HID Headlight bulb

I know that this has been covered before, but I've been unable to find the archive link.

What is the source for a HID headlight bulb conversion for the Silverwing?

Thanks,

Tim

You need more than just a bulb to convert. You need an entire kit.
Xenon HID Conversion Kits

There are cheaper places, but this was the source I used when I was the first Silverwinger to convert my headlight about 7 years ago.
I recommend the 4300k color.

Dan

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

What is the source for a HID headlight bulb conversion for the Silverwing?

I used DDM Tuning ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/Motorcycle-HID-Kits-Lighting ) which has a lifetime warranty on bulb and ballast. Plus I like how the amperage draw is designed for the motorcycle.

How much more heat does the HID produce, (if any,) and does it affect the headlight cover?

No effect on the headlight cover. No excessive temperature.
If you go with a DDM Kit their 5000k color temp is fine.

Just whatever kit you go with stay under 5500k which is considered daylight. Understand that the higher the color temperature, the lower the lumens (brightness).

Dan:
Do you know if this bulb will require modifications in order to work?

1 PIAA.70755 PIAA H7 Xtreme White Plus XTRA replacement light bulb, 55watt=110watt,

The Scootist wrote:

1 PIAA.70755 PIAA H7 Xtreme White Plus XTRA replacement light bulb, 55watt=110watt,

I used to run PIAA's Xtreme White Plus XTRA in my car. They would blow out almost a year to the date and both bulbs would blow withing a couple days of the other.

honda_silver wrote:

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

What is the source for a HID headlight bulb conversion for the Silverwing?

I used DDM Tuning ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/Motorcycle-HID-Kits-Lighting ) which has a lifetime warranty on bulb and ballast. Plus I like how the amperage draw is designed for the motorcycle.

Looks like the price is right and so is the size, where did you store the ballast and how did you attach to the bike?

Strange you should mention Scootist but the 'bulbs' in my PIAA 1100s also seemed to last just 12 months before failing ?! I solved the problem by slicing off the lenses and using them to fit LED replacements, they are not as powerful but they are excellent running lights on Dennis's bracket.

bikerdaryl wrote:

Looks like the price is right and so is the size, where did you store the ballast and how did you attach to the bike?

https://www.silverwing600.com/t1417-parallel-wiring?highlight=parallel+wiring#11592 click on the thumbnails the larger picture will show the ballast.

Here is a picture of the Apexcone 35w HID's in 5000k from DDM next to stock H-7’s

honda_silver wrote:

I used DDM Tuning ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/Motorcycle-HID-Kits-Lighting ) which has a lifetime warranty on bulb and ballast. Plus I like how the amperage draw is designed for the motorcycle.

Bill

There's a huge price difference between the DDM Tuning kit & Dan's HID source. In spite of the lifetime warranty, what is your experience with bulb life? Have you had any need to replace a bulb.

I assume that you're using the 35W version.

Tim

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

There's a huge price difference between the DDM Tuning kit & Dan's HID source. In spite of the lifetime warranty, what is your experience with bulb life? Have you had any need to replace a bulb.

I have had the HIDs installed for 3.5 years with ~52,000 miles with no problem (other than the period HID needing to reignite to light.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

I assume that you're using the 35W version.

35W was all that was available then ... if they had 50W I would have used the 50W with the Kelvin bulb one grade lower. The 50W will be the one grade lower whiter/brighter ... and this has been proven correct by some people who have installed the 50W DDM Tunings HIDs.

honda_silver wrote:

<SNIP> 35W was all that was available then ... if they had 50W I would have used the 50W with the Kelvin bulb one grade lower. The 50W will be the one grade lower whiter/brighter ... and this has been proven correct by some people who have installed the 50W DDM Tunings HIDs.

Bill

Will the headlight lens & housing withstand the heat of a 50W HID bulb?

Is the Honda H7-to-H4 wire harness plug "adapter" still used with the DDM conversion? I kinda thought that that adapter acted as a heat sink for the heat generated by the stock H7 bulb.

Tim

bikerboy wrote:

Strange you should mention Scootist but the 'bulbs' in my PIAA 1100s also seemed to last just 12 months before failing ?! I solved the problem by slicing off the lenses and using them to fit LED replacements, they are not as powerful but they are excellent running lights on Dennis's bracket.

Any thoughts on fitting HID bulbs into driving light housings?

Also, I've ridden in front of many a bike with HIDs and at night, they're DAMNED irritating if not blinding and in my opinion too bright to be safely used behind other vehicles. What temp range would you recommend that'll light up the road but NOT blind the vehicle in front of you?

Tim,
When I did my conversion, there weren't many places offering a kit for Motorcycles. Without competition prices stay high. The one thing I liked about my place was they had a lot of information on Xenon HID to explain the differences in light source type, and how it worked, and so forth. They educated the consumer, and I appreciated that. There is still some good information on that site. They advertised a lot of computerized safety features in the ballast, which impressed me also. Being a noob at the time, with very few choices of places that actually sold Xenon kits for motorcycles, I went with the one that seemed the most professional even if it was a lot of money at the time.

Today, this industry has significantly matured. Most problems have been identified and ironed out. While DDM doesn't have a lot of technobabble about their products (If you look carefully, nowhere on their site that says HID mentions the word "xenon"), they have proven themselves among members of our community to have a solid product that works in this application. If I were coming into the market today, or if I get a new bike, I would probably be leaning toward DDM as well.

Hammy:
As far as color temperature goes, the higher the color temp, the bluer the light and the less lumens (brightness) it puts out.
Daylight color temp is as high as 5500k, so you want to stay under that.
4300k to 5000k is a good range of choice, with the 4300k putting out more light that is less startling to others. I wouldn't go any lower than that.

Dan

Thanks Dan! I do a lot of riding in all sorts of conditions and definitely find the stock lamps lacking. I have Solstice Vision X solos as driving lights, but they basically just light up the sides of the road in front of me - I need to be able to see further, and I think that DDM thing is the way to go if I'm reading everything correctly.

Would I be fine with a 35W 4500 bulb or do you think our housings can handle the 55W bulbs? They have 35W and 55W (not 35 and 50) and their temps range from 3000, 4500, 5000, 6000, 8000 and then 10000 and 12000.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Will the headlight lens & housing withstand the heat of a 50W HID bulb?

I knew several people on the other forum that I helped with 55W lights. They did not have any problem.

The 55W HID are the same identical bulb just a different ballast. The HID bulbs do have a large area and are not near the lens.

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Is the Honda H7-to-H4 wire harness plug "adapter" still used with the DDM conversion?

As I recall the adapter is not used. The HID bulbs have a wire, then that wire must be plugged into the ballast plug.

Hammy,

4500k 55watt bulbs sound like a sweet spot.

Dan

Hammy wrote:

Any thoughts on fitting HID bulbs into driving light housings?

DDM Tunings warns against 55W in fog light housing ... not the 35W

Our 55w HID Kit is not recommended for smaller fog light housings because they tend to concentrate a large amount of heat in a small area.

Hammy wrote:

Also, I've ridden in front of many a bike with HIDs and at night, they're DAMNED irritating if not blinding and in my opinion too bright to be safely used behind other vehicles.

On the Silverwing, the low beam halogen bulb produces a very small box with very little peripheral lighting. The low beam HID bulb (because it is longer) produces a very dispersed pattern with much more peripheral lighting.

The HID high beam is more focused. You can visibily see the different from the reflections in front of me.

The HID patterns will vary from motorcycle to motorcycle because of the reflectors behind the bulbs.

Hammy wrote:

What temp range would you recommend that'll light up the road but NOT blind the vehicle in front of you?

I suggest 50W (1.5 times brighter) to most people to be the best peripheral lighting. If you are concerned about blinding vehicles in front you could stay with 35W.

For 35W I ordered 4500K ... For 50W I would have ordered 5000K.

Thanks guys! I'll go with the 55W at 4500k.

Thanks guys! I'll go with the 55W at 4500k.

Do these actually light up further down the road or are there reflector mods that will do that for me?

They will light up farther down the road.

Did you get a single light and if so, which will you be installing for?
Or did you get for both hi and low beam?

I would probably just replace my low beam with a 55. UNLESS I get 55W driving lights in addition...

I wonder: Bill, Dan, what would your thoughts be re: adapting a pair of http://www.autoanything.com/lights/74A5631A0A0.aspx to use the same HID bulbs? Do you think that would be possible or would the ballasts just make installation impossible...

Hammy wrote:

what would your thoughts be re: adapting a pair of http://www.autoanything.com/lights/74A5631A0A0.aspx to use the same HID bulbs?

The HID bulbs are much longer than the halogen bulbs. You should not assume that HID bulb will fit.

Remember the DDM Tuning warning

Our 55w HID Kit is not recommended for smaller fog light housings because they tend to concentrate a large amount of heat in a small area.

Hammy wrote:

Do you think that would be possible or would the ballasts just make installation impossible..

The wires between the HID bulbs and HID ballast are not very long and you cannot simply splice the wire.

One possibility would be to use the DennisB light bar and mount the HID ballast either inside the top of the cowl or attach to the light bar.

You could also look for bolt on Xenon HID light kits, which you could also mount on Dennis' light bar. The nice thing about aux lights is since you would have them on their own switch, they won't draw power when you start the bike. Not gonna be cheap though.

I can tell you that if I were blinging out a bike with Aux lights today,
I would look at some of the more powerful LED lights available, many of which have been mentioned on this forum. You only need one set of powerful see-real-far lights. Your Xenon HID high beam should take care of that. The rest can spread the lighted area out or focus on that mid-point about 30-40 feet in front of the bike between the low and high beam focii.
This way you can have an excessive amount of lighting, and therefore visibility by oncoming traffic, without taxing your electrical system or your budget.

Just as an aside, both my high and low beam are Xenon, and my aux lights are 50w Motolights mounted on my front fork. I just checked the motolight website and they now have LED bulbs for motolights as well, though I don't know how that compares to the light output of some of the other LEDs talked about on this board.

I like Dennis, and promote his wonderful work on this board when I can. However I should also point out that lighting attached to the front fork, turns with the front wheel, and that also has an advantage. If I were blinging a bike today, I'd probably get LED Lighting for Dennis' light bar, and led lighting for the front forks.


Dan

My buddy and I are probably going to get Hella FF50 driving lights http://www.autoanything.com/lights/69A1329A0A0.aspx on our Swings. The FF50s are pretty popular in the IBA community and we both are into endurance rallies so riding for up to 21hrs straight (I've done 24hrs straight on a solo 1500 mile ride) is a veritable certainty on our rallies. We need to be able to see far and to see a lot of the road considering how much night riding we do through all sorts of terrain.

I'm probably gonna do the DDM 55w in 4500 K and add the FF50s to my already existing Vision X solstice solo 10W LED pods.

That's a lot of riding. I can't even see straight for 24 hours let alone ride straight. Those FF50s look big. Make sure you take pictures when everything is mounted up. I think they would sit nicely on Dennis Light bar.

Just looked up your Vision X solstice solo lights. Very powerful @ 900 lumens.

Actually... how would you mount lights on the forks? I was thinking my LED pods would work well on the forks but have no clue how to mount them there as I'm always worried a big bump or pothole would screw up the aim.

I think a few people have done fork mounts. Maybe do a search here start a separate thread requesting fork mount information.
My Motolights are designed for fork mounting and came with a fork mount bracket for my application. Maybe go to the Motolight website and look around, and that will give you some ideas.

Another possibility of course is to mount a light to your front fender.

I was looking up your vision X lights. @90 lumens per watt, they are only 1% less powerful then the 55 watt HIDs. That's very impressive.
HID 5000 lumens/55 watts=90.90 lumens per watt.

Dan

They're certainly bright, BUT I need to light up the road ahead of me, not just the road in front of me. My LEDs definitely make me very visible, but I need to increase my own ability to see further so I can avoid animal strikes if possible. I'm hoping the HID lowbeam will help, while the Hellas will hopefully give me the distance I need.

Here is a link to a thread where someone is doing a Hella FF50 conversion to ddm HID lights Maybe you can ask more questions there.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=572415

Also take a look at these instead of your Hellas:
http://www.kchilites.com/lights/lzr-led/lzr-8-rnd-35w-led
385,000 candlepower EACH for 35 watts led is pretty rad.

Couldn't find the CP rating on the Hella's.
FYI, a 747 aircraft landing ight is only 750,000 candlepower.

The KC HiLites are cool, but they're 6 times the price at over $600!!! Sigh... money. Wish I had more of it...

KC's are $442 here. Still a lot of money but 35% less than retail.
And @ 35 watts they are legal.

Might want to email hella to get a candlepower/lumens rating for the ff50s.

http://www.xloffroad.com/index.php/KC-HiLites-9629-KC-LZR-Series-LED-Long-Range-Light.html

I would really only be using the Hellas when I'm out on the highways when there's really nobody in front of me. I even turn off my LEDs if there's a bunch of other vehicles in front of me. I rode through the Everglades at sunset in March, and it was pitch black and I needed all the light I could get. I didn't have my LEDs switched back then and boy all the other riders coming in let me have it as I was blinding them. I don't think it helped that they highbeamed me and so we were then both unable to see the road!

I ordered the 55W 4500k bulb for my lowbeam and am anxious to see the difference... I might also end up getting that 18Amp Shorai battery that BigBird had mentioned in another post. I run chargers for my helmet comms, MixIt2, GPS, Tab, and cellphone in addition to the LEDs. If I add another 110W from a pair of Hellas, I think I'll need that 18Amps!

Hammy wrote:

Actually... how would you mount lights on the forks? I was thinking my LED pods would work well on the forks but have no clue how to mount them there as I'm always worried a big bump or pothole would screw up the aim.

Homemade fork light mounts.
Get yourself some cold rolled 3/4 X 1/8 flat stock, semi gloss black rustoleum, 1/8” longer bolts to reattach the reflector mounts and some patience. The bracket is mounted in between the fender / spacer and the reflector bracket.

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=409&pictureid=14192

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=409&pictureid=14193

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=409&pictureid=14194

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=409&pictureid=14195

NEAT! Thanks! And I definitely recognize a PA inspection sticker! Just came home from a 400 mile day of back roads riding and man I can't wait to break that HID in cos the stock light is just woefully inadequate.

Well, I put in the 55W 5000K bulb in my low beam and my goodness it's SO much brighter! I feel like I've been riding so blind before now. I'd almost consider this a necessary upgrade if you do any night riding at all. My aux lights are pretty much useless now as the low beam floods everything with light. I need to put in the high beam now and then I think I'll be extra groovy at night!

BTW, did any of you who added the DDM bulbs have any issue with making it fit - Tim (Cosmic Jumper) and I both had to use the soft rubber wire harness grommet to fill up the space in between the bulb and the metal prong that holds the bulb in place. Tim thinks that soft rubber won't hold up to time or the type of riding I do and that we need some kind of nylon or plastic ring spacer. Did you guys have any similar issues or were there plastic spacers with yours?

I modified the OEM Adapters.
I sawed the thinner part with the electrical connectors away (and keep them if i want to install H7 again) and "emptied" the other part and used them as spacer.
I know another guy they used laminate. He saw the laminate from his living room in the garage during working and he means it have the perfect thickness

honda_silver wrote:

I used DDM Tuning ( http://www.ddmtuning.com/Product-Categories/Motorcycle-HID-Kits-Lighting ) which has a lifetime warranty on bulb and ballast. Plus I like how the amperage draw is designed for the motorcycle.

Ok, so Hammy & I upgraded our headlights to 55W DDM Tuning HID lights.

Wow, what a significant difference in light output.

Now we're also considering upgrading the high beam to HID's. The question I have is --considering the light output of the 55W HID low beam-- will a 55W high beam be overkill? I'm a little concerned that a 55W high beam may blind on-coming traffic half a mile away. And therefore cause the need to prematurely dip the lights while the high beams would otherwise still be called for.

Can I get away upgrading to a 35W HID for high beam or will 35W be insufficient?

The 55W OEM incandescent high beam is woefully inadequate when using HID low beam.

Bill, Dan, Kurt ...anyone?

Tim

Well, I'll be your guinea pig Tim cos I just ordered another 55W yesterday. Considering how much light gets put out by the low beam now, I think I'll really only need the HID when I'm really out in the deep boonies at night and then I won't have to worry too much about blinding anyone cos I'll see their lights probably at least half a mile away.

I think its funny how you guys list your locations as
Hammy: Philadelphia
CJ: damn near Philadelphia

dspevack wrote:

I think its funny how you guys list your locations as
Hammy: Philadelphia
CJ: damn near Philadelphia

Bill ... no where near Philadelphia

Cosmic_Jumper wrote:

Now we're also considering upgrading the high beam to HID's. The question I have is --considering the light output of the 55W HID low beam-- will a 55W high beam be overkill? I'm a little concerned that a 55W high beam may blind on-coming traffic half a mile away. And therefore cause the need to prematurely dip the lights while the high beams would otherwise still be called for.

Can I get away upgrading to a 35W HID for high beam or will 35W be insufficient?

I have both HID 35W low and high beam ... the 55W was not available then or I would have gone with the 55W. The 35W high beam will not be single spot, but cover the whole area similar to the low beam.

During the day I drive with both low and high beam on with no problem. I rarely get any flashes, when I do get flashes I think it more you have your high beams on ... YES I KNOW for safety.

The primary disadvantage of the HID beam, is that it will take about 5-8 seconds for full power. So I tend not to turn my high beams on unless there is no one way down the road, so I am not flipping low->high->low to prevent blinding. That is why I will be getting the newer versions of the ADVRider LED driving lights to provide more light between low and high beams.

I converted both high and low beams to 35w HID’s. Then found out the reflective signage is a major distraction with the high beam on. To make things worse I found the glare from orange construction barrels would temporarily blind me. That, and as Bill mentioned the long ramp up time was enough for me to switch the brights back to an incandescent bulb.

trouble1100 wrote:

To make things worse I found the glare from orange construction barrels would temporarily blind me.

Was that during the day or during the night??

honda_silver wrote:

dspevack wrote:

I think its funny how you guys list your locations as
Hammy: Philadelphia
CJ: damn near Philadelphia

Bill ... no where near Philadelphia

where IS Philadelphia??? .... :lol!:

Thank you to everyone for sharing this valuable information. I just switched out my pathetic stocker for a 35W HID. The difference is literally night and day. I do a fair bit of night commuting due to my shift and I was concerned everytime I jumped onto the highway. I am now confident being able to see the roadsides and the upcoming road much more in advance. Thanks again!