| Author | Message | ||
     Mhlunsford |
Bike is 2000 M2 still stock lighting. want to mainly be more seen during the day. trying to decide if HID which seems a lot cheaper and brighter or the LED lights ? Any opinions on this ? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Being seen is more about offering a wider shape for morons-I mean other drivers to see. I suggest a pair of driving lights so that you look like a triangle with the original headlight. | ||
| Kalali |
Just to add (and agree), I think changing the yellow blinkers to a combo blinker/running lights is a more effective approach. Actually the whitish HID bulbs may be better at night but are worse than the OEM in sunlight. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The HID will give you more light and will be cheaper in theory. But I don't think you can achieve the "more light" part. The M2 housing is designed for a traditional bulb, and throws a fairly broad beam. If you put a HID in that is brighter than a normal bulb, you will see better, and you will blind everyone else. So you can decide to not put in the paint blistering bulb because you don't want to be rude, or you can decide not to do it so that people driving a 5000 pound car at 70 mph and heading right towards you aren't suddenly blinded. On an M2 you also have the high beam problem... HID's don't have one bulb with two beams. You can get away with it on XB's because there are two separate enclosures with two bulbs. I put the HID in the low beam and leave a filament high beam bulb. The LED has the potential to "solve" this problem, but at a much higher cost. You, AFAIK, replace the whole assembly with an LED assembly. This lets it put out more light because the assembly has lenses designed to properly aim the LED's so they can be bright but directional enough that they aren't blinding other drivers. I also assume they have the high beam also built in, so you can use it. And LED's don't have the "delay on" feature that a HID has where it needs a few seconds to warm up before it actually puts out enough light. If it were me, and it was a tuber, I'd skip the HID conversion and either live with filament bulbs, or upgrade to the LED enclosure upgrades. I'd stall for another year, as the way the LED advancement is going, I expect some fairly massive price drops and performance increases in the next 12 to 24 months. | ||
| Oldog |
Mh the glass fixture that the H4 goes into may be openable for cleaning if that will help. if the reflector is plastic, I would avoid HID I have the Glass holder for the X1, the heat and UV destroy the mirroring on that too. | ||
| Dave_02_1200 |
I have a DDM Tuning HID on my 2002 M2 and it is so bright that it melts cars into little puddles. It is so bright that it burns the paint off low-flying aircraft. Don't get one of these if you don't want to be noticed. Seriously, it was not over $50, it has been working for three years, and it is bright as hell. | ||
| Kalali |
Dave, you're absolutely right about night illumination but what about during day and direct sun? I find the more yellowish halogen bulb to stand out better during day. May be its just me... | ||
| S1owner |
The hid kits i have installed utilize the stock bulb for low beam | ||
| Dave_02_1200 |
My kit is a Hi/Low single bulb that moves in and out to focus high and low beams. The light is a little bit blue and too bright to look at. In terms of illumination at night: turns night into day In terms of conspicuity during the day: Too bright to ignore. However, I have a Kriss headlight modulator with a PIAA halogen bulb on my Suzuki Bandit and that gets attention too. In terms of increasing visibility that set up might be even better than the HID. Both HIDs and headlight modulators can work well and cost a lot less than a LED headlight. (Message edited by Dave 02 1200 on January 23, 2014) |
