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Hey there folks,
Well I'm hoping that this will end up as a new tech tip...we'll see!
First, I'm going to talk a bit about what is HID and why it's been difficult and dangerous to oncoming traffic to install it on our bikes.
Our bikes came OEM with sealed beam 7x6 H6024 bulbs/housings with the 78E, but then went to separate H4 styled Halogen bulbs and reflector housings in 79. These reflectors were specifically designed for the way light travels from the halogen bulb and provides the required DOT/SAE lowered pattern for Low Beam, and higher pattern for Hi Beam. I know we like pictures, so here's one showing a variety of Halogen style bulbs.
Halogens have a FILAMENT in them that burns to produce the light, it's subject to vibration damage and provides a limited amount of lumens.
HID bulbs do NOT have a filament, they have 2 internal electrodes and the current ignites the gas between the electrodes and that is what produces the light. Since it's a GAS, it's not prone to vibration shock damage. Also because other gases can be mixed in, they can be set to provide a variety of lighting colors rated in the Kelvin range, from 3000 up to 20K, Yellow to several whites, to blue, purple and other annoying colors!
Because of the shape, design of the ignition area of the HID bulb, light rays are not emitted in the same way/direction as Halogens, and so when they are placed in older Halogen Styled reflectors, they produce a considerable amount of widespread GLARE to oncoming traffic, and do not have the proper height cutoff zone for the low beam pattern.
In the past, HID bulb conversion kits came up with several techniques to "try" to match the hi/lo patterns, they either used a separate Halogen Hi beam bulb mounted beside the halogen bulb, or they had fancy bulbs with magnetic relays/servos that would shift the bulbs position forward or rearward for hi/lo, but because of the incorrect Halogen reflector design, they were still inadequate.
HID bulb housings use a special PROJECTOR style lens to focus and direct the HID light out onto the road without scattering it all around. These projectors WERE very expensive as well as difficult to install in standard headlight housings. But during my recent searches on eBay, I have found that the technology has caught up with the HID conversion demand.
Thanks to Steve's thread on converting the Standard's headlight bucket to accomodate a regular 7x6 H6054 rectangular headlight reflector housing, and that the Special takes a standard 7" round style, both headlight styles can now be fitted with specially built reflectors with built-in projector lenses for HID conversions.
Above are just the headlight reflector/projector housings, you can also get complete HID conversion systems with the respective reflectors/projectors as well.
They even have them for the Midnight Specials!
Due to the # of photos and such, I'm splitting this into 2 parts! End of Part 1
Well I'm hoping that this will end up as a new tech tip...we'll see!
First, I'm going to talk a bit about what is HID and why it's been difficult and dangerous to oncoming traffic to install it on our bikes.
Our bikes came OEM with sealed beam 7x6 H6024 bulbs/housings with the 78E, but then went to separate H4 styled Halogen bulbs and reflector housings in 79. These reflectors were specifically designed for the way light travels from the halogen bulb and provides the required DOT/SAE lowered pattern for Low Beam, and higher pattern for Hi Beam. I know we like pictures, so here's one showing a variety of Halogen style bulbs.
Halogens have a FILAMENT in them that burns to produce the light, it's subject to vibration damage and provides a limited amount of lumens.
HID bulbs do NOT have a filament, they have 2 internal electrodes and the current ignites the gas between the electrodes and that is what produces the light. Since it's a GAS, it's not prone to vibration shock damage. Also because other gases can be mixed in, they can be set to provide a variety of lighting colors rated in the Kelvin range, from 3000 up to 20K, Yellow to several whites, to blue, purple and other annoying colors!
Because of the shape, design of the ignition area of the HID bulb, light rays are not emitted in the same way/direction as Halogens, and so when they are placed in older Halogen Styled reflectors, they produce a considerable amount of widespread GLARE to oncoming traffic, and do not have the proper height cutoff zone for the low beam pattern.
In the past, HID bulb conversion kits came up with several techniques to "try" to match the hi/lo patterns, they either used a separate Halogen Hi beam bulb mounted beside the halogen bulb, or they had fancy bulbs with magnetic relays/servos that would shift the bulbs position forward or rearward for hi/lo, but because of the incorrect Halogen reflector design, they were still inadequate.
HID bulb housings use a special PROJECTOR style lens to focus and direct the HID light out onto the road without scattering it all around. These projectors WERE very expensive as well as difficult to install in standard headlight housings. But during my recent searches on eBay, I have found that the technology has caught up with the HID conversion demand.
Thanks to Steve's thread on converting the Standard's headlight bucket to accomodate a regular 7x6 H6054 rectangular headlight reflector housing, and that the Special takes a standard 7" round style, both headlight styles can now be fitted with specially built reflectors with built-in projector lenses for HID conversions.
Above are just the headlight reflector/projector housings, you can also get complete HID conversion systems with the respective reflectors/projectors as well.
They even have them for the Midnight Specials!
Due to the # of photos and such, I'm splitting this into 2 parts! End of Part 1
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