| Author | Message | ||
     Theirishbueller |
So thinking about finally ordering DDM's hids for my lightning, buy had a question about which system you guys are ordering. I know I want the 35watt 6000k's, and also that I need H7s. They've got the "car" slim ballast systems for $35 each, which I've always heard of everyone ordering 2 of, or a motorcycle section with either a single slim ballast for 22.50 or a dual kit for $35. Says it's the same as the car systems, so can I get my hi's and low's for $35? Sorry to beat the dead horse.  (Message edited by theirishbueller on December 14, 2010) | ||
| Theirishbueller |
Car http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim -Ballast-35W-or-55W Single motorcycle http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-35W-55W-Sing le-Motorcycle-HID-Kit Dual motorcycle http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-35W-55W-Dual -Motorcycle-HID-Kit | ||
| Sifo |
It's a great deal, isn't it! Yes, you have it correct. My only concern about using these on my hi-beam is that they take a few seconds to come up to full power. I have the 55 watt on my low beam though and my high beam is almost obsolete, so I'm thinking of getting one for the high beam. BTW my low beam is wired to stay on all the time so I would never have the issue of not having a light lit while switching between hi and low beams. You may find it cramped getting the electronics under the fly screen with 2 units. I think some have solved it by changing the horn mount. To do mine I would definitely have to relocate the horn out from under the fly screen, but I have a number of non-stock items stuffed in there already. I've never had a car flash hi-beams at me because I'm blinding them, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 55 watt system, at least for the high beam. You can never see too far down the road at night.  | ||
| Theirishbueller |
True, well from what I've read about their hids is that they're all very bright. So I think I'll just go with the 35w to save the electrical system the extra strain maybe? Also thinking about not running relays, but I do want to do both so I still have an actual low/hi beam effect (especially if it's the dual motorcycle set for $35), along with the little wire flip trick to keep the low beam on all the time. I'll have to see about space too because I'm also thinking about shoving a stebal mini horn's compressor in there too at the same time. I'm not too keen on electrical stuff though so I haven't style settled on anything there. | ||
| Iman501 |
i had a thread earlier that had a lot to say with about the DDM lights, and some others. i ordered mine, they havent arrived yet, but should within the next few days! | ||
| Delta_one |
yea you don't need 55W I am actually thinking about selling my 55w to get 35w they are SOOOO bright people don't like to be in front of me on a ride that goes to dusk. and with my D&D they don't want to be behind me either.  | ||
| Terrys1980 |
I'll have to see about space too because I'm also thinking about shoving a stebal mini horn's compressor in there too at the same time. If your handy with a dremel and live close to a hardware store you can do like I did on my Firebolt. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/574756.html?1277335973 | ||
| Theirishbueller |
Yeah that's the plan so far, seperating it, and sticking the compressor behind the fly screen and the horn somewhere Terry has his. Guess I won't be doing clubmans too, probably won't be able to fit the cables in the fly screen with all that other crap.oh well. | ||
| Rudy |
Can the electrical system handle running both high and low beam simultaneously with the 55w HID setup? I didn't realize that HIDs had gotten to the point where they were so cheap! I've always thought the lights on my xb could be better... now they can be! | ||
| Sifo |
The 55w HID is supposed to draw less current than the stock bulb. I ran both beam on for a couple of years on the stock set up, so it should be no problem at all. I was a bit chicken though and ran a new fused wire for my HID with a relay controlled by the stock headlight wiring. It's still a pretty easy and cheap modification doing it that way. | ||
| Theirishbueller |
Alright! So I've got my 35watt, h7 dual HIDs and a Stebel nautilus compact all ordered. Anyone have any ideas on the best and safest way to run the wiring for all of it at the same time? Could I run one big fused power from the battery to power the horn's compressor and the lights? Relays? I've got some time until it all gets here to figure this all out luckily, any ideas are appreciated. | ||
| Terrys1980 |
When using 55w HID, its the current draw at the initial start up that over time could damage the wiring. Anyone have any ideas on the best and safest way to run the wiring for all of it at the same time? It is easiest to run the wires from the front to the battery compartment if you remove the lower section of the air box. Just run the wires along with the factory wires and be sure to use some wire loom to protect it. Could I run one big fused power from the battery to power the horn's compressor and the lights? I would suggest running separate dedicated and fused wire for power going to the light relay/s and horn relay.. The Stebel horn can draw up to 20 amps by itself. | ||
| Petebueller |
55W HIDs is crazy. Apart from the light output, HIDs are longer so they put the heat closer to the lenses and if the lenses are plastic like XB-S or XB-X they cloud and melt. 35W HIDs are illegal unless the vehicle came with them and the lights are self leveling. And then aftermarket HIDs are not optimised for Halogen reflectors. A lot of the light output becomes scatter. I ran an HID high for a a year or so and it was a pain. If did a quick high flash the EMF would kill the speedo and I'd have to wait 10 mins with the bike turned off for te speedo to work again. When I turned high on it was slow to come on and when I had to turn the high off the difference in power between low and high meant I was temporarily blind. I have Hellas and a Twinlight driver on my Firebolt and I have the problem that the low is too bright for the cars I follow. I'm working on fitting a 35W H8 to low beam to replace the 55W H7. The Twinlight Driver with Philips +50% bulbs has more forward focused light than HIDs. It can be configured to be legal and it has a balanced look because both bulbs are running on high and low beam. It has delayed startup so that the battery and the bulbs last longer. 35W HIDs in a Firebolt maybe but 55W HIDs in anything is unsafe and unusable. | ||
| Ronmold |
I would run 2 14ga fused at the bat instead of 10 or 12 ga. Imagine laying on the horn in some dangerous situation at night and then your lights go out because of a shorted horn motor! You don't need a ground wire to the battery but while you're in there fix the factory one for the flyscreen. Grounds: http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv141/ronmold/U ly%20flyscreen%20grounds/?albumview=slideshow Stebel: http://s678.photobucket.com/albums/vv141/ronmold/U ly%20Stebel/?albumview=slideshow | ||
| Theirishbueller |
Thanks for the tip Ronmold. Ok so I run 2 fused (size?) 14ga power lines from the battery up front, horn gets it's own relay (size? maybe it'll come with one...), each hid ballast gets it's own relay (sizes?) All grounded to the same spot? I'm fairly certain I can handle putting all this stuff on, I just want to make sure I've selected the right components to go together. I plan on soldering and shrink wrapping everything I can, I just want to do a clean install. Thanks for the tips guys, keep em coming! | ||
| Petebueller |
If you are going to do it run an earth and a live. Put a fuse on the live as close as you can to the battery. A short between the fuse and the battery can cause the battery to explode or catch fire. You run the earth to each ballast. Relay earth can be from anywhere. You need a relay for live to each ballast triggered by the headlight wiring. You do the dual light wire swap so that that the low beam is triggered from the position light wiring. (Message edited by Petebueller on December 16, 2010) | ||
| Petebueller |
20 Amp fuse It it isn't the continuous that is the worry, it is the inrush on startup. | ||
| Sifo |
To make it look nice and professional take as many wires as you are going to run and wrap them up with electrical tape before running them along the frame and into the fly screen. Leave plenty to trim to fit and get the front sorted out under the fly screen. You can easily wrap more tape on them under the seat if needed. Trim the wires as needed at the battery end. Add zip ties as needed to hold the new harness to the stock harness and most people will never notice that you've changed your wiring. It takes just a little bit more planning, but it's worth it IMO. | ||
| Toona |
I got an email from DDM today stating that the 35w ballasts were on back order for another week or so. They have the 55w ballasts on hand and can ship immediately. | ||
| Sifo |
55W HIDs is crazy. Apart from the light output, HIDs are longer so they put the heat closer to the lenses and if the lenses are plastic like XB-S or XB-X they cloud and melt. I believe that is inaccurate. The bulb is supposed to be the same for the 55w as the 35w. Just the electronics piece is different, which is slightly longer on the 55w making is slightly harder to fit behind the fly screen, but still not much of a problem. Has anyone burned their lens on an XB? I haven't heard of it yet. Mine is holding up fine. | ||
| Petebueller |
HID bulbs are longer than Halogen Bulbs. While 35W halogens are thought of as cooler, the tip is closer to the headlight lens. There are new shorter HID bulbs and these would be preferred. I found this topic on the net for example http://cbr250.com/forum/thread-2436-page-1.html CBR250RR tyga burning the lenses with 35W HIDs. 55W HIDs are harder on the parts of the lens and reflector that were not designed for that type of heat. Lightning lenses melt with stock bulbs http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/212631.html I ran a 35W HID high for a couple of years and didn't like it. For one it was too bright if I didn't dip quick enough for oncoming traffic. So I am biased against HIDs. Bit like an ex-smoker. This is a link to a Triumph Forum http://www.tiger1050.com/index.php?option=com_smf& Itemid=26&topic=16577.0 You have to log on to read it, so Ill quote one of the posts below. Reply #4 “I've got the 55W HID for low beam and yes, it will peal the paint off a car in front. However, in some ways it's even worse - the contrast between lit and un-lit parts of the road is even greater, and the black hole on RH bends is really bad. Switching on high beam adds zero to visibility.” I found 35W more than ample. | ||
| Sifo |
Sorry, I thought you were saying the 55w HID was a longer bulb than the 35w HID. Comparing to the stock bulb you are correct. I will read those links when I have time. I'm not sure you can compare the results of a Buell Lightning with another bike though. The reflector makes a big difference. The halogens on our Street Triple for example shine much more light into the eyes of oncoming traffic than my Buell does. Great for daytime visibility, not so much for night riding. You really see the difference pulling into the garage. There's no need to light the ceiling the way the Striple does. Goto go right now... | ||
| Petebueller |
Hi Sifo I understood the confusion over the length. From my experience with the 35W HID I just think 55 is over the top. The guy posting about the big difference between light and dark with them I can well imagine. I could lose vision when I dipped from the HID high to the halogen low. There was a big adjustment for the eyes to make. Because HIDs are longer, Halogen reflectors don't focus all of the light from them. The light near the tip comes out as scatter and doesn't necessarily give better distance vision. I've changed to more efficient reflectors and the halogen bulbs are fed through a power harness. My low beam is now very bright. It doesn't worry oncoming but it worries drivers that I follow. A couple of times on dark roads I've had big 4-wheel drives pull over to let me pass and then follow me with 4 driving lights on. They are trying to tell me something. At night in the city the low is fine; just dark country roads are the problem. I'm looking to get an adaptor plate built so I can run a 35W H8 in low beam and see if that is bright enough otherwise I'll need to get baffling added to the reflector. Everything I do leads to something else to be done :-( | ||
| Sifo |
Not meaning to arguing who wright/wrong I think some facts need to be pointed out. The link on the CBR250 doesn't really tell us much. I found that the CBR250 comes stock with 35w bulbs. Jumping to a 55w HID very well could melt the lens, but that doesn't tell us anything about the lightning set up that comes stock with 55w bulbs. This guy was also complaining about burning the reflector and people chimed in about the longer bulb melting the lens. Also that fact that someone had one melt with a stock bulb probably tells us that something was wrong with the original bulb causing overheating. Regardless of the exact cause, it has nothing to do with HIDs. The guy with the triumph simply thought he had too much light with 55w HIDs. I'm not sure when that would be an issue with me, but clearly someone thought so. I just went out to my bike in a freezing cold garage and turned on both lights and held my hands on the lenses as they warmed up. The stock high beam felt warmer as they warmed up. I don't know if that would hold true after a longer burn period or not. It was just a very quick experiment. Before I got my 55w HID I did ask for advice here. A number of folks said they had no problems with the 55w HID on Lightnings. I am one more in that camp so far, of course that could change with time. I haven't seen anyone chiming in with a burnt/melted lens or reflector on a Lightning from any HID system yet. Believe me when I say that if I'm wrong about the 55w system, I would like to know about it before I melt something. I'm just not seeing that come up on any of the HID threads, but I keep looking. Bottom line is that it seems many are having good luck with 35w and 55w systems. Both are an improvement over the stock bulbs. The reflector on the low beam side does a very good job of keeping most of the light below the light if it is adjusted correctly. I think with a light like our Street Triple has would be a very different story. Any modification has a certain amount of risk involved, this is no different. At this point though, I'm of the opinion that it's a pretty safe mod for the Lightnings. My mind is open to being proved wrong anytime though.  | ||
| Petebueller |
As I said I'm a bit like a reformed smoker when it comes to HIDs. | ||
| Sifo |
Fair enough. Opinions will vary. The facts part can be tough to wade through though. I can understand what you are saying with an HID high beam and halogen low beam. I've got the opposite set up and the hi beam is just about useless at this point. Actually thinking about a second HID for the high beam. I imagine that with better light on low beam you wouldn't have that problem. I think those 4x4s might be trying to tell you not to follow with your brights on.  | ||
| Petebueller |
They are telling me the low is too bright for sure. I've had them levelled twice by an autoelec and they say they are correct and legal. When I follow a car the beam isn't shining above the trunk and certainly not in the rear view. The are just bright. People have commented that on track days they can pick my bike because of the bright light. I my case I'm sensitive to the fact that I have too much light output, and its not a case where you can never have too much. | ||
| Miami78 |
When cagers stop trying to kill us on the road is when I'll start caring if my HID might be too bright. Let them get run off the road once or twice cause someone "couldn't see them", and see if they still bitch about a bright light in their mirror, or if they just flip the little lever on the rearview and go on with life. | ||
| L8_br8ker |
  i took out part of the horn bracket and just screwed the rest of the horn right back in the low beams are on thier own circuit, using the stock hotwire for a relay switch, I used a delay timer, and new 10 ga. power wire, set to 30 seconds, so no lights are on while starting the bike, (easier on the battery), the high beams are on thier stock wire for power, its a ddm 35 motorcycle set up, and it lights the road very very well,using less power than stock, it was a easy install, all is soldered, I just haven't put wire loom on the rear stuff yet, its on for over a year, and I love it. I have it so both are on with the high beam switch on, but only the high beam is on the stock wiring, so its less load than stock. | ||
| Petebueller |
I relocated the horn on my Firebolt as well and used the space for the ballast. Took a bit to get the horn to be as loud as it should be. If it is mounted rigidly it doesn't seem to work well - just a dull beep. |
