XENON HEADLIGHT KIT

[Scoots]

I was cruising thru fleabay in my search for various parts for my monoshock R100RS when I bumbled into this listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EFX-SLIM-AC-DIG ... 25740328d1

It's supposed to draw only 35 watts, which is much less than the Osram bulb that I've recently installed - it draws 60 watts:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OSRAM-Night-Rac ... 5650a3fbf7

Anyone familiar with these type of kits w/ballast? What's the verdict on them?

[moosehead]

Had older HID kit in my 75/6...worked great. Was mounted in Hannigan fairing arrangement.

Observations:

Get the 4300 lumen light colour - closest to daylight colour - higher lumens (6000+) way too white.

You will be seen - guaranteed!!!! You may have to aim the high beam down as they are pretty bright to oncoming drivers even during the day.

They do use power.

Get dual beam HI/LO ...mine worked great

Make sure that the whole structure (HID bulb + connector) will fit INSIDE headlight shell. Fromdescription it looks like it will. Problem with my older kit was the connector to HID bulb was rather deep (at least 2") and prevented mounting headlight unit back into bucket...that's why I only mounted in my Hannigan fairing unit...it had the room and te headlight assembly does not mount back into the bucket.

Let us know how you make out. Looks like a good kit at pretty fair price for HID. Looking at this kit to convert my 82 RS.

[Major Softie]

Had older HID kit in my 75/6...worked great. Was mounted in Hannigan fairing arrangement.

Observations:

Get the 4300 lumen light colour - closest to daylight colour - higher lumens (6000+) way too white.

You will be seen - guaranteed!!!! You may have to aim the high beam down as they are pretty bright to oncoming drivers even during the day.

They do use power.

Get dual beam HI/LO ...mine worked great

Make sure that the whole structure (HID bulb + connector) will fit INSIDE headlight shell. Fromdescription it looks like it will. Problem with my older kit was the connector to HID bulb was rather deep (at least 2") and prevented mounting headlight unit back into bucket...that's why I only mounted in my Hannigan fairing unit...it had the room and te headlight assembly does not mount back into the bucket.

Let us know how you make out. Looks like a good kit at pretty fair price for HID. Looking at this kit to convert my 82 RS.

This post contains a great deal of confusion about lighting language. First of all, lumens are a measure of brightness, and have nothing to do with color. You want all the lumens you can get. Color is measured in a number of ways, but Moosehead is presumably talking about color temperature measured in the Kelvin scale (K). This can confuse some people, as "k" stands for "kilo," but "K" stands for "Kelvin." Thus, although it would be a very confusing way to write it, you could refer to a 4000 Kelvin lamp as 4kK. Lower numbers are more amber, and higher numbers are more blue. Daylight, although it varies throughout the day, is never considered to be as low as 4300K. It's as high as 6500K when overcast, and 5500K to 6000K at noon. Our old incandescents were around 2600-2800K (and got more and more amber as they aged), standard halogens were/are 3200-3400K, and new "super white" halogens can get over 5000K. I've see HID's as high as 8000K.

The big marketing push for lighting closer to "daylight" color temperatures than our older more amber lights sounds good, but leaves out a huge factor that people do not realize. "Whiter light" sounds like it's automatically better, but not to our eyes. In fact, we see yellow/green colored light 3-4 times as well as we see blue. So, we actually see 1000 lumens of amber light better than we see 1500 lumens of blue light.

It takes more blue light in a beam of white light to raise the color temperature, and to make you perceive it as "whiter," but for it to also provide better illumination for your eyes, it actually has to be significantly brighter in lumens.

The warnings I've seen about HID lamp kits for bikes is that they do not work well with reflectors designed for a halogen lamp. This can lead to a poor beam pattern for the rider and can be blinding for oncoming traffic. Ones that come with a reflector designed for the HID lamp can be really good.

[moosehead]

The Major is right...should have used "Kelvins" as measure of light "colour"...not "lumens"...I stand corrected.

SO, I found the 4300 K "colour" better for night vision. Reason I say this as a friend also installed HID kit and he selected an 8000 K "colour"...very blue/white light colour. While very visible for daytime running he said was almost useless for night vision. He had seen mine on few trips we had been on and commented as to how much better my light was at night. I think it had to do with the "colour"

Also, meant to point out, that make sure you have the low beam function aimed correctly as the power of these lights is blinding to oncomng traffic at times...found I had to lower the low beam aim as I was constantly getting on coming drivers irritated...just an observation.

And I used the 35 watt version...they do draw less power.

[enigmaT120]

This guy talks a lot about vehicle lighting. He doesn't always say what I want to read, but he's probably correct:

http://danielsternlighting.com/