippySlappy

Joined Aug 2008

32 Posts | 1+

Chessington, UK

Discussion Starter
• Mar 22, 2014

• #4

YevJenko said:

How did you get on?

Click to expand...

Checked out a friend-of-a-friend's RSV Mille with the old l/h switch gear and it seems to have the same connector plugs as mine. Haven't actually bought one yet, the bike's been starting ok since the weather's warmed up a little but I do intend to do this. I'm convinced it's a straight swap, and having the lights off when starting has got to put less drain on the battery and hopefully help to crank it over with a bit more oompfh. (That's a technical term, "oompfh":lol)

 

R

Reecy

Joined May 2013

164 Posts | 3+

Southport, Lancashire

• Mar 24, 2014

• #5

Well slippy --i am going to be doing exactly the same on my 2006 Gen 1

Griff confirmed that it is exactly the same fitment as the one that you have fitted as standard and yes it does help with cranking power-just when you need some

Reecy

 

SlippySlappy

Joined Aug 2008

32 Posts | 1+

Chessington, UK

Discussion Starter
• Mar 27, 2014

• #6

Cheers Reecy,

Good to know someone out there has confirmed my theory. I intend to start searching eBay for the switch-gear as soon as I've been paid this month!

 

Jambo

Joined Jul 2008

26 Posts | 0+

• Jun 2, 2014

• #7

I've done it on my '05 Tuono gen 1 mate, it works fine. Only thing is the side lights stay on all the time, whether you have the switch in off, side lights on or headlight on. The front headlight only comes on when you put the switch in the top headlight on position though. I wanted to minimise the drain on the battery when starting, so I converted the front sidelight and rear lights to LED's.

 

SlippySlappy

Joined Aug 2008

32 Posts | 1+

Chessington, UK

Discussion Starter
• Aug 29, 2014

• #8

Jambo said:

I've done it on my '05 Tuono gen 1 mate, it works fine. Only thing is the side lights stay on all the time, whether you have the switch in off, side lights on or headlight on. The front headlight only comes on when you put the switch in the top headlight on position though. I wanted to minimise the drain on the battery when starting, so I converted the front sidelight and rear lights to LED's.

Click to expand...

Right,

Finally pulled my finger out and got a secondhand light switch unit from an RSV Mille. As Jambo said a while ago, it bolts straight on, no cutting wires or anything.
But yes, the side light and rear lights are still always on, so the switch only seems to affect the front headlight.
Nevertheless, with the headlight switched off and the ignition on (but bike not started) the on-board volt meter shows a saving of 0.3 - 0.4v before hitting the starter, so it's got to be helping with the power drain on start-up.

Think I'm now going to do what Jambo has, and change the rear lights to LED to try to save a few more volts there.

Jambo - where did you get your LED rear unit from? I've see a couple of different ones around but they don't look quite right. I've already established that the LED units that fit the RSV Mille of the same year don't match the one in the Tuono.

Is this what you have?

APRILIA RSV1000 TUONO 02-05 LED REAR LIGHT WITH INTEGRAL LED INDICATORS LEDA003 | eBay

 

As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

YevJenko

Joined Jan 2014

176 Posts | 3+

Nooo Zeeeelund

• Aug 29, 2014

• #9

The proper 03 Mille rear light will fit Tuono's. But some sellers don't realise that there are two different designs for the Mille. That link you sent looks right, if a bit pricey. Check out German eBay for rucklicht. Also there are two versions... that light series with the part numbers leda0x comes either just as led taillights or like the one you linked to with built in indicators, although you can choose not to wire up the indicators

 

SlippySlappy

Joined Aug 2008

32 Posts | 1+

Chessington, UK

Discussion Starter
• Aug 29, 2014

• #10

Nice one Yev, I'll check that out. Cheers.

 

P

pierregrc

Joined Sep 2012

9 Posts | 0+

Athens, Greece

• Sep 28, 2014

• #11

For the taillights i have oem taillights with cheap made china led lights. I have 0.5 v better voltage.