H4 headlight conversion tread

[GS650E_81]

I think I am gong to pick up one of these from Ebay...

How hard was it to mount? Did it fit into the factory head lamp bracket?

[Steve]

Back in the day, it was common UJM practice to replace the stock sealed beam with a European H4 halogen unit. At the time (the Carter administration), such innovation was expressly prohibited by the NHTSA of Joan Claybrook and Clarence Ditlow (both of whom are still around and still vocal), which was wedded to the 1940s sealed beam design. This was the 5 mph bumper and seatbelt interlock era.

Yes, I remember those days. Actually, motorcycles had an exemption from the sealed beam law.

I liked my H4 light so much that, when I traded my first GS for a bike with a rectangular headlamp, I kept the light, bought another one and used them both in my Golf GTI.

I did the same thing.
Had an H4 light in my KZ650. When I traded that bike for the KZ1300, I put the stock light back in, got another Cibie light to match the first one and installed both of them in my Corolla.

Cibie got around the sealed beam restriction with the introduction of their BOBI light, which still used an H4 bulb, but had a sealed reflector which satisfied the (antiquated) law. I got a set of them for my truck, but they weren't as good as the originals. They also changed the beam pattern to satisfy DOT standards. I prefer the E-Code lights that are available today, and have a Hella light in my 850.

If interested, you can see details on the BOBI construction on page 6 of THIS DOCUMENT.


Hitman, the conversion looks great, hopefully you can see as well. Those blue bulbs are notorious for not putting out enough light. Although the ad mentions the letters HID, those are NOT HID bulbs.

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