hey

i just put hid bulbs in my car and they are most excellent, how do they do in a bike headlight are they worth getting?

anyone got some?

cheers

 

To do it right you want to put a projector in there.. it can be done, I helped some with this project of yruyur's: https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=17639

Just slapping a HID bulb into the housing will work, but you will lose the high beam.

 

I thought aftermarket HID swaps were highly illegal in Europe? Pattern cut off and such...

 

HID kit's are highly illegal... In the EU as well as in the US...

A projector retrofit with a CE marked projector is however completely legal...

 

illegal, yes, so is a lot of the **** we do! pipes, sig lights, speeding, etc...

the hids in my rc51 were fine with the stock reflectors. they certainly light things up.

 

HID kits are not what id call "highly illegal" in Ireland but they are illegal, they wont pass the MOT (yearly inspection) but many people run them illegally and just take them out for that. Put it this way they cops wouldnt pull you over for it, although they might mention it if they pulled you over for something else like speeding... Other countries like germany and sweden etc would be a lot stricter but in ireland its not as big a deal you can get away with it alright, and a lot of other stuff lol

To run them fully technically legally in your car here you need, projector lenses, headlight washers and self levelling headlights. Thats for a car anyway, im sure the washers and self levelling doesnt apply to bikes.

FYI when i put them in my car, my car has factory projector lenses i wouldnt put them into a car without projectors cos they blind other road users and stuff cos as said above theres no beam cut off. I hate it when they come the other way fitted to normal headlights and blind me... And i dont take mine out for mot as the beam cut off is perfect, sure i dont have headlight washers or self levelling but those are stupid rules anyway and the MOT centre dont care about that.

BUT in my bike i kinda dont mind the thought of the beam scatter so much cos i want my bike to catch peoples eye as much as possible, i want it to be obvious that im there, yknow?

I have heard of shield things you can get for the HID bulb to sort the beam pattern out?

@ Lazn, you can get high-low HID kits!! Although a hid bulb just on low beam would be brighter than the oem high beam anyway lol

 

Forde, the same rules apply in Ireland and Sweden for the self leveling and washer stuff... And it works the same on inspection... And it's also legal to put a CE marked projector into a bike in Ireland... As long as it's aimable with stock adjusters...

And yes, people use HID bulbs in stock reflectors, and it pisses me of when they blind me... Doeasn't matter if it's a bike or a car... You get noticed plenty with a non blinding projector...

Do stuff right, or don't do them at all... Please? For all of us...

 

hmm yeah

i have brighter bulbs in the bike but im just in two minds after getting the hids for the car.

i dont want to be blinding people, when i think about how much i hate it when retro fitted hids blind me i dont want to do it.... but at the same time HIDs are so much brighter and better

most bikers ride with their full beam on all the time around here to make sure they get seen, and that blinds everyone anyway.... whats the difference in that and having a HID? although to be fair i dont ride with my high beam on lol

the more i think about the downside the more i dont want to do it, but part of me still wants hid lighting on my bike. might have to look into fitting a projector like on my car

was it you who put a projector into your bikes light? how did you go about it? im not sure if i could do it, are they hard to fit and get in the right place?

 

I have a HID projector... There are others as well... And it's brighter than any HID in a stock reflector will ever be... Plus it's getting noticed, a lot more and a lot more positive than a bike with either highbeam or blinding HID's will... I have had a mate ride my bike and I came as oncoming trafic, and I can tell you you are seen, without any blinding...

As for the difficulty... Not too hard... Split the headlight (heat the silicone) and fit the projector to the stock reflector, cutting off plastic to make it fit... that way you can still aim it as stock... Unless you choose a really big projector there is room to seal everything up as stock... Then you only need to deal with placing the ballast somewhere and wiring it up...

https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...earchid=524306 Here is a lot of info in the retrofit threads from different people...

 

righto then so basically enlarge the hole in the stock reflector so you can i guess glue the projector unit into it?

any tips on what projector units are best to use? i see mercedes mentioned a few times

i read a few threads there and noticed a lot of messing around with wiring, why not just use a plug and play HID retrofit kit like i bought to put in my car??

 

do you still have high and low beam? if so, is it done by using a high-low bulb that has a solenoid on it that moves? like when you buy a retrofit high-low hid kit?

most cars that have projector lights have seperate bulbs for high and low dont they?

 

Well you can easily bolt the projector to the stock reflector, the plastic is easy to work with... Cut it or drill it, it won't crack... Gluing might work but vibrations might loosen things and that's not fun to fix once you have sealed stuff up again...

Because even if you just change out the stock bulb for a more highpowered H4 bulb (Not HID) the stock wiring is substandard... With a 100W+ bulb you might overheat and fuse the handlebar switch... With a HID in there regardless of the projector or not, it's more a matter of time before it happens... They draw a lot of power on power up... Can most easily melt wiring...

If you want to have good lighting, HID or otherwise, they key is having a line of good thick wire from the battery supplying the power, not the stock shoelaces... They operate a relay instead...

You really should do that with a drop in HID bulb kit as well... But nobody ever does...

 

i was just reading your post in another thread about relays for lights, i have heard about people doing this before especially on older cars etc

i would like to fit a relay as soon as possible if it will even make my h4 bulb brighter thats in there now

can you buy a relay kit? or do you need to make up your own relay circuit?

i dont fully understand how it works or how to do it. i wouldnt need time delay or anything, just a normal relay.

 

With a projector you can have hi/lo... but no it's not a solenoid on the bulb... The reason that a bulb kit is a bad thing is that the light source is not in the same place in the reflector as the stock H4 bulb... It's get even worse once you use a drop in bulb using hi/lo...

On a projector the bulb sits in the absolute focal point of the lense... And that's the reason it gives a lot more light than anything a drop in bulb can give... Then a shield is dropped inside the lense to give you lowbeam (or permanently mounted in a lowbeam only projector) and that operates with a solenoid... Same principle...

The difference is hovewer that with a shield the light gets blocked absolutely... No stray light... with a bulb with moving parts close to the light there is always stray light bouncing of the large open stock reflector and going of in the wrong direction... Hence the blinding...

 

i see, so if i want to get hid's with a high and low beam i will need to get a projector from a car that has that solenoid-operated shield inside the projector housing? then i will somehow need to wire that up so it works? :s

sounds like a lot of hassle, i might just relay the light with an uprated bulb and leave it at that..

 

The most recommended place to buy relay kits from is:
http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Pr...s/h4_kits.html

 

depends where you are, some places will even consider a retrofit illegal. if it didnt come with it from factory its not legal to have. but some places are weird and they have to catch you to ticket you lol

 

thanks for all replies

tweety, thanks for all the great answers

lazn, thanks for the link very helpful

 

Well Since the CE marking is aimed at the EU union, inside it's borders the above apply...