| Author | Message | ||
     Wbeamer20 |
I decided to add a second set of HID's to my 08 1125r. Having a pretty rough time getting the ballasts to fit. Any ideas? I have been trying to work on two in the center of the headlights and two ziptied on the sides behind the parking light. Also, does anyone know how to get the park light out besides taking the headlight assembly apart? Those clips are so delicate I do not want to break them. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
pliers help with a gentle pull and rotating motion. two in the center and two on the 'shelf' portion of the fairing under the fairing stay | ||
| Bartone |
Ive been thinking about getting HIDS. any pictures of the low beams? and against a wall or down the road if possible | ||
| Wbeamer20 |
Good call boogiman. Worked just about perfectly. Could be prettier, could be uglier on the wiring. | ||
| Wbeamer20 |
Here are the highs and lows together. Didn't like the look of just one set of HID so I bought another set. Less than 100 on ebay for all four HIDs and the two leds.  | ||
| Syonyk |
Low HID, high 55W bulbs.  You can put a set of 55W bulbs in that have the same geometry, but a different base tab setup. A few minutes with tin snips and you'er good. I kept the high beams as incandescent because I tend to flash them, and because with the 55W highs on an 08, I have to turn them off at stoplights or I pull the system voltage way down. I went with the brighter lights to be seen, and quite honestly, I wouldn't recommend it if your goal is to "see" better. The stock setup is amazing, and doesn't contract your pupils like HIDs do - they fill up close too much, so it's harder to see at a distance. That said, I'm visible like a freight train coming down the road, which was my primary goal. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
you're still invisible. the HID's are great it's like having the sun sitting in your fairing. however it will not help you be seen at all. | ||
| Rpm4x4 |
I dissagree. I dont own any vehicles with HIDs but I personally notice vehicles with HIDs easier. Ive been thinking about getting them for that reason as well. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
okay i'm glad that you do. in my actual experience with my hid's on my bike here in florida i've not seen any reduction in near misses, i.e. people pulling out from side streets cutting me off etc. now i scan ahead and act accordingly so calling them near misses is a bit of a misnomer but the point remains the same based on my observations of the people in my riding area. | ||
| Timebandit |
if you want to increase visibility, how about a headlight modulator? a blinking light gets a lot more attention than a steady light. | ||
| Dannybuell |
Timebandit is right, modulators are very easy to see. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
but they are the death nell to an arc bulb... | ||
| Oldog |
.. (Message edited by oldog on May 01, 2012) | ||
| Timebandit |
well, that's better than a death knell to the rider!  Halogen modulators are pretty common. If they're designed well they actually prolong the life of the bulb. One option would be to put HID on your low beams and a modulator on your stock halogen high beams and have the best of both worlds. IME too many people will look right into a steady-on light and disregard it, as if it were just a reflection that wasn't important. They don't see anything that's big enough to hurt them, so nothing registers in their minds. I always used to think that soccer moms in minivans were the greatest threat on the road, because they were always paying attention to fighting kids in the back seat. Now i think the biggest threat is texters. When they glance up from their phone to peek at the road, they're only looking for big things that might be in their way that could hurt them. A steady light isn't interesting enough to distract them from what they're doing. Maybe a flashing light would be a better option. Getting their attention is the hardest thing to do, and I'm all for anything that might help. | ||
| Timebandit |
"You cant run a modulator on an HID lamp" You can. It turns out that the real problem is that there isn't a well designed modulating HID ballast for a bike application. Modulation of HID lamps is commonly used in industry to save on electricity costs. Warehouse lamps are available that use motion detectors to determine when people are not present, and modulate the 1000W lights down to a low power state to save electricity. When the sensor determines that a person is present, the light is rapidly brought up to full power. This method is much more efficient than turning off the lights and re-striking them, which would require several minutes to reach full power output. I designed an HID modulating ballast for the 400W metal halide lamps over my saltwater reef tank. The modulators are on a timer, which decreases the power to the array of HID lamps in order to simulate the passage of clouds over the reef. HID modulation can definitely be done. If you do it right, it actually prolongs bulb life. The one downside that you can't get around is that as you dim the bulb the color temperature of an HID lamp shifts to cooler values. For my saltwater reef application, the color shift is a desirable side effect. In reality the problem is not that HID modulation cannot be done, it's that nobody is marketing well designed HID modulator for a bike application. | ||
| Syonyk |
Oh, I still ride like I'm invisible, but there's pretty much no excuse for "I didn't see you." One option would be to put HID on your low beams and a modulator on your stock halogen high beams and have the best of both worlds. That's actually what I was planning to do, but the HID lows + 55W highs seem to be bright enough and visible enough that I never got around to doing it. Plus, the fairing is getting crowded up there. One thing that I found made a surprisingly large difference was going with white and yellow retroreflective stripes/chevrons on my helmet. When I rode with a black helmet, I had some white tape strips on that too. THOSE seem to be noticeable, and the chevrons are set up such that when I turn my head to clear me for a lane change, they're like a turn signal pointing in the direction I'm planning to move. |
