Kansas HSTA

HID (High Intensity Discharge) is the newest step in lighting up the night. Instead of a traditional bulb with a small wire that gets hot and glows, the HID systems use a very high voltage electric arc to create the light - just like an arc welder. This makes for a very bright, very white light. This is the same kind of lighting found on late model high-end imports and some domestic luxury cars. It is possible to upgrade your bike to use HID lighting instead of halogen bulbs, but until now it has been rather expensive - $200 per bulb and up.

However, Warchild, the Chief Technical Inspector for the Iron Butt Rally, has arranged for the best deal on HID lights:

4300K McCulloch G5 HID kits for $185 for the *pair*! I have gotten three of these kits now.

H7 and H3 both available. These are plug-n-play; no wire-cutting needed.

H4 kits also available (which I have in my FJR), but get the “low-beam only” kit…. avoid the Hi/Lo kit.

These are direct from the factory, no middleman.

http://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=4106

More information from Warchild:

Avoid the Hi-Lo combo H4 capsules - get the shielded low-beam only. Why?

This particular H4 Hi/Lo kit does NOT feature the moving capsule.

Rather, it has a set of “butterfly wings” that snap open to allow light to reach the lower (high-beam) portion of the reflector housing. The “filament” does not physically relocate itself rearward the critical 6mm required from it’s normal low-beam position to achieve the proper focal point for high beam.

Below is a photo of the Hi/Lo kit when switched to “high-beam” As you can see, the lower lowbeam is bright white, focused and intense. OTOH, the “high-beam”
above it is complete shit in comparison, and additionally features two complete “dead zones”. It is crap:

http://www.fjrtech.com/mods/HID_low2high/craphibeam.jpg

Here is a photo COMPARISON of my FJR’s stock halogen low-beam (top part of photo), and the H4 “Low Beam Only” HID (bottom of photo). Note how the beamcast is nearly identical in both (a sharp cutoff line, which avoids blinding oncoming traffic despite its massive improvement in output)

http://www.fjrtech.com/Mods/H4_HID/LoBeamCompareSM.jpg

This issue does NOT affect the “single-filament” bulb application, such as H7, H3 or H1-based HID kits.

If you want a properly focused HID H4 Highbeam, Warchild gives a bit more advice:

The H4 Low-Beam Only kit, however, is simply beyond awesome. I would characterize it at *least* 3 orders of magnitude superior to stock.

All this improvement, and it only cost 84 watts, compared to the 110-watts with stock halogen.

Now, as an experiment, I took *one* of the two H4 Low-Beam-Only HID lamps and converted it to “High-Beam Only” be relocating the “filament” reward 6mm to achieve the correct focal point::

http://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=4002

The results were pretty impressive, I must say. Here is the suck-ass Hi/Lo kit beamcast:

http://www.fjrtech.com/mods/HID_low2high/craphibeam.jpg

Compare it with the one “Low-Beam Only”, and one “High-Beam Only” H4 HID:

http://www.fjrtech.com/mods/HID_low2high/lowhighTogether.jpg

As you can plainly see in this second photo, we have full, smooth, continuous line of coverage all along the top, with no “dead zones” detected in the middle.

However, I elected to stay with two “Low-Beam Only” H4 HIDs in my FJR’s stock housing, and use my PHIDs as my “high-beam”. With this combination burning, it’s like I’m a rolling stadium light. :^)

- Warchild

Please note - these lights are not DOT legal, and should only be used for off-road riding.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 9th, 2005 @ 9:59 am on the category General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.