HiD question

[sagalout]

Hey, I upgraded my headlights recently using the excellent Les Wassal kit.

The dip beam is a huge improvement, but the full beam doesn't seem to offer much difference, and even with the fast ballast takes a couple of seconds to reach full intensity. On the roads I ride at night it tends to be main beam on and off frequently as cars come and go.

So I was thinking I might just revert to halogen on the full beam - anyone else made this choice, and can you recommend a decent halogen bulb that's better than stock?

 

[Zx9man]

I will be waiting for someons response as this is something I would like to do and have always thought that

 

[Knutttt]

Sane here, constantly using main beam flash and thought the same thing.
Currently using Halfords 120% bulbs and they are a big step up from the stock bulbs (and BGOF).

Andy

 

[Greg Masters]

Putting to one side that aftermarket HIDs are of dubious legality, using an incandescent bulb in your main beam is a waste of time - you just won't see the difference (particularly if you've gone for some lairy colour temperature in your dip HID).

HIDs work best when they are warmed up. When you can, run your main beam for a while (like when you're stuck at lights behind a truck or van). They should then spark up a bit quicker when you need them.

 

[Popell]

Have an HID in the dip which was embarrassingly bright - cars in front at standstill would cover the rear view mirror.
Changed to a 'R' bulb which has a shroud - not a lot of difference TBH
Still have the original halogen in the Full beam and it does make a bit of a difference when on/flashed - lights up the upper half of the trees.
Would not want to rely totally on a pair of HIDs, if my dip goes I can always swap the bulb and gubbins as a get-me-home. Mind you I didn't buy the quality that Les is selling

 

[cookie]

the reason that the high beam makes little difference is because the HID dip is so bright. changing high beam to a halogen is hardly going to improve matters.

i found after fitting HIDs to my bikes, i need to lower the dip a bit to avoid the dazzling problem that Popell refers to. did that - no more pissed off motorists.

 

[sagalout]

I've had it in for 10 days now, backwards and forwards to work in the dark. I haven't had a single person flash me, compared to when I take the car which has OEM Xenons and I get flashed every other day. I have the R bulb (5K) in the dip and I'm not concerned about blinding other drives - I'm sure one of them would have let me know by now.

I know changing back to halogen in the main beam won't improve the light, but would be faster at least. My car has Xenon dips and halogen full, and the full beam on that is immense, so I guess it's just a really crap reflector design in the GS?

 

[Wreford Miles]

I think a lot can be achieved with carefull set up...

I have the standard bulb in my dip and keep my fog lights on and have set them so they are as high as possible without blinding people - the fog lights I set to the same cut off as the dip. This gives me a nice spread of light.

The main beam has a 90% plus Halfords bulb which means when you use it you do get an improvement.

I've used it for some fast'ish x-country night rides and was suprised how well it works, they may not be the brightest but the spread is good.

My HP2 has Ridgedindustries Dually's set to come on with the main beam and if I wanted serious main beams on the Hexhead that's the route Id go down but for now the above works for me.

I've not gone down the HID in the dip route as I feel Id need to set them lower than I can have them with Hallogen and the main beam in comparison would be very poor.

I also think Hallogen light is easier on the eye...

 

[bisbee]

I had a 100watt halogen in the main beam on my last bike It gave good vision crossing the Peaks at night

 

[Beemerman59]

At one point I had dip, main, aux and spot lights all set up with HID. That's 6 in total. Over a few years I played around with various combinations of all of those, switching them around between HID and Halogen, never quite getting a perfect set up. I had the FAST HID ballast from Les on main beam and like the OP noticed that its fast but not instant. In the end, after a few bulb, wiring and ballast issues leading to failures I simply got fed up with the complexity and have gone back to the OEM halogen set ups. The HID spots were great but took too long to warm up. The HID aux lights were overkill. Also, I found that when switching from HID main to HID dip (because of the HID spots), the difference was so noticeable that it was dangerous. Because I had the light output with the HID spots I could ride as fast on main beam as I would in daylight, but as soon as a car approached and I switched to dip it was as if the lights were turned off, like being blind for a second or so whilst my eyes adjusted.

If I were to go back to HID now it would only be on dip beam which was better than OEM and I had no issues with flashing or with the MOT's.

 

[Deleted account 200502001]

I ride so fast that I get to where I'm looking before the light from my my headlight has got there.

 

[Greenman14]

I have a full HID kit from Les and I find the same. Dip beam is much better but main beam not so much of an improvement. I still think it's better than an incandescent bulb though, I think it's the fact that you get such a big improvement with the dip beam that it makes the main beam seem less impressive.

I've never been flashed and my mates say the dip beam is so much more visible in daylight I thing the mod is still worthwhile even if you don't ride at night.

 

[ymfb]

I have an F800GS and bought an HID (off eBay) for the dip a couple of months ago and once its warmed up maybe 10 or 20 secs to full intensity they are great. I was so impressed I contacted Les and bought a high beam kit from him. It has a 0.1 sec time and is absolutely fantastic.

My only doubt is that I have not ridden further than about 6 miles at a time so whilst it illuminates very quickly and has a wide bright beam, I will be truly convinced after its been working for a few months.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

I just have a halogen in main beam. Found the HID main pretty useless so I removed it. I fitted a pair of 30W LED spots that come on with main beam instead and they really make a difference.

 

[Bendy toy]

What beam angle are your LED spots? I ask because so many are floods and (to my mind) the spots seem to be relatively wide angle.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

What beam angle are your LED spots? I ask because so many are floods and (to my mind) the spots seem to be relatively wide angle.

They are still fairly wide angle although not floods, they still put a lot of light down the road though. The ones I have are the generic Chinese multi LED alloy lights that can be got on eBay for not a lot of money. 2 years in and still working great.

 

[thebuyer]

Sane here, constantly using main beam flash and thought the same thing.
Currently using Halfords 120% bulbs and they are a big step up from the stock bulbs (and BGOF).

Andy

I've got these.... Much better than standard.... Only problem seems to be.... They don't last that long....but last time I bought them it was "buy one get one free"

 

[Wreford Miles]

I believe these are good bulbs but would the 65W draw confuse the Canbus

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OFF-ROAD-ha...7&sr=8-3&keywords=h7+osram+65w#productDetails

 

[Fluffmeister]

I'd also add to the mix the fact that the reflector is not the best design on high beam. I had Les's kit on my GSA and with the LED spots I had never really needed high beam, and it never made much of a difference when on again due I suspect to the design of that tiny little reflector.

 

[Rich C]

Putting to one side that aftermarket HIDs are of dubious legality, using an incandescent bulb in your main beam is a waste of time - you just won't see the difference (particularly if you've gone for some lairy colour temperature in your dip HID).

HIDs work best when they are warmed up. When you can, run your main beam for a while (like when you're stuck at lights behind a truck or van). They should then spark up a bit quicker when you need them.

I work for an Automotive lighting business so thought I'd add my twopennyworth... for what its worth

There's nothing dubious about the legality.. Aftermarket conversions from filamented bulb to HID are illegal!!. The light unit ie the headlamp or tail lamp or indicator in vehicles was E approved with a specified light source ie in our case an H7 bulb in the dip beam and if you had an 1150 an H1 or an 1100 an H4. Change the light source to one of a different design and you remove the legal approval. In practice of course no-one gives much of a stuff and provided you have them angled sensibly the chances of getting into bother are probably slim. in theory MOT testers should probably spot this and fail the MOT however..

Using more powerful Halogens will give you more light, no question. So a 120% brighter bulb will give you just what it says. However whether you can see with the naked eye an improvement which equates to that will depend upon the quality of the design of the reflector in your headlamp ie how well does this design make use of the light produced. In my opinion the dip beam on the 1200 is pretty good and the main beam is shite. Simply increasing the volume of light in the main beam wont actually make a massive difference in enabling you to drive at night as the reflector seems to send the light all over the place as opposed to up the road where you really need it.

Using styling bulbs that simply change the colour temperature (more blue is fashionable apparently with the youf of today!) will not increase your headlights ability at all. Further, some styling bulbs will actually produce less light.

In my 1200 I run the plus 120% bulbs in dip, main and the auxiliary lights. I had HID's in my 1150 but cant be arsed to put them on the 1200. If I did more night driving I probably would convert the dip. On the 1200 I think main beam is a lost cause due to the reflector design and would put a separate driving lamp on it.

Making a bulb produce more light eg a plus 120% halogen headlamp bulb is not rocket science in terms of the physics. If you make the filament shorter it burns brighter! The downside is that it also has a shorter lifespan. Its unavoidable. The clever bit is in the production process. So with a plus 120% bulb we put pure Xenon gas in the bulb as it helps preserve the filament and also put it in in much higher pressure than you would find in a standard halogen bulb. We end up with a bulb that lasts something like 50% as long as a standard product although this will vary vehicle to vehicle.