HeadLight bulbs burn out after 6 months...

My '97 head light bulbs keep burning out after about 6 months or 6-8 thousand miles. I've converted to H4's after the original bulbs went belly up, but that didn't seem to do anything (didn't think it would to be honest...just wanted brighter lights). Anyway, They don't burn out at the same time, but I'm tired of replacing one bulb, then in another few months replacing the other....rinse repeat. My seals around the connection look good, and the rubber is not cracked or brittle.

My gauges don't flicker, so I don't think it's a R/R problem.

Any Ideas out in VFR land? I know the 5th gens had a recall, but I don't believe their problem is similar to mine.

 

When I first bought mine in 06 I seemed to be going through a set a year on the low beam end. But I haven't replaced them in a few years now. I suspect that Honda uses a poor quality bulb on their bikes when they initially put them together. Not unlike what the Automobile industry does with tires on cars and trucks. Spend a few bucks and get the higher end bulbs. Better yet, order up some Nova HID's. They come with a life time warranty on them. I just replaced one on warranty yesterday and had no problems with them honoring their warranty what so ever.

 

Possible problem:
Many people think that the initial start-up dumps a ton of power to my lights. Basically it goes from 0 rpm's (when the bike is off) to 2500 rpm's (full choke at start-up). This dramatic increase in rpm's, coupled with a primitive and weak electrical system, might be frying my bulbs.

Possible Solution:
keep the lights off until the bike is warm! How, you ask?

Two ways of doing this:
the right way:
remove the low beam spade connections from the headlight bulb connector and run them through a separate loop leading to a switch. Once the bike is warm and idle is more constant, then flip the switch and turn the headlights on.

the cheap way:
remove the high beam spade connection and use my hi / low switch as my on/off switch for my headlights. Start out with the hi beams on (lights off) until the bike is warm, then switch the low beam on (this will turn the lights on).

goal: Hopefully this will eliminate the immediate large power dump to the bulbs and hopefully the bulbs will last longer.

drawback: no more hi-beams (I don't use them anyway since I upgraded to H-4's)