Alternative Headlight bulbs

Regular bulbs do last a little longer than silverstars, but regular bulbs degrade in brightness as the filament gets older... so the bulbs might still be working, but not lighting very well at all. I always have customers coming in complaining about how dim their headlights are, and they are always very surprised that just installing new (normal) bulbs makes a noticeable difference. Silverstar bulbs don't seem to degrade as badly when they are close to the end of their life. Neither do the PIAA or Eurolite. I've had a set of PIAA 55w bulbs in my car for 6 years now though, they seemingly last forever. They did cost alot though.

Also, I've discovered that oncoming drivers just plain won't deal with and HID kit installed into a standard Halogen style housing. There's no "cutoff" to prevent the unshielded arc from blinding people, even if you aim the lights very low. I tried it for a week and almost had someone run me off the road over it. So... I don't reccommend the HID's unless you have a projector style headlight unit that cut's the light off over a certain height. I only know of the Ducati 999 having these, and that bike might already have HID's. I don't believe any VFR's have them though.

 

PIAA 80/80 bulbs

I have the front fairing/upper cowl off my '02 VFR right now to replace it due to breaking a corner off.

I thought I would upgrade the lights at the same time. It just so happened I had a pair of PIAA 80/80 bulbs in a box in my tool chest from a previous bike. What was interesting about them is that they fit the stock Honda headlight reflector perfect. No adapter rings, no bending of tabs or anything.

I'm now wondering if:

1. 80/80 is too much for the VFR's wiring
2. Are all PIAA bulbs of the same pattern or did I happen to find some odd ball bulb (good odd ball) 3 or 4 years ago. Does PIAA make a non-standard H4 bulb just for Honda's?

 

If you increase the bulb wattage you definitely want to increase the wire gauge...absolutely, no question about it. (RDR - i coincidentally made this same remark earlier in that other headlight thread which you started).

As someone else mentioned: higher wattage will potentially damage the housing. Can't say for sure, but once you get to a certain wattage the heat will be too much for the stock housing material and cause it to warp or melt.

 

Keena

Understand about melting the headlight shells. Supposedly one of the advantages of the PIAA's is that they run cooler due to the use of a different filler gas - hence their outrageous price.

Don't know where I got the 80/80's. I think I bought them years ago for a ZRX1100 I use to own. I will probably put the 80/80's in my ST1300 since it is a true dual headlight bike and the VFR is actually a four headlight bike. I already have an Eastern Beaver dual headlight heavy duty wiring harness for the ST1300 so it should be "plug & play" to put the 80/80's in the ST.

I guess what shocked me last night when I was playing around in my shop is that the PIAA's just dropped right in - all of the tabs were exactly in line. The ST1300's have the same proprietary Honda bulb where you have to use alignment shims to use H-4's. Some people are of the theory that the alignment shim thickness throws off the focal point of the bulb/reflector and the only truly correct way to install H-4's in a Honda is to cut/grind/modify the headlight housing. Imagine my surprise when the PIAA's fit like a glove in the VFR housing.

After reading the rave reviews on this site, I will be ordering a set of PIAA's for the VFR, probably just at a lower wattage than 80/80.

 

Double checked the tab hole alignment of my headlights with the an H4 bulb that I borrowed from another bike. They drop right in my '02.

So it appears that Honda did not use proprietary bulbs in '02 - correct?

I have also noticed some stamping on the headlights:

Under the upper beam it says: H7 - 12V55W.

Under the low beam it says: 12V55W, 12V60/55W, & 12V45/45W.

So my question is: Does Honda use the same headlight reflector and cover for both the US model and the European model? I also own an ST1300 and we have discovered that the continential European ST1300's use what is known as an E4 type headlight reflector. A few guys have made a connection in Europe and purchased these European headlight reflectors and rave about the superiority of the light pattern. The price of the E4 reflector and housing is about $650 but the guys who have done it claim it is superior to installing HID's. Problem with HID's is that we are riding bikes with headlight reflectors designed for H4 bulbs and installing aftermarket HID kits doesn't really let them use their full potential.

Any thoughts guys?

 

Silver stars here, way better than stock. I have like 18K miles, so not sure what won't last as long means, so far I'm pretty happy with how much trouble it was. opps wasn't.

 

as have many other ppl in this thread, I use silver star bulbs on everything, even my brother's lightning. they make a pretty noticeable difference

i think the only other bulb id go with (if i was ever able) would to be to adapt an HID setup to my bike. (if anybody has an idea how to do this conversion, or where to find the parts, im sure open to suggestion!)

 

Slightly different question but relevant

I had Lasik surgery about a year ago and I still get a lot of halos and glare at night from other people's headlights, traffic signals, etc.

Is there anything worth considering that would cut down on the glare at night glasses wise? What about those yellow glasses that target shooters wear or something similar?

 

Has anyone heard of the Candlepower H4 halogen bulbs? I got them from a Honda dealer for $6.50 each. The dealer did not have the OEM headlight bulbs. I had no highbeams so I did not have much of a choice. The Candlepower H4 halogen bulbs work and look ok, no adapter ring (or bending) was necessary to install them. Can't beat them for the price. I have some Orsam H4s on order.

 

HID H4 headlights

Hey guys,

I posted a while back that I thought he optimum headlight upgrade might be to go with HID headlights. Well, I didn't spring for them yet on my 5th gen VFR, but I have been playing with headlight options on my '05 FJR. The FJR also has a 2 headlight H4 setup very similar to the VFR.

First I tried installing a complete set of "telescopic" H4 HID bulbs with the super-slim ballasts you've probably seen on fleaBay and other places. The advantage of the super slim is just in fitment into the cramped spaces we are allowed in our motorcycle front fairings. The Feejer is a bit more spacious than a VFR, but not much.

The results of that install were that was that the low beam was fantastic, and the light intensity much better, but the beam pattern was crappy in the high beam position. Not because of the HID bulbs, but because that of the way that Yamaha designed the headlamp reflectors in the bucket. The cutoff down low was too severe resulting in good illumination down the road, but not good illumination of the foreground and immediately to the sides, up close.

My next experiment was to leave the left headlamp always in low beam by unplugging the solenoid that actuates the Hi-Low telescopic action and leaving the right side hooked up. The results from this were quite promising.

I've since obtained a set of H4 low beam only HID bulbs and will install one in the side that will not toggle high/low. That removes some extra shielding that is required by the telescopic action and also some mechanical complexity from that bulb.

I have not yet completed this step but expect that this is the way I will run the FJR from now on. Assuming this works out I may attempt to use the remaining bulbs to install a similar config headlamp system in my '98 VFR and will see how that works out.

 

I recently finished an HID kit that we developed for motorcycles, it is a high/low solenoid actuated unit available in several power ranges, the ballasts are smaller to fit in the fairings better, and are warrantied.I'll post some photos of the light output tonight.

 

do you have a website where we could see some examples of applications, pricing, and the difficulty of installation?

 

http://www.v-leds.com/Shop/Control/fp/SFV/32481
The Bike pictures are not up yet, motorcycle kits were listed last night, installation photos will be done for the VFR and a 929 this weekend.

 

ive ran the 80 lows and 110 hi in old bike and it lights up the world really made a huge difference for night riding but expect to get flashed flipped off from cars going the other way they can tell the difference also...........and they do get hot but the roadracers used them so i figured it couldn't be all that bad...

 

Definately the Orsam Silver Stars. The PIAAs are good but the blueish and yellowish color does affect the brightness. I got the shim adapters and Orsam H4 bulbs from Calif Sport Touring. As a cheap alternative CandlePowers makes a cheap bulb for the VFR that cost $6.50. Not bad.

 

Wow. I just installed some bulbs from rallylights.net and it made a huge difference.

I used to be a big believer in PIAA bulbs, but they pale in comparison. I literally just installed the PIAA bulbs a couple days ago, and they were a moderate improvement over the factory bulbs.

Its the part #CP64205.

Stock 55/65w h4 bulb puts out 1000 lumens. The hyper bulb puts out 1350 lumens.

The only difference is in raining conditions, like this mornings commute, the Piaa's are white/blue, and don't reflect as well, thus you lose visibility in the rain. The hyper bulbs are stock colored, so even in rain it was great!

 

If you're in crap weather a lot, you'll want a more yellow light:

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Since I don't (too much debris on the road here when it rains, so not safe for a bike), I'd been considering a dual Bi-Xenon setup with RC30-style front fairing (for the two round lights, instead of the big rectangle, but fundage won't allow it right now).

But after scanning this thread, I'm very likely to pick up some Osram H4s for the bike. The Silvania's made a big difference on the cars, and I can order Osram (or other EU-spec bulbs) from the above link, although a bit spendy with shipping.

Edit: For you guys with the "telescopic" kits: are you referring to this sort of kit:

http://www.v-leds.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/4961321/vpcsid/0/SFV/32481