| Author | Message | ||
     Oconnor |
Who's done what?Will the stock housing and power supply support 85 watt piaas? If not are the 55 watt bright enough to be worth the $$? I have used sylvania's in my car and think they are crap... | ||
| Mookie |
there is definately a difference in teh 55 watt bulbs. i wont say that its insanely bright, but anything is better than what i was using before. | ||
| Kaese |
Oconner, I know you said the Sylvania’s were garbage, but I got some anyway. I’ll put them in tonight, since one of the stock one’s were not working. I’ll see how they work. Really haven’t seen much else out there. I did get a clear tail light lens and a LED tail light from Autozone, but don’t think it is that bright. Ran across an English site where they sell LED’s and it is not the correct connection for the bulb. Sent them a email few days ago, but haven’t heard from them. Need to do some more research. | ||
| Trusty748 |
Kaese I got my LED tail light bulb from UK - h**p://aceparts.com and it fit right in. No mods needed. I got my clear tail lens from h**p://claussstudios.com in US. Both are excellent to deal with - and I'm in Oz. Trusty | ||
| Ckj |
I use the PIAA 85w Extreme Whites - No problems except them burning out too soon but just return them and get brand new ones b/c of the warranty | ||
| Ckj |
I am interested in replacing the low beam housing with a High beam. can someone give me info on this modification. Prices, time involved, etc. | ||
| Downundabueller |
CKJ- How long do the 85's last......or should I say not last? Is the housing still in good shape? I gotta do something about mine soon, real soon, I,m just worried about melting/fatiguing plastics and wire. | ||
| Dcmortalcoil |
Kaese, I got some LEDs (1156, 1157) for tail/brake light and turn signals from http://superbrightleds.com and they work fine. The 30LED ones fit right in with no mods. They are fairly cheap, $5-15 each. | ||
| Ckj |
I ride with both 85w on so they both have lasted about 4 months and the housing wiring, etc is fine. I do ride everyday so if this is your weekend toy then I think you will be fine with the 85w. Also changing them is very simple. | ||
| Fbolt |
I put the undertray in from American Sport Bike and it looks good, although fit-n-finish were not what I would have expected. I am looking for the front turn signals to be flush mounts. Anyone done this? | ||
| Sparky |
Timbo has put flush mount lights where the mirrors mount and uses bar end mirrors. Looks real trick. He's got pics somewhere on the Badweb. | ||
| Xb9 |
After 25K, my stock headlights were getting noticeably less efficient on my XB9R, so I pulled them off and disassembled them to see if there was a problem. Sure enough, the heat from the bulb has degraded the reflective coating inside the cheap plastic housing that is used on these Italian made ECIE headlamps. Personally, I thought they were sub-par even when new, the low beam really sucks. So I have been researching an upgrade, and have come up with a couple of options. 1. ECIE makes what looks to be a direct bolt in replacement projection beam headlamp that uses a 65W HB-3 (9005) bulb. It is ECE spec, not DOT. I have emailed them inquiring how I can get my hands on a set, but have not heard back from them. This option would be the easiest to install (bolt right in without modification, except the bulb wiring) but I'm not confident in how much of an improvement it will yield. 2. Hella 90MM units. These are supposed to be excellent high quality units for custom applications. Uses a 65 Watt H9 bulb, and the optics are top shelf which can make more of a difference than the bulb wattage. Glass lens and magnesium bodies. $57 ea. Hella also makes these in the Xenon HID E-code for a little more than $500 a pop! Too expensive for my blood! I've been looking at these and measuring up the stock mounting arrangement, and I think with some mods to the stock mounting plate and the fairing holes, one could get these to fit. I'm ordering a set and will post here any additional info as this project progresses.   | ||
| Spike |
XB9, Way to go on the research. That's the best aftermarket XB headlight information I've seen yet. Did your headlights suffer heat-related damage with stock wattage bulbs? Thanks, Mike L. | ||
| Oconnor |
I finally got tired enough of lame lights and bought piaa 55w superwhite (p# 15455) for the low beam and 55w extra ion amber bulb (p#13555) for the high beam to get me through winter with the rain and fog. The verdict is get an 85 watt for the low beam if you still have the inside reflector. The 55w amber is alot brighter than the stock high beam and should help in bad weather. I should be able to give the first fog report tomorrow morning and the first rain trial on thursday. | ||
| Xb9 |
Spike, Yes, used stock 55W bulbs for the first 12K. Then tried the PIAA 55w H3 superwhites - improved the high beam, but for some reason it seemed to make the low beam worse, so I went back to the stock bulb in the low beam. The low beam had the most reflector coating degradation. | ||
| Mikej |
"Sure enough, the heat from the bulb has degraded the reflective coating inside the cheap plastic housing that is used on these Italian made ECIE headlamps. " Who here sees an upcoming safety notice or recall on this one, raise your hand. XB9, Since you appear to have a camera handy, could you post a pic of the bad/degrading headlight so we can see exactly what the degradation looks like? Thanks. And in the mean time I'd look into taking your bike in to the dealership (if possible) and see if they will cover the degraded headlight under a warranty safety replacement. This being late Fall/eary Winter, headlights are sort of important. | ||
| Kaese |
I agree with that the reflective attributes of the lenses were not up to par. When I had mine out, the surface reminded me of tarnished brass. The 55W Sylvainia are a little better, but only have driven them at night with road spray. I rode in some fog today, but it was already light out. I'll think the Hella 90MM housings look like the way to go. If they bolt up without to much hassle, I'll probably go that route. edited by kaese on December 03, 2003 | ||
| Boulderbiker |
I've just taken the mindset of "heck with you I'm GOING to be seen" and leave my high beam on all the time. Ironically because of the beam pattern of the low nobody's figured that I had my high beam on, just figure its one heck of a bright low. so I haven't been flashed yet and I've even crossed paths with cops. Of course if I experience the same degradation thing you guys are all talking about I might go that route when I feel its deteriorated enough to warrant attention. | ||
| Xb9 |
Mikej, When I disassembled the low beam and saw the damage to the reflective coating, I tried to clean it with some glass cleaner, and the reflective coating wiped off! I couldn't believe it came off so easy. So I can't give you a decent picture of what the degradation looked like. I could get a pic of the high beam later, it wasn't as bad, but i currently have them on the bike. | ||
| Xb9 |
I just tried the same glass cleaner on another headlight housing I have off my salvage bike with only 800 miles on it, and the coating did not wipe off. So I guess the heat and duration(25K) seemed to have broken down the reflective coating inside the headlamp. What kind of got me started on this headlight upgrade thing was last August when I hit a frigging chunk of concrete in the road at night and bent/broke my front wheel. I didn't see it until the last minute with the low beam, and afterward got to thinking how crappy the lighting had become. Can't blame it on the lights totally, but it was a contributing factor. I was lucky I didn't go down. | ||
| Kaese |
DCMORTACOIL, received my Led rear lights from http://superbrightleds.com as you recommended and installed them. Much brighter than the Autozone rejects, the only ones I could find around here. Since the original bulb was not marked 1157 (Made in France BullS**! + number), wasn’t even sure it was a 1157. I took the safe route and ordered the 30 and the 12. The 12 wide illuminated brighter than the Autozone rejects. Thanks for the info, I am very happy. | ||
| Kaese |
Boulderbiker, I also run around with my high beams on and not as got a flash from an oncoming car. I have noticed that when I approach from the rear, a few begin adjusting their mirrors and then move one lane over to let me pass. I think it is partly due to the brighter aftermarket lights on the market and drivers are just used to brighter lights. XB9, We are anxiously awaiting your headlight upgrade. Thanks for being the test mule! | ||
| Kaese |
I have to mention that an a-hole in a Volvo station wagon decided to give me the finger at about dusk, last Friday. Guess the high beams work good enough to get me seen at night! | ||
| Boulderbiker |
Kaese, congrats you're #1. They say dusk is the worst time of day for accidents, nice to know you were SEEN. | ||
| Xb9 |
Ok, it looks like the Hella 90mm lights will work on the 'bolt, but it's a bit of work to get them mounted. Here's some preliminary photos, I started out with a junk fairing and headlight mounting bracket I had laying around. The lower outside mounting ears will need to be cut off the lights, but other than that, this is what it looks like:    oh yea, they are bright!! | ||
| Xb9 |
One more pic:  | ||
| Bud |
Xb9, Would you do me/us a favor, and post the hella part numbers ? And a yuropion question , the H9 bulbs shine in a strait line or is the light shining flat on the left and going up towards the right Gr,M | ||
| Boulderbiker |
It looks like you had to enlarge the holes in the fairing for the lamps is that the case? Also do they stick out further than the originals? Way to go on a creative solution. So I take it the difference is enormous. | ||
| Xb9 |
Bud, The headlamps I have are the DOT version and use a H9 bulb. There is a European E-code version, uses an H7 bulb. The Hella DOT version numbers are: 68136 & 68137. The connector is 87193A. The low beam pattern is a line straight across on the left, then a straight angle up to the right. I was told you can't see the difference of the beam pattern between the E-code and the DOT version on these. I haven't had it on the road (snow here) but it looks pretty damn bright on the wall. The Osram H9 bulbs these units come with have Xenon gas in them to give a whiter light, comparable to the PIAA Plasma bulb. H9 is a newer bulb design. Boulder, yes the holes need to be opened from 3 1/2" to about 3 3/4" . The protrusion of the lamps at the center of the lense is nearly identical to the stock lamps. | ||
| Xb9 |
I sourced the 90mm Hella lamps here: http://www.susquehanna.com/susq/hella/headlamp.htm#90mm Dave at Susquehanna knows lighting pretty well from what I gathered talking to him, he helped me out quite a bit. |
