HID anyone??

So I did an HID low beam conversion on my VFR12 shortly after I got it. The results were just awesome as I expected. I've done the conversion on most of my vehicles and the difference is nothing short of amazing. I figured I would do the high beam at a later time. When I decided to go ahead and do the high beam, I opted to buy somewhere other than DDM Tuning, since they had kinda pissed me off the last two times that I bought from them. They used to be a great company to deal with, but they've definitely changed the way they do business and I'm not diggin' it. Besides, it was cheaper to buy a set of two off Ebay then to buy one from DDM. So I bought a set of two and installed one in my high beam and threw the other set in my toolbox just in case I ever needed another. Well it turns out that the HID conversion for the high beam isn't nearly as desirable as for the low beam. For one thing, the light spread just isn't really all that good with the high beam. Second, I don't know about you all, but typically when I need high beam, I need it NOW! And of course the HIDs take a few seconds to come up to temp, so that's two strikes against using it in the high beam. I still love it in the low beam...absolutely phenomenal light output without blinding oncoming drivers. But I put the stock Halogen bulb back in the high beam. So now I find myself with two extra HID light kits that will fit the VFR12. I'm too much of a hoarder already when it comes to car and bike parts, so I think I'd rather sell these off. So if anyone is interested in doing an HID conversion on their VFR12 low beam, I'd be happy to sell you one of these two kits I have. They come with everything you need and aren't too awful to install (getting the stock bulb out is half the battle). I'll ship them anywhere in the lower 48 for $20 apiece. So if anybody is interested, shoot me a PM or EM. I can take Paypal for it. I'll even do whatever I can in the tech assistance dept. when you go to install. I can't overemphasize how sweet HIDs are over the stock halogen. Oh yeah, and I should mention that these are 35 watt, 6000k. The 55 watt are the ones that blind oncoming drivers, and 6000k is mostly white with just a hint of blue. Perfect IMHO. Let me know if I can hook a brutha up.

Laterz

 

HID for Hi beam is no bueno for show and tell only :biggrin:......Take too long, use the silverstar

 

plus there is another draw back to the HID High beam (besides the warm up time). The circuit to turn on the HID bulb only has a finite amount of uses. so 'flicking' or 'flashing' you HID High beam will actually shorten the life span of the unit.

..I would make an argument (respectfully) to leave the plain old 35 watt 'yellow' high beam in place. Why?
because it looks odd at night.
seeing a pale blue light and a yellow light on top of each other looks odd and draws attention to you.
one more thing from going Splat from a Cager.

my 2 cts
cheers
chad

 

That may be true, but I suspect that number of cycles is fairly high. I don't use the high beam every time I ride...at least not since converting to HID. But I do use the low beam EVERY time. So which ballast do you suppose would wear out first? If I ever reach that point, I'll let you know. I converted my car, my wife's car, and both my daily driver street bikes to HID, all some time ago except for the VFR which was just a few months ago. All are still running the original bulbs and ballasts so far, with the only failure being a relay that failed and was replaced under warranty.

That's a very subjective point. I'd argue back that the HIDs are such attention getters by themselves, that the oddness you speak of is a moot point. Here's an example. My son-in-law took an MSF course and got his motorcycle license about a year ago, but had never actually ridden on the street. Last summer he asked if we could go for a ride together. So I put him on my 125 Derbi which I'd already fitted with dual HIDs. I was on the VFR. Since it was his first time on the street, he was pretty timid on the bike, and no matter how much I tried to let him catch up, he tended to hang pretty far back. It was a bright sunny day, but no matter how far behind he got, I could look in my mirrors and see those HIDs back there in the distance. The light is just so piercing even in broad daylight. We went out like this on two separate occasions and the results were the same both times. Bright sunny days, but I always knew he was back there thanks to those HIDs. We've all seen cars with HIDs on them, you know how easy they are to spot anywhere, anytime. Honestly, the two different colors of light (HID vs Halogen) kind of bug me, but that's a personal preference thing. And I'm not just saying all this to try and sell those two HID kits.

It's not gonna bother me that much to put them back in the box and put them on a shelf in the garage for spares. But every time I go out in any of my vehicles, I never cease to be pleased and amazed by the light output from those suckers. I'm sold on them, especially now that they're so damned affordable. And unless I'm using the high beams on my car which are also HID (solenoid type with one bulb for both high and low beam), I never get flashed by other drivers. I tried it in the High beam on the VFR and didn't like it for the reasons I stated. 'nuff said. But you couldn't pay me to take it out of the low beam. It's priceless.
MHO,
D DAve

 

I retrofitted hi and low beams with 55w HIDs. There are photos here elsewhere...

I'm a proponent of using them. I run the high beam during the day. Everyone notices me. I've only be brighted a handful of times in 7500 miles. So, while very bright, oncoming traffic doesn't appear to be too upset by them.

The lag time for the high beam to fully fire up doesn't bother me. I think it is a worthwhile trade.

My friend also got them for his Bimmer for our coast to coast ride. The color made him easy to spot in traffic as we wound our way thru cities.

I highly suggest them.

Brent

 

I tried a HID high beam, might be OK during the day but at night when you have to dip and back on the delay can be life threatening if you are fanging it, I would not recommend it for night use. Probably why most cars fitted with them only have them on low beam. A good 100W Philips is unbeatable, and no, they won't melt the plastic as you will only be using them at speed with a cooling airflow.

 

Rusty my friend, you should really read the whole thread and not just the last post when you're coming into the game late.
Cheers!

 

Sorry, skipped a couple.

 

I am doing a low beam HID conversion right now. High beam will stay halogen for the time being. If I feel the need to upgrade further, it'll likely be a bixenon module retrofit in place of the high beam. It's a bit of a surgery, but really the only way to do it right. That way, the bixenon stay on - as another low beam. High heam simply lifts the cut-off to expose the entier beam pattern.

 

Doing the same surgery here. Mono Xenon. I almost never use the high beam so figured I'd leave it alone.
Pretty difficult bike to hide everything out of the rain's way IMHO. Dismantled the whole right side now and it's all tucked away nicely.
Really the only way to do it like you say, the bike gets a beating from the elements as it is and I have another 2 years to go. Got enough bolts to replace after 3 years of them rusting away.

 

That's great. Post some pics of the install and the beam pattern once you are done.

I've already bought the bixenon kit: Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 6.0 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc I've been just lazy and haven't gotten to it. Not exactly looking forward to dismantling the whole front end again. So kinda waiting for another farkle or things to do while I'll be at it.

 

Gee do I have to? :behindsofa:

J/K, I'll break out the camera. Got mine indirectly from pilotxenon.com. Seems the "bi" part works slightly different there.

I did a bunch of stuff while I was at this chore. Had to think long and hard about where and how to install it all.
Don't think I could have done it quite so smoothly without the workshop manual.

Pics later.

 

+1 on the service manual. I actually got two. The local Honda dealer, where I bought a lot of stuff from, had 1 each for the DCT and non-DCT '10 models, which apparently they don't need anymore. The parts manager knew I'm one of the few that have a VFR1200 so asked me if I wanted one. I only needed the non-DCT but he gave me the DCT book for cheap just to clear his shelf. It covers both models, so I just leave one at the garage and one in the house.

I don't think I would've braved the VFR1200 fairing disassembly without the shop manual. Saw the youtube video after I did mine. That would've helped too. The wiring diagram is a must have. I have it enlarged so I can read the fineprint easier.

I packed the HID ballast, relay, and other switchgear inside the left middle fairing. It's okay, but I may reshuffle things around a bit when I open it up again. Right now they are somewhat blocking the path to the air intake snorkle to the airbox. Granted it's on one side only. The other thing is that in a hard rain, all that will get wet, which is more my concern.

 

Okay apologies for the late reply. My bike lift decided to crap out on me so I had to address that at the same time.

Let me try this. First, how I use the workshop manual in the garage. Just as an attachment test.

 

Seems to work.

I've done quite a bit of soldering behind the left middle fairing so figured I'd mount this stuff in the right top fairing. Maybe one comment: the air intake snorkel is IMHO not obstructed. It's not as if this bike has RAM air or more importantly, that I've ever hit the rev limiter in 6th gear. So the intake gets all the air it needs despite its location and the closed nature of the fairing.

Oh the pics of the lights are with stock high beam on. Looks pretty pitiful and I'll put a 100w bulb in there as per Rustybit's suggestion at the earliest opportunity. The further I got from the bike, the least likely I could get a good enough shot as the 6000K light would over-expose the pic.

No pics of the beam pattern just yet. That would mean an unlit street and an opportunity to take the Nikon with me.
I've had a new helmet for 2 weeks now and haven't even had a chance to try it properly. 3 weeks vacation and I'm riding the bike much less than when I'm working!

 

Forgot one. No obstruction, least amount of water possible getting in, etc. The connectors themselves are waterproof and the relay and ballast will have a hard time getting wet at all.
Sorry about the wrong focus in the pic but you get the idea.
The wires you do see are those for the connectors coming from the heated glove thermostat. I just leave them there so I can connect the gloves at any time. It's 8 months of winter these days anyway...

Hope this helps! :smile:

 

Beam pattern: no riding in the dark in these long "summer" days so could only see a little of the pattern in a tunnel. Looked okay-ish.
However, contrary to previous HID's I've owned, this Xenon one doesn't seem to require lowering to prevent blinding other traffic. I had lowered it (looks easy in the manual - if you remove the forks) but it was too low.
Just adjusted it back so should be perfect now.

 

Hid's are only meant to be in a projection style light. the reason for the projector is so that you don't blind on comming traffic the projector aims the light down the road and not up into oncoming traffics eyes without it the HID's are like you having your high beams on all the time and you blind oncoming traffic, you want them to be able to see you which they won't be able to if they have to squint because your lights are too bright. My Mazda CX7 grand touring came standard with HID's on the low beam and has a halogen high beam the two work together when the high beams are on and it gives a better light with the two different colours as well as not being in the projector you get a larger spray of light.

 

That is not necessarily true. otstir:

It depends on how the reflectors and lenses were constructed, the point of highest intensity of light from the bulb - usually the filament - (placement of which can vary between HID bulb manufacturers), and how all of it fits together to ensure the correct placement of the filament in the designed focal point of the light system. Suspension adjustments also affect the overall aim of the lights.

I have checked the pattern that the HIDs in my 2007 make, and have mapped it out pretty well. It was not significantly different than the original halogens - mostly the HIDs (in this installation) just illuminate a longer stretch of the road.

Since installing the HIDs in my bike, I have only been flashed once at night. That time, I happened to be changing lanes and was briefly pointed more in the direction of the oncoming traffic - the HIDs are most definitely brighter than the same wattage rated halogens, but the pattern is mostly down and away from oncoming traffic. The cagers most annoyed with me seem to be the ones directly in front of me at traffic lights, etc.,:laser: but I got that even with new halogen bulbs.

One thing I do know for sure. I am way more visible in the daytime with the HIDs. (even though I still ride like no one can see me)
I chose the bulbs with a 6k color temp - which are mostly bright white, with a slight blueish tinge. On slightly cloudy or even partly sunny, I can see some illumination of mailboxes and lower street signs to the right side of the street. I consider that a big plus for visibility.
I also move around in the lane when there aren't any cars (or other bikes) in my immediate vicinity on the road (when there is possible oncoming/turning or crossing traffic, so hopefully, I am increasing the chances that cagers who might be inclined turn in front of me, or pull out into me will see the me - and won't hit me since I may be somewhat more visible. The eye is drawn to movement, and especially unusual movements. So the combination of the HIDs, and changes in lane placement hopefully draws a little more attention :horn: to me and the bike so it makes it less likely for me to get run over. :fear:

 

Thank you!

+1