Philips X-treme Power Headlights - Brightest Yet for the GS?

[galahs]

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/automotive/products/xtremepower.php

Introducing the new world champion in high performance headlamp upgrades. Philips X-treme Power bulbs deliver up to an astounding 80% more light than standard halogens, yet they're DOT legal and come with the same quality and performance we put into the lighting we sell to OEMs around the world. X-treme Power is a new "must-have" for tuners and high performance drivers.

Philips have released a globe in Europe that they claim is the brightest H4 replacement available.

It draws stock wattage 60/55W and is made from Quartz glass to prevent the plastic in the headlight lens from deteriorating from UV rays.

I currently use Philips Vision Plus 50+ and think they are a great upgrade over the stock globes. These are classified as an 80+ so I am tempted to give them a go. I am paranoid about ensuring I have the best visibility I can for night riding so though slightly expensive, what value do you put on your safety. I'd rather see a probelm ahaead 10 meters sooner than later.

Ebay has them for 29 pounds for a set of 2.



Anyone have or use these bulbs atm?

[galahs]

Here's what Auto Express had to say about Xtreme Power:

This is so new, we could not randomly select test samples, so can't include it in our assessment. Yet performance of our pre production unit was staggering. Even compared with the current benchmark Plus per cent bulbs, the difference was immediate and dramatic. Philips claim an 80 per cent improvement over standard units, but we think that this is conservative.

The results have been achieved in the same way as the 30 and 50 per cent lamps-by taking the allowed tolerances right to the edge. This time though as well as reducing the filament and burning it hotter, Philips has shrunk the glass casing.

As a result, the gas pressure can be increased for better light output.Engineers have also optimised the geometry and shield position to focus the light where it is needed.

[galahs]

AutoExpress also gave this product "Accessory of the Year for 2007" so I assume it must be good.

Accessory of the year: Philips X-treme Power

All the electronic safety wizardry on today's cars will not help if you can't see the road ahead – which is why Philips' X-treme Power takes our top accessory prize, as it sets a new benchmark for headlamp bulbs. When we tested it alongside both standard and high-performance bulbs, it put them all, literally, in the shade. Based on the light 75 and 50 metres ahead of the driver, the best beam rating the rest could manage was 107, but the new X-treme hit 146 – a massive difference easily seen on the light-tunnel wall. As with all high-performance bulbs, Philips has taken the tolerances allowed by the regulations and pushed them to the limit, not only burning the filament harder, but also reducing the glass envelope to increase gas pressure and deliver more light. A brilliant road safety improvement.

So I bit the bullet and have ordered a set :correct:

[darb85]

Would these fit an E?

[galahs]

I think all GS's use H4 globes 

[Unnamed]

Awesome, when you get them in give us a writeup please? I hate the high beam with the standard globes, I feel like I can't see the road ten feet ahead of me.

[scottpA_GS]

With the dual buells I can set the high/low in the center and get both 

I can almost see though walls 

[galahs]

On the 2004+ GS, if you have press and hold the "Flash" button you get both lights lighting up (high and low beam) but that's a total of 115 watts through your wiring harness. This may cause some heat related issues.

[stockstang]

I am currently running the sylvania siverstar and love it. But mine is on a E. I would like to see how well these compare. Get some pics up.

[Unnamed]

With the dual buells I can set the high/low in the center and get both 

I can almost see though walls 

By the way, night rider was looking for you.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

On the 2004+ GS, if you have press and hold the "Flash" button you get both lights lighting up (high and low beam) but that's a total of 115 watts through your wiring harness. This may cause some heat related issues.

That's only on eurospec bikes.. here in the good ol US, you don't get a flash button unless you move up to an SV, or Gixxer, etc

[Its Just Me]

I'm not trying to take over this thread, but would these work on a GS?

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/can/automotive/products/motovision.php

And why is the smaller marker light on the front of my F always burnt out???

[Wrecent_Wryder]

On the 2004+ GS, if you have press and hold the "Flash" button you get both lights lighting up (high and low beam) but that's a total of 115 watts through your wiring harness. This may cause some heat related issues.

That's only on eurospec bikes.. here in the good ol US, you don't get a flash button unless you move up to an SV, or Gixxer, etc

Yup. Can't trust us with things like that. Or an "off" switch.

[Wrecent_Wryder]

I am currently running the sylvania siverstar and love it. But mine is on a E. I would like to see how well these compare. Get some pics up.

+1, the SilverStars are a great improvement... but I'll be watching this closely.

[galahs]

Yep those Motovision lights come in H4 so yes they'll work on the GS. They are basically Vision Plus 50's with an orange section in the globe to give the light reflectors an orange look. The Vision Plus 50 actually light the road up further with white light however.


As for these new globes, they sound promising... any idea's on how I can photograph stock, vision 50+ and these X-treme 80+ globes for comparison?

[natedawg120]

park 30-40 feet away from a brick wall, turn the flash of on the camera and take a picture.  When the right distance is chosen you should be able to see the differences in output in the picture using the brick as a reference.

[Chuck]

With the camera set on a fixed shutter speed and aperature setting.

[galahs]

Ok. I'll see what I can do when they arrive. 

[galahs]

Ok, it's raining atm so I can't test the lights but here's a picture comparing the three Philips H4 12V 60/55W globes.

From left to right is X-treme Power 80%, Vision Plus 50% and the stock globe.



As you can see the upgraded bulbs are narrower, which allows more light to be reflected forward. The smaller globe also means higher pressure gas so the lights burn brighter.
The upgraded globes also have a small amount of blue tint on the top edge of the high beam element. When using high beam, this edge of blue light helps to better illuminate road signs and reflectors.

[Berowra]

galahs,

It's stopped raining...  What's your verdict?

BTW, what suburb?