HID Self Buy

[Caba]

HA! Check it out.... one of the photos my step-son took earlier tonight *did* come out...  a head-on shot of the FJR with HID hi-beams lit off.... this is what probably dorked up his camera!  :lol:
So... are these hi-beams bright enough for you? 

 

Thus far, five (5) folks are in line to buy this kit from me; I'm waiting for the funds to hit my PayPal account by morning, otherwise, I'll offer it to the next in line on the Wait List...

:shock:

Hold it!

B)

That's better.

Those are SCHWEET!

Kinda wondering how the low beams would do in the fog though. :focus:

I suppose that I won't know until I try em out. Think I'll go in for the....er....um...non group buy

 

[Shane]

I'm probably in for a set. Just can't resist.

And...............thanks.

Shane

 

[tsitalon1]

My bank loves you Warchild

 

[beardo]

Warchild,

What are your thought's regarding Tinker's comment as shown below?

I removed the entire HID headlight installation about a month ago. Because........................... I was getting discoloration of the reflector coating! Yep, inside the headlamp assembly. On both sides, directly above the capsule is a column of grey/blue discoloration. I believe the degradation is caused by the increased heat.

Is this something that you think fellow FJR owners should be concerned about when considering the replacement of the stock headlight bulbs with the HID kit your testing?

Just curious.

BeardO

 

[Warchild]

I don't know.... I don't know what kind of HID setup Tinker had. That having been said, I haven't seen any discoloration in my reflector housing in the 4 years I've been running an unshielded HID in my Blackbird. Are Honda reflector housings tremendously superior to Yamaha reflector housings?

I don't know the answer to that, either....

But if it's a concern, then one probably shouldn't participate in getting them.

 

[Warchild]

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.

OK, I talked with our HID seller, and he's trying to gear up for the onslaught now. Here's how it will work:

You email me that you want in on this deal. ==> warchild @ fjrtech.com (remove the blanks - duh) I will then send you an email giving you some facts and insight that will help you decide if you really want to participate. I'm not going to put this info here in the public domain.

Some of you who think you want to participate now might have a different opinion after reading the email. Your call. It makes no matter to me, because once I send you the info, I am out of it. It's a transaction between you and the HID seller at that point.

All that having been said.... let me put this in perspective for you.

Here is the EXACT same McCulloch G5 kit that we are getting (this link shows a 5000K kit, but otherwise, identical in every way).

https://www.xenonking.com/5000.htm

Now take a *close* look at the prices in this link: $300 for lo-beam, $470 for the hi-beam/lo-beam.

You are getting the Lo-beam for $185, and the hi-beam/lo-beam for $295. This is for TWO (2) lamp kits, and the price includes shipping via FedEx International Priority. Bulb models available: H1, H3, H4, H7, H11, 9004, 9005, 9006, 9007.

 

[Ignacio]

I think I just made a logic leap here and another realization.

One could also take an H7 kit and conceivably upgrade the guts of the Hella FF50 driving light. Combine the decent free form reflector and $30 going rate for new lights, chuck the halogen bulbs, and with the $185 of this kit and some creative ballast/ignitor placement you're into an HID outfit that is possibly comparable in performance to the $700'ish PHIDs?

 

[Warchild]

When I get home tonight, I'll shot a couple of close-up photos of my H7 HID kit I got from our seller, so you can see the details.

You might have fitment issues with the connectors, like Tinker has run into. OTOH, it might work just fine...

 

[Warchild]

Daaaaaaymn, guess all the naysaying last week hasn't slowed down youse guys any... over 30 requests to participate in less than 7 hours after announcing.... :bigeyes: :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

Also, I've had about a half-dozen PMs asking me the following, so I guess I wasn't clear enough about it earlier: the link I sent you to reference above ( https://www.xenonking.com/5000.htm ) doesn't list the 4300K version of the bulb for the McCulloch kit (though it does for the Philips kit), but regardless, they are available from our supplier, and that's my recommendation for the temperature HID you want to be running.

 

[stryg8r]

Warchild

If you haven't pulled the high/low beam HID yet I'd love to see a pic of the high beams pointing off into the darkness or against your garage door. Not that you don't have better things to do...

Derek

 

[Warchild]

Warchild
If you haven't pulled the high/low beam HID yet I'd love to see a pic of the high beams pointing off into the darkness or against your garage door.  Not that you don't have better things to do...

Derek

Sorry, they were pulled last night; being packaged up tonight to send to the new owner tomorrow.

As I mentioned a couple pages ago, the hi-beam output initially seemed no where near as massive as the improvement in lo-beam (when I shined it against the garage door a couple nights ago). However, it's kinda deceptive... when I turned the bike around and pointed the high-beam across the cul-de-sac, it was like, "Holy ****, look at THAT"! You could see high, far and wide. It was a MAJOR improvement over stock, though again, not as massive the way the lo-beam HID is over stock lo-beam.

Hard to describe, but brutally apparent when you see it in the flesh. Recall this head-on photo of the HID high-beam from the previous page:

 

[RadioHowie]

Dale,

I'm officially volunteering to be the first person you murder with your bare hands for re-asking questions that have been asked and answered a gazillion times, so here goes:

If I've followed this thread close enough, I'm gathering your #1 recommendation would be to replace the stock halogen high/low bulbs with the low-only HID, and then use PIAA910/HID conversion or PHID auxiliaries for the high beams, wiring the low-only HIDs to be "on" all the time, and then wire the auxiliary PIAAs or PHIDs to be switched by the high-beam selection on the stock headlamp switch.

Am I anywhere even close to the "truth" here?

 

[Warchild]

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.

Well, you're pretty close. Still, my recommendations may not be the best for one's setup, unless they "see" the same things as I do (pun intended).

Truthfully, I am having a small twinge of regret in giving up the hi/lo-beam kit and going with lo-beam only. But the fact is: I rarely use the high beam, and if the prevailing traffic situation allows me to use the high beam, well then, hell, I might as well use the PHIDs (and always end up doing so). This being the case, then for me personally, high-beams are more-or-less superfluous. Going with lo-beam only HID, I save $110 over the cost of the hi/lo kit, enjoy the MASSIVE increase in visibility, and still have greater flexibility in what I can select to have burning at any one time.

HOWEVER.... I know some (if not most) find their high-beam extremely useful, even those riders who also have PHIDs, PIAAS, Hellas, etc.

So.... here is my *current* recommendation, with the benefit of the knowledge I've gain from actually installing and operating the hi/lo-beam kit:

1) If you have HID aux lights, and don't really use/need your high beams since you have a tendency (like me) to use your PHIDs/Hellas/whatever in a situation where you can use high beam, the Lo-only HID kit merits consideration. You save some fair coin, and have the flexibility to shut down a lamp should you want to (i.e., you are freezing your ass off in the dead of winter, and need svery single spare watt you have to light up your Widders/heatedgrips/heated seat/whatever).

2) A side benefit of the Lo-beam only kit is that they can be wired such that they are truly independent circuits. Should you loose power to one lamp for whatever reason, the other is unaffected. Hard-core Iron Butt riders crave redundant systems, so this arrangement might have appeal to them. They also tend to have HID aux lamps as well, so the lo-beam only kit is a worthwhile consideration.

Does this answer your question? B)

 

[RadioHowie]

Answers the question marvelously.

Thanks for listing the alternatives the way you did.

Doesn't make the decision-making any easier, though.

You REALLY should incorporate the lessons learned from this thread and your latest installation experiments into an article for your website.

 

[Warchild]

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.

Holy crap, almost 40 orders already - y'all are going nuts over these HID kits! :lol:

I've been PM'd to death regarding whether or not I'm going to do the usual FJRTech article on the HID install - YES, of course I will.... for both kits.

Here's some preliminary photos to wet your whistle....

This close-up shows a little detail of the Hi-beam/Lo-beam HID capsule installed in the FJR lamp housing. Note the silver hexagonal-shaped "dome" over the end of the capsule, exactly like modern capsules in autos use. Yellow arrow points to "butterfly" wings that snap open when hi-beam is selected, allowing the HID light to travel downward to the hi-beam portion of the reflector lens. When lo-beam is selected, the butterfly wings snap shut, preventing any light from reaching the lower part of the reflector housing (which, again, is the high-beam part of the reflector):

Below we see the *entire* wire harness for the Low-Beam/High-Beam HID kit, with all components (except the actual HID capsules) completely connected as it would be in actual use:

A = to Battery (+) terminal

B = to Battery (-) terminal

C = power leads to left HID bulb

D = power leads to right HID bulb

E = to left HID capsule butterfly wings

F = to right HID capsule butterfly wings

G = to the stock headlight connector (left or right, doesn't matter which)

H = Electronic Controller box to manage the selenoids positioning the butterfly wings

I = dual relays that signal power to each lamp circuit

 

[Tinker]

Re the discoloration I've experienced on my reflectors. Probably a few hours of burn in before installing would eleminate any residual coatings from the capsuels. Just a thought, after the fact.

Tinker

 

[FJRocket]

Warchild, I take it that these units have their own circuit protection and require no addnl fuses? Or should we plumb in a fuse, and if so, what size is recommended?

 

[Tinker]

In Warchilds image of the components. The block at the top of the screen, just above "B", one wire in two wires out. That is the fuse assembly. Two fuses one for each side.

 

[Bounce]

So why can't you run HID high beams, PHIDs, and Widder vest concurrently?

Look up the wattages used for each. Do some basic addition. Subtract that total from the FJR's available reserve power (~200watts? - someone step in here).

in watts, add:

PHID x 2

HID conversions x 2

Vest (at max)

AvailableReserve - TotalOfAbove = ?

 

[Warchild]

Warchild, I take it that these units have their own circuit protection and require no addnl fuses? Or should we plumb in a fuse, and if so, what size is recommended?

These kits are truly plug-n-play. There are only three connections to the bike's electrical system; everything else is self-contained in the kit. You need to add nothing.

The three connections are (refer to above photo):

1) Terminal A to battery's (+) post

2) Terminal B to battery's (-) post

3) Terminal G to to the stock headlight connector (left or right, doesn't matter which)

All other connections are to individual components within the kit itself. The connectors are all "murphy-proof" such that you really can't connect to the wrong component (though some of you will undoubtedly try!) :lol:

The fuse block above Terminal "a" takes 20-amp fuses (1 each per circuit)