Halogen lights dimmer switch suggestions

Good morning all,
I am planning to add a couple of H3 halogen lights to the GRiSO, (the Stelvio ones) and was looking for a dimmer switch.
Avmonster has a nice dimmer but only rated for LEDs. Any suggestions on a good one?
Thank you

I'd suggest heavy duty wiring to the lights incorporating a circuit breaker from the battery through a relay triggered by the switch.

I agree with Evans,
I also recommend an illuminated switch or some sort of indicator so you know when they are on.
I had the misfortune on a previous bike of both lamps burning out at the same time. since I had no indication of what position the switch was in, I left it in the on position when I parked the bike. the current draw from the relay coil killed my battery after several days.

Yes either an indicator light on the dash or an illuminated switch would be necessary to know when they were turned on.

I find the blue leds so bright that using them for high beam indication is too bright at night. I solve that by putting a resistor in the circuit. Resistors are cheap and I buy a range to test which gives the level that I want.

You could run the +ve wire to the handlebar switch from your ignition switch which would turn them off when the ignition was turned off.
You could only safely do that if the handlebar switch was triggering a relay, which takes minimal current.

Running the halogen lighting circuit through the tiny contacts on a handlebar switch
tends to wreck them, resulting in no headlights and switch replacement.

I always run heavy duty wiring from the battery, through a circuit breaker or fuse to a relay then to the headlights on my bikes.

I use a similar system for my starter circuit, serious cables to the solenoid
from the battery and earth from the frame back to the battery and beefed up wiring from the battery through a 30 amp breaker to a relay to the solenoid trigger circuit. I use the original trigger circuit
from the starter button to trigger the relay.

I only once had a starter issue when I picked up the bike and rode it 650 klm home. Fuelled up
(10 k from home ) went to start, nothing.
It was one of the minor fuses blown, whether this was the usual starting problem I don't know but the upgrade works every time

OK many thanks, good suggestions. as stated by you folks I was afraid that the H3 may draw way too much power when full on all the time. I found this product that may do exactly what I'm look for, as I can dimm the lights as I wish, have them come on on a switched circuit and full on when on high beam.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

thanks again

Link only works if the period (full stop) is removed at the end.

The thing is with LED lights they not only draw a fraction of the current that an incandescent would they also don't need such a high Voltage, if you look at the specs it will say something like 9 - 30 Volts.
That means you will get full brightness at 9 Volts so you can afford to drop a Volt or two in the wiring.
For the driving lights on my V7 I used a couple of 2 Amp reed switches in the headlight bucket, to turn them on I just attach a small magnet to the outside of the bucket.

Halogen lamps are not really dimmable. Yes, you can dim them electrically but it adversely affects the halogen cycle that redeposits the vaporized tungsten back onto the filament. The net result will be that the envelope of the lamp will darken as the burnt off tungsten stays on the glass, reducing the light output of the lamp.

GuzziLooper wrote:

Halogen lamps are not really dimmable. Yes, you can dim them electrically but it adversely affects the halogen cycle that redeposits the vaporized tungsten back onto the filament. The net result will be that the envelope of the lamp will darken as the burnt off tungsten stays on the glass, reducing the light output of the lamp.

Or you can modulate them, full power followed by completely off, repeat.  It was a trend many years ago, I think to make them more visible to the cagers.  Haven't seen one in years.

I put amber LED's on mine so it would stand out. went high end and used a PIAA product. it came with the harness and relay just had to lace it in and connect as needed. (I did use a different switch than they provided)
it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but I can see at night and it sure gets everyone's attention - which was my objective

lastly, the parking light in the the headlight bucket was also swapped for an LED [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

kiwi dave wrote:

Or you can modulate them, full power followed by completely off, repeat.  It was a trend many years ago, I think to make them more visible to the cagers.  Haven't seen one in years.

Yes, I remember those too. We used to see them mostly on BMW touring bikes here in The States.