DDM HID install on 5th Gen

I just wanted to let everyone know that I installed DDM's Dual Hi/Lo Slim Ballast H4 kit on my 5th gen last night and it was a total success.

The kit comes with an extra harness which takes care of connecting the 2 units, pulling +12 from the battery (fused) and the high/low status from the OEM headlight connector.



I mounted the ballasts vertically against the walls of the inner fairings which are next to the front shocks. The harness mentioned above comes with a collection of wires that all end in what I assume is a relay. I located that relay on the left side of my air box and all the lines could reach their respective locations, even the ground lines can be conveniently fastened to the screws which hold the side radiators down. The High Low lamps are installed with the open side facing up so I just bent the bottom 2 tabs on each lamp back 90 degrees and left the top tab intact. They fit snugly and the OEM rubber boot fits perfectly.

The only small problem I have is that I don't think one of my lamps is a 5000K color lamp since it is less blue and a little more yellow but still works 100%. Have contacted DDM support to see what they can do.

I am very happy with this kit and I can completely recommend it to all you other 5th gen riders out there.

 

Thanks for posting this, I have been looking at doing a HID install. How much change in your visibility do they provide ? I'm used to having the auxiliary lights on my Harley, and the VFR always feels like i just cant see well enough on some of those dark roads. So I think the first step to better vision will be HID headlights and maybe some aux lights later.
I'd really like to hear your impressions on the improvement the new lights provide.

Thanks again

Dave

 

Just a word of advice... you will probably have to continually pester DDM concerning your issue. I had to call eight times when I received my order as I was shorted a harness and needed it to install things. The made it right with me but it took a lot more work than it should have.

Do your H4 bulbs have a shield on the bottom of them? The H4's that I received did and I'm thinking that I don't like the shield and might remove it. It may help with not blinding oncoming traffic little but i think that I would rather have the extra light... which was my entire reasoning behind my purchase.

 

The light output improvement over the stock lamps is pretty drastic, I have a 55W HID lamp on my single reflector CBR1100xx and it is incredibly bright, so I figured 2 x 35 Watt lamps would be ample and they are. When you switch from low to high beam, then the pool of light clearly moves away from in front of the bike and into the distance, it's quite noticeable.

If you are even considering this, then just do it, you'll be glad you did.

 

They already responded to an email I sent them and asked for some digital pictures of the issue. When I went to take them I realized that the color is close enough that the camera doesn't pick up the difference. I may not initially have waited long enough for them to get up to the optimum temperature too. I may just leave it alone as they work well and I don't feel like messing with them.

When you talk about the "shield" on the bottom of the H4 bulbs, are you talking about the main glare shield that mostly encompass the bulb and has a small slot on the one side ? If so then I don't think I'd remove that shield completely, at best you might grind away a little more of the opening towards the front, but taking it off would completely blind oncoming traffic.

 

FWIW, I noticed that my bulbs were uneven when I first got things going.... I think they have to burn in a little and even out. Mine did and you can't tell a difference in them.

Singer I think that you will see an improvement over the stock halogen bulbs. I went with the 5000k kit and noticed a big difference. I didn't find it so much in the amount of light that was there, but in the color and quality. I can see everything much more clearly now that I have the HID's and I do have a little bit more distance and width to what I can see.

I actually found the stock setup to be quite adequate. Headlight aim has a LOT to do with how well the lights work and I think that raising them up a bit will help you. I also had my right headlight pointing out to the ditch further which seemed to help me quite a bit. Overall I have been quite happy with the kit that I purchased from DDM. I've been running them for about a month. Aside from the issues I had with their customer service, I personally have no complaints. I did have a single time that one of my bulbs didn't ignite but as soon as I switched the bike off and on it has not happened again.

My dad purchased a 55w kit at the same time for his Harley Street Glide. He had 35W HID's on there and was looking for a little bit more. His previous ballasts didn't have any problems but the ones from DDM apparently aren't shielded very well as it injects a ton of static into his radio. My 35W ballasts did the same when I mounted them on his bike. We tried tons of shielding (copper and aluminum) and multiple mounting locations but were not able to resolve the issue. This isn't a big issue on the VFR as we don't have a radio but it does make me wonder if it would cause any problems with radio coms or something like that if you were to use them.

 

Just FYI, I have had occasional problems with HIDs not igniting on my Blackbird and Hayabusa and in both cases, just putting a $15 DEI 528T Pulse Timer Relay in to delay starting the lights for 15 seconds has solved all those issues.

 

This is the cleaner way to avoid the "double flash"

HID delay relay, voltage sensitive, latching Motorcycle: eBay Motors (item 290486894666 end time Nov-10-10 19:58:38 PST)

With these there's no hurry before the delay times out and on the flip side, there's less of a wait for warm up if you're a fast starter.

 

Pics of the install locations please.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: :usa2:

 

That's very clever, twice the price of the delay timer but still elegant if they work.

 

Well $10 more anyway. What's that, 3 gallons of gas or 2 latte's. Besides, you can keep your delay, run it after this piece so when you start, you get the first light right away and the second however many seconds later. Your spread the 12 amp strike surge (6x2) into two separate events. The first event 6 amps and the second event approx 9 amps, a 6 amp strike plus the operating current of the first light, which should be around 3 amps after 5 seconds or so.