HID Self Buy

[Warchild]

Nope, we are not..... XJRGUY's attempt to hijack this thread into an anti-HID tirade late last night has been relocated to it's own thread over on the Technical forum in its entirety. So you can go over there to read his rant. This thread is (and will remain) centered about the Group Buy logistics and such.

 

[Bounce]

The PIAA 910 lamp takes a H3 bulb, so yes, this would be a good time to convert them, since it will less than $200 for the kit (containing two (2) HID lamps).

Woo! (and even HOO!)

It'll be nice to get them back to their OEM operational level of 110 watts each! Nothin quite like cresting a rise in the road and blasting 6 white SUVs, running nose-to-tail at about 90mph in the oposite direction, when in the NV outback near Area 51!

 

[Warchild]

The PIAA 910 lamp takes a H3 bulb, so yes, this would be a good time to convert them, since it will less than $200 for the kit (containing two (2) HID lamps).

Woo! (and even HOO!)

It'll be nice to get them back to their OEM operational level of 110 watts each!

I'm sure you recall the fellow FJR pilot and Iron Butt veteran Rick Martin made this identical conversion to his PIAA 910 lamps. I have seen his in action.... they are pretty stunning.

 

[FJReady]

Sorry, I haven't read every word of every post, but I did see discussion about HID capsules saving you power by using only 35W each. While that is true, is is also neccesary to include approximately 7 watts to run each ballast in your power budget. Just touch one when the light is operating and it will be quite obvious that its using some juice. Still a 42 watt HID source is a savings over what you have right now. And typically a HID setup puts out about 2.5 time the light. Good exchange in my book. Again, sorry if the power thing has been covered.

 

[FastJoyRide]

@BigDolma: What kind of $$$ for the Hella's?

 

[bigdolma]

They are between $500 and $600 depending on websites/vendors...

 

[galxy5]

thanks for removing the "el knowitall "

your violating the code crap

I want lightning bolts for lights

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Here we go again!! Put me down for this GB as well Warchild! And thanks for the hard work you put into "our" community! :clap:

-Adam

 

[HondaCBX6]

At risk for being removed and shunned being called Knowitalls brother.....

I know a thing or two about HID, lighting, lasers and electonics. Getting a ballast, lamp, and wiring for 2 light for $200 is a great deal. But unless the reflector is specicically designed for the lamp you are not getting an engineered lighting system. You will not realize the optimum light output. I have been playing with HID lighting for almost 15 years now. And 50% of the light realized is due to proper reflector design. Shuttering the bulb to make the light travel to the low beam reflectors mean that a very high pecentage of possible light needs to bounce around inside the bulb before it escapes through the shutter. Not the best way to do it. Buying engineered HID AUX lighting with designed reflector for the bulbs is the only way to add usable light to the FJR. I personally think that most will be disappointed with the stock bulb location. They may be brighter than stock but if the light is not going where it was designed to what good is it?

I did spend the time to read what everyone has said to and about XJFJR. Most don't want to hear what he was trying to say. I am not going to mention legalities. speeding, or possible failures. But he was stating the truth about the technical issues. Whether or not he copied and/or properly quoted someone elses findings they are still the facts. The FJR lense is not suited to HID. PERIOD!

Go ahead and flame me. I don't care. Just remember that at least two people warned against using HID lighting in a Halogen housing. It is only $200 right?

 

[Toecutter]

This thread is (and will remain) centered about the Group Buy logistics and such.

I guess most of us aren't the only ones who don't have very good reading comprehension skills.

 

[twowheelnut]

How 'bout dem White Sox, eh?

 

[Bounce]

I'm sure you recall the fellow FJR pilot and Iron Butt veteran Rick Martin made this identical conversion to his PIAA 910 lamps. I have seen his in action.... they are pretty stunning.

Getting the thread back on track.

I did not know this. I suspected it would work well, since the 910 reflector and lens is such an excellent design to begin with. I got to run my 910's once at the OEM 110 watts each before having to step them down to 85 watts each so they wouldn't kill the Gold Wing. In spite of the decreased output, they still did journeyman duty at NV Outback speeds many times.

With the FJR I had to step them down to 55 watts each and they are okay but just a shadow of their former selves. I suspected that an HID conversion would compliment their hidden potential exceptionally well. To hear that they have been tested and endurance-rider-approved in just that way is a welcome confirmation!

 

[snowmonkey]

How 'bout dem White Sox, eh?

GO SOX !!!!

 

[Penforhire]

If these work anywhere close to regular HID's then count me in! You know I've been whining about wanting to try bixenon's since I heard of them.

WC, take your rain back north with you! You should let us know when you travel. I'd have bought you a pint if I knew you were in Anaheim (about 11 miles south of where I work). If you're still in the area, there's an authentic English pub (The Olde Ship) on Harbor Blvd. in Fullerton.

 

[afterburn]

I have wanted HID on my bike for sooooo long. Unfortunately, I am also sooooooo broke at the moment. Buying the FJR and not selling the VFR, combined with a 2 week really kicked a serious dent in my financials. Not that I am complaining; I got 2 of the best bikes I can think of and the vacation was the best I have had in years. Now it's winter, and I can save up for new suspension. That's more a important farkle to make than lighting at this point. I guess I will have to wait for the next GB on this one.

 

[Grumpy]

Warchild, I'm looking forward to your HID "testing" and if it turns out well, I'll likely sign up for the group buy.

Before I retired I spent 35 years in the HID lighting business as it pertained to the higher wattage lamps used in Roadway, Industrial and Sports lighting. Please permit me to quietly say, that the Daniel Stern material is technically correct, especially the part about filament orientation vs. HID arc orientation. This doesn't mean that when you make the conversion that it won't look acceptable, cause with some luck it may OK? The unknown will be the efficiency the headlight is delivering the light since it was supposedly designed for a filament lamp? However, since the HID system produces approximately 3 times the amount of light per input watt it may work OK?

One other point and I'll shutup and go away; in another post you mentioned the big size of some aux. fixtures you were looking at. I know larger is uglier, but larger also provides more reflective surface which allows better control over the lumens coming out of the lamp. A large reflector coupled with a very small light source.......usually filament is smallest......produces a system that'll throw light the furtherest down the road. This is the reason a number of the current autos only use the HID systems for low beams, cause the filament lamps produce more light further down the roadway.

Now I'm finished and will go away.

Jim

 

[BugR]

@BigDolma: What kind of $$$ for the Hella's?

Been looking at the Hella's for a while as well.

Best price I found was

Rallylights Hella Micro DE

 

[ChrisW]

I'm sure you recall the fellow FJR pilot and Iron Butt veteran Rick Martin made this identical conversion to his PIAA 910 lamps.  I have seen his in action.... they are pretty stunning.

Getting the thread back on track.

I did not know this. I suspected it would work well, since the 910 reflector and lens is such an excellent design to begin with. I got to run my 910's once at the OEM 110 watts each before having to step them down to 85 watts each so they wouldn't kill the Gold Wing. In spite of the decreased output, they still did journeyman duty at NV Outback speeds many times.

With the FJR I had to step them down to 55 watts each and they are okay but just a shadow of their former selves. I suspected that an HID conversion would compliment their hidden potential exceptionally well. To hear that they have been tested and endurance-rider-approved in just that way is a welcome confirmation!

I converted my PIAA 910's with this Kit. Well it looks like the McCulloch Gen-4 H3 Kit I bought. They work the shit. I have the 5300K bulbs. A little more blue than I would like, but that was the lowest K they had available.

As for the quality, I'm pretty happy so far. 9 months, 16K miles in New England and no problems. Except for all the Moose I actually see know.

Installation was friggen easy! I took it a bit further and soldered all the connections, but the connectors that came with the kit looked to be very high quality, and weather tight.

I would and have recommended this kit to my friends.

 

[Warchild]

Gotta love FedEx International.... four days from ordering to delivery, all the way from Hong Kong to Washington state:

These appear to be Tensorlite units, or at least, packaged that way:

Components:

Nov 10 edit: As it turns out, this capsule does NOT physically relocate to achieve the proper focal point high-beam application. The "Low-Beam Only" is awesome, but the Hi/Lo Kit is not recommended.

 

[afterburn]

What's funny is, is that these units appear to go from the USA to HongKong and back and end up cheaper than they are at the place they originally came from..

Looks WC. Looking forward to your experiences. Only one more day before the weekend.