HIDs for H4 bulbs?

I need some more light on the K.

The basic lamp is OK..(certainly better than the GS standard lights) but I'm commuting on small unlit country roads and on some faster but still unlit A roads, and I've been spoilt by having HIDs and spots on the GSA....It's bad enough now, but in a month or two's time it's going to get unpleasant.

I don't like the principle of the H4 HID bulb though.......it seems logical that because the light arc itself is physically changing positions, either the dip HID or the Main beam HID will be out of the critical focus area of the reflector.....with a Halogen H4, the two filaments run alongside eachother. and therefore both are within the area they are meant to be in.

Are there alternatives?

I've offered up several LED spots that we sell, but even the smallest ones look kind of wrong on the front of a K100RS

I won't go down the brighter bulb route.........I know all the blurb says that 'our bulbs are 50% brighter and 'these ones are lifetime guaranteed, you get a free BJ from Charlise Theron and they are 1.5 million candlepower but that's all bollox.....'brighter' bulbs don't last IME, and I don't want to go to the lengths of fitting relays and replacing wiring to cope with 100 watters either

Suggestions welcome

I fitted an HID H4 to my HP2 and kept getting the dreaded LAMPF although the light worked fine, and everything was working OK. We tried new ballasts and bulbs, but to no avail. In the end I sent it all back.

I'm still looking to upgrade the standard candle, but like you say, there are so many options. I'm also open to suggestions.

hid alternatives

Fanum said:

I need some more light on the K.
I don't like the principle of the H4 HID bulb though.......it seems logical that because the light arc itself is physically changing positions, either the dip HID or the Main beam HID will be out of the critical focus area of the reflector.....with a Halogen H4, the two filaments run alongside each other. and therefore both are within the area they are meant to be in.

Are there alternatives?

I've offered up several LED spots that we sell, but even the smallest ones look kind of wrong on the front of a K100RS

I won't go down the brighter bulb route
Suggestions welcome

Click to expand...

You have correctly identifed that the H4 lamp is an abortion, trying to be all things to all men, and usually having a rotten beam pattern because of the compromises involved.
100 w lamps swap straight in, but the filaments are longer, so the compromise is even worse and the beam pattern goes from being bad to awful, with scatter everywere.
I have used H4 HIDs. The first set I bought - Ebay (for a car) were so bad that I removed them after a week. The scatter was dreadful, and the dip beam had a large black hole in the centre of it. In short, they were worse than the original standard lamps.
I subsequently bought another set from Les Wassel.
They looked absolutely identical.
However, the beam pattern was excellent, and I used them for several years. I would have to suggest therefore, go HID, but be sure to buy the burners off Les.
Myke

Myke Rocks said:

I subsequently bought another set from Les Wassel.
They looked absolutely identical.
However, the beam pattern was excellent, and I used them for several years. I would have to suggest therefore, go HID, but be sure to buy the burners off Les.
Myke

Click to expand...

Thanks Myke

I've got half a dozen different sets of H4 Hids sitting around here (Land Rovers take H4 bulbs and we quite often upgrade from one sort to another, so we end up with spares )


I might bung one on and then try the different burners to see what the results is

Change of mind.......

Just before I left work, I offered up a pair of the single superbright 5W led's under the fairing and they actually looked ok, so I'm going to fit a pair of these tomorrow

The Nutty GSER said:

I fitted an HID H4 to my HP2 and kept getting the dreaded LAMPF although the light worked fine, and everything was working OK. We tried new ballasts and bulbs, but to no avail. In the end I sent it all back.

I'm still looking to upgrade the standard candle, but like you say, there are so many options. I'm also open to suggestions.

Click to expand...

With an HP2, you are lucky in that you have a single, unfaired light unit......with the K, unless I remove the fairings and lose the weather protection I want over the winter, I'm stuck with a rectangular, non-standard light unit to mess with.

In your shoes, I'd probably play with a pair of HID projector lamp units and some decent quality Stainless universal mounts......take a look through any streetfighter website or catalogue and you'll see any number of mounting kits, then pair up something like this:



with the brackets of your choice:



That Projector lamp has the BMW stylee LED 'Angel eyes' in the surround, but you can get them plain and in various different sizes/powers.....you could go 35W smaller on one and 50W larger diameter for the second and have one set as dip and one as main....the projector lenses come with various different beam cutoffs

Nutty.....you could even base a twin projector HID setup on something like this horrible thing:



OK, it looks naff as it is, but imagine it with a pair of good quality Projector lamps and it could turn out dead smart on an HP2

Fanum said:

With an HP2, you are lucky in that you have a single, unfaired light unit......with the K, unless I remove the fairings and lose the weather protection I want over the winter, I'm stuck with a rectangular, non-standard light unit to mess with.

In your shoes, I'd probably play with a pair of HID projector lamp units and some decent quality Stainless universal mounts......take a look through any streetfighter website or catalogue and you'll see any number of mounting kits, then pair up something like this:

with the brackets of your choice:

That Projector lamp has the BMW stylee LED 'Angel eyes' in the surround, but you can get them plain and in various different sizes/powers.....you could go 35W smaller on one and 50W larger diameter for the second and have one set as dip and one as main....the projector lenses come with various different beam cutoffs

Click to expand...

Now I like the look of those

Fanum said:

Nutty.....you could even base a twin projector HID setup on something like this horrible thing:

OK, it looks naff as it is, but imagine it with a pair of good quality Projector lamps and it could turn out dead smart on an HP2

Click to expand...

Not sure about them though

Hi Fanum
I'm also using a Les Wassel kit on my K75. He recommended a 35 watt kit and it has a good pattern and is much brighter than the standard lamp. Also I've fitted a pair of cheap small H3 spotlamps wired and switched to high beam, switch them all on down a dark lane and it's like daylight. I don't know what model K you have but mine and some others have no relays on the dip or main and all the power runs through the switch. A very usefull improvement can be gained by using relays, a bit of a ball ache but good for the switch. A HID kit, got round this relay problem for me.