Rubbish head light. New bulb or light? :S

[felix422]

Hey guys, I bought a new bulb for my headlight yesterday. (passed cbt yesterday so new to biking on road. ) Drove back at night yesterday. My lights are sh**. couldnt see very well at all!
Saw a bloke in town today who said i should get a new headlight as mine is quite small (standard light for Hyosung GT 125 Comet)
not happy, so new headlight- whats good?Ive looked at the twin ones like people put on hornets. any good - easy to fit?
Or can I opt for a much brighter bulb????
Will be riding a lot at night so i need this sorted.
ta guys,
Felix
____________________
felix

[The Tot]

Hm, what connectors do you have on your bike? I would assume that it's a H4, but double check. If it's a 65/55W, you can't go far wrong with a philips vision power just to upgrade the bulb. I've used them on my 250 and made a reasonable improvement. I then used the next model up, the Philips Xtreme Powers on my ZX6R before i opted to go whole hog and get a HID XENON kit. Needless to say, the philips vision power make a significant difference. Not to mention, please make sure you clean your lens!
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[felix422]

my bulb is a 35/35W 12V???? :S good? terrible? bad??
____________________
felix

[The Tot]

limits your choice, so that can be why your lights are dim. Nevertheless my 250 had 2x 35/35W lamps and still manged to take the 55/65W bulbs though. You can be at risk at burning out your wires, but its pretty minimal - my bike also had dodgy wiring to boot and still lit the front up! Uprating your bulb will increase the current being supplied through the wires (Power = Voltage x Current) hence since voltage is constant, current will increase. Nevertheless, i'd say go for it. If you start smelling burning from the front, then change the bulbs back - you ought to notice a brighter light - i think they put 35W bulbs because their charging systems/wiring harnesses weren't designed to cope with the 65W? Needless to say, i've done it, and my bike was fine - i won't accept any responsibility if your bike fries though!
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Im-a-Ridah]

They aren't really designed for driving on totally dark roads though (e.g country roads). You could stick higher wattage bulbs in, but to make them totally effective you need to hook up a relay system so they get power direct from the battery. Other than that you could get some driving lights from Halfords and fit them...

[iooi]

I would either look to fit a HID light or a spot light.

If you go the spot light route, fit them with relays so you don't fry the wiring.

Look/search in the workshop section there are a few threads on these.
____________________
Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[The Tot]

Ask me about HID's because i've fitted one onto the bike - if you view my ZX6R resurrection thread in the show and tell, it gives you SOME detail.. HID's run on 35W for the ballasts on continual use so it won't be that bad.
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Noxious89123]

Titz, were the Philips Xtreme Powers much better than the Vision Powers? They are th ones with the "orange" relfection thingy aren't they? (if you know what i mean...)

Not got the £££ for HID's, so was looking at some of these...

Regarding HID's.... How does the setup work onm your bike, for high an low beam? Both HID, or HID for high, and normal bulb for low?

My bike only has 1 bulb, that has 2 filaments, one being low, the other high. How would a HID work in this case? I heard that sometimes they don't work well with the standard reflectors in the headlight? Any wisdom you can empart is much appreciated
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[The Tot]

I got the H4 Hi/Lo bixenon kit which is what you'd need for a dual filament bulb (check that you have H4 fitting first, should look like two parallel spades one a perpendicular spade like this ( | _ | ) - not ideal, but what this allows for is a essentially a telescopic slide on he bulb itself which allows it to extend and retract in relation to the reflector and end cap thereby altering the angle of light. You wire one of the cables into the existing head light unit connector as a signal feed from the pass/dip switch.

I guess that's the trade-off. High beam IS noticeable but since your main beam (low beam) is bright enough already, i don't really bother. You'd need to REALLY twiddle about with your headlight beam alignment after fitting HIDs though! The main task is getting finding a place to hide the ancillaries.

The red tinge bulbs are the moto vision. The X-treme visions are the superbright halogen bulbs (xenon gas) but MUCH better than the cheaper stuff - not as bright or as white as the HIDs mind. I got mine from china btw, it seems that the UK sourced kits are also from china!
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Noxious89123]

I'm pretty sure the CBR is a H7.

Link to where you got yours from?



EDIT: Looks like a H7 is only 1 filament... Must be the dual headlight newer versions that use those then. All my haynes says is;

F-1 / FS-1 = 55w x2
F-X / F-Y = 60w / 55w

EDIT: Nvm, i'm a nub. It's a 3 pronged H4.
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[The Tot]

There's the link for Diane_Shop off ebay. It's a steal, and he's got loads in stock - the one you're looking for is the £12.49 kit - total cost including postage should be 30 quid

It's the same as the stuff sold over here for 60+ quid which is ridiculous. You DO have to bodge the connector that goes into the H4 light socket feed as a signal for the switch. I'll guide you on that phase if you need to. Delivery time is about a week to 10 days which is worth it. MCN ninjas did a bulk order at one point, i missed out on it, 20 chaps got it and were happy with it. The guy is also pretty helpful with the installation - it's pretty much idiot proof.
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[The Tot]

Sorry for nicking your thread Felix... Noxious - i just figured out that you're in leicester! If you need a hand with the installation of your HID's, i'll be back in lufbra in september so you can give me a shout if you need some help...
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Noxious89123]

Nice one titz! Mucho karma to you!
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[moog]

[Noxious89123]

https://pc-link.biz/mtr/lbhid2a.jpg

So how easy is it to wire this all up? Any sort of permanent mods needed to be done to the standard wiring, ie cutting/splicing wires?

What does the "secure mounting bracket" look like? How easy is it to mount the ballast securely? And whast the other smaller black box, with all the cables?

Want to be sure i can be comfortable fitting and using thse before spending any £££.

I had some Oxford HotHands, and the wiring and switchgear for those was so horribly cheap an nasty, (and the grips so uncomfy to use) that i removed them from the bike. (Yay, waste of money!)
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[The Tot]

I've stuffed my ballast under my clock bracket/frame brace and lashed it with cable ties in a cradle and cushioned it with a layer of foam and insulated it with electrical tape.

Wiring it up is pretty easy as the connectors are pretty much universal. The bodge comes from the H4 signal feed. You need to find an appropriate adaptor for the white plastic connector -> H4 lead. What you can do is to is remove the entire thing and crimp 3 wires with spade terminals for your headlights to the end of that and wedge that into where you normally put your headlight (signal feed). All will be explained in due course when you come to install it. In hindsight i wish i videoed my installation, but to be perfectly honest, i installed mine so damn tight that it's a bitch to remove (i had to remove my fairings and clocks to do a decent job on it). Needless to say, it's all a matter of finding the space to fasten the components to. I ran my cabling under the tank, beside the airbox, going through the hole in the frame for the electrical cabling. Depending on your bike, routing the cabling MAY stretch it, so it takes some patience. It's only 30 quid at the end of the day, about the same price as philips Xtreme powers.
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Reevo8]

I was going to do this, after I read up somewhere (cant remember where) about the aftermarket Xenons being illegal due to something with the reflector angles etc in headlight units I purchased a set of Osram cool blue H4 lights, and they are awesome. Best £10 I have spent on my bike!
____________________
05 ZX10R, (**05 WKR)

[The Tot]

Yeah sam you are correct.

https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yVuSSdZNsZw

That video explains why

https://hid.moonfruit.com/

That last link is a more biased view on why HIDs are dangerous - frankly, i found that once i adjusted my beam, it was fine. Nobody flashes at me, my beam is pretty much centred with no cut-off on the right which is why it could be dazzling to other motorists but it's not noticable otherwise the police would have picked up on it ages ago. Funnily enough, i had philips Xtreme powers and more people flashed at me - probably more due to the fact that my headlight bracket was loose. But yeah, have a look at those links to give you an explination about HID's. Think about this though, if THEY were illegal, then why are accumen pursuing the development of HIDs ?! (theirs are 200 quid and probably the same stuff that comes from the ebay china man but with proper cabling)
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Noxious89123]

Just bought a pair of Philip X-treme Power H4 bulbs. (They only come in pairs it seems.) £16.89 all in! Not bad, next best price was £22 before p&p.

They have lots of goo reviews, and apparently make about 80% more light! We'll see Got them from here btw; https://myworld.ebay.co.uk/powerbulbsdirect/

H4 bulbs that i bought
____________________
'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[The Tot]

Bloody ell they're cheap! They were 20 quid when i last bought them. and i still have them in their box pending what i want to do with my HID's.. i'm fine with them as it stands since it causes no distraction to oncoming drivers nor when i'm following other bikers.
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism