Xenon lights

[Scubalong]

Originally Posted by Swedish biker

OK, I finally switch to xenon lights. Here are some before and after pictures for you all.

Great pictures, I cannot wait to have my put on.

[Nepix]

ill take some also :D ill put them in at your house scubalong...

[MileHighInterceptor]

Originally Posted by Scubalong

$75 that for one (1) set up right? Don't you have to get two since there is 2 low beam and 2 hi beam?

You could buy a secondary kit but on American models it would be H7's for the hi beams. For now, I am just going to find some nice, close to white PIAA's or something and swap them out.

Got the kit in today and installed it. Looks awesome, very nice at night. It does create a fair bit of side glare but overall is very nice. I don't ride a whole lot at night but they look great and will be nice for the times that I do.

If anyone else wants to do this mod feel free to PM me for q's. Oh, and to all those who feel you do, it is NOT necessary to take off the headlight mask an housing to change the bulbs. It can be done by taking off the fairings, corners, and black inner fairings, which gives you plenty of room to work from the side.

[tekrider]

Originally Posted by SLOav8r

I've been running the xenons on the bikes for a while now, (4 bikes and one car total). Each one of them has been more enjoyable to drive at night.

It's true they don't increase the range of the beam, but the light is at FULL intensity at the far reaches of the beam. It is a huge improvement.

If you do much night driving, I'd recommend giving them a try.

I'm planning to get two Xenon bulbs for my VFR. I'm a bit confused as the dealer said each bulb is only $19+ tax. I saw online that the Xenon HID kits for the motorcycle is more than $200. What's the difference here? Are you using just Xenon bulb replacements or the high end expensive Xenon kit? Also what about the Battery Draining issue with these high powered HID kits?

[Nepix]

contact viff here in the forum he gets good deals on this stuff and he could probably get you extra bulbs

[Rustbucket]

Originally Posted by tekrider

I'm planning to get two Xenon bulbs for my VFR. I'm a bit confused as the dealer said each bulb is only $19+ tax. I saw online that the Xenon HID kits for the motorcycle is more than $200. What's the difference here? Are you using just Xenon bulb replacements or the high end expensive Xenon kit? Also what about the Battery Draining issue with these high powered HID kits?

Xenon bulbs like Silverstars or PIAA's are regular halogen like the stock bulbs, they just use a different gas to be able to burn brighter. HID's are a whole differentl lighting system that is significantly more expensive...

The light on a halogen is thrown off by an element that's really hot. HID's make light with an arc of electricity. The difference in the way the light is created is why there can be glare or wierd light patterns when swapping an HID bulb into our stock headlights that were originally designed for halogens.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Eh Viff, Please post or PM me your prices and details on the ones you can get.

[junktionfet]

I have a set of HID H4s in my VFR for the low beam and I love the quantity of light they produce. However, the light isn't as focused as it was with the halogen lamps--and it is because of the aforementioned reflector design.

The horizontal cutoff was fairly sharp with the halogens, but it's blurry with the HIDs. This probably causes a slight increase in glare to oncoming traffic... but no one has flashed me or made a big deal about it. With any luck, it's just enough glare to make me more noticeable. :)

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

I would like to know why most of you have 6,000k lights when the OEM HID's and proven studies show the 4,300K is the best to have for real world use. Ya 6K is a whiter light but it does not work as good as 4,300K. Bling factor= 6K use?

[Fizz]

Originally Posted by Joe Foe from Buffalo

I would like to know why most of you have 6,000k lights when the OEM HID's and proven studies show the 4,300K is the best to have for real world use. Ya 6K is a whiter light but it does not work as good as 4,300K. Bling factor= 6K use?

6k is actually a more blue light with regard to HIDs. A little known fact is that HID resellers sell HID bulbs in temperature brackets, if you order 4k-5k you'll get the same bulb. 6k-8k are the same thing as well.

6k is going to have a slightly blue overtone. It's really hard to even notice when compared side by side with 4.5ks.

The higher you go on the temperature range, 3k-17k+, the less effective (for driving purposes) light output you get. If I remember my numbers right, the difference between 4.5k and 10k is about 22% effective light.

However, if you want to keep a higher range temperature but maintain light output, you can always install a 55watt ballast instead of a 35watt standard ballast; the difference being 40% light no matter what HID bulb you're running.

[tekrider]

Originally Posted by junktionfet

I have a set of HID H4s in my VFR for the low beam and I love the quantity of light they produce. However, the light isn't as focused as it was with the halogen lamps--and it is because of the aforementioned reflector design.

The horizontal cutoff was fairly sharp with the halogens, but it's blurry with the HIDs. This probably causes a slight increase in glare to oncoming traffic... but no one has flashed me or made a big deal about it. With any luck, it's just enough glare to make me more noticeable. :)

I don't give a damn if someone flashes me. The primary reason for having those bright all over the place light so that most retards on the road see me. So many retards merged into me , and I'm tired of not being noticed.
After putting on my headlight modulator it made a big diference (50%). A louder exhaust also madea good differnece(30%). Now with these HID's(19%), the total visibility together will be 99%. Which is what I care. Either way some of these retards purposefully move close to you, especially when you're splitting lanes here in califoria.

[MileHighInterceptor]

I apologize to all who have looked for my promised post of pics of my HID install. (if any)

Two days ago I purchased an H7 6000k kit with slim ballasts to swap out my high beams with. Since the install of the H4 low beam kit I have not used my high beams because they cause my lighting circuitry to make an unplesant buzzing sound as if the whole system is drawing too much current. This likely would not happen with the HID/halogen bulb combination if I were to install higher current tolerance wiring thru the entire lighting system. In an efforet to avoid that, additionally to the desire for an all HID setup, I opted to swap the H7's an go entirely HID. The low beams work great but I would like to have the extended range offered by hi beams.

After doing much research I found that one of the better yet harder to find kits out there is made by Xentech. From what I read, Xentech utilizes Bosch technology in their ballasts; Bosch makes some of the best systems on the market and are used in many of the European manufactured cars. Best of all, Xentech is made in Japan; much better than the Chinese models that have flooded the market.

My first Xentech, the H4, kit that I installed had the normal sized analog ballasts with them. They actually were larger than the analog ballasts that I installed in my car. Far better quality however. The H7 kit that I just ordered happens to be the newer digital slim ballasts. This should help with the installation as the first set of ballasts caused me to get a bit creative in the installation due to their thickness. (When I install the new kit I will include pics of the installation as well as ones from the previous. On the left side of the bike I had to fabricate a small plate and bolt it onto the "spare" bracket that holds the computer on the right side.) There is additonal room to fairly easly fit the second set of ballasts. Being that they are slim will contribute to the ease.

I expect the second set to arrive on Monday; Tuesday at the latest. They will go in as soon as I get them and I'll post pictures shortly thereafter.

If anyone out there has any questions at all pertaining to HID conversion for you VFR, esp. 6th Gen, I will be more than happy to help.

For the future, I am looking into and beginning design on a set of Gen 6 VFR headlights converted to projector lenses. (Doing so will highly increase the beam concentration of the HIDs, focusability, and drastically eliminate the blinding affects to oncoming vehichles cause by HIDs in a stock platform.) If anyone out there has a dumped Gen 6 or access to a set of headlights that they would be willing to let go of (I'll pay for them) that would be awesome. Thanks all! Take care.

[MileHighInterceptor]

Originally Posted by tekrider

I'm planning to get two Xenon bulbs for my VFR. I'm a bit confused as the dealer said each bulb is only $19+ tax. I saw online that the Xenon HID kits for the motorcycle is more than $200. What's the difference here? Are you using just Xenon bulb replacements or the high end expensive Xenon kit? Also what about the Battery Draining issue with these high powered HID kits?

I strongly recommend not using the HID "fake" bulbs in your bike. The likelyhood of buring up your wiring to the lights is quite high.

Halogen bulbs run at 55W. The ballasts for HIDs take 20,000V to ignite the Xenon gas inside HID bulbs, but only require 35W to continuously run. The Xenon gas that manufactures put in the "fake" bulbs is not meant to run off of a filiment as in a halogen bulb. The result is that the "fake" bulbs end up drawing at least 55W and often 60 or 65W.

A lot of the higher end aftermarket HID kits still sell for $200+. (Bosch, Phillips, ect.) There are several other manufacturers out there who make a very good quality product and are quite reasonably priced. Of all the searching that I have done, ebay does seem to have the best deals and the greatest selection. [My] tips for buy a kit are as follows:

1. Look for a Xentech kit. The are about the most prominent manufacturer that I have seen on ebay that is made in Japan.
2. Purchase from a US seller. Pretty self explanitory; you'll get your stuff faster.
3. Make sure your buy the correct kit. If you have a US model VFR (gen 6) you will need H4 (buy the low only; save money) for the low beams and H7 for the hi beams. As far as I know on the European 6th Gens all four lights are H7. (Correct me if I am wrong.)
4. Be sure that you purchase the temperature that you want. The pics that I'll post will be of 6000k diamond white. The rest of the lights are as follows (most sellers have pictures of all the temperatures on their pages.)
3000K amber
4700K yellow
5000K white
6000K diamond white
8000K ice blue
10000K blue
12000K purple (I have seen these just once or twice on
cars; but don't believe they are legal to drive with)