Alternator Question

[wilbur]

Hi All,

New here, and have been looking at a couple of 300's... The Sym Citycom 300i and the new Forza. After seeing the Forza in person yesterday and getting a chance to sit on it, it has jumped to the top of the list. I do have one question that the dealer couldn't answer, and is not answered on the Honda site. Assuming that a 300cc has an alternator, what is the available electrical power generation on the Forza? Coming from a Vespa 50cc where I changed almost every light to LED's to save a little bit of power, I would want to add some extra LED's (running/stop), better (brighter) headlights, a set of driving/fog lights, and maybe a GPS. Can the alternator on the Forza handle this?

Thanks

[mboni]

I looked in the service manual (which I don't have with me a the moment), and seem to recall seeing it had a 300w total capacity. However, that doesn't tell you much, since we don't know how much of that wattage is already consumed by existing bike components. I vaguely recall that the old Reflex (previous generation of the Forza) was measured to have about 100w of spare capacity on the non-ABS model, slightly less on the ABS model, so it's probably safe to assume that you have at least 50w to play with.

I'm certain that adding a GPS and some LEDs is fine, but I'd be careful about upping the wattage on your headlights. I've already added a GPS and a pair of 5W LED driving lights, and there's no sign of trouble after about 1,000 miles. I briefly ran 45w headlight bulbs instead of our stock 35w bulbs, but ended up backing out of that choice when I added the LED driving lights.

[V4 TRV]

Maybe you should be looking at a Harley?

[you you]

Maybe you should be looking at a Harley?

GAY!!

[gn2]

The Forza doesn't need brighter lights, the standard ones are fine.

[wilbur]

Maybe you should be looking at a Harley?

Why would I ever want to do that? Thank you mboni for a non-snarky, real answer.

[BRed]

According to the service manual, the Forza's ACGenerator outputs 32A or 380W.....
that's the same as the Reflex and BR charging systems.

The BR used twin 55W/60W headlights that sucked up 10A on high beams....
the Forza uses 35W/35W headlights, so that means about 6A draw on high beams?

With the Forza, the engineers didn't even bother to have the starter switch turn off the headlights during cranking.

The Forza generates ample current for all it's systems with a generous surplus of 6-8Amps for accessories.

[wilbur]

Darn. That's not very much. Not a deal breaker though, the Forza is still at #1 on the list.

[Nicholas_Port]

Thank you Wilbur for starting this thread and BRed for your answer. I've been working towards adding driving lights to my Forza. I've been think about getting the Clear Water Darla ( https://www.clearwaterlights.com/infopg_darla.html ). They use 24 watts each and produce 2000 lumens each. They come with a full range dimmer and it is engaged by the high/low beam switch. 48 watts/12 V = 4 amps. So it sounds like they would work.