Headlights and bulbs

[Feasty]

I upgraded my main and full beam bulb for these a few days ago and it made a massive difference - the light is definitely so much brighter.
I always put it off before thinking it was just a gimmick, it does make a big difference though.

Unfortunately, in the process the dipped light bulb went so I'll have to replace that too now!
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Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[Stelmer]

I'd be weary of them bulbs as they tend to be cheap and burn out quite quick.

These are voted best, beating Osram Nightbreakers in a test. I use them in my bike and in the work van. The difference is astounding.

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

They don't do the Philips X-treme in H3
The headlight on the ST2 is woeful. I'll be going the HID route.


Pat
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[Louise]

I brought some and has made a difference.. However, we had to stop on the motorway due to my new bulb blinding the rider in front - yet it was at the correct level. Ive had to lower it some more

[DrDonnyBrago]

[locked]

I bought something similiar the other week from ebay in ice white. It made such a difference comapred to my stock bulb. So much brighter.
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[Kickstart]

[ollieholt]

shame they dont do h4/h1 pack, you can only buy in pairs and i need the two different bulbs or i would go for the philips they tend to win every test

i canget ring xenon + from general traffic (local motor factors) at 6.50 each. are these any good?
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< This? Well this is just a day brightner.

[MarkJ]

[ollieholt]

good idea! anyone need a h1 and a h4 bulb and fancy an upgrade???
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< This? Well this is just a day brightner.

[The Tot]

I had HIDs but I've gone off them now. If you can't find a GOOD place to mount the ballast which is also waterproof, then you're a bit screwed. My HID's drew too much current starting up. When the engine isn't turning it the ballast would fail to ignite. At the end of it, my charging system is buggered.

Anyway, I've ordered a set of Osram Night Racers which are the 90%+ bulbs. I had philips Xtreme visions before and was satisfied with their performance from a filament bulb. Not a patch on HIDs though. I miss mine and I wish I could put it back on the bike if it weren't for the poor honda electrics. Was fine on my old kwak though.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[DMan]

Ride Mag did a review this year:

1st: Phillips X-Treme Power £22.25 (pair) www.powerbulbs.com
Bright white with a very even spread of light and crisp cut-off. Headlight appears white.

2nd: Phillips XP Moto £12.99 (single) www.bikebulbs.com
Same bulb as the X-Treme Power but sold singly for bikes but twin-pack is better value.

3rd: Osram Night Racer £25.99 (pair) www.bikebulbs.com
Bright white light, brightest where it counts but less bright in foreground.
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[0l0dom0l0]

Funily enough the pound shop do some hid bulbs, for guess how much? A pound! I haven't tried them but they looked decent enough and for a quid might be worth a go. They also did the standard ones too.

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Pretty sure you would need more than just the bulb for a proper HID system.
Well that's what i'm getting. HID 5000k bulbs with slimline ballasts (whatever they are) and brackets n wiring.

Hopefully the 5000k won't look too 'Audi' if you know what i mean.

Last night was bad. My 30yr old bike gives out a better beam
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[The Tot]

Right, just to clarify

you have Xenon look - which basically puts a xenon gas into an otherwise standard filament bulb - these are your cheapo xenon look bulbs which do NOTHING whatosever, infact they reduce the light output because to achieve the look in order to get a 4000K temperature, they use filters on the bulbs which as the name suggests filter out the <4000K wavelenths of light i.e. your warm yellows etc.

Secondly and what Howling Terror was eluding to is the HID ballast kits. Please DO NOT confuse these with the £5 chavvy stuff. These are what comes out of the factory on mid-high end cars. They are offered as a "non-road legal" afterfit - the reason I say non-road legal despite all the bumf they give you is that unless you have projector style lenses in your headlight, HIDs will spread the beam everywhere depending on your reflector design. The ballast basically ionises the gas with its high voltage to produce the light. I won't go into the physics of it because I'm a bit hung over.

But I use them anyway since the light output is STUPIDLY increased which is perfect for the winter. Think of it as " you see a rabbit startled by your headlights... with HID's you can expect to see through the rabbit like an XRAY!" well not exactly but the intensity of the light is in a different order of magnitude to filament bulbs.

Interestingly, I've switched back to filament bulbs because I suspected that the HID ballasts were putting too much load through my charging system when I start the bike up.

I've had Philips Xtreme Vision and were VERY happy with their performance. With HID's your left in the hands of your own installation work and the quality of the components. If you don't insulate properly and mount the ballast in a place that's not susceptible to vibration, then you're buggered! In my case expect bulbs cutting out OR terminal ends which are corroded.

I've got some H7 Osram Night Racers ready to go into the bike. I've got pretty decent reflector so I'll be able to see the comparison with my old 4000K HID kit (which I suspected was 6000K because the bulb was a lot bluer than what I expected as being daylight white). Again with HIDs, the higher the colour temperature, the less lumens you're putting out on the road.

To sum up, lighting can only be as good as your 3 constituent components

1) condition of your lens
2) reflector design
3) Bulb design

Get any of them wrong and you're struggling.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Nice 1 Tot
I had a butchers at the ST2 forum. The HID upgrade is de rigueur.

I've gone for the paint peeling system Low & High beam. Hopefully the 5000k won't piss off a) other road users and b) MOT Man. Actually i don't give a stuff. I ride alot of B roads..... i demand LIGHT

[edit] you mentioned it put strain on starting. An improvement whether you use HID or not is to fit thicker starter cables and earth strap.
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[The Tot]

I don't know about thicker cables or what not. I just think that any honda charging system gets knackered by anything that isn't factory fitted. I would think that the wiring loom for the lighting circuit could dow with thicker gauge. Electrics isn't my forte which is why the blade is in the garage , but the current for the igniter/ballast probably overwhelms your standard gauge wiring to the headlight loom.. almost similar to putting 100W bulbs. But once the igniters are fired up, it draws a steady 35W. It just doesn't like the initial boost of current. Hence why without the engine on, everytime I try to flick onto main beam from my sidelights you hear the ballast want to fire up (whirring noise) only to leave you with nothing. Once the engine's started, the ballast fires up everytime. It's pretty much to do with ballast design as well as wiring. But towards recent months I found myself with my headlights suddenly off!

As much as I love the visibility and security HID's give you, my lesson was that if your wiring isn't designed to cope, then either sort it out (if you have the know how) or be prepared to give your electrical system a bollocking
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Kickstart]

Hi

True HID bulbs once running should draw a lot less power than normal bulbs, but they do take a lot of power to start up.

However the MOT problem isn't the colour, it is that the point that generates the light is unlikely to be in the same position as with a normal bulb, hence the light pattern is likely to be all over the place and dazzle the hell out of people coming the other way (made worse by being brighter).

All the best

Keith
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[The Tot]

My H7's had a distinct cutoff and didn't dazzle oncoming road users. Passed its MOT at 2 different places so it goes to show that it was within the beam tolerances. H4's with the dual filament or solonoid arrangement WILL NOT pass MOTs since the projected beam on high beam is purely blinding! It literally used to point to the 2nd floor window at a 20m distance! I'm really keen to see how these OSRAM night racers compare to my 4000K setup for main beams. My high beams were standard filament osram silverstars so the HID's had no effect on long distance.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Nb]

Ive had hids on my cbr for about 2 or 3 years now and have never had a problem, i always turn them on after i start the engine but i know newer bikes dont have this option. I wont ride a bike at night without them now. Im actually very surprised the hids still work since they came from hong kong at a stupid cheap price....
Its a shame your bike doesnt agree with the hids The tot.
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[The Tot]

Yeah, I might be blaming the HIDs but its just a simple case of an aged bike which had extensive use all of last year (mostly in winter too) - 20000 miles in a year WILL put its strain on a 10 year old bike. If i'm not happy with the standard lamps, I'll get myself back onto a H7R HID kit and be very careful when washing the bike.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Fitted the HID today. Only had a short nightime run, nobody has flashed me...yet. Was taking a pillion and luggage, so fingers crossed i won't be needing to take the fairing off..... for abit.(MOT in May)

So far so good, the dipped beam dips left and lights the road up a treat. The mainbeam illuminates fully after about 3 secs..I can plan around that.

In short. The compromises are small compared to the gains. (on the ST2)

The kit
https://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/howlingterror_2006/DSCF0559.jpg

Pat
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The Harry Turner Project

[iooi]

Not impressed with HID at all on my bike. Only fitted it to dip, but it places the light far too close to the bike when set at the same as the std bulb.

As Kickstart pointed out the light production are is not in the same place so your beam pattern is shot to pieces.
Going to try moving the bulb about and see if I can get a better beam pattern.
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[L4Isoside]

I'd like to go HID but its not worth the hassle for me, I don't do a lot of night riding anyway.

The lights on my SV were great considering, but my new kawk (due to it being 5 years newer) only has the 1 light as standard and the second one shows up only for main beam, so going to be looking in to getting them Phillips ones.

Does anyone know if them Philips lights can be used in the side/parking lights or just the main ones?

Thanks.

[The Tot]

After speaking to my mechanic, he said that it was OK to put HID's back onto dipped beam on my bike. My resentments towards my kit was due to the fact that my bike was throwing an electrical hissy fit and now that it's fine, it should be relatively OK. I've installed the osram Night racers and they're OK. +90% bulbs are still nothing compared to HIDs. My old HIDs had a distinct cut-off point. With incandescent bulbs, it just doesn't have the intensity of light to pick out intermediate distance objects. They're brilliant on long beam though!
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism