DIY HID - OMFG!

[frankenduck]

I've long been in search of good lights that will allow me to ride sweepers and twisties aggressively at night and be able to actually SEE where I'm going.  The Hella FF50s upgraded with Xenon H7s work OK when pointed up and out but aren't ideal.

Of course I could buy uber-expensive HID driving lights but where's the challenge in that?

Upgrading regular driving lights to HID is complicated by the fact that most of the HID upgrade bulbs have a big ass that won't fit in a typically small driving light housing.

Anyhow, earlier this year I stumbled across this post.  This piqued my interest because the halogen Hella Micro DEs do have enough room in the back to accommodate the big ass of an HID conversion bulb.

So, last summer I dropped $60 on Fleabay for a pair of the Halogen Micro DEs and then another $35-40 on a DDM Tuning set of 35W HID H3s, did the install and mounted them on my K75 with a K1100RS fairing.

The one issue with the Micro DEs is that, being fog lights, the top of the beam has a very sharp horizontal cutoff at the top.  This obviously isn't good for a driving light so I figured I'd be better off flipping the housings over and having the cutoff be at the bottom of the beam pattern.  I have the, now bottom, cutoff aligned about 50 feet in front of me, since my brain has already processed that pavement and picked a line.

Anyhow, since I installed these over the summer, I really haven 't had a chance to try them out riding dark twisties and sweepers.  On Monday night, riding the Redwood Highway (199), from Grants Pass to Crescent City I finally got a chance to try them out on various turns along the Smith River and through the redwoods.  All I can say is WOW!  These things are stupid bright and EXACTLY what I was looking for.  I have them mounted under my RS mirrors and they look around turns farther than I do.  I can finally ride dark turns at night as fast as I want to and see what the hell is ahead of me.  The beams from them are about 25 degrees vertically and about 120 degrees horizontally. 

I'll now be installing them on all of my bikes.

They are, of course, pretty dang bright so you need to be very careful not to blind oncoming traffic with them.

(Given that you have to mess with the wiring and mounting I consider this more of a DIY than a straight upgrade but that's just semantics.)

[wmax351]

I'm running some cheap harbor freight h3 fog lights. I just cut the beam cutoff, because it doesn't work right upside down. Set the lights to aim fairly low, and they seem to work well. Not HID, but good enough.

[orforester]

Duck, has anyone told you that you have a light fetish?   

But really you have given me some great ideas, lower fork leg lights, the LED instead of the single pilot light, and rear/front reflector runnign lights. 

Thanks

Bob

[frankenduck]

I am totally light OCD.

Anything LED.

The Catz XLOs are the best conspiciuity lights on the planet. (I live by the philosophy that when I make contact with a car I want to make sure that it is MY fault, not theirs.)  The side benefit is how well they work to facilitate lane-splitting in California.  They worked great last night when stop light filtering in the city and then later lane-splitting on 280.

These converted Micro DEs things really ROCK. I can't believe how well they suit my needs given the dollars/effort involved.

[Snowy]

I have the Hella FF50's fitted to both the K1100RS and GS Adventure. On the K bike they're still running halogen but I upgraded the ones on the GS with 50watt HID conversions. I did this myself and did need to drill a hole in the casing at the rear to take the wiring but other than that it was quite straightforward and looks OEM when finished. The difference in light output is exceptional, with the HID's on there is no need to slow down just because the sun ain't shining. I have considered doing the same with the K bike but have not got around to doing it yet. I have a set of MicroDE's sitting on a shelf somewhere so may take a look at upgrading those. Duck - where did you route the cabling and put the ballasts - under the fairing pads?

[frankenduck]

I have the Hella FF50's fitted to both the K1100RS and GS Adventure. On the K bike they're still running halogen but I upgraded the ones on the GS with 50watt HID conversions. I did this myself and did need to drill a hole in the casing at the rear to take the wiring but other than that it was quite straightforward and looks OEM when finished. The difference in light output is exceptional, with the HID's on there is no need to slow down just because the sun ain't shining. I have considered doing the same with the K bike but have not got around to doing it yet. I have a set of MicroDE's sitting on a shelf somewhere so may take a look at upgrading those. Duck - where did you route the cabling and put the ballasts - under the fairing pads?

I installed the ballasts under the knee pads of the RS fairing.  I just ran the wires through the vents in the fronts of the knee pads.  It's not an extremely elegant solution but that's not a big deal to me.

One other thing: Since these are only 35W each you can probably run them off of a 32A alternator.

[frankenduck]

FF50s:  I also bought some cheapo 100W Xenon bulbs for those on Fleabay.  Plan to upgrade the wiring and try those as another experiment.  Probably won't be as good as an HID upgrade but should help some.

[frankenduck]

Update: I'm REALLY impressed by these so I decided to make another set of them for my K1100RS.  However, for the life of me I could not get one of the connectors off in order to run the wire through the rubber boot at the back.  Instead I just cut the old wires out and slipped the new ones in.  Conveniently, there's a channel in the boot around the lip that's perfect for a zip-tie. :2thumbup:  I'll put some black RTV in there to keep them waterproof.

Out of curiosity, I measured the height and width of the beam of one of these.  It's a whopping 70 degrees wide  :eek: (seems like more than that when riding) and a respectable 35 degrees high.

[frankenduck]

I'm putting a set on my K1100RS this week. (When the garage warms up a bit.)  The Hella FF50s they're replacing have their wires run up under the mirror extender and through the hole for the turn signal wiring.

Those stupid oversized HID connectors obviously won't fit and the unnecessary extra insulation on the red and blue wires makes things awkward as well.  I can't see why either one is really necessary so I got rid of them both.

When I do the final install I'll put two or three layers of heat shrink tubing over the terminal connections to hold them together and insulate them.

[frogy]

Light good,dark bad.