I just finished installing some brand new HID headlights on my GS500f. I gotta say they are really nice and bright and I made sure to get the Bi-xenons so I don't lose high beams and it has a metal shield to prevent glare on low beams. The metal shield needed some modification to fit but no problem just dremeled some notches and bent them in a little. The light pattern is actually more defined than with the original halogens and the larger metal shield actually reduces oncoming glare. I got 50w hid's and man are they plenty bright useful cause I ride at night a lot because of working late and going to school late also.

pics please?

Simulated HID's? or Real with the ballasts and all? Reason I ask is I remember a topic on here a little while back discussing the GS's electrical system, possibly not having enough juice to start the HID bulbs. Beings how true HID's require a higher jolt to start.

Ok I'm gonna put to rest all the myths surrounding HID's. They have ballasts and are not simply colored light bulbs. The ballasts are digitally regulated so unlike filament bulbs current actually goes down when the engine is running since the ballast maintains constant power, therefore higher input voltage=less current. In my case once warmed up they consume 4.5 amps when the engine is running, 5 when off which translated to roughly 60 watts. These are 50w high output HID's. Normal ones are 35 watts. Mine necessitate hard wiring cause they are higher powered but not so high as to present any real risk to draining my battery since running current is about the same. As for startup current, yes it's higher, approximatly 160% running current, in my case it's 8 amps briefly then settles to running current in about 30 seconds. So in a 35 watt system you're looking at about 3 amps running current, about 5 amps starting current. Standard halogens use 60/55 watts, 60 watts which would be about 5 amps means 35 watt hid's present no more risk to your electrical system than regular halogens.

this is awesome. you should post a write-up on it as well as pics...

I'd love to see pictures of this setup. Thanks for the discussion on power usage, that was helpful. I have a question though: when you say hard wired, what do you mean? Did you have to run additional wiring from the battery to handle the load from the HIDs because the stock wiring was not heavy enough? Did you just use relays to keep the standard headlight functionality (goes off with ignition, high beam switch) or does yours now work in some other way?

Hard wire means you have to run power cables to the relay box, I also extended it's ground to the battery since it's pretty short considering it was made for cars, I technically can put a second ballast and bulb since it has two outputs but 16 amps starting current and 100w of hid light would be crazy on a motorcycle. Here's some pics.


This is the spare bulb and ballast I have cause it's a car kit, motorcycle kits are just car kits split in half with longer wiring, yet they charge the same price as car kits  in case any of mine fail I've got spares.


Here's the bulb in the headlight housing, notice the shild is bigger, it required some modding to fit right, you can't see it but there are some notches cut out in the dome allowing me to "shrink" it by bending it in. The light is neat because it has a solenoid and sucks the bulb inward to activate high beam.


Here's how everything mounted up. It's aweful tight in the front. The ballast is the silver foam covered thing, I wanted to isolate it from vibration since that can sometimes make it fail overtime. The relay box is lower right. You can see the boot had to be cut to fit the larger bulb base.

Very cool. Thanks for the pics and info.

damn you, i was gonna be the first to do this. jk. what temp did you get. i like 6000k the best. h4 right?

+1 on hoping we get a full write up 

I got 4300k because it offers the most light. Sorry no write up as it's installed already. It's all very straightforward other than extending the power and grounds all you do is plug everything in. Also modding the light's shield was a bit of a chore.

Very slick idea, qwertydude!  Since it's a custom job and the starting current is high, that would be two good reasons to put a switch in series with it so you can leave the headlamp off until the bike is started.

I miss a headlight switch myself.  Back in the day all my bikes had them.  Good job!

Well it doesn't stay on as the bike is cranked, the original headlight harness still provides the switching for on and off and high beam. So it turns off when cranking.

pics of the headlight beam at night (against a wall) and pics of it head on.

4300K is standard daylight (anywhere between 4300-5000K). Any higher will leave it blue.

I wish the previous round headlights could use HID. Mine I know is glaring at low beam to cars in front and in high beam its very bright.. i am not changing mine.

Very nice, good job!
So can I get dibs on the extra bulb and ballast or what?!

So how does this work without a projector lens like cars have?

Does that bulb cover prevent the beam from spreading high?

What model did you buy and where you get it from.
I have cars that run H4 bulbs as well.
Cool.
Buddha.

seamax, the projectors focus light in a certain way and give a very prominent cutoff. this bulb block the bottom portion of the bulb so that the light doesn't hit the bottom reflectors and bounce up into people's eyes.

Quote from: seamax on March 12, 2009, 09:11:31 AM
So how does this work without a projector lens like cars have?

Does that bulb cover prevent the beam from spreading high?

+1. You're gong to blind people like that. You need to house it in projector casing not a standard

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/lighting-h-i-d-s-neon/136911-do-you-need-get-retro-projectors-do-hids.html

with projectors



without projectors == blinding  (dude where did the old angry face go?)

tussey, read dem posts boy. these bulbs have a part that blocks light from going down out of the bulb. so it all hits the upper reflector part, thus having a cutoff point