South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Got in touch with a guy selling HID bi-xenon headlight conversion kits (dipped and hi beam) to find out about fitting one to the SV mainly because riding all year round in all weathers i feel my lights are shit

Anyway this is the kits http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1 its £150 all in but there are some cheaper kits from china and taiwan on eBay

According to the spin, it draws less wattage then standard lights therefore using less power but giving 300% better lighting

Anyone fitted similar to a car or bike, apparently its just a case of plug and play

Usual problem is finding somewhere appropriate to put the ballast etc.
Let us know how you get on, good lights always a worthwhile improvement especially this time of year.

graham22 wrote:Usual problem is finding somewhere appropriate to put the ballast etc.

I was thinking in side the front fairing panals

Better check the size of the ballasts to make sure they'll fit

I went to Newton Scabbots chav car accesory shop and brought a pair of

"Sportz Blue" bulbs. A tenner for a pair. Put one of them in my old bike and it made a huge differance.

They were rated at 80/100W. I worked out that one of these would work in my old bike.

If you use Ohm's law,

P = V · I - where power P is in watts, voltage V is in volts and current I is in amperes.

So two 100w bulbs draw about 17amps of current @12volts. Find out what your main headlight fuse is rated at.

I realise that flicking my "pass light switch" would probably blow my headlight fuse, but how often do you use that anyway?

Would certainly save you a few pennies.

Did try high wattage bulb (80/100 I think) in a single light 1000EXUP years ago, this actually melted the plug onto the bulb, never found out if any wiring etc was also damaged but worked OK with new plug & bulb.

Another time, managed to buy a 55/100 bulb for the same bike, fitted it the morning of the MoT, rode bike to MOT & bulb had already blown, MOT failed unless I bought new 55/60 bulb for a fiver (few years ago mind) damn annoying as I had a perfectly good one at home on the bench!!

I have found that some of these 'blue' bulbs do seem to have a shorter life than usual (used to use them in my clear lens 'blade and they looked very smart.

Just be careful with higher wattage particularly on modern bikes where everything, including wiring, is lighter weight.


Ash - yes re ballast, not sure how crittical positioning/mounting of these boxes has to be. Is your SV 2xdip & 2xhigh beam? Are there 2 boxes & how do they work ie 1 per light or 1 per dip and 1 for high beam. Reason I ask is would like to upgrade SD lighting which is 1 bulb for dip & 1 for high beam - room behind cowling is bit of an issue - infact room anywhere is an issue as everything's so tightly packed in!!

Yeah the SV is 2 hi beam and 2 dipped
The sets are bi-xenon which means both bulbs work on dipped and both on hi beam
1 box per bulb so 2 boxes will need mounting (emailed the guy re: size of the boxes)

So technically if you get the bi-xenon car kit which is 2 boxes, 2 bulbs etc then you'll have 2 hi and 2 dipped They sell bike kits but they're single box/bulb sets and 2 of these are more expensive then the car kit. They also sell a kit that wil work on just hi-beam which is about £15 cheaper but point less IMHO

As for normal Halogen bulbs the SVs standard bulbs are 45/45 i fitted Philips all weather bulbs (£12 per pair ) which are H4s 55/60, daren't go any higher the that for risk of melting the plastic bulb covers

Yeah good point. Was just a thought. Let us know how you get on with these new bulbs, I could do with some brighter ones on my gixxer.

Jonny wrote:Yeah good point. Was just a thought. Let us know how you get on with these new bulbs, I could do with some brighter ones on my gixxer.

Dont be confused, its not just bulbs.. its a whole kit consisting of balasts, starters, relys and loom, the whole shhbang to give you lights simmiler to a new BMW

The ballest boxes are 3 x 3.5 x 1.25 inches not to big to mount inside my fairing panels

I would be very carefull what you buy.
Most of my cars have had HID Xenon lights and they dont work on Hi beam.

The reason is that the buld takes time to charge before it lights.
When you switch them on it take about 3-5 sec before you get full light and the same to turn of. You have all seen the cars with lights that fade out when turned of.

I have some very good bulbs no bigger than Std and get that HID type of light. Some peps on the site have noticed.

As soon as I find the box ( in the shed ) I will post up where I got them.
Trust me they made a big differance and only about £12 per bulb.

Bondy wrote:I would be very carefull what you buy.
Most of my cars have had HID Xenon lights and they dont work on Hi beam.

The reason is that the buld takes time to charge before it lights.
When you switch them on it take about 3-5 sec before you get full light and the same to turn of. You have all seen the cars with lights that fade out when turned of.

I have some very good bulbs no bigger than Std and get that HID type of light. Some peps on the site have noticed.

As soon as I find the box ( in the shed ) I will post up where I got them.
Trust me they made a big differance and only about £12 per bulb.

Bondy is so right they do take time to warm Up !

We run the Gas discharge lights on the Phaseone race bikes they are bloody great, the bikes have been crashed and they still work !

Great lights but not sure about how good they would be for road use.

Age

Gsxrage wrote:

Bondy wrote:I would be very carefull what you buy.
Most of my cars have had HID Xenon lights and they dont work on Hi beam.

The reason is that the buld takes time to charge before it lights.
When you switch them on it take about 3-5 sec before you get full light and the same to turn of. You have all seen the cars with lights that fade out when turned of.

I have some very good bulbs no bigger than Std and get that HID type of light. Some peps on the site have noticed.

As soon as I find the box ( in the shed ) I will post up where I got them.
Trust me they made a big differance and only about £12 per bulb.

Bondy is so right they do take time to warm Up !

We run the Gas discharge lights on the Phaseone race bikes they are [Censored] great, the bikes have been crashed and they still work !

Great lights but not sure about how good they would be for road use.

Age

I am always right

These are the puppys
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-HONDA-CBR-FUL ... dZViewItem

Very cheap and very good give them a go. Just get the right fit for your bike.!

The way the bulbs in the set work in the bi-xenon kit is by a metal cover that goes over the bulbs when there on dipped, and move off when there on hi beam so the bulb itself is always charged

Hmmmm wonder if I can get one for the TRX - anything's gotta be better than the candle it's got (halogen candle too!!!)

So a solinoid moves the cap at a rate of ?sec

And uses more power !

I am not convinced Good luck.