I bought my HID lamps from here

[Droopy Dick]

I finally bought two HID units to boost the standard headlamps in my 1150GS.

I bought them from http://www.hids4u.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=12.

Because I wanted a pair, the guy let me have them for £180! Yes, £180 for the pair!!!!!!!! OK, they're not Philips or Hella units. They're made in Taiwan, but I wonder how many manufacturers of this type of kit there are. How many sellers are simply rebadging someone else's kit? Frankly, £180 isn't a huge amount to spend, so it's worth trying them out.

Fitting was straightforward and took less than 2hrs in total.

All I needed to do was drill a 20mm hole in the plastic surround that covers the back of each lamp. In to this I put a large grommet, and through the grommet came the leads to/from the ballast units.

I was assured that no relay was needed.

The power leads simply push on to the spade connectors inside the lamp housing, and the HID lamp is a straight replacement for for the H1 lamp fitted as standard.

I mounted the ballast units side by side under the beak with stainless bolts. They only needed two M5 bolts each (one at each end of the unit). They are about 5.5" x 4" x 1.5".

I did consider cutting in to each cable to extend the length so that the ballast units could be mounted further back on the bike, but in the end didn't bother.

I chose the 6,000 deg K lamps which are a very bright blue white. (I felt the 8,000 deg K lamps would be too violet in colour). A pal with a Suzuki GSX1400 did much the same thing, except that he chose a 4,300 deg K lamp, which is much warmer and closer to tungsten/halogen light.

The difference between the Philips 50% brighter H1 lamps and the HIDs is staggering but the lens/reflector shape is still somewhat limiting. How BMW can fail to design a decent headlight is beyond me. They only have to look at Honda's VFR/Blackbird headlight to see how it's done (no pun intended).

I'm even considering converting the Hellas that BTBR is fitting for me to HIDs.

The guys at HID's 4 U were quick to respond to queries, and the stuff arrived in 24 hrs! They take credit cards and do the PayPal thing for 24 hour mail order.

Oh, and I must mention that I have NO links to this company other than being a satisfied customer. Ian, the owner is keen for a link from this site to his, but I don't know if he's in a position to sponsor.

Here are the contact details again:

Sales Enquiries & Customer Services
(Mon-Fri 0900-1700 hours GMT or BST) Tel: 0870 168 7788

http://www.hids4u.co.uk/default.asp

 

[Droopy Dick]

HID lamp kit

This is how they come. Two leads from each ballast. One lead (a pair) goes the lamp, The other lead (a pair) goes to the power supply.

I pushed the power leads through the grommet and made the connection to the OEM power supply inside the black plastic cover at the rear of each light unit. It's a tad tight, and you need to tuck the wires away carefully, but they fit OK.

You can see in the photo that the leads to the lamps are a push-fit watertight connection which click tightly together. They will only fit one way so you can't make a mistake. The power leads are connected via standard spade connectors. The power leads do need to be connected correctly. If you put the posiitve lead to the negative side of the BMW power lead nothing happens. Again, as long as you check before you bolt it all togther, there's no problem.

And thank Heaven for cable ties with which I was able to tidy away all the excess cable.

 

[samwise]

Do the instructions say how many watts they draw, Droopy?

 

[Possu]

Do the instructions say how many watts they draw, Droopy?

HID lights should draw less watts than a normal bulb despite being brighter. I think Nippy Normans set up draws 35w?

 

[Droopy Dick]

The current draw is only 35W, but peaks higher at start-up as the arc is created in the HID lamp.

However, this is for such a short time that there is little chance for any damage to cables.

I pulled in to a bike meet last night and a fellow GS rider came over and said he was mightily impressed by the throw and amount of light coming from my bike.