LED Headlight for the Hawk 250 Enduro Motorcycle

In the continuing saga of the Hawk 250 motorcycle mods I’ve been experimenting with, I just swapped out the stock headlight bulb for a MUCH brighter LED. Here’s the entire step by step process. And although I’ve got a lot of photos and things, the whole swap took about 10 minutes. And that’s with stopping to take photos. So this is a pretty easy process. (Also see the LED Tail / Brake light conversion.)

The headlight I went with was the OPT7 Motorcycle LED Headlight Kit w/ Arc-Beam™ Clear 6K Cool White – 40w 3,500Lm CREE (H4, 9003). It cost $60, and was basically a direct replacement. If you want to look for another bulb, you need to find a standard H4 style. These are the same bulbs used in car headlights.

Instructions

Ok, step one is to remove the existing headlight. To do that, you need to look on either side of the headlight assembly and you’ll find one screw. Remove them, and the whole assembly will pull forward nice and easy.

Next, there is a big boot covering the back of the bulb that you need to just kind of pull back to reveal the goodies.

Once pulled back, you can unplug the existing bulb by pulling the square black plastic plug right off the three posts on the bulb.

Next, you need to remove the white plastic retainer ring that is holding the headlight in place. Just twist it and it should come right off.

At this point you can lift the old bulb out, and set it aside somewhere for nostalgia purposes. You’re stepping into the 21st century baby!

Ok, grab your LED box…

And inside you’ll find a couple of parts.

You need to plug the LED light into the adapter cable.

Then you need to carefully twist the metal mounting plate off of the LED.

You’ll drop that metal mounting plate into the spot you removed the old bulb from.

Then install the white plastic retaining ring back over it. Keep in mind that it has some words on it, and you’ll want those facing outwards, and the word TOP should be towards the TOP of the light fixture, as if you were looking at it from the front while mounted on the bike.

And then insert the LED bulb into the center of all of that and twist it to lock it back in place. Keep in mind that there are two tabs on the sides. One is slightly larger than the other, so you’ll need to line them up with the appropriate slots as you insert the LED into the mounting base.

After you’ve threaded it into the hole and twisted it, you can look at it from the front through the clear plastic and make sure it appears seated properly.

At this point, plug your light into the stock harness, turn on the power to the bike and activate the headlights to make sure everything is working. Then, shove all the wires out of the way so you can screw the headlight back in place and you’re done!

This install will easily double the output of the existing lights. And the High and Low beams can be activated simultaneously. So it makes it nice and bright! Well, at least as much as could be expected given that this cheap Chinese bike’s light housing leaves a lot to be desired in terms of its ability to reflect and focus the light.

I was pleased with the outcome for $60, though I decided that I’m also going to add some additional driving lights somewhere on this bike so that I can really light things up. If I’m ever riding at night, I really want to be able to see everything around me as far, and clearly, as possible!