New HID's

[qwertydude]

For all you naysayers out there here's actual beamshots of my headlights and a little schooling. Seems on these here internets everyone just keeps repeating what everyone else wrote, very little empirical data gathering and thinking things through. I've thought out how to go about modidng my lights to hid's but without being a big jerk and blinding those around me, I hate those guys as much as everyone else. I also think the GS500 has excellently designed headlights just ripe for modding to hid. Here's the actual bulb and a comparison to a DOT Sylvania Silverstar H4. First a little physics lesson.



Ok as you can see there is a low beam shield on the Silverstar bottom filament, and a much larger shield outside the HID bulb, compare that to the tiny shield inside the Silverstar. If we all step into our wayback machines and return to our physics classroom specifically lessons in optics (I'm sure no one paid attention then because I certainly wouldn't even have to explain any of this if everyone had) you'll remember that the further an object is from a point source light, the sharper a shadow it casts. The big shield is much further than the little internal shield so it will project a sharper cutoff line. Also the bulb sits near the focal point of the big shield, the center of it since it's circular, so any reflected light is reflected back almost perfectly into the light making it even more of an ideal point source light. Thus the reflector is still optimized for projecting a decent cutoff.



This is a shot of the low beam against a wall about 30 feet away, as you can see it has a very well defined cutoff. Just remember though cutoff insn't everything. Cutoff isn't everything it's cracked up to be either, since you're on a bouncy bike if you hit a little bump the visual someone approaching you sees is basically no light to maximum illumination, so that poor guys eyes just got blasted like a camera flash, so a little light leakage up top is not all that bad, there's a very slight amount in mine due to light leakage out of the high beam slot in the shield, plus one other thing about not having any light above the cutoff is you can't see reflective signs at all. It's very annoying in projector beams to not be able to read road signs.



Here it is in high beam, yes it really is that bright.



This is a head on shot at eye level, cameras are very sensitive to glare and as you can see you can still see the outline of the bottom of my bike. In reality it's really no worse than with my Silverstar. I atrribute it to the fact that there is a much better shield design on the HID bulb than the tiny internal shield and painted tip of the regular H4.



Here's an in beam shot at the same exposure as the eye level, this is what the full brunt of the glare would look like in an unfocused beam.

Another thing to add is that this is a high powered 50w hid system so any glare you think you'd see would be automatically cut by a third if you get the 35 watt version which should be plenty bright already. Standard H4 3200k ~1000-1100 lumens, 35w HID 4300k ~3200 lumens (three times brighter), 50w HID 4300k
~5200 lumens! (five times brighter)

And if you want to get it here's the one I ordered. Funny it says it's in Bridgeport but my box says it's from Yu Jing Park Gui Chen, Foshan People's Republic of China.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/50W-H4-8000K-Bi-Xenon-Telescopic-Hi-Lo-Conversion-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ36476QQihZ006QQitemZ160284373767QQtcZphoto

Here's a much less costly 35w kit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H4-4300K-Bi-Xenon-Real-Telescopic-Hi-Lo-Conversion-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ36476QQihZ006QQitemZ160316970611QQtcZphoto

[fred]

Cool. Thanks for the discussion and the photos. They're tempting, but only my project bike uses H4 headlight lamps and it doesn't run yet... Perhaps when I finally get it running right, I'll celebrate with some sweet new HID's...

[dohabee]

 I see that it comes with 2 ballasts and 2 bulbs but 1 wiring harness.

Could 2 people split one of these kits?

[qwertydude]

It's possible if one person clips their wiring harness in half and the other person is willing to live without the relay you could directly wire the ballast and high beam system to the headlight wires. This would mean some creative wiring and you'll be limited to the 35 watt model if you don't want to risk blowing a fuse.

[dohabee]

I think I could buy a relay and use it, as opposed to connecting directly to the headlights. If 2 people split the 35w kit it would almost be cheaper than buying a set of silverstars.

their location says bridgeport, if that is bridgeport texas I will go pick up a set and avoid shipping if they let me.

[tripleb]

will this work in the E model headlight?

[qwertydude]

No, glass faceted lights produces too much glare, take a look at the light's profile on a wall and unless there's a clean cutoff line you'll probably blind oncoming traffic.

[joshr08]

who cares if they are blind as long as i can see....muuuuhhhhahahaha

[utgunslinger13]

Until the blind cager hits you! lol

[The Buddha]

It's possible if one person clips their wiring harness in half and the other person is willing to live without the relay you could directly wire the ballast and high beam system to the headlight wires. This would mean some creative wiring and you'll be limited to the 35 watt model if you don't want to risk blowing a fuse.

I'd like to know what you bought and from where and how much.
I have to slice my wiring harness open. For sure. Its got that section a bit charred and melted.
Cool.
Srinath.

[qwertydude]

The second to last link on my post has exactly what I bought.

[lawman]

Sorry to be the voice of reason, but has anyone considered the heat generated by this type of bulb and the all plastic F front fairing?

[Jenya]

About the old style round headlights:
Is there a way to put a non-faceted glass into a one? Anybody sells such thing?

Jenya

[utgunslinger13]

Anxiously awaiting answers to Jenya's and Lawman's question!

[jrains89]

they produce at or less heat dispersion than regular h4 bulbs.  tons of people put these in non-hid housings, and did you not notice that he has a F? wouldn't you think he'd notice everything melting?

[lawman]

they produce at or less heat dispersion than regular h4 bulbs.  tons of people put these in non-hid housings, and did you not notice that he has a F? wouldn't you think he'd notice everything melting?

Are you SURE of that?  More light, brighter, and less heat?  That doesn't seem, oh, either unlikely or impossible to you?
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-241135.html

Uh... sure... after it had started melting...

[jrains89]

my silverstars put out way more heat than my roommates hid's. you linked to a thread where people argued about the same stuff, the last post even says that heat IS NOT AN ISSUE, with HID's.

If you don't believe it then just ignore all of the people who have these in regular housings, which includes the op.

[Esteban]

Are you SURE of that?  More light, brighter, and less heat?  That doesn't seem, oh, either unlikely or impossible to you?

Watts are a measure of joules (energy) per second.  The critical factor is the amount of energy expended as heat vs. light.  A completely inefficient 10W light bulb would convert all of the energy to radiant heat (melting wires, etc.).  Therefore, if light bulb A is 50% efficient, 50% of the energy would be converted to light and the other 50% would be wasted (usually by heat).  On the other extreme, a completely efficient light bulb will convert all of the energy to light.  So, for light bulb B, which is 80% efficient, 80% of the energy would be converted to light and the other 20% would be wasted.

[platinum_black]

with HID's the K within the rating is the Kelvin rating, now this is where people end up getting confused, yes kelvin is a measurement of temperature but in this case its a measurement of the colour temperature of the light, not the temperature that the bulb reaches, no matter what the rating is be it a 5000k or a 12000k the only difference between the two of these bulbs is the colour of the light not the physical temperature as they will both run at exactly the same tempratures. Basicaly if you look at physics they start to talk about the colour of light that is associated with the black body radiation of an object at that temperature in degrees Kelvin. For reference, the sun is about 6000 Kelvin and can roughly be treated as a black body.

Well, when it comes to temperature (i.e., hotness or coldness), Kelvin temperature = Celsius temperature + 273.15. So 4300K = 4026.85 degrees Celsius, safe to say a 4300K bulb aint burning at 4026.85 degrees Celsius lol. ok geek mode over lol.


But from an H4 to an HID, the HID will run cooler overall.

I hope this makes sense, if not just tell me to shut the hell up lol

[efushi]

wanted some HIDs for a while now, because I too do a lot of night riding, also a little bit of ricer in me     Bought some!