As a function of both declining night vision now that I've reached the latter half of my 40s and the fact that our headlights pretty well suck I'd been watching intently as people tried the Harley HID lights, PIAA bulbs and a variety of other alternatives. I'd changed from the stock single element housing on the 05s to the dual element housing; that helped a little. Then upgraded to H9 bulbs for both elements. That helped a little more (and the bulbs were free with a credit at the parts store). But short of going to the HID headlight that's as good as it got. And it wasn't good enough.
It was still the case that when riding at night I'd look for the interstate rather than stay away from it. Just so I could ride with cage traffic and use their lights because they reached out so much farther than did my own. Someone here suggested the optics in the 07 housing was better but a rep at the local parts counter told me it wasn't a new part number. I rode an FLHX at night and personally didn't see much difference. So it seemed fruitless to spend the money for the housing.
All the while kept looking for alternatives that would do better than the Harley HID light for overall effect and cost/benefit. That thing is just a lot of money to spend and still have to keep half the system halogen. Kuryakyn and the other alternatives all had problems. One Kuryakyn offering was simply ugly as sin. Another uses a proprietary mounting ring that doesn't accept the decorative headlight rings so many of us like. Most options required using an ignitor that was large enough that mounting would either need to be in front of the battery (not an option for me due to a little compressor for the air horn already living there). And two ignitors for dual bulbs was just out of the question for reasons of size and heat generation.
Then about three weeks ago finally stumbled on to a vendor (
http://www.xtralights.com ) offering the normal generic HID retrofits and a new offering with a fully digital ignitor. That changed everything. Much less power draw on start up. Much much less power draw during operation. Almost immediate (.002 sec) firing of the bulb by the ignitor. Almost no heat generation. And, to make it all possible, the ignitors are small.
The power draw is such that NO NEW wiring is necessary. No relay of the circuit and no step out of the headlight circuit during engine firing. The only connection to the vehicle is just plugging your stock headlight socket in to the power leads for the ignitor. That's it.
This company's standard HID upgrade kits were competitive to a bit cheaper in price than the rest of the market. These units with the digital ignitor were, of course, more expensive than the alternative. They're not cheap. Two complete kits to install HID in both high and low beam cost about $500.00. But that's about what the Harley light cost and with it you've only got one HID bulb for low beam. Evne though you're firing both bulbs at the same time you're still reaching out with a halogen for high beam.
The Harley kit is also a bit of a chore to install. Most have talked of removing or at least raising the tank to neatly complete the install. Not counting removing and reinstalling the fairing installation of both of these kits took about 25 minutes total (even inside my fairing).
A couple of the members here knew this little task was coming and have ask for illustrations of the install. To pave the way for their own installations. So, here goes:
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Topic: HID Alternative---Dual HID bulbs for high and low beam (Read 48048 times)