HID Low-Only to High-Only Modification

[FJRocket]

Which one of the 8 "factory slots" was the original positioning slot?

Truthfully, I haven't determined which one..... but when the capsule is in the correct position, the majority of the factory slots are all the way out and "exposed" from the end of the holder. This leads me to believe that the locking slot for the original positioning is probably somewhere in the mid-to-forward half of the original 8 slots.

My reply is redundant... Sorry...

There are 3 slots showing outside the rear (wire end) of the housing with the clip in the factory position.

Yep, I agree with you Warchild. If you try to move the light source back to the high beam filament position, then you are going to have to cut a new pair of notches for the clip. They will be 2 -3mm FORWARD of the factory slots.

As already suggested, if I get around to doing "Warchild's Dedicated High Beam Mod", then I will probably remove the entire mechanism, including the nose end octagonal cap. I would also suggest some liberal bevelling of the bixenon mechanical housing base. That base shadows a BUNCH of the quality high beam light from the source to the lens. CUT THAT BABY BACK!

 

[Toynut]

I think that you can also use a thin-bladed, fine toothed, coping saw to make some nice STRAIGHT cuts in the lamp housing for the clips. Might be easier to control than a Dremel tool.

 

[Warchild]

Since I was forced to remove the nose cone on the Hi/Lo base (as a consequence of eliminating the butterfly wings and actuation tunnel), I went ahead and removed the nose cone from my "High-Beam only" HID base. I was surprised to see little difference either way. This being the case, if you're going to do this mod, it now appears that there is no need to go through the hassle of cutting out a nice rectangle in the Low-Beam Only shield. Rather, just dremel off the shield altogether, and get as close to the base as you can.

Mind you, as FJRocket correctly observes, you don't want to be looking at the bare HID bulb very long, or you'll be seeing "spots" for some tome afterward! :lol:

Now I have something interesting to show you all... the infamous "DEAD ZONE" that others have mentioned!

Before butchering up the bixenon base as you see on pg 1 of this thread, I went ahead and installed them to get a decent picture of the high beam output.

Not only is it marginal light output (compared to the hot-white low beam), but you can clearly see the two relatively dark "dead zones" located just above and outboard of the bright-white low-beam cutoff:

Compare that with this photo of one Low-Beam Only, and one correctly-focused High-Beam Only:

Obviously, the latter provides a smooth, seamless light coverage compared to the bixenon "Hi/Lo" version....

 

[RadioHowie]

....going...going....GONE!!!

Dale "Warchild" Wilson has hit ANOTHER one OUT OF THE PARK!!!

Great job, Warchild. This definitely looks the way to go for those who don't want or can't afford a low-beam only dual headlight setup with auxiliary PHIDs.

Schaweeet!

 

[Toynut]

Hey WC,

Are you going to give us a side by side report (real world street test) with Ignacio's bike?

What is the interval from off to fully on on the Hi beam (left) side? Will constant dimming of the brights damage them?

If you give it a final thumbs, up can you post the final procedures in your Tech site?

Just asking out loud, inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Ignacio]

Are you going to give us a side by side report (real world street test) with Ignacio's bike?

I'm headed over this evening to measure and compare lumens between his experimental bike and my control bike on his scientifically calibrated photon reception surface (aka "his garage") this evening.

I've been over in Seattle this weekend gorging on sis' great Thanksgiving food and made it back to late last night to test.

Hopefully, WC can post something tonight or tomorrow.

We'll also be able to compare the Philips HIDs with my Hella FF200 HID lights.

 

[Warchild]

Are you going to give us a side by side report (real world street test) with Ignacio's bike?

Yep.... we test tonight, in fact.

What is the interval from off to fully on on the Hi beam (left) side?

The first time you light them off, the lag time to full brightness is somewhat excessive... on the order of 5-ish seconds, thereabouts. However, after that initial lightoff (i.e.: the bulb is already warmed up), it's considerably faster, around 2-ish seconds, or so.

Will constant dimming of the brights damage them?

Well, I don't think it will hurt the bulb, per say, but I can't help but think we're not making the ignitor happy about a frequent on-off-on-off scenario....

Truthfully, though, I don't think we have enough history yet with these particular HID kits to draw any meaningful conclusions. Still, one has to think the components would be happier if allowed to turn on and remain on.

If you give it a final thumbs, up can you post the final procedures in your Tech site?

On, you know it! B)

And by the way... everyone should give [SIZE=14pt]TOYNUT[/SIZE] a big round of applause, because it is HE who has provided me with this HID kit to be experimented with and butchered upon! :lol:

Here, hear, TOYNUT!!!

 

[Warchild]

Well.... Ignacio and I are back from testing. My step-son froze his ass off in the brutally cold High Desert canyons while taking 18 different photos of various combinations of halogen, HID, PHIDs and Hella HID.

Here's what every *single* one of them look like:

Well, crap..... :angry: not a single friggin' shot came out... :angry: We're not winning in the camera department, I'm sad to say....

Well, Ignacio and I will just try to describe what we saw tonight. Some comparisons were a bit surprising, though most came out pretty much as expected. Below are my opinions; I'll let Ignacio speak for himself. It was important that I brought him along for this comparison test, because he hasn't had his night vision borked by LASIK surgery like mine.

LOW-BEAM Comparison:

As expected, my one HID Low Beam still provided greater visibility than Ignacio's two 55-watt halogens. Matt suggested my single HID low-beam was about 50% greater visibility then both of his lights together. I concur with his observation. This was despite the fact that my headlights were aimed a bit lower than Matt's (this I had done on purpose when initially installing the HID kit, just to ensure oncoming traffic doesn't get zapped by the intense light)

HIGH-BEAM Comparison:

I thought the down-range coverage was actually better with Matt's twin halogen bulbs compared to my one HID high beam, but again, my one high beam is aimed a fair bit lower than Matt's, so I think this would be a different story if I brought my aim up to match his. What was CLEAR, however, was the fact that the single HID high beam seem to afford much greater contrast to discern individual objects, *significantly* more so than the halogen. Matt remarked that it was obvious that over the course of several hours of night riding, the HID would be *much* easier on the eyes than the yellowish halogen. We were both struck at how yellow the high-beam halogen looked compared to the single HID high beam.

PHIDs vs Hella Comparison::

Here was the surprise of the evening, at least for me. We compared the PHIDS vs the Hella FF200 HIDs, and there was simply NO comparison at all: the Hellas were *significantly* superior to to the PHIDs in both downrange and periphery coverage. I suppose this shouldn't be a huge surprise, given the big, honkin' 5.5" diameter reflector housing of the Hellas. But I tell ya what, it was most definitely noticeable how much more light there was with the Hellas over the PHIDs.

Well, there it is, folks... 'tis a bummer we couldn't get the photos to come out, but there's the comparison from my perspective. I'm sure Ignacio will chime in here shortly and provide his opinions on the comparison test.

 

[Ignacio]

The low beam fill from the one beam of the HID is definitely better than my two halogens. That was absolutely obvious at the two stop signs we pulled up side by side and at the site the pictures didn't work.

The high beam took a little more time to analyze. We'd flip back and forth between Warchild's high/low HID and then my double halogen high beam. My halogens seemed warmer or fuller, and the HID seemed cooler and more stark with more shadows.

Weird.

Perhaps it was the cold night that was playing a mind trick. I was cold having ridden jeans and regular gloves. Maybe I was associating the cool light color (4300K) with the negative of my shivering and halogen of a warming camp fire?

But then, you leave the HID option on and you get used to it in 30 seconds or a minute and it seems way better. Having ridden at night a fair amount I quickly figured out the increased shadows of the cold light.....were more lumens an better.

Also, I rode out to the test site behind Warchild with my halogens in my foreground and his HIDs in the background. Even at a long following distance moving it seemed like his scene was more filled in than when I crossed the same terrain. I think there is more image contrast with the HID....almost like the scene is in high definition.

I guess we'll have to try pictures another night.

....and the comparison of the FF200s with the PHIDs was very cool! I scored majorly with these Hella bad boyz. The PHIDs seemed a little more pencil beam-like and mine were about the same intensity, but covered more of the front view with usable light. They may be 5 1/2" each, but my $310 eBay score is staying put on my bike for night riding in the cold desert.

 

[Toynut]

[SIZE=14pt]Aw Shucks WC, twernt nuthin![/SIZE] :blushing:

You guys did all of the [SIZE=14pt]REAL[/SIZE] work and deserve the [SIZE=14pt]APPLAUSE!![/SIZE] :clap: :clap: :clap: :agree: :agree:

 

[dobias]

Now I have my work cut out for me. My choice is to use the two low beam only HIDs with the Hella FF200 halogen auxilary lamps for my high beams for now.

I can then convert the Hellas to HID when finances permit.

In the meantime, I can still use the modulators in the daytime with the halogens.

Thanks a heap for all of the trial & error you guys went through for the rest of us.

dobias <_<

 

[birdie_Xx]

MCRIDER007 wrote....

Other motorcycles, such as my ST1100, have one headlight lit for low beam and two headlights lit for high beam

One of your low beams is burned out....

Great work Warchild !

Cheers,

 

[03silverbullet]

Warchild,

Thanks for all your hard work and effort in testing these lights.

Do you know were the cheapest place is to buy the auxillary lights?

thanks again,

Steve

 

[Warchild]

Do you know were the cheapest place is to buy the auxillary lights?

What kind of aux lights are you referring to.... the mega-mamma-jamma HID lights, or the less powerful (and expensive) Hella halogens, or something else... ????

 

[03silverbullet]

I like the mega-mamma-jamma HID lights please.

 

[RadioHowie]

Dear Mr. Warguy,

I have been a very good boy this year and hope you are still monitoring this thread.

My question is this: is the light barrier on the low-beam only HID capsule removable in 1 piece? It's not obvious from the pictures.

The reason I ask is this. I plan on purchasing the low-beam only kit, leaving the right capsule unmodified in the low-beam only mode, modifiying the left capsule for high-beam use and running my FJR in that configuration until God, Santa or my Colombian connection drops the $800 in my lap for a set of FF200 HIDs.

At that time, if it is possible from my question above, to re-install the light barrier, reposition the capsule back to low beam mode and have dual-HID low beams while the FF200s serve as high beams. If not, I guess I just have Pedro send another $100 and get a new low beam capsule.

One other note. I don't recall if you mentioned it along the way during your testing, but the single low/single high HID configuration has another, possibly overlooked advantage....that is with a single low beam HID, one could aim that beam for optimum effectiveness without affecting the vertical aiming of the high beam HID, which could then be aimed for maximum spread and illumination. Then, with the "always on" low beam, you'd be getting 100% effectiveness from both bulbs in highbeam mode, and 100% effectiveness in low-only mode.

Make sense?

 

[Warchild]

My question is this:  is the light barrier on the low-beam only HID capsule removable in 1 piece?  It's not obvious from the pictures.
The reason I ask is this.  I plan on purchasing the low-beam only kit, leaving the right capsule unmodified in the low-beam only mode, modifiying the left capsule for high-beam use and running my FJR in that configuration until God, Santa or my Colombian connection drops the $800 in my lap for a set of FF200 HIDs.

The Low Beam-to- High Beam holder modification is non-reversible. Yet, there is no need to get a third HID capsule.

When you order up your Low-Beam Only kit, ask Andy to include a third H4 Low-Beam Only *holder* (just the empty base), and of course, offer to pay him whatever trivial cost it is.

This way, you can butcher up the extra holder and have it act as your high-beam, until such time as Santa brings you the FF200's. Then you can re-install the unaltered Low-Beam Only holder, and be good-to-go.....

 

[RadioHowie]

Awesome...thanks for the tip.

 

[dobias]

Radio Howie,

Did you get the extra base OK? How much was it?

dobias <_<

 

[stryg8r]

Mine was $22 by CC.

Derek