Xenon lights

Anyone who have any experience of xenon lights for motorcycle?

I'm thinking of fitting xenon lights to my VFR800 from 2003.

There are a lot of differend brands on the market. Anyone who can suggest any good brands?

I have heard of Xentec, Vision X, Techone, Cebt, cobra, Luxus and Pilot.

Anyone heard anything good or bad about them?

 

I've only seen a discussion on the bmw site comparing stock to aftermarket when I was trying to decide if two Hondas VFR's or one BMW K1200GT made sense for the same amount of money...(I decided the blue & white logo was not *that* nice right now). I'd be interested to read what you find/experience if you make the switch. - Paul

 

I was looking into HID Xenon with 8000K bulbs. It was like $240 per bulb/ballast set. Thats 500 bucks JUST for the low beams and another 500 for the high beams!
I almost immediately decided two things:
#1. I dont need $1000 in headlights
#2. Im never going to be able to find ROOM for all of those ballasts.

the place I was looking at was some chinese dealer, like HIDoutlet.ca or something.
If there is a better way, im all ears, cause I want HID, I just dont want to sell the house to get it.

 

There are a lot of xenon kits on ebay for very good prices. The brand they use differs a lot. Don't know the difference betweeen them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H1-H...tegoryZ36476QQihZ007QQitemZ170117820058QQrdZ1

I have heard of a couple of people that have made the conversion. They paid around $150-$200 for xenon kits for the low beams.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28450&hl=xenon

 

what type of H4?

I'm owner of VFR 6G year 2003.

What type of H4 conversion kit do i need? As far as i know, there exists three types. H4 Single (only low beam is functioning), H4 Hi/Low (Low beam is Xenon, Hi beam is halogen) and finally H4 BiXenon. If my thought is correct, the VFR is using only low beams from the H4, so i don't need to buy fully functional H4 lo/hi, but only H4 Single?

What type of bulb is used for hi beams? H1 or H7?

 

I have a Honda VFR800 from 2003. I got H7 bulbs on both low beam and high beam. All togethor 4 H7 bulbs. But I got a european VFR. Don't know if it differs from yours.

 

Dual H7 setup, $199. I have installed these units in 4 bikes and 1 car with no problems. Only install them in your low beams. They do take a few seconds to get to full intensity so they're not practical in the highs. Go for the 6000K temperature and put some PIAA Plasma Ion's in your high beams, an amazing combination at night.

Nice kits because the ballast/starter is in one unit. I found the best place to mount them is with double sided velcro in the side fairings on the 5th gen, should work the same on the 6th.



LINK! http://www.xenonrider.com/products/h7_xenon_hid_kits.shtml

 

I've never had any experience w/them on a bike, but I have had some really bad experiences with them on cars. So have some of my friends. In fact a buddy of mine put some on a newer Monte Carlo and they drew so much current that they melted all the factory wiring. I would use them with caution and keep a very close eye on the wiring for awhile.

 

I have them on my cars, and they work great, although on both my cars they are original installs not aftermarket.
But something is seriously wrong with the installs or the exact product you and your friends are using, they should not draw more power, they should draw less. Significantly so.
Sure you aren't talking about the "HID" bulbs you see all the time, that are not actually HID lights? But instead are usually just more powerful regular bulbs. They can fry wiring by trying to draw more current than the wiring was designed/built to handle. Or sometimes by putting out so much heat.

 

My worry would be blinding oncoming cars if they are slightly out of alignment...I know that when a car approachs me with Xenon bulbs, they are far far brighter and more intense. The risk being the car steers towards your side of the road. Anyway the lights on my VFR are pretty good cmpared with other bikes I have had. But I do not know if the European spec is different.

 

H7 kit

I also have an EU model.

I'm waiting for my kit now. I looked at the beams today (i never changed any bulbs on my VFR before). My VFR has such "adaptor" between the H7 bulb and the connector. It seems it helps better fix the bulb and better seal the area with help of the rubber. I'm curious how does it fit with the HID bulb, where cables are part of the bulb and there is no possibility to attach this "adaptor" between.

regards,
mk

 

just last info.

i installed the stuff. i lost one 20A fuse. i switched to hi beam (H7) on idle, my old battery could not last it. xenons switched off because of low voltage and tryed to switch on again, but this (hi beams and xenon starting sequence) was a little bit more than 20A fuse could last.

on idle, there is not enought voltage to hold xenon + high beam (voltage below 13V on battery), but with rpm above 2000 is it above 14V again. i didn't measure the voltage with original configuration 4x H7, but if xenon has lower input power when warmed up than H7, then stock VFR could not run full beams from alternator power on idle either?

could someone measure the voltage with full beams (4x H7) on battery on idle? i don't have the bulbs anymore.

mk

 

For the VFR low beams you just need H4 single. The bulbs that came on my 2007 VFR are H4 Hi/Low, which means they can switch intensity like you said when Hi-beams are turned on, but they dont on the VFR. My buddy who has an Accord has the EXACT same bulbs, and they switch intensity. Honda must have just not bothered making the lows switch intensity when the highs turn on. Maybe it drew too much current.
So as far as I can tell for a full HID Xenon ride you need 4 ballasts (one for each bulb) 2x H4 single for the low beams and 2x H7 single for the high beams. Which means you have to find a place for all of those ballasts....
and yes, EBAY has some killer deals on these, like 90 bucks per light.

 

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

 

Hmmmmm.

That's a good set of before and after pictures. I like the whiter light making better color differentiation, but I can't say they seem brighter or project better.
Unless I saw the difference in person, and found it more appealing, I couldn't justify the $$.

 

It cost me $185. They don't project longer, but they are MUCH brighter than the stock halogen lights. And I like the look.

 

you can not see the real intensity and effect from the photos. of course the projection is the same, but because the light has much more intensity, the same range (and especially outer segment) is brighter and therefore you can see more to the sides and more ahead.

it's funny, because if you turn on hi beams (halogen), you can see it only on the change of the colouring and not on the range.

mk

 

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.

 

Mr. Swedish

The lights look great! No matter what standard hi beam you put in, you're going to feel that they're very dingy looking... I swapped mine over to PIAA Plasma Ion (yellows). They're not super squiddy yellow at all, but yellow enough that they don't look out of place next to the HID's.

At night, they light up the roadway like you can't believe.

 

money is different to defferent people, but you could also argue that this mod is also a safety thing if you ride in the dark a lot

what I mean is that by making the light, brighter and whiter, and more akin to natural sunlight, two things happen
1) you eyes do not have to work as hard, this means they will not feel as strained as early, it also means you will feel less fatigued over all on longer trips
2) it allows you to more quickly and accurately identify hazards, is that dark spot up ahead just a change in the pavement, or is it an oil spill? The quicker you know the better. Is that a minor pothole up ahead, or is it spilled sand?

I am still thinking about it, even though I rarely ride in the dark on unfamiliar roads any more.