Very lame headlights

chinachile · Post by **chinachile** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:52 am

Has anyone sussed out a cheap way to improve the headlamp power? It feels like the present lights have come off a moped and anything over 30 mph is a voyage into the unknown.

I see Halfords have 100w bulbs (for display only??) and was wondering if anyone had tried them and if so was there much improvement.

A million thanks in advance for any advice given

gus · Post by **gus** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:04 am

Hi
I did use some of the philips halegon bulbs(30 % brighter).I still wasnt happy and went the HID route.This is a 1000% improvement over stock and well worth the money and hassle.Do a search and all will be revealed.
I dont think the 100 watts bulbs would be too friendly to the headlight.
gus

andrew s · Post by **andrew s** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:44 pm

Go the HID route. As Gus said they are miles better both day and night. The light is like a laser beam and shows up the roadwell at night.

If you are interested in this then we still have the offer of a discount with HID Online that I sorted out.

Andrew

chinachile · Post by **chinachile** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:42 pm

andrew s wrote:Go the HID route. As Gus said they are miles better both day and night. The light is like a laser beam and shows up the roadwell at night.

If you are interested in this then we still have the offer of a discount with HID Online that I sorted out.

Andrew

Hello Andrew what sort of price would the HID setup cost with your discount as I can't restrict my riding to days only as I am sure you understand!

winger · Post by **winger** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:13 pm

I reckon i can be the independant witness here!!!.

Some months ago there were umpteen posting about HID's how good they were and various prices,non of which i even read as my night time rideing is limited with the exception of rideing back fro Portsmouth each year on the way back from Le-Mans in april.

Gus phones me up about a deal that Jason was doing and they needed A.N.Other to make the numbers up!!! yea OK,said light arrives put it in seems e'rrr BRIGHT,roll of the ferry 9pm lights on wait till we get to the unlit part of the M27 and bugger me,broad daylight were talking serious shit here!!! we rode towards Oxford way into three figures.

If you do any amount of rideing when it's dark,then you'd only short changeing yourself if you didn't have one.

Chris

andrew s · Post by **andrew s** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:29 pm

The price is £179, for that you get a Panasonic 4100k H1 dip beam, Philips blue vision main beam and position light. The price includes next day delivery and P&P.

The same set up excluding the position bulb from Nippynormans is £225 and I don't know if that includes P&P.

Some on the site have bought from the States for cheaper, but not Panasonic make.

As regards the brightness, you will know if a bike has HID as it is very bright day and night.

Andrew

chinachile · Post by **chinachile** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:04 pm

Thanks for the info, got onto them and believe it or not the price has dropped to £165 inc vat and P&P!

Looking forward to being able to see where I am going in future!

Later

RiceBurner · Post by **RiceBurner** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:34 pm

andrew s wrote:The price is £179, for that you get a Panasonic 4100k H1 dip beam, Philips blue vision main beam and position light. The price includes next day delivery and P&P.

The same set up excluding the position bulb from Nippynormans is £225 and I don't know if that includes P&P.

Some on the site have bought from the States for cheaper, but not Panasonic make.

As regards the brightness, you will know if a bike has HID as it is very bright day and night.

Andrew

andrew - are these bulbs simply "plug and play" in the BMW bulb-sockets????

I thought HID needed a "balancing" box or something??

boxerpan · Post by **boxerpan** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:57 pm

The bulb part is the same fitting as standard, the ballast box(about the size of 20 fag packet)and relay need to have a home within 18" of the bulb unless you extend the wires.

RiceBurner · Post by **RiceBurner** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:45 pm

boxerpan wrote:The bulb part is the same fitting as standard, the ballast box(about the size of 20 fag packet)and relay need to have a home within 18" of the bulb unless you extend the wires.

so presumably you need to mess with the loom somewhere???

andrew s · Post by **andrew s** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:55 pm

The Panasonic ballast box that comes with the HID Online offer can be situated 10ft way from the headlight as the wires are that long.

As regards the fitting, Ian did mine and it seems to be an easy to fit (no offence Ian, you made it look that way).

Andrew

ianc53 · Post by **ianc53** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:59 pm

Andrew you're right, they are straight forward to fit - it has to be for me to do it - the ballast sits easily under the tank - UNLESS you have ABS. Then the best place for the ballast is hanging off the fairing mount behind the headlights. I made up a mounting bracket out of alloy plate but zip ties work just as well.

The difference once fitted is amazing.

Cheers

Ian

gus · Post by **gus** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:03 pm

RiceBurner wrote:
boxerpan wrote:The bulb part is the same fitting as standard, the ballast box(about the size of 20 fag packet)and relay need to have a home within 18" of the bulb unless you extend the wires.
so presumably you need to mess with the loom somewhere???

No you dont.You only need a Switched pos and a negative(earth).The ballast/ignitor wires connect into the spade connector which clipped onto the back of the old bulb.And you can connect onto the bulb/headlight holder for the negative earth.
gus

Jason M · Post by **Jason M** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 7:50 pm

Gus, Chris and I payed about £85 each for ours from a bloke in the states. They're McCullock or summit and they seem OK fingers crossed! Mine has done a fair few miles now (probably 10k maybe) and is still going. I wired mine into a higher amp circuit with a relay - still a simple job. Bloke in the US told me he'd do more at the same price (the $ was at about 1.85 at the time) and doesn't charge delivery on repeat business. Marks the goods as 'returned samples' or summit to try and avoid the inport tax

madman · Post by **madman** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:40 pm

Jason, You say "I wired mine into a higher amp circuit with a relay". Is this required? I understood that he HID used 35 watt rather than 55 watt.