Adding a charging system to a dirt bike

[alex2445]

Right now I'm working on a dirt bike in my powersports lab at the career center I
Attend and my dad wants to put lights on it eventually so we were thinking since
It doesn't have a charging system that we would go off of the wires going to the
Ignition coil and wire that to a voltage regular/rectifier and use that to charge a
Battery. Question is will it work? And has anyone done it before? Thanks guys
Btw the bike is a suzuki rm100 being put into a tm125.

 

[xb33bsa]

nope all it has is ignition power nothing for lighting
you need a system with a lighting coil maybe you can adapt the complete unit off a street legal 100/125

 

[alex2445]

That's kind of what I was thinking but my dad said he thought it had been done before but I think he's thinking of an entirely different stator.

 

[Tim]

Here's a thought. I have a 1956 Johnson 30HP outboard, which has been fitted with an electric starter. The boat also of course has 12v running lights, bilge pump etc. When I was putting this together, my thoughts were like yours - what about charging the battery?

My outboard has no ability to charge the battery - no way to add it. Asking around, it became clear that my boat battery would hold plenty of charge for an entire season of boating.

Long story short - even without a charging system, if you add the lighting circuits and a reasonable battery, you may find that you don't need the battery to be charged while riding. Plug it into a charger when parked, and chances are you'll have plenty of juice in the battery for long rides, especially if the headlight is only used when you need it to see vs. always being on.

Worst case you need to sort out a charging mechanism, but that doesn't change the battery / lighting circuit setup so it's not wasted effort.