HID Lighting - thoughts and ideas

[Advwannabe]

I went through this process last year before the border run trip. After adding up the watts for heated vests/grips/GPS and spotlights and having blown the original stator which had lasted 7 years to this point I considered HIDs.

A friend had the 'shutter' type HIDs on his Wee Strom and looking at his set up it gave great light and the slimline ballasts would fit somewhere on Tigger.

Then after I had replaced the Stator and the regulater with a MOSFET type from Ricks, eliminated the plug in joint between the reg/rec and performed the Sasquach voltage modification I found I had enough power for my farkles without the HID conversion and instead went with Philips +50 bulbs ( my tigger has the dual headlight mod).

This is a matter of personal taste I undertand but with the plus 50s and two Hella 50 watt spotties mounted to the crashbars I had more than enough light to travel safely at 65 mph at night and keep an eye on the critters. I didn't get flashed once by irate motorists, but Phil did on his Wee and at one point one of his shutters jammed on the High setting, pissing poeple off even more.

I haven't given up on the HID idea and in fact am planning to convert my two Hella FF50s to HID which wil give me a bit more light and lower the overall watts a little so I can run a vest for my wife. But at this point as a headlight replacement I think there are easier solutions which give reasonable outcomes

[oxnsox]

A bit late in here but answering an early BB query about dipping and lens.

Bikes for Europe and USA (right handers) have a different set of lens than those for UK, Oz/NZ (left handers).

I bought my Girly in Spain and brought it back to NZ so had to change the lens to "comply" with the requirement for the light to 'dip' away from the centerline.

FWIW. Rather than buy 2 new lenses I brought just the one required to dip left (in my case), then swapped the relays so only that light works when dipped. (Effectively I guess I now have 2 'low' beam lens but they work OK for me as I don't do a lot of night riding.

[Chris Canning]

Well as far as I'm concerned the more postings the better,I have to confess to be a little taken aback at how little there is on the site about HID,as I said before,having it on another bike,I've just been too bone idle to bother with the Tiger despite the abysmal lights,and I've had nearly 10 years  :oops:

I only have use for decent lights,one serious ride a year which is a 200 mile trip back from Portsmouth on the way home from the Le-Mans 24 bike race,but it is ridden a pretty illegal speed and hence why I(we) have used the BM most times,as with an HID it's broad daylight for a mile up the road.

I'm still hoping the HID-50 man(Les) will put his two peneeth in,but I think he needs to do his home work with the relay that runs both lights at the same time(I think!!)

[NKL]

I'm thinking HID right side and halogen on the left