Self-contained HID's

[sgoat]

I saw these over on the ST-Touring forum. Looks interesting and may be the ticket for 06' and up owners with no where to put ballasts, or gen 1 owners who don't want to mess with it. Anyone tried these yet? Could mount them on currently available driving light mnts. Take a look and see what you think. Hell, maybe they'd even give Warchild a set to evaluate!

HID's

 

[radman]

They would appear to be built for the ATV crowd, folks who rarely are doing a buck plus at night. In other words, not worth much as a driving (distance) lamp.

 

[Ignacio]

I think he did review these or something very, very similar. Sub-optimal in the reflector design and light output compared to PHIDs. They'd make good marker lights, but not the ticket for cruising the inky black night at FJR nominal speeds.

 

[bmwhd]

I think he did review these or something very, very similar. Sub-optimal in the reflector design and light output compared to PHIDs. They'd make good marker lights, but not the ticket for cruising the inky black night at FJR nominal speeds.

Actually, these are the darlings of the ADVrider crowd. They make both a spot and a flood and while not to be confused with the greatness of the PHID, they are a reasonable solution given the ability to fit very limited space and cost budgets.

If you want to see them in action, check out "Dust To Glory" (which is a kick a## moving anyway).

 

[Warchild]

I think he did review these or something very, very similar. Sub-optimal in the reflector design and light output compared to PHIDs. They'd make good marker lights, but not the ticket for cruising the inky black night at FJR nominal speeds.

Exactly so.... correct on all accounts.

While they do put out a fairly impressive amount of light for their size.... they are in no way, shape or form a replacement for true HID Driving Lamps ala PHIDS, Hellas, etc. Their down-range projection - even the "spotlight" variant - is sub-optimal for serious night work we do here in the Desert West. Further, you are saddled with only one color temperature, which is 5600 Kelvin.... 1300K higher than it ought to be for best human eye consumption. Definite hints of blue (hue) is another slight drawback.

Perhaps the biggest drawback... they are gay-assed chrome. :lol:

I experimented with these Spotlight HIDs on the ride to/from the Start Line of the 2005 IBR in Denver. On the way down, the left one filled it's reflector housing half full with rainwater! :glare: Needless to say, they came back off upon my return and the PHIDs were immediately re-installed.

 

[sgoat]

God those things are ugly (gay) actually mounted up! Great concept though, to bad they don't measure up. Maybe someone better warn the folks over on the sport-touring forum.

 

[skyway]

I spotted these some time ago and wonder if they might work for $470? Hard to tell if their driving or fog reflectors though? I really like the output of HID, but the sticker shock...... Apart from the popular PHID's, is there anything else on the market that will work well for less than $700?

XenonDepot 110-4300K HID/Xenon Fog & Driving Lights

 

[chornbe]

I saw these over on the ST-Touring forum. Looks interesting and may be the ticket for 06' and up owners with no where to put ballasts, or gen 1 owners who don't want to mess with it. Anyone tried these yet? Could mount them on currently available driving light mnts. Take a look and see what you think. Hell, maybe they'd even give Warchild a set to evaluate!
HID's

Hmm... get one spot, one flood... mount them on the forks or out by the turn signals... Nice.

 

[radman]

Rule of thumb is if the lens is fluted , it's a fog, clear lens-driving light. Fogs should mount low, drivers as high as practible. Fogs have a short, wide dispersion, hence the fluting, more so than even a low beam headlamp, so they make for a poor substitute. The reflector isn't as critical on a fog, thats why most cheap lamps have the fluted lens, yet can be called driving lights by the Chinese mfr. A driving light depends on a perfectly formed reflector, perfectly clear lens, and a bulb strength incorporated into the design-in other words, a 100 watt bulb in a driver designed around a 55 watt usually doesn't work as well as one might have thought.

 

[Warchild]

I spotted these some time ago and wonder if they might work for $470? Hard to tell if their driving or fog reflectors though?

I've looked at these before, and to me, just based on my experience, I don't think the reflector housing appears to be really large enough to do the job.

However, until/unless someone scores a set of them and reports, then truthfully... we really don't know.