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[bisounours]

Good morning Jim,

I'm a little confused with these different headlamps.
When you write : HD HID is it the xenon lamps ? or the US headlamp with the separated low and high lamps ?

Concerning the passing lamps with "blue" 55W H3 : what model of lamps is it ? Do you buy these in a car shop ?

175W is it not too for the stock wiring ?

Jacques

[Eqcons]

Good morning Jim,

I'm a little confused with these different headlamps.
When you write : HD HID is it the xenon lamps ? or the US headlamp with the separated low and high lamps ?

Concerning the passing lamps with "blue" 55W H3 : what model of lamps is it ? Do you buy these in a car shop ?

175W is it not too for the stock wiring ?

Jacques

Bonjour, Jacques.

HID is the US headlamp with separate high and low lamps, in the Xenon (for low beam only) form. 68043-06A is the part no.  As far as I can see it's identical to the standard US one, but the low beam is made HID.

The blue H9 (for the main beam) and the Blue H3s came from ebay.   http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250081067669

They give a very white light.  The H9 bulb for the high beam on the headlamp came from the same place.  (The H9 needs a little modification to fit in place of the standard 35w (!!!) H8)

Since the HID low beam is no longer powered from the lighting circuit, the extra wattage is not a problem. 

To power the passing lamps so they are on with main beam as well as dip beam, I used the spare feed intended for a fender tip light, that is unused in the fairing; taking a feed from there to the connector located inside the switch housing, with the proper pin, and removing the standard feed (from the dip beam circuit) pin from the connector, insulating it, and tying it back.

Jim

[Twolanerider]

Jim, just one thought on your blue bulbs to keep in mind.  If they're halogen bulbs with a spray, mask, or other method applied to them to make the light look blue they're accomplishing this by filtering out everything but the blue light.  That's about the worst thing that we could have happen for visibility.  It may look good esthetically.  But blue light is the least effective for us to see with. 

Halogen bulbs that are filtered down to just their blue may be pretty, or may match the appearance of a HID bulb, but they're not terribly effective.  HID bulbs on the other hand are actually throwing tons of very white light.  The color we see associated with them is a byproduct of the white light rather than a filtration of everything except for that color.

[Eqcons]

Jim, just one thought on your blue bulbs to keep in mind.  If they're halogen bulbs with a spray, mask, or other method applied to them to make the light look blue they're accomplishing this by filtering out everything but the blue light.  That's about the worst thing that we could have happen for visibility.  It may look good esthetically.  But blue light is the least effective for us to see with. 

Halogen bulbs that are filtered down to just their blue may be pretty, or may match the appearance of a HID bulb, but they're not terribly effective.  HID bulbs on the other hand are actually throwing tons of very white light.  The color we see associated with them is a byproduct of the white light rather than a filtration of everything except for that color.

Understood 2L - the blue makes the light very white, and it's v. effective compared to the normal bulbs though.

Jim

[erniezap]

I think you'll love them.  Check out Ernie's.  He got the single lamp dual bulb version of the H4 from the same place.

I'm VERY happy with the H4 bi-xenon HID light setup in the stock SEEG headlight.  Initially left on the "little metal thingy" that hides half of the bulb, as well as the stock HD in the headlight.  While I had great lighting, it looked like only the upper half of the bulb was lit.  Yesterday took off the "thingy" but left the stock HD piece in the bulb.  The light is not as pinpoint but is plenty bright.  No comparison to stock at all.  One thing, if I had to do it again, I'd go with the 4300k or the 6000k bulb instead of the 8000k.  The light is too blue for my taste, but would look fantastic on a blue bike!

[Twolanerider]

Understood 2L - the blue makes the light very white, and it's v. effective compared to the normal bulbs though.

Jim

Very effective is the most important thing Jim.  You guys generally get better lighting than US DOT seems to have required here over the years.  Not sure if it's consolation or commiseration that you're having to screw with this too.  But glad you found a solution that works well

[Eqcons]

Very effective is the most important thing Jim.  You guys generally get better lighting than US DOT seems to have required here over the years.  Not sure if it's consolation or commiseration that you're having to screw with this too.  But glad you found a solution that works well

Yes, it's criminal that it took all those years for DOT to approve halogen lights, for sure.  Even now we are ahead (for example our passing lamps have H3s in them...) 

Jim

[Twolanerider]

Yes, it's criminal that it took all those years for DOT to approve halogen lights, for sure.  Even now we are ahead (for example our passing lamps have H3s in them...) 

Jim

These lights were so poor to begin with I was really pleased to finally have it where the bike wasn't a worry at night.  You really could outrun it's light before, especially in curves.  H3 or any other improved bulb would have been nice for the spotlights too.  I finally broke down and order the HID version of the 881 bulbs to finish the front end of the red bike.  Their install won't be quie as simple as the other pair.  But it'll be nice to have them all good and all looking the same.

[mr_magoo]

Twolane the bulbs for the spots aren't plug and play?  Am going to order the H9 H11 for the 06 and was wondering if they made something for the spots.

[Twolanerider]

Twolane the bulbs for the spots aren't plug and play?  Am going to order the H9 H11 for the 06 and was wondering if they made something for the spots.

Dave, even the headlights aren't exactly plug and play.  But they are very close.  You have to make the power connections at the pigtail that plugs in to the headlight socket or at the headlight socket itself (depending on which headlight you've got).

The spotlight will vary also depending on which lights you've got.  For any of them, however, the first question is that there's only a power wire that runs through those brackets.  The ground wire from the bulb just goes to the light housing right behind the bulb itself.

I'm assuming remote grounds won't give the digital igniter a problem.  But there are reasons it might.  If so will have to fish a separate small ground wire through the bracket.  That's pretty tight quarters for a second wire. 

There's also the question of just finding space for two more igniters.  For some that won't be an issue.  For others it might be.  One of those times when it might be pay to be creative.

[mr_magoo]

Thank for the clarification Twolane.