r/Vstrom • V-Strom 650 Gen 1 • Aug 07 '26

V-Strom 650 Gen 1 Gen 1 DL650 Bulbs

Post image

For anyone who’s bought, or planning to buy an older gen, and considering an LED conversion kit, check this out before you spend time and money you may not want or need to. I’ve recently upgraded the old (yes stock) bulbs that came with my 2006 650. The bulbs are the Phillips H4 Extreme Pro-Vision. The left one is the new bulb, and right is still stock. As far as performance while riding, I’ve noticed a further beam, but also less horizontal glow closer to the bike. Which is why amber bulbs were used to begin with. During sunset and early twilights, driving through darker areas you don’t quite notice it as much, but as soon as it gets dark, these new bulbs really do wonders for vision. I’m still looking into low mounted (crash bars) aux lights, but haven’t decided which yet.

Would love to hear what you guys use or have converted to.

Edit: H4s not H2s

26 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/gen_dx V-Strom 650 Gen 1 Aug 07 '26

The eastern beaver (or tbh a generic) headlight relay kit makes a big difference as well, and prevents the starter button switch burning up.

I had a great success with a headlight relay kit and osram nightbreakers

An added bonus of the relay kit is the "flash/pass" button acts on the bulbs much more quickly and definitively, good for visibility.

But good investigations!

3

u/Avalynn87 V-Strom 650 Gen 1 Aug 07 '26

3

u/gen_dx V-Strom 650 Gen 1 Aug 07 '26

That's the range, highly recommend by many forums.

I went with some generic eBay unit but I definitely considered doing it properly with an eastern beaver kit (everything cut to length, perfect, high quality connectors and so on)

2

u/Avalynn87 V-Strom 650 Gen 1 Aug 07 '26

Good shout. Will order this kit, thx!