You could wire the low beams to remain on while the high beams are on.
LED replace met for H4 bulbs?
- Thread starter sath182
- Start date
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A few problems with that idea:
1) You can not do that with HID lights as there is only one light source that is physically moved by a solenoid.
2) You would not want to do that with a first gen as the extra 100 watts of leaving the two low beams on would consume most of the extra power available from the alternator. You would be hard pressed to run any accessories on your bike and could just about forget about using any heated gear. Even on a second gen you would seriously cutting into the overhead available accessory power.
3) The extra heat of running 4 headlight filaments simultaneously would damage the plastic reflectors.
A better idea I had was to leave the left headlight always in low beam and only switch the right beam back and forth to high. That actually works pretty well to fill in the foreground void with an obvious reduction of down range punch. Here's a picture of that from the same spot as the prior 25ft shots, comparing this to the prior HID High Beam photo:
Left HID Low Right HID High
Both HIDs High
That idea might actually have worked better the other way around (with right low, left high) so that the closer righthand roadside was better illuminated.
Perhaps the best headlight solution is what Warchild came up with a long time ago for running the desert at night: Leave the FJR Headlights always in HID low beam and turn on and off a pair of big honkin' accessory HID lights as your high beams when needed.
1) You can not do that with HID lights as there is only one light source that is physically moved by a solenoid.
2) You would not want to do that with a first gen as the extra 100 watts of leaving the two low beams on would consume most of the extra power available from the alternator. You would be hard pressed to run any accessories on your bike and could just about forget about using any heated gear. Even on a second gen you would seriously cutting into the overhead available accessory power.
3) The extra heat of running 4 headlight filaments simultaneously would damage the plastic reflectors.
A better idea I had was to leave the left headlight always in low beam and only switch the right beam back and forth to high. That actually works pretty well to fill in the foreground void with an obvious reduction of down range punch. Here's a picture of that from the same spot as the prior 25ft shots, comparing this to the prior HID High Beam photo:
Left HID Low Right HID High
Both HIDs High
That idea might actually have worked better the other way around (with right low, left high) so that the closer righthand roadside was better illuminated.
Perhaps the best headlight solution is what Warchild came up with a long time ago for running the desert at night: Leave the FJR Headlights always in HID low beam and turn on and off a pair of big honkin' accessory HID lights as your high beams when needed.
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3dogs
Well-known member
+1, same as my experience with HIDs on the FJR. I solved the problem with foreground lighting by disconnecting the high beam function on the left light. With the hi beams on, only the right HID solenoid is activated (hi beam). With the right lamp on hi and the left on low beam the foreground lighting is better than with both left and right on hi as the left light fills in the foreground. The HIDs are so bright (and white--4300 color temp) that the difference between the stock Halogen lighting and the HIDs is significant.I doubt they will outshine the H4 halogens.
Yes, LEDs are efficient light producers. That just means they put out more lumens per watt of power input. But how many watts are going into these retrofit LED units? How many lumens and at what beam pattern. I'm interested but dubious.
I'll have to disagree about the HIDs being losers, this from my own, first hand experiences on the FJR.
The HID lamps are an omnidirectional light source just like the halogen filament bulbs. The telescopic retrofit units that most people use produce exactly what you would expect, a brighter, whiter light with the same exact beam patterns as the halogen lamps do. They only need to be used in a specialized headlamp bucket by law, and that is because of the concern of the much greater light source having adequate low beam cutoff. On the FJR the low beam cutoff is quite good, much better than many other DOT headlamp buckets that have a not well defined cutoff.
The high beam pattern inadequacy seen in the FJR headlamps with HID retrofit is also present with the standard H4 bulbs installed, and that is only lack of foreground coverage. The lack of foreground light is more apparent with the HIDs only because the light intensity is so much brighter in the broadcasted beam, but the pattern is the same. Either way, an aux light that is tied to the high beams and fills the foreground is the answer.
The low beam performance with the HID retrofit in an FJR is far superior to the halogen bulbs. For those people that ride at night in urban areas and have to depend on their low beams it is a worthwhile upgrade. The only downside of the HIDs is that the capsules generate more heat inside the headlamp bucket and over time will erode the reflective plastic surface above each capsule. That surface is what casts the bottom half of the reflected beam, so it is counterproductive to the low beam performance over time. That is the main reason that I have opted not to re-install my HIDs in my (3rd!!) headlamp bucket when it was replaced last year for an entirely different reason.
Top_Speed1
Panama Canal Crosser
Same "hot" topic on my Beemer forums going on currently.
All folks want this upside and potential (of course!), but most who have tried them have all come to the conclusion... "it's just not quite there yet". Many want it to be, and are forcing the issue with fair to midland results. The one's with positive f/b, are with one stage implementation (either a single high or low bulb application). So H4 dual is not tested/used there
On my new GTS, the H7 high beams, I'm going to guinea pig these...
Wattage:45W (40W ACTUAL BULB, 5W RESERVE/FAN)
Voltage:10-40V
Lumen:3600LM
Color Temperature:6000K
Light Type:high power COB LED
Fan:15,000speed/minute
All folks want this upside and potential (of course!), but most who have tried them have all come to the conclusion... "it's just not quite there yet". Many want it to be, and are forcing the issue with fair to midland results. The one's with positive f/b, are with one stage implementation (either a single high or low bulb application). So H4 dual is not tested/used there
On my new GTS, the H7 high beams, I'm going to guinea pig these...
Wattage:45W (40W ACTUAL BULB, 5W RESERVE/FAN)
Voltage:10-40V
Lumen:3600LM
Color Temperature:6000K
Light Type:high power COB LED
Fan:15,000speed/minute
Nanahanman
Well-known member
Fred, what brand of HID kit did you use?
It was purchased back in 2008 on eBay from a seller named fjt2000 who called himself T& R Lighting at the time. He doesn't seem to be selling lights anymore. He was located in California as I recall.
Nanahanman
Well-known member
Exactly!
This whole retrofit LED thing is way overblown....at least for now.
I have a 2004 Mazda 3 with 320,000 km on it and have replaced 1 brake light and so the longevity argument...not so much.
As for headlights, yes I have replaced a few but really would not benefit from a less than ideal LED retrofit.
The new OEM HID projector headlight systems are really good so I'll wait for a new car.
For the bike, adding driving lights or properly designed HIDs will give better results.
