Wichita Scorpion
Active member
My take: The stator, on a GL 1100, output is 300 watts at 5000 rpm. My belief is that Honda didn't realize until along about the time they designed the GL 1500 that anyone would be adding a lot of electrical drain on the GL 1000 and 1100. "Why would they sell add on lighting?" If people will buy, someone is going to make and sell. If you have added electrical load on a GL 1100, count your light bulbs and figure the wattage. I think you will find that the battery is slowly discharging unless you are at highway speeds, higher rpm. You can do a lot by replacing those added bulbs and maybe some of your OEM bulbs to LEDs.
If you add extra lights, change the incandescent bulbs to LEDs. LEDs (2-1157 red, 2-1157 amber, 2-1156 amber) to replace the OEM GL 1100 bulbs will run you about $44.94 + $5.00 shipping. https://www.superbrightleds.com/ I also added side marker LEDs to replace the red and amber reflectors on the sides of the GL 1100A.
My GL 1100A with sidecar. Running everything, the battery would slowly drop below ten volts. The sidecar had three tail/brake lights and one front clearance light. That's not much more wattage load on the bike, I tell my son. PO had installed three driving lights, two on the bike and one under the front of the sidecar, and, duh, connected them to the accessory fuse. We rewired the driving lights (they got brighter) direct to battery, fused to relay. I tell my son that we maybe can run two driving lights. Wrong again, still get voltage drop!
Manual says that the stator starts to charge at 1800 rpm with a fully charged battery, output is 300 Watts at 5000 rpm.
One 1157 Tail/brake light bulb: 8 watts-tail, 23 watts-brake. Doesn't seem like much, does it?
I figured the main light bulb load, (tail, brake, turn signals, clearance) not counting Headlight, intercom/radio/CB, dash lights 15 w, power for engine and whatever else uses power.
1983 GL 1100A w/sidecar:
Normal driving: 32 watts.--sidecar added: 72 watts
With brakes and turn signal on: 124 watts.--sidecar added: 233 watts
Now add to the above the Headlight on bright, 60 watts, or on dim, 55 watts: 293 watts
I can now understand that the GL 1100 battery and charging system is designed to just supply power for its own original electrical system and not extra add-on lights. Just driving around slowly in town the battery is slowly discharging since it is supplying the wattage for running everything.
I changed all main bulbs to LEDs. Again, best I can figure, my total lighting (less headlight) load on the charging system is now 9.816 watts instead of the 233 watts listed above. We can run two of the driving lights (deer country here & no deer alerts, ummm, did I mention deer alerts here? ) without discharging the battery. We do turn the driving lights off while driving slowly around town.
By the way, a replacement turn signal flasher unit, Tridon Stant EP 28, does work with LED lights.
A GL 1100 OEM light load is (1156s & 1157s) 124w + 60w headlight + 15w dash lights = 199 watts, not counting radios, engine, etc. My belief : Start-Stop driving around town, there is not any power for extra lights.
If you add extra lights, change the incandescent bulbs to LEDs. LEDs (2-1157 red, 2-1157 amber, 2-1156 amber) to replace the OEM GL 1100 bulbs will run you about $44.94 + $5.00 shipping. https://www.superbrightleds.com/ I also added side marker LEDs to replace the red and amber reflectors on the sides of the GL 1100A.
My GL 1100A with sidecar. Running everything, the battery would slowly drop below ten volts. The sidecar had three tail/brake lights and one front clearance light. That's not much more wattage load on the bike, I tell my son. PO had installed three driving lights, two on the bike and one under the front of the sidecar, and, duh, connected them to the accessory fuse. We rewired the driving lights (they got brighter) direct to battery, fused to relay. I tell my son that we maybe can run two driving lights. Wrong again, still get voltage drop!
Manual says that the stator starts to charge at 1800 rpm with a fully charged battery, output is 300 Watts at 5000 rpm.
One 1157 Tail/brake light bulb: 8 watts-tail, 23 watts-brake. Doesn't seem like much, does it?
I figured the main light bulb load, (tail, brake, turn signals, clearance) not counting Headlight, intercom/radio/CB, dash lights 15 w, power for engine and whatever else uses power.
1983 GL 1100A w/sidecar:
Normal driving: 32 watts.--sidecar added: 72 watts
With brakes and turn signal on: 124 watts.--sidecar added: 233 watts
Now add to the above the Headlight on bright, 60 watts, or on dim, 55 watts: 293 watts
I can now understand that the GL 1100 battery and charging system is designed to just supply power for its own original electrical system and not extra add-on lights. Just driving around slowly in town the battery is slowly discharging since it is supplying the wattage for running everything.
I changed all main bulbs to LEDs. Again, best I can figure, my total lighting (less headlight) load on the charging system is now 9.816 watts instead of the 233 watts listed above. We can run two of the driving lights (deer country here & no deer alerts, ummm, did I mention deer alerts here? ) without discharging the battery. We do turn the driving lights off while driving slowly around town.
By the way, a replacement turn signal flasher unit, Tridon Stant EP 28, does work with LED lights.
A GL 1100 OEM light load is (1156s & 1157s) 124w + 60w headlight + 15w dash lights = 199 watts, not counting radios, engine, etc. My belief : Start-Stop driving around town, there is not any power for extra lights.