Driving Lights?

[salty_monk]

Interesting info - thanks!

[Mysuzyq]

The Silverstars last just as long as any other bulb. Not sure where you got the idea that they only last 1/10 as long. They are definitely great bulbs.

The N. American made Sylvania versions do have a reputation for poor longevity, even when installed in cars. I thought it was due to different quality standards, since I've been running the European Osram item for the past 3 years, with no problems. The Daniel Stern site has a technical reason for it.

[...Wait a Minute, Earlier You Said Silver Star Bulbs Have Blue Glass!

It's a name game: Osram, the well-established German lampmaker, sells a line of automotive bulbs they call "Silver Star". These are Osram's top-of-the-range headlamp bulbs, equivalent to Narva RangePower+50, GE Night Hawk, Philips VisionPlus, and Tungsram Megalight Premium. They produce the maximum legal amount of light while staying within legal power consumption limits. They have colorless clear glass.

Osram bought the well-established American lampmaker Sylvania in the early 1990s, so Osram is now Sylvania's parent company. Sylvania also sells a line of automotive bulbs they call "Silver Star", but it's not the same product. The Sylvania Silver Stars have blue glass. Light output is of legal levels, but as with all blue-filtered bulbs, you do not get more light from them. The Sylvania SilverStar bulbs have a very short lifetime, because the filament is overdriven to get a legal amount of light despite the blue glass.]

[ShortyzKustomz]

On the note of HIDs I have been thinking about that on my bike as well. I am currently running HIDs in all my vehicles, Even in my Silverado I have 6000k HIDs and they are pretty blue compared to most vehicles, but I have yet to be hasseled,or even a second glance, and I have LED parking and turn signals that match the color of my lights as well. I have been through tons of road checks etc. If I were to do them in a bike I would probably got with 5000k, even though I like the looks of the 6 better

I would never spend the money on brighter bulbs again, a dual pack of Silverstar Ultras are $50, and a HID kit for my truck off ebay is $50... hmm which one haha. I've bought 5 kits from the one company off there and have yet to have an issue

Personally I think my 6000ks look a little more blue... But its very hard to get it on camera

[TomE]

So it looks like I need to do a bit of experimentation, but a likely combo would be a 4000 degree 35 watt HID headlight (saves 20 watts) with perhaps a pair of 20 watt halogen driving lights (uses some of that 2 amps, or 24 watts we have to spare with the normal headlight).

I use a pair of 35 watt driving lights with my other bike, a '75 Gold wing, which works nicely, and have found that having one 35 watt light on is still acceptable. From that experience, I am thinking that a pair of 20 watt lights might work OK for the Suzuki. particularly if I also have a halogen headlight.

How does that sound? Or am I all wet?

Thanks

[Steve]

If I were to do them in a bike I would probably got with 5000k, even though I like the looks of the 6 better

I would never spend the money on brighter bulbs again, a dual pack of Silverstar Ultras are $50, and a HID kit for my truck off ebay is $50... hmm which one haha. I've bought 5 kits from the one company off there and have yet to have an issue.

Two things to address there.
1. The 5000K is probably about as high as I would go, I would rather stick to the 3500-4000 range. I learned long time ago that, as far as lighting is concerned, how it looks doesn't really matter. How I can see, however, is critical. As I mentioned in my previous post, all that blue in the light just creates glare inside the eye, making it appear to be brighter, but when you shine that light down the road, you really can't see any better. Since the eye is more responsive to yellow-ish light, why not use more of that? Not going so far as to use the yellow lights that are used for fog lights, but at least use lights that have some yellow to them.

2. No problem getting and using HID kits for four-wheelers. Most of them are made for that specific application and there is room to hide the ballast. On bikes, though, too many guys want to use the "HID look-alike" lights and either go with the very blue bulbs or a cheap HID element that replaces the bulb. But, since the arc in the HID capsule is not in the same location as the stock filament, light output and pattern are adversely affected, reducing the light to near-dangerous levels.

If there is a kit that has a quality HID light in a proper reflector that can be fitted to our bikes, please let us know. I am sure that several here might be interested.

.

[bakalorz]

So it looks like I need to do a bit of experimentation, but a likely combo would be a 4000 degree 35 watt HID headlight (saves 20 watts) with perhaps a pair of 20 watt halogen driving lights (uses some of that 2 amps, or 24 watts we have to spare with the normal headlight).

I use a pair of 35 watt driving lights with my other bike, a '75 Gold wing, which works nicely, and have found that having one 35 watt light on is still acceptable. From that experience, I am thinking that a pair of 20 watt lights might work OK for the Suzuki. particularly if I also have a halogen headlight.

How does that sound? Or am I all wet?

Thanks

Thats not a bad idea, but realize that once you install the HID system, the 20 watt driving lights will probably not provide much additional light for you to see by.
The HIDs are about 3 times as bright as a 55 watt halogen, so equivalent to about a 150 watt headlight, which will swamp the driving lights.
If you need more light "way down the road", I suspect getting a single driving light and putting annother HID bulb in it would work the best
(since the beam pattern will be tighter than a headlight it will probably reach further) Otoh, that might be TOO blinding of other drivers if they get in the beam

Otoh, supposedly it helps other drivers to judge our distance and speed if we have more than 1 light (and if I remember right, the best is to have a "triangle" of lights)
So the 20 watt halogens would help in that sense.
I intend to replace my front turn signals with a pair of 4" round truck LED turn signals to use as running-lights/turn-signals for that purpose.

BTW, I have been shopping for the HIDs and one of the things I found out is that I may have been wrong about some of the terminology in my post above.
I was under the impression that Hi/Low was always the same as Bi-Xenon.
But some of the vendors are calling a bulb that has a HID low beam with a built in Halogen Highbeam (both built into the same bulb) a hi-lo bulb.
But Bi-Xenon always seems to mean a xenon bulb with a solenoid to move the bulb within the housing. (It may theoretically also include two xenon elements in one bulb housing, but I haven't seen any like that)
So be careful if you find a hi-low that doesn't say bi-xenon.