Hello there!

Hi my name is Paul, from Suffolk in the UK.

I got into T80's back in 2009 when a colleague said he had one going rusty in his shed for years that he was going to get rid of. It was actually sound but covered in surface rust so I bought it off him for £75 and restored it. I've since restored a couple of others, one got stolen, another I sold but I currently have 2 grey T80s, one of 1991 and one of 1995.

The 1991 is the one I bought of said colleague and restored. I use this for commuting and leisure rides, weather permitting!

I've made a few modifications to it including fitting early type rear lights and indicators as I think they look nicer, converted the electrical system to 12V and fitted a 12v 35/35w halogen headlight bulb so I can see where I'm going at night (most of my riding is out of town where there are no streetlights and the standard glow-worm is lethal).

Welcome aboard Paul, interesting to know you have converted a T80 to 12v lighting, maybe you could put up details of how you did that. I assume you also converted it to battery lighting as quartz halogen bulbs dont last long on direct AC systems.

Hi Paul Glad you found us    I to would be interested on the 12v conversion sounds interesting.

hi very interesting this 12 volt have you managed to fit electric start yet

I would love to convert it to electric start. The lack of electric start is the only thing about the bike that is not 'better' than the Honda C90 that I had years ago. Were the electric start models also 6v, or did they change to 12v for them, like Honda did?

My 12v conversion was a bit convoluted - there may be a simpler way. But it goes something like this;
- Rewire alternator stator so that the two windings are now in series, and no longer referenced to earth.
- Connect the output of the rewired stator to a bridge rectifier which I mounted on the backplate of the original rectifier.
- connect -ve of rectifier to frame, connect -ve and +ve into a large electrolytic capacitor to smooth the output.
- build a simple voltage regulator box using an LM338K regulator and heatsink. I have mounted this under my top box, but there may be a better place!
- Connect the lighting circuit onto the ignition-switched +ve rather than directly from the alternator.
- Change battery and all bulbs to 12v. The fuel guage seems to work fine even on 12v.

The only downside of this setup is that the headlight remains at full brightness when idling and so discharges the battery. This is fine for me as most of by driving is on fast roads, but this setup may not be suitable for urban use.

In my earlier experiments, I did do a 'split' system using the two windings seperately - one to charge the battery and power indicators/brakelight etc, then the other to directly power the head/tail lights. This required two regulators (both in one box but obviously more complicated). This setup would be good for urban use but I didn't like having the headlight dim as I slowed down for a sharp corner on rural roads!

When I get time, I'll post some pictures and maybe a circuit diagram too.

I have also fitted heated grips, but prolonged use of these does discharge the battery as there is simply not enough output from the alternator even at 40mph+ to power the 35w headlight and the grips.

If anyone wanted theirs converted and could get the bike to me in Suffolk, I'd be happy to do it just for cost of parts.

Interesting but as you say not a complete success if you do much town work at low revs/speed. I assume the ignition is left as 6volt direct from flywheel mag, this would make sense as this works fine in standard form & if converted to battery supply it would be a problem starting if battery went flat. As for electric start unless you have a dodgy leg the kickstart is fine as half a prod & it starts. You would also need a much larger battery.

JohnW wrote:Interesting but as you say not a complete success if you do much town work at low revs/speed. I assume the ignition is left as 6volt direct from flywheel mag, this would make sense as this works fine in standard form & if converted to battery supply it would be a problem starting if battery went flat. As for electric start unless you have a dodgy leg the kickstart is fine as half a prod & it starts. You would also need a much larger battery.

Exactly, the little T80 is so easy to start anyway. I once had a Honda XR400 which was kickstart only. That _was_ a pig to start, especially after dropping it on a muddy green lane.

And yes, the ignition circuit is untouched. It is only the charging and lighting circuits that are modified.

Thanks for the wright up teapot,
So you still use the 6v ignition coil and the senser on the fly wheel stays the same? The Horn would stay the same just louder   

To reduce the load you could fit one of Paul Goffs LED tail light bulb replacements http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/goffyleds.htm bit expensive though.

1 have a 12v c90 and can say the lights on that are not up to country roads especially if its raining you have to keep the speed down ,in fact you cant go faster than you can see on dip my sons bike head torch is brighter