| Author | Message | ||
     Cmgaviao |
So, Im getting ready to head south of the border and even though I dont plan on ever riding at night, you can never have too much light (or free juice for the GPS). Anybody have a general consensus on best HID kit to upgrade with? Or will any of the $50 specials on fleabay do the trick? (Message edited by cmgaviao on June 13, 2012) | ||
| Argentcorvid |
the projector-style kits are too long to fit our housings without extra bracketry. most people on here use the kit from DDMtuning with good results | ||
| Cmgaviao |
sweet..! cheaper than fleabay. Thanks for the link! | ||
| Fordrox |
I've run the 55w DDM kit for a few years now and love them. | ||
| Schwara |
still waiting for a rainy weekend to get my 35w DDMs in, if you are gonna be out and about for awhile you might even want to pick up a spare to throw in with emergency stuff just in case ... since they are pretty cheap, someone out here has been posting lately that they keep burning them out, but most people seem to have no problems, remember to do the both on mod if you plan to replace both high and low beams | ||
| Jonsocal |
I am also looking into replacing my standard lighting to something brighter. I like the idea of HID lights but has anyone attempted to use a bright LED system? It is far less taxing on the electrical system and every bit as bright or brighter than the HID systems. If someone has had luck with this, please let me know. (sorry for the hijack.) | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I've had DDM's products for about 10k miles. No problems. During installation, it is possible to do the install without removing the headlight pod, but access is a LOT easier with the pod off. | ||
| Rwven |
3 years and 30K miles. No problems. I bought the 35W units and they put out plenty of light. I just plugged them into the stock harness. http://www.vvme.com/search-result?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_options=1&in_cat=140&option_7=-1&option_1=4&option_30=-1&option_31=-1 (Message edited by rwven on June 13, 2012) | ||
| Schwiggy |
I notice on both of the options listed in this thread ( http://www.vvme.com/hid-headlights/single-beam-hid -conversion-kit/h7-hid-conversion-kit/standard-h7- hid-conversion-kit & http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-35W-55W-Dual -Motorcycle-HID-Kit ). They have an option for color temperature... Does anyone have any experience with this? Does this apply to the 35W kits also? | ||
| Cmgaviao |
http://www.vvme.com/search-result?main_page=advanc ed_search_result&search_options=1&in_cat=140&optio n_7=-1&option_1=4&option_30=-1&option_31=-1 Rwven, Thanks for another link....Hate to be dense...but of these 4 options, which is the one that applies to the Uly? Or would any of them work? And whats the major differences? The digital slim I assume would be the best option for weight/space consciousness? Interestingly this site says single beam but then says it includes 2x ballasts, bulbs etc... | ||
| Zac4mac |
@Schwiggy - color temperature translates to COLOR. Go to DDM's site for color charts. 98% here go for 5500 *K and 2% 69800 *K Try here and move to your destiny. http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/Motorc ycle-HID-Kits-Lighting An "R" takes H8s, not sure what the CR takes. Get the right bulb! Filament/light globe is good for a straight swap, just get the RIGHT bulb. Plug-n Play, mine is good at 20k miles and 4 years.... Zack | ||
| Jk651 |
Cmgaviao, Single beam refers not to the number of bulbs, but the number of filaments. An H4 bulb has 2 filaments, one for low beam, one for high beam. These are a dual beam bulb. A bike with a single headlamp (such as an S3) would use this type of bulb. The Uly, which has 2 headlights, one for low beam and one for high beam, would use a single beam bulb in each housing. Hid's take several minutes to warm up and reach full operating brightness. I wouldn't recommend that you use HID in the high beam as you generally won't even have your high beam on long enough to reach operating temperature (so long as you're polite and dim your headlights for oncoming traffic). Also, for this same reason you will want to rewire the headlight circuit so that the low beam stays on when high beam is on. If you don't, when you dim your high beam, if the low beam has cooled, you will not have much light output until it gets back up to temperature. Also, startup is the hardest time for ballasts, and they aren't really designed for constant on and off, so keeping your low beam running with the high beam on will significantly extend your ballast life. Another thing to consider is color temperature. A lot of people assume that the higher the number, the brighter the output, but it's actually the opposite. 4300k is closest to natural daylight, and also the brightest. As you increase the color temperature, 6000k, 8000k, etc, the light shifts to the bluer end of the spectrum. Light output falls off, and our eyes don't deal well with blue light at night, so glare becomes a real issue. I run 5000k in my bikes, well my TDM anyhow. I haven't had the time to get HID for the Uly yet. 5000k is a nice balance between maximum light output and that pretty blue color that we all like. The picture below is the TDM with 5000k HID. Which is a dual beam setup, not because there are 2 headlights, but because each headlight has 2 beams, high and low. It takes h4 bulbs. With HID dual beam bulbs there are 2 ways to achieve a high and low beam on a single bulb. The cheaper way is to have an HID bulb for the low beam, with a parallel halogen bulb for the high beam. The better, more expensive way, which is the route I took, is known as Bi-Xenon. There is a shroud on the HID bulb that blocks 1/2 the bulb for low beam use, and then an electromagnet actually shifts the position of the bulb (or more correctly, the capsule) out from behind the shroud allowing the capsule to output it's light in 360 degree pattern (versus a roughly 200 degree pattern for low beams).  I have a video on YouTube of my TDM at night, which will give you an idea of what it's like to be behind 5000k HID at night. At around 26 seconds I switch from low beam to high beam, and then at about 1:06 I switch back to low beams. The video is shaky and the sounds sucks because I shot it while holding my cell phone and riding. Also worth noting is that at around 14 seconds a yellow "light" appears in the distance roughly in the center of my lane. That is actually a sign more than a mile away reflecting light back at me, and that was on low beams. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnWFdIzt2T8 | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I tried 5000k but in rural areas, too much of the roadside areas appears greyed out. 4500k puts in a little color and gives me a better idea if I'm seeing a shrub or a javelina. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I'm still waiting for "affordable" separate driving lights in LED. The LEDs are priced now where the HID used to be priced about 8 years ago. I'll just sit here in the chair and wait for the prices to go down further  | ||
| Cmgaviao |
Thanks for the education JK, that was a great write up! | ||
| Jk651 |
I forgot to mention that our Ulysses take an h7 bulb. I also have hid in my truck. I can say from experience that you should stay away from the Xentec brand. All of my ballasts from them have failed within months because they are not waterproof at all. The high voltage lead coming out of the ballast doesn't have a seal on it and water gets in. I've seen it with 4 ballasts. I bought some other ballasts off of ebay, and even though they looked the same as the Xentec ballasts, they have an o-ring seal on the leads coming out where the Xentec had nothing to keep water out. | ||
| Rwven |
I went with 6000K, but I wish I'd chosen 4500-5000 instead. Even still someone I was night riding with recently commented on how impressed he was with the light output of my bike, especially on high beam. | ||
| Ronmold |
Unless you're running heated grips/clothing or a pair of halogen aux. driving lights etc. that draws the system below the nominal (13.8?) charging voltage, the lower draw headlights, especially LED or to a lesser extent 35w HIDs actually is harder on the electrical system, namely the regulator. Our stock system requires a certain load at higher RPM's to keep the voltage lever constant. Whatever power is not being used by the electrical system and accessories has to be bled off by our stock shunt-style regulator. So save 2A at the headlight, 2 more A. (26w) dissipated at the regulator as heat. That said, my Uly system and many others here have had no problem with the 35w HIDs and the regulator has stepped up and done it's job. An aftermarket series-style regulator doesn't have that problem, not sure if anyone has fit one of those to the Uly. | ||
| Schwiggy |
Thanks all, good information here. I guess I'm living 10 years in the past, I thought HIDs were still ridiculously expensive. These kits are super affordable and seem very easy to install. I was wishing for more light last night as I was riding home, so it looks like there is an HID install in my future. | ||
| 7873jake |
Here was the tipping point for me: when I went to replace the bulb on my low beam side and the replacement bulbs were almost as much as the DDM HID unit, I said screw it and ordered the DDM. I leave the high beam (incandescent bulb) on when I'm cranking it and then switch to the low beam (HID) when running to minimize the on-off cycles on the ballast. (Empirical assumption that this will prolong the life of the unit, nothing more) Have had no regrets since installing it. | ||
| Ulyrpg |
I've had Euro Effects h7 4300 slim for 25,000 miles and have had 0 issues. Plenty of abuse from the roads. | ||
| Towpro |
I am with Rwven on the VVME lights. I have had zero problems with them. 35w, thin ballast, 5000K. wish I went with something lower in K for more of a Yellow color. Plus 35w is less then 55w that the stock bulbs take. I even measured the inbound rush current during turn-on (on the bench) and it was not high enough to worry about. | ||
| Ronmold |
Seems to make little difference to the new style HID ballasts & bulbs to cycle the power during crank. Failures I've seen are from water egress on the cheaper units. |
