TOPIC:

Stock sealed beam is 35/35 but the wire doesn't look any thinner than 18 gauge & most bikes run 60/55 with that.  I plan on doing an LED bulb but until I get that I was wondering if anybody had used a 60/55 without issue...

The charging system on the 440 is more than adequate to handle the demand.
As long as the wiring doesn't get warm you should be good to go.


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You will likely have to upsize the fuse to handle the additional wattage. 

Um, don't most KZs have a 10A fuse for the headlight?

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Um, don't most KZs have a 10A fuse for the headlight?

Yeah...20A for the main, 10A for the head & tail light.  Why do you ask?  Bad idea to run the 60/55 bulb?

To run an LED bulb go for a matched up for led  lens unit or the pattern with be a, rubbish, b illegal.
To run the 5 amps or so for the Halogen bulb you will need to run the lights from relays with bigger wire or you will drop a couple of volts at the bulb.
 

By Sdaniels2010:  Yeah...20A for the main, 10A for the head & tail light.  Why do you ask?  Bad idea to run the 60/55 bulb?

It might be a bad idea to increase the size of the fuse if it's already 10A. A wire might melt before blowing the fuse if it's oversized.  I don't know how the headlight wire gauge on a 440 compares to a 650 or other KZ.  I'm using a 60/55 halogen on my 650CSR, but that's the same wattage as stock or pretty close. I forget.

Upsize the fuse and fry the wiring.  Bad idea.  Ed

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By Sdaniels2010:  Yeah...20A for the main, 10A for the head & tail light.  Why do you ask?  Bad idea to run the 60/55 bulb?

It might be a bad idea to increase the size of the fuse if it's already 10A. A wire might melt before blowing the fuse if it's oversized.  I don't know how the headlight wire gauge on a 440 compares to a 650 or other KZ.  I'm using a 60/55 halogen on my 650CSR, but that's the same wattage as stock or pretty close. I forget.

For newer bikes with a lot of LED lighting there may be lighter gauge wiring but I don't think I've seen anything less than 18 gauge wire on any bike I've ever had going back 30 years or so for most components.  So I'm thinking my 18 gauge wire will support a 60/55 bulb.  Running relays is required if you run significantly higher wattage headlight halogens but I don't think that 60/55 is that big of a jump from 35/35, at least not compared to stuffing a 100/80 halogen in where a stock 60/55 normally resides.  Besides, this is just a temporary deal until I pickup the LED replacement.

That 10amp fuse is there to protect the wiring not the load. You can use a lower amperage fuse. Never use a higher amperage fuse unless you like fires.

Kawasaki decided that headlight wire could support 120 watts(10amps at 12volts).
Anything above 120 watts hopefully the fuse blows before the wire melts.

Keep that circuit below 100 watts and you should be ok. That blue, blue and white wire in the fuse box (10amp fuse) powers only the headlight in stock configuration.

Your 60 watt headlight is fine.

wrote:

That 10amp fuse is there to protect the wiring not the load. You can use a lower amperage fuse. Never use a higher amperage fuse unless you like fires.

Kawasaki decided that headlight wire could support 120 watts(10amps at 12volts).
Anything above 120 watts hopefully the fuse blows before the wire melts.

Keep that circuit below 100 watts and you should be ok. That blue, blue and white wire in the fuse box (10amp fuse) powers only the headlight in stock configuration.

Your 60 watt headlight is fine.

I appreciate your explanation.  So multiplying a fuse rating with the system voltage tells you how much wattage can be utilized?

yeah,
voltage x amp(current) = wattage
100v x 1amp =100 watts
12v x 8.3 amps = 100watts
10v x 10amps=100 watts
5v x 20amps =100 watts

your headlight
60watts/12volts= 5 amps