Wanting to change my 79'gs1000 circle light to a square HID

[7981GS]

I believe that 5000K is as white as you can get before they start to turn blue and less bright.

Daniel

[DrImodium]

I mounted it to the frame hidden under the tank with some big zip black zip-ties. A year later and it hasn't given me a problem yet.

Did you just cut off the stock headlight connector from the suzuki harness and splice in a automotive style connector to plug into the HID harness?

No issues at start-up or around town from amp/current draw?

[gearheadE30]

4300 is the typical OEM light temperature, and the OE uses 35 watt systems, for the most part in the automotive world.

Fluted glass reflectors, like the H4's for our bikes, will produce a very dispersed beam even above the cutoff, and it is still enough to be blinding to oncoming traffic. This doesn't happen with a standard halogen bulb becuase the light source is almost a point, whereas an HID bulb uses and arc of electricity at low amperage (relatively) and very high voltagem in effect like a spark plug but on a much larger scale and through a reactive gas. This means that the light hitting the reflector and refracting forwards is no longer where the designers intended, and your cutoff will be very vague and likely not even close to being in the right place. There are some companies out there that sell ellipsoidal and parabolic housings designed for HIDs, but they are a little unusual and not terribly cheap.

Also, DDM has gone downhill recently; their quality has dropped off and they now only sell 3 different light temperature bulbs, with stickers on them to tell the customer what they bought. So really they have 3000k, 6000k, and 10-12000k bulbs. I'd shop elsewhere, like at VVME if they're still around.

Honestly, a good glass-lense metal-reflector H4 from Hella or another reputable company with a european 80 watt or 100 watt Osram bulb will put out all the light you really need, without all the glare and extra wiring.

[Tim Tom]

Did you just cut off the stock headlight connector from the suzuki harness and splice in a automotive style connector to plug into the HID harness?

No issues at start-up or around town from amp/current draw?

I just disconnected it. It's still attached to the harness so if I ever needed, I could undo the HID mod very easily. The HID uses its own little harness complete with ballasts and fuse. Hot part to battery, ground it, and wire in the highbeam switch. It was pretty simple to install.

I've not had a problem with my bike not starting because of current draw from the headlight. Of course my GS is also in reasonable good tune and usually starts first push of the button to begin with.

If you were super concerned about this I suppose you could wire in a headlight kill switch, although I didn't think it was needed.

[850 Combat]

And you are using the original refector and lense?

I just disconnected it. It's still attached to the harness so if I ever needed, I could undo the HID mod very easily. The HID uses its own little harness complete with ballasts and fuse. Hot part to battery, ground it, and wire in the highbeam switch. It was pretty simple to install.

I've not had a problem with my bike not starting because of current draw from the headlight. Of course my GS is also in reasonable good tune and usually starts first push of the button to begin with.

If you were super concerned about this I suppose you could wire in a headlight kill switch, although I didn't think it was needed.

[Tim Tom]

Original to my bike no. Those parts are no longer with us. However the reflector and lens are original, just from a different GS850G.