Has anyone installed a TRUE HID light kit on their bike?

[Anonymous]

I dont understand why a relay. The stock headlight switch and wiring supports a standard 55/60 watt Halogen H4 bulb.

Yes, the stock switch will carry the current for an H4 bulb, but at significant voltage drops. You won't realize how bad it is until you run a straight wire, then see the improvment. Even late 90's bikes are pretty poor in this area. I seldom ride at night, so I have not been too motivated to try it out on my ZX-9 yet. In time, maybe...

Mark

[earlfor]

I havent seen any research reports. When I made the conversion from a standard halogen to the xenon silverstar, I compared the specs for the two that were on the box. :-) I see a big improvement with the silverstar.
I just checked my spare silverstar bulb box and I was wrong about the power consumption. It produces 910/1500 lumens low/high beam and consumes 65/72 watts. I dont have the specs for the prior H4 bulb.

Earl

Earl,

Have you seen any research reports to support the claim that the SS bulbs produce the equivilent luminosity of a 100 watt bulb? I'd be interested to see it, if its based in fact I may consider one myself.

[Mr. Jiggles]

Earl - I think that if the mission is to improve ehadlight brightness then in addition to upgrading the lamp itself it's probably also a good idea to improve the flow of current to the lamp. When I did thelamp upgrade I did the relay install at the same time. I was surprised to see how much "junk" that had accumulated inside of the wires supplying current to the lamp. I'm assuming that there was drop in current flow relative to when it was shiny and new but haven't measured it. From Don's description that was the case for him. The relay install isn't hard to do and IMO worth installing, with the downside being a loss of space in the headlight bucket.

On the other hand if someone is contemplating doing the H4 upgrade but can't do the relay install I say just go for the lamp upgrade.

Jeff

[Detman101]

By comparison, if you upgrade your bike to an H-4 system and then further upgrade the bulb to a Sylvania Silverstar, you'll see a "close to HID" result that is (pardon the pun) light years better than what you started with! ...did this on my 1100G (at Joe Nardy's suggestion -- thanks Joe!) and it's like riding a different bike at night!

Hope this helps,
Steve 8)

I've also done this and the difference is like having three stock headlights inside your one new sylvania silverstar headlight. It's that bright!

Dm of mD

[Detman101]

Earl - I think that if the mission is to improve ehadlight brightness then in addition to upgrading the lamp itself it's probably also a good idea to improve the flow of current to the lamp. When I did thelamp upgrade I did the relay install at the same time. I was surprised to see how much "junk" that had accumulated inside of the wires supplying current to the lamp. I'm assuming that there was drop in current flow relative to when it was shiny and new but haven't measured it. From Don's description that was the case for him. The relay install isn't hard to do and IMO worth installing, with the downside being a loss of space in the headlight bucket.

On the other hand if someone is contemplating doing the H4 upgrade but can't do the relay install I say just go for the lamp upgrade.

Jeff

Can you help us out with a wiring diagram for the relay install?
I have no clue on how to run a relay and I just installed mine straight into the stock wiring harness. If I can get mor light out of it by running it straight off the power with a relay I want to do that.

Tthanks in advance.
Dm of mD

[Nerobro]

has anyone tried to measure the voltage drop across the headlight swtich? :-) My money is that the number will suprize you. Relays can do a lot of good.

[Planecrazy]

Earl - I think that if the mission is to improve ehadlight brightness then in addition to upgrading the lamp itself it's probably also a good idea to improve the flow of current to the lamp. When I did thelamp upgrade I did the relay install at the same time. I was surprised to see how much "junk" that had accumulated inside of the wires supplying current to the lamp. I'm assuming that there was drop in current flow relative to when it was shiny and new but haven't measured it. From Don's description that was the case for him. The relay install isn't hard to do and IMO worth installing, with the downside being a loss of space in the headlight bucket.

On the other hand if someone is contemplating doing the H4 upgrade but can't do the relay install I say just go for the lamp upgrade.

Jeff

Jeff,

I haven't noticed any problems associated with the change to H-4 Silverstar on my 1100G and there certainly isn't a brightness problem, but assuming the relay upgrade is a worthwhile endeavor why even bother squeezing it in the headlamp bucket?

My solution would be to mount it back near the fuse box and then run a nice juicy dedicated power lead to the bulb. Obviously you'd need to extend the original trigger for the high/low beam back to the relay, but the advantage is you don't fight with the space constraint, and you could use a less expensive larger (and more capable) relay to supply the juice.

I'm planning to upgrade my starter circuit with a relay -- maybe I'll do them both at the same time, but honestly I see little need for it at this time. My Silverstar lights up the entire block just as it is.

Regards,
Steve 8)

[Nerobro]

Well my charging system isn't up to par yet.. but I'd really like to do something about this sealed beam headlight!

So I've seen refrences to headlight buckets that allow just the replacement of the bulb... Where can I get a headlight bucket like that?

Hmm... time to hunt down a relay ;-)

[Mr. Jiggles]

My reason for shoving it into the bucket was that I wanted to run as few wires back to the fusebox area as possible. I reasoned that as long as there was space that I'd locate the relay there. I don't have any regrets about running the relay especially after seeing what the inside of the wires looked like. I could have measured the continuity across the circuit but didn't think to since I had already made the decision to go with the relay. I guess one way to determine if you'd benefit from a relay is to measure brightness with the original circuit and then with the lamp wired directly to the battery.

As far as schematics go, do a search here - you should turn up a post that lists a link to a page that describes the process in detail.

Jeff

Earl - I think that if the mission is to improve ehadlight brightness then in addition to upgrading the lamp itself it's probably also a good idea to improve the flow of current to the lamp. When I did thelamp upgrade I did the relay install at the same time. I was surprised to see how much "junk" that had accumulated inside of the wires supplying current to the lamp. I'm assuming that there was drop in current flow relative to when it was shiny and new but haven't measured it. From Don's description that was the case for him. The relay install isn't hard to do and IMO worth installing, with the downside being a loss of space in the headlight bucket.

On the other hand if someone is contemplating doing the H4 upgrade but can't do the relay install I say just go for the lamp upgrade.

Jeff

Jeff,

I haven't noticed any problems associated with the change to H-4 Silverstar on my 1100G and there certainly isn't a brightness problem, but assuming the relay upgrade is a worthwhile endeavor why even bother squeezing it in the headlamp bucket?

My solution would be to mount it back near the fuse box and then run a nice juicy dedicated power lead to the bulb. Obviously you'd need to extend the original trigger for the high/low beam back to the relay, but the advantage is you don't fight with the space constraint, and you could use a less expensive larger (and more capable) relay to supply the juice.

I'm planning to upgrade my starter circuit with a relay -- maybe I'll do them both at the same time, but honestly I see little need for it at this time. My Silverstar lights up the entire block just as it is.

Regards,
Steve 8)

[Nerobro]

http://www.autooptiks.com/relay.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/howto/4417/ For some nice details.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ A guy who explains why you should do it, again with good details.

That should be enough to point you on your way

[saaz]

I have used relays to power most of my circuits for years (including the main power through the ignition switch). The benefit is reduced voltage loss in the system by the time it gets to the power using source.

[Nerobro]

Where can I purchase one of the H4 headlights?

[Detman101]

Autozone, Pep Boys...stores like that.

Dm of mD