Converting new ADV aux lights to HID?

[BiG DoM]

How easy will it be to convert the new aux lights on the new ADV to HID?
I think I recall someone saying that they are Hellas in BMW shrouds?

 

[BiG DoM]

Oh and while we are on the subject can some lucky bugger who is already riding his new ADV tell me are the aux lights wired to the high beam or entirely seperate to the uggly bar switch?

 

[wilbjr21]

Oh and while we are on the subject can some lucky bugger who is already riding his new ADV tell me are the aux lights wired to the high beam or entirely seperate to the uggly bar switch?

The lights come one with the bar switch when the engine is running - main or dipped beam doesn't matter. There is a little green LED in the switch to let you know the lights are on in the daylight. I haven't tried the at night yet.
Smashing bike BTW.

 

[Cole]

Easy enough

To answer your question, yes, fitted HIDs to the the Aux lights (see http://www.endless-highway.info/europe/Data/page.htm?170,0) as well as to the main beam and dipped beam.

Just make sure you get a H11 "bulbs" for the aux lights. Not everyone sells this fitment in the HID burners.

I went for 6000 Kelvin burners. There is some debate about what colour temperature is best. OEM HIDs usually come with 4300K bulbs. When you buy a kit you usually get a choice of light temperature .... 4300, 5000, 6000 and sometimes up to 12000K.

To give you some idea, here is a guide to normal every day colour temperatures:

1800K - candlelight
2700K - tungsten filament bulbs
3100K - halogen bulbs
4300K - mid morning sunlight
5500K - camera flash
5800K - overhead sunlight

What most people perceive as "white light" is between 5000K and 6000K (thus camera flashes as 5500K). Above 6000K things begins to appear blue and above 8000K purple. On the other side of the temp spectrum, anything illuminated with light below 2500K will appear to be tinted orange, while if illuminated with light between 2500 and 4500K will appear yellow tinted.

 

[dronning]

Color temps

3100K - is bright yellow

It is very simple to convert the fogs to HID just buy a H11 automotive kit with 2 sets of lights/ballasts. I bought mine from HID-SIN.com and installed the true yellow fogs (3000K) they are fantastic. I leave them on ALL the time.

Most the OEM installed HID are in the 4100K range any higher than 5000K and the lights start to move to the blue light side of the spectrum.

Dave

 

[Slippy]

The explanation of the lights is very informative...

I found this very interesting reading,

Cheers

Slippy

 

[Cole]

Apologies

The link I posted above no longer works ... and I cant edit the post ... so the 6000K HIDs in the auxiliary lights looks like:

I also understand that colour temperature fades thoughout the 2000 hour life of a HID burner by a couple hundred degrees. i.e. If you replace one bulb of a pair early, they wont quite match in terms of colour temperature.

Like Dronning above, the aux lights are on all the time, so there is always around 9000 lumens lighting up the night road, instead of the 1300 lumens you would get from the standard single 55w Halogen bulb

 

[Cole]

Relativity of Colour Temp

Like most things your brain does, it adjusts automatically for colour temperature. Thats why when you are indoors (say in an old church) everything seems normally coloured, but if you take a photo with an old film camera, you get to see how yellow tinted the light was that was illuminating the scene (assuming you didnt use flash at 5500k).

A lot of modern cameras also now automatically adjust the colour temperature of the photo, mimicing what your brain does.

I will post two photos below of my exact same headlights ... one of them is taken in afternoon sun, ambient light temperature probably around 4000k ... you will see the 6000k headlights "appear" to have a blue tinge, as they are about 2000k higher than the ambient light.

Conversely, I have a picture taken in overcast daylight. Overcast daylight is often in the 6000 - 8000K range (dont ask me why overcast light has a higher temperature - I have no idea). Thus my headlights "appear" to have a yellowish tinge when the scene is illuminted with overcast light - as my headlights are probably 1000k lower than the ambient light.

The Blue look: How 6000K lights look in 4000K ambient light

 

[Cole]

The apparent yellow tint: how 6000k lights look in 7000 k ambient light