HID Conversion: New Info 2012

[DGXSER]

Nice work TC!! Great pics and a great option for a better light.

[XSrunner]

Hid conversion

Hi TOP CAT great thread .I can only comment from my own experience with HID .I bought a cheap set off ebay installed them they worked well for about a month ,but i found that with my bikes headlight trying to kick the HID ballist into full charge to light the globe and also trying to start the bike at the same time the globe flickered for to long ,possibly leading to the short life ...I now run a globe made by a company called NARVA PRODUCTS it is a 120% brighter globe .standard 55w/60w but with Xenon Gas inside works great $70 pair

[TheFrugalTech]

I'm really interested in seeing how this develops.
I have a H4 Xenon I'm really happy with but of course it is labeled for "Offroad or Show Use Only". Haven't had any issues with passing vehicles flashing their lights at me though.
One thing I urge people to be considerate about is not to get the extremely high color temp lights. Once you start getting into the blue and the purple color temps, you can seriously cause damage to the eyesight of those passing you and even yourself from the reflected light off signs etc. Keeping it 9K and under is best.

[Poprock]

I add this to the above caution: the bluer the light, the less well it cuts through rain at night. Don't know why, only know that mine was a 6000 K (alleged Diamond White) that everyone called blue. It was great on a nice night, but I was blind in the rain on twisty mountain roads. Not a fun time. My next HID is going to be as close to 4300 K as I can get.

[Courtney]

OK gonna order a kit, how's this one?

Either this one,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/55W-H4-Motor...-/131175091190

or this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/35-45W-Motor...963410&vxp=mtr

What do you guys think? This will go into my stock Special Headlight assembly. Will it really be better than my 55/60 Halogen bulb?

[natemoen]

You really need to put it into a projector housing and not just into a regular halogen bulb housing.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Courtney,

IF you're not going to get an actual projector to mount inside a reflector like I showed, then don't bother with the HID kit, just get a 100/80 watt HALOGEN OEM style H-4 bulb instead. This way it will WORK with the OEM style halogen designed reflector and put the light down the road and not up and into the oncoming driver's eyes!

BTW, I am running a pair of 55 watt halogen aux. driving lights, and although I'm not now worried about amp load since I'm running my auto-race mini alt, I am still interested in LED type aux lighting fixtures for those that DO want to control their amp loads with OEM charging system. I have found a pair of ~3.5" round 6 x 3 watt hi power LEDS lights, the pair will be twice the price of a pair of the cheap 55 wt halogens, but they only have ~1 amp draw instead of 9 amps of the pair of 55's. And they are rated at ~ 1350 lumens each , are supposed to be decent 60 degree flood style aux lights for vehicles, boats, etc.! They are NOT DOT rated, but who cares! They should be in early next week, and I hope to complete my gauge cluster conversion this weekend, so I'll also try to post a ride report for the lights as well. They are from superbrightleds.com

PS, Superbright.leds also provide replacement designed LEDS for H4 type fixtures, and so they may also provide a LOW AMP solution for the headlight that will be designed to work with the OEM halogen reflector.

T.C.

[Courtney]

Hey Courtney,


PS, Superbright.leds also provide replacement designed LEDS for H4 type fixtures, and so they may also provide a LOW AMP solution for the headlight that will be designed to work with the OEM halogen reflector.

T.C.

Thanks TC, I wonder if the LED H4's will be an easy switch or suffer from poor optics as well.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Courtney,

Forget the LEDS! I just vaguely remembered seeing them while I was looking at the stronger type LED AUX lights. Just reviewed them, and the H-4 type was only rated at ~350 lumens....these are just for DAYTIME driving lights, not for actual main headlights! My Bad!

T.C.

[natemoen]

There is always the truck-lite led headlight. They have one that would fit both the specials and the standards. Although the single light is $200.

[Courtney]

Well I ebay'd and amazon'd until my eyeballs rolled and I couldn't find a correct projector style headlight to do an HID conversion. Am I missing something?? I wanted simple (like me ) but this is looking complicated, not to mention where to hide the hid box etc on a 80 special.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Courtney,

I know you've already ordered your 80/100 watt Halogen bulb, but the search criteria is not CONVERSION, but HID Motorcycle PROJECTOR...and then you'll see like 600 items on eBay. Many are dual bulbs systems for modern bike with dual lights, but they also have single units. ALL of them seem to now have the ANGEL/DEVIL eye accent lighting ring. You would want to the BiXenon which just means that it has the shutter to provide the LOW BEAM cutoff as well as flipped out of the way for high beam. And you would need to get one of those CHEAP Pseudo HID conversion headlight reflectors to mount it INTO so you could then put it into the headlight assembly. I was able to strap/zip tie the ballast on the INSIDE edge of the headlight ear, that way it was in the wind and had cooling affect, and close to the headlight bucket for the short cord. This thread/tip told what SIZE to get, diameter and LENGTH so that it would fit front to back inside the headlight reflector!

But you may be happy with your 100/80 watt bulb, however a NEW crystal clear lens HALOGEN reflector bulb housing might provide more of the HALOGEN light down the road instead of being scattered across the roadside, or even worse if the OEM reflector is rusted or corroded inside.....not shiny like it should be.

T.C.

[Courtney]

Actually I haven't ordered anything yet, so will now do a search for the projector. I went back and re-read the part on projector dimensions as well. It's starting to look like I might just order a 55/100 watt bulb and clear headlight such as the Autopal one.
16.95 and 10 bucks shipping.

[Poprock]

BTDT. Bet you don't like the clear lens. Mine didn't disperse the light well at all. But...it was just what I needed to pop the 2.5" BiXenon projector bulb into. Lens came off with no tools. All back together now. Soon as my bike starts again I'll let you know how I like it. I expect great things.

[Courtney]

BTDT. Bet you don't like the clear lens. Mine didn't disperse the light well at all. But...it was just what I needed to pop the 2.5" BiXenon projector bulb into. Lens came off with no tools. All back together now. Soon as my bike starts again I'll let you know how I like it. I expect great things.

Keep me posted. It'll be interesting to see how your setup compares to TC's.