HID lighting

[Dizzixx]

So after seeing the post 'Track Stories' http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=118398

I noticed that he has what looks to be a gas mask on the front between the forks and that got me thinking....

I would like to install a gas mask where the stock headlight on my 77' 750 is and then put HIDs in the eyes. The problems I foresee are..

Where do I buy the HID lights? And will they be exspensive? (allmost definately right)

Which are the best to use?

I understand they need a ballast so that when you start the headlight you dont fry your electrical, can you buy a seperate ballast that can be used in conjunction with the lights?

Should a inline fuse be used?

etc etc.

Would like anyone and everyones input.

Thanks

 

[ohgoodtimes]

Check on ebay, look for an HID kit that uses your head lights, i.e. Search "HID kit H3" I am not sure what lights you have. Most kits come with two lights, the may or may not be a problem, I am no electrician but I would imagine running one light at a time for long periods could be bad, thus using both lights would be best. The kit are probably around 150 come with ballast wiring kit and bulbs. Note: The Bulbs should out last the bike seeing as there are no fillments. most places offer free replacements but it just depends. They also let you choose you temp, should have a picture example of each temperature but if not it would be easy to find. Depending on what color you prefer ( I like to 10000K which is blue) you can order that specific kit. I hope all this helps. Also take into consideration the porwer draw I am unsure of the bikes ability to maintain it, it may or may not hold up well.

 

[BSinCO13]

The biggest thing to watch for with the HID's is the light cutoff. If you don't get everything adjusted you will blind everyone coming at you. Look for lighting forums as they will have a wealth of knowledge and point you in the right direction for lights. Just be prepared to spend a good chunk of change to do them properly, but they will look awesome. Look on www.HIDplanet(dot)com for some good deals on the materials.

 

[STANDIGGITY]

Check on ebay, look for an HID kit that uses your head lights, i.e. Search "HID kit H3" I am not sure what lights you have. Most kits come with two lights, the may or may not be a problem, I am no electrician but I would imagine running one light at a time for long periods could be bad, thus using both lights would be best. The kit are probably around 150 come with ballast wiring kit and bulbs. Note: The Bulbs should out last the bike seeing as there are no fillments. most places offer free replacements but it just depends. They also let you choose you temp, should have a picture example of each temperature but if not it would be easy to find. Depending on what color you prefer ( I like to 10000K which is blue) you can order that specific kit. I hope all this helps. Also take into consideration the porwer draw I am unsure of the bikes ability to maintain it, it may or may not hold up well.

The 10000K will be super blue and actually be more cosmetic than useful. It is highly recommended on many forums I frequent that you stick with a 6K as your main source of light. it still has a pretty blue tint, but is very bright. Below 5k you start to go back to the yellow look of stock, and 8k and above you actually sacrifice lighting power for the blue/purple look.

Another thing to lookout for when going HID is the fact that everytime you crank your bike, you are igniting the ballast that powers the light. Your light should outlast your ballast, so many people install a Delay on their circuit for HID keeping the bike from turning the light on when you switch the bike on, and going out when you crank, then coming on again afterwards. Let me know if you need more information on the delay and i'll find the post from the other forum.

If you are serious about HID, clicky this linky and get the hookup from my other forum, just tell him the Hayabusa guys sent you.

http://www.hayabusa.org/forum/group-buys/60660-xenonking-hid-kit-sale.html

 

[Loose Seal]

As mentioned...don't go over 6k. That's what I put in my Titan and they're infinitely better than the stock crap it came with. Anything higher on the Kelvin scale is just useless and ugly for driving. 4300k is close to stock and is supposed to give the best output.

The slim ballast HID kits on eBay are going for $150ish shipped, standards are about $100 shipped.

Good tip on the delay circuit. I was going to just put a switch on mine (when I do it this winter) but the delay is something to look into. Whenever I get around to it, I'll throw up some pics and will have the other bulb/ballast for sale.

 

[bwringer]

Webbikeworld.com tried out some HID lighting:
http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/hid-light/motorcycle-hid-light-conversion/

I think the verdict was a resounding "meh."

 

[focus frenzy]

as I think I am the only one here with a HID system on their bike that sort of makes me a expert!

I have a second generation H4 switchable HID that actually can switch between low beam and high beam making it legal (at least in Texas)
most HID systems are one beam only so you are stuck with low, high or someplace in between.

the switchable kind switch between low and high by actually moving the lamp between low and high position.

6000K ultra white is the way to go lots of bright white light.

HID's require a ballast and starter as it is a metal halide arc lamp. it takes allot of juice to get them going. typical they strike the arc with 23000 volts!!! the power of the initial arc blast the Xenon gas and turns it into a plasma greatly reducing the resistance between the anodes allowing the arc to sustain on much lower voltage and amperage.
HID's run on around 80 volts AC. the Lincoln mark 8 was the only vehicle to use a DC HID light system and further research in DC systems have pretty much stopped due to AC systems being much more reliable and longer lasting.

HID's require a control relay and separate power wire as the start up current can exceed 20 amps, while running current is under 3 amps.
this big spike at startup is where problems arise on motorcycles as the combination of the starter motor spinning and the high initial draw of the HID ballast can drop the voltage to the ballast to the safety cut off and the light will shut off.

you have to ether wait 30 seconds to a minute for the HID current draw to drop before cranking the bike, or use a control relay to cut out the light till the bike is running, or like many, just use a separate switch and turn on the light after starting the bike.

I currently have a control relay and for the most part it works, I only occasionally have a failed start on the light.

I am thinking about installing a switch on the side stand to trigger the control relay and turn on the light when I put up the side stand.

the biggest draw back of HID lights is the arc generates light by super heating up gasses and exotic salts and metals, it can take between one and two minutes for a HID light to reach full brightness. newer ones can reach full brightness in around 30-45 seconds, so the drawback is not much.

I chose mine as it places the lamp in the same spots as the regular H4 bulb so the light pattern is pretty much unchanged from stock so low beam still is cut off low enough that it does not blind on coming drivers, yet high beam really lights up way down the road.

gas mask headlight?? well you can get mini projector HID light systems that can do the job.

I paid $120 for mine with the mini digital ballast. I have seen switchable H-4 kits for motorcycles with standard ballast for $70 from a company in Germany, and that included free shipping.

 

[Guest]

Great idea to switch it off of the side stand, Focus! Is it true that HID headlamps actually draw much less than regular H4's while running? I heard the draw was similar to running a 35W headlight, which lead me to think (maybe incorrectly) that it would maybe cause the R/R to get a bit toasty?:-k
I think HID in the big 11E headlight would throw down some serious illumination.....may even be overkill.

Tony.

 

[focus frenzy]

thats a real good question Tony. I don't know for sure, they claim that HID's only draw 35 watts (each) but I have yet to find if that is 35 watts at 12 volts to the ballast, or the lamp draws 35 watts at 80 volts AC that the "bulb" runs on.

I need to test it and see what it draws from the battery.

the R&R gets toasty stock, Suzuki mounted them in the wrong place, they got it right with the katana out in the breeze. and the one on my SV1K is way out in the open so it gets lots of fresh air.

if you are worried about letting the smoke out, you should do the shindengen sh232 R&R mod

 

[Guest]

......if you are worried about letting the smoke out, you should do the shindengen sh232 R&R mod

Lol....probably wouldn't be much smoke. I replaced the stock one with a 300-mile R/R off an '07 CBR 600RR. The actual draw info would be nice to have, though.
Tony.

 

[Busafied]

I use the 5k lamp for more white light. (I don't like the blue ones- personal prefference).

My ballast is on a RELAY, by running the relay ground through a switch, as mentioned to crank the bike w/o the light drawing power.
You can run it through a relay, and use the HIGH BEAM wire to trigger the realy to turn on your HID if you wish.

Measured Draw using 2 True RMS meters, one being my Fluke 36 & it read .2amps, on my Fluke T1000 it read .2 amp draw.
Voltage drop was .2v during startup only, then back to normal.

Leon is correct about the need for the Switching type of Lamp his setup runs for Single Headlight setups.

Mine is legal because I still have the High Beam above on my Busa.

 

[focus frenzy]

ok tested mine and it hit a peak of 5 amps during warmup and tappered off to a steady 2.8 amps at 14.5 volts for a grand total of 40 watts. 15 watts lower than stock. this was on low beam, high beam will draw some more as it uses a small solinoid to pull the lamp back on high beam.

 

[egent]

focus frenzy,

I too need to be able to keep both low and high for safety inspections here in PA. I would like to make this upgrade as well, what make and model kit did you get, and where did you get it?

Thanks,

 

[focus frenzy]

focus frenzy,

I too need to be able to keep both low and high for safety inspections here in PA. I would like to make this upgrade as well, what make and model kit did you get, and where did you get it?

Thanks,

I got mine at A&R motorsports who's shop is a few miles from where I work.
I got the kit made for the Suzuki M109 power cruiser (H-4 bulb) and the up grade digital ballast. (1/3rd the size of regular ballast)

I did find the adapter reflector ring that the lamp goes in and then the assembly goes in the housing was stamped wrong and I had to make some "adjustments" to the reflector so it unshrouded the lamp correctly on high beam. this problem may have been isolated as I have seen a article on the conversion on the SV1000 portal on installing the same kit and its reflector did not have the same problem.

the one I got is a 6000K color but is more like the 4300K as it is very white with the slightest hint of blue.

here is their web site, on the page for the kit I have.
http://www.aandrmotorsport.com/stor...06-2007-boulevard-m109r-custom-h-i-d-kit.html

 

[STANDIGGITY]

They will draw more watts at start up, and once they are completely functional (anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the mode of HID) then they will taper down to their lowest power pull. 40 watts sounds about right. I would def. at least go to a Honda R/R before this mod.

 

[focus frenzy]

They will draw more watts at start up, and once they are completely functional (anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the mode of HID) then they will taper down to their lowest power pull. 40 watts sounds about right. I would def. at least go to a Honda R/R before this mod.

or a late model Suzuki SV R&R, the one on mine is a good 50% larger than the one used on the GS.
the SV1000 charging system is a pretty high output system.

 

[focus frenzy]

ok, just got back from a 700+ mile ride and discovered a problem with the HID headlight I failed to take into account.

they put out much more ultraviolet light than a conventional Halogen light.

bug zapper lights use ultra violet light to draw in the bugs.

I now have a 116hp, 408lb bug magnet!!!!

 

[ohgoodtimes]

I take it you passed inspection? What kind of projector did you use on your bike to focus the light? Also do the light housing need to be modified for the heat?

 

[focus frenzy]

the beauty of this conversion is it uses the stock lamp housing.
the conversion kit uses a adapter that the lamp goes in (twist lock) that aligns the lamp so that the light output is in exactly the same spot as the element is with a standard halogen lamp on both low and high beam. so the stock reflector works perfectly fine and the light put out is focused properly, and has the correct cut off on low beam.

I got the pure white 6000K kit so the color is VERY white so no problem with the color. allot of people like to get the blue ones and those are questionable, and technically illegal but the police generally don't mess with them unless they are done totally wrong and are too blinding, or are way off on color like one of the purple or red colors.

mine is a newer generation and has both low and high beam and the light pattern is well controlled so I have no worries about inspection.

one problem I did have is with the adapter. it also serves to deflect the light for the low beam yet unshrouds the lamp when it pulls back for high beam. stock the opening for the high beam was way to small and the high beam output was very poor.
a fellow SV owner in England had also done the dual mode H-4 conversion and his adapter had a larger opening, so I use the picture of his and logic and modified mine and it works perfectly.

heat was one thing I was a bit worried about as this is a metal halid arc lamp, and my SV reflector is a plastic composite.

well it is a low power arc lamp and it just gets warm to the touch on the lens, actualy I think it doesn't get as warm as a halogen.

I also have a HID 25 million candlepower cordless spotlight and it only gets warm to the touch, it never gets hot.
HID is far better at converting power into light than a halogen lamp and factor in they use less power and you get a cooler light.

 

[ohgoodtimes]

That sounds simple enough! As for the kick stand switch, I am not sure if your bike has this, but mine has the light indicator (something i wish the ex500 had...) if you had that it would be easy to wire in the toggle to turn the lights on and off. If you don't have it I am sure it would be easy to find what I am talking about on a parts list for my bike (83 gs750e)