HID lights
 

Has anyone fitted HID lights to the tenere?

pics/tips please

is there going to be a problem with heat/uv light affecting the plastic lens?

From what I've seen of the Tenere the main show stopper will being finding somewhere mount the balast(s) out of the way of the elements!

Al.

was thinking of changing the dip beam only and mounting the balast under the bottom yoke.

are the balast's waterproof?

my mian concern is damage to the head light from heat etc.

I thought HID bulbs run cooler? (I'm no physicist, but if they draw less power, then surely they must run cooler?)

Certainly I've been running 100w halogen bulbs in mine (for the least 15,000 miles) with no problems to the lens or wiring, so I can't imagine the HID bulb is hotter than that?

As for positioning the ballast, I imagine you could remove the black inner plate behind the grey fairing cheeks (where the front indicators mount) and mount them in there?

I'd be interested to see the results...

xxx

I've been wondering about HID lights, too. Les Wassall of HID50 (see http://www.hid50.com/ ) is very well spoken of on UKGSer, so I emailed him to ask about HID kits for the Ten.

Here is my message, and the reply from Les:

Hi Les
I've seen much advice from you and recommendations from others on UKGSer, about the HID50 kits.
I am currently in the process of buying a new XT660Z Tenere. Have you fitted kits to any of these bikes yet? I do a fair amount of riding at night in darkest rural Somerset, and want plenty of light. Can I ask a couple of questions please?
a) Would your advice be to fit dip and main HID, or maybe dip only with auxillary lamps? My initial preference is for dip and main HId, but am prepared to be advised otherwise.
b) What would the cost be for you to supply and fit the options described?


Hi Allan , have not fitted to the yam yet but have looked over one and I think HiD would be no problem at all, the kit is �150 a pair or �75 each, the dip is a must and then the high would be good but not sure how good as i have not seen the o/e lights in operation, also maybe the 35 watt kits would be more than enough for the Yam as usually they are very good lights on Jap bike, the 35 kits are �110 a pair or half for a single, all plus some post.
If the alternator is only small then go for the 35 watt, small ballast as well so easier to fit.
the high beam is instant flash but full light is about 2 seconds.


I'm going to go for HID in some form, but haven't decided what, yet!

Hope this helps.

i'm interested in this too - thanks brewers for that info.

my thought is to go for the dip only, but wire it so that the dip is always on and the dipswitch simply turns the high beam on as well, rather than switching between the two. this would obviously mean adding wiring for the dip,as both lamps running from one wire wouldn't be good.

i personally dont think its worth fitting hid to the high beam on the Ten - the beam pattern only lights up the same area as the dip beam so why bother? I plan to fit some additional driving lamps which will be my main beam proper, whilst the hid dip beam does the foreground. if that makes sense.

You can get a slim ballast kit from Acumen for just under �100 - http://www.acumen-electronics.co.uk/..._Ballast_61014

The ballasts are supposed to be sealed with a suitable IP rating to allow them to be mounted anywhere on the bike.

Most of the situations I've heard of where folk have fitted them to bikes, the increase in light produces by them has rendered full beam fairly useless so I'd stick with the dipped beam only.

Al.

Good info brewers.

Are the cheap HID car kits on ebay the same as the bike kits? coz their half the price for two of them.

35 watt or 50 watt?

Peatbog i too was thinkig of having the dip and main beam on together.

for a cheapie there's this option, 35w only mind -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BIKE-SLIM-H7-XENON-HID-CONVERSION-UPGRADE-BULB-KIT-2YR_W0QQitemZ380114280106QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Mot orcycle_Parts?hash=item5880939eaa&_trksid=p4634.c0 .m14.l1262&_trkparms=|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A30

or this twinset at 50-55w, buy it and split it with a mate? for the carriage they charge it must be hand delivered on a silk cushion though.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HID-XENON-CONVERSION-KIT-50W-55W-H7-6000K_W0QQitemZ350204253027QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_C arsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item5189ccd363& _trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A 1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50



but i have to admit the HID50 stuff looks better.

cheers peatbog.

Buying from HID50 seems a lot safer.

I've fitted HID on nearly every bike I've owned. As mentioned before, converting the dipped is all you really need. I leave the high beam on a normal bulb as that way you have redundancy. They run cooler because they convert more power to light.

If it's a newer bike with the hardwired dipped I wire a waterproof switch into the system. That way it's on when I want it on.

I collect my Z tomorrow and will convert ASAP.

The trick with HID is to buy a German digital ballast and Japanese bulb.

I'll forward details of who I use, �80 per pair @35w, as I don't have the details on me...

I fitted the HID system to my old xt660r and found hardly any difference to be honest ,Big B i spoke to Allan Wassel at the tt event about the same thing then had a look on his website and was very impressed with the kit but as i said earlier was'nt to impressed with the light difference so have gone with brighter bulbs and that seems to achive similar results

jasext
Brighter bulbs may be an option. what watt are you using?

Did you use the less power 35w HID bulbs?

If i go down the HID route i was thinking of using 50w bulbs, they must be brighter than normal bulbs?

Bought these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=110319486898

Much brighter than standard and well pleased

Those are pretty much what I bought in the US (100w, blue light) - like you say, much brighter than standard, and the wiring seems to handle them no problem...

Good price too!

xxx

Finally fitted HID lights to the dipped beam of my bike.
A mate ordered a 35w 4300k twin pack from e-bay for �47 delivered
had one kit each, cheap or what?
fitting is real easy only 2 wires to connect, but finding somewhere to fit the ballast was not.
stripped the front of the bike and found no where to put it.
ended up sticking it under the right side of the fuel tank behind the protectors, used velcro so no problem when removing tank for maintenance.
the wiring to the bulb was long enough to be cable tied along the original wires.

not the best pic-
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/u...2/PICT0223.jpg

lights are now pure white and so powerful car drivers take notice.

It was easy dont know what your on about :wave: makes a hell of a difference, as above we used 4300k bulbs and the ballast is under the tank, got some pictures will upload them soon.

we're waiting for pics!
please show us the mounted hid bulb. I want to know if the rubber sealing has to be cut in order for the bulb to fit in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._1362Large.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._1363Large.jpg

There was no need for insulting tape, just made it look better as the cable wasn't black.

Hi Jenny
Just fitted a pair to the Ten(bought on the ebay link) and they look good (alongwith the free blue xenon aux bulbs).
Super bright white blue light-not tried in them riding in the dark other than in the garden just now.

Any problems with heat to the plastic lamp lens?

cheers

I had no problems with the 100w bulbs, other than one eventually blew after about 10,000 miles...

Just had a look at that ebay link again, for �5.95 I'm going to buy some more!

xxx

Thats more millage from your bulb than the Nightbreaker osram 55w bulbs I bought. They cost me�25 and both have blown in about 10-15k miles, certainly brighter and more distinctive however.

I've had to put some originals in for now but have ordered these and will try and post some pics to demonstrate the difference. Much cheaper than HID as well and leave an easy option to remove them.

At least 100w bulbs are legal on motorcycles (unlike cars)

Got the 100w bulbs fitted and they certainly seem to make a difference. Really nice white light and certainly brighter. Using my flasher now gives me a nice which lit-up foreground before finally turning a dirty yellow where the main beam is (I'd not changed that). I've since changed the main beam bulb as well as it made such a difference on dipped. Glare on dipped seems not much different than before as well so this seems like an excellent cost effective way to beef up your lighting. Just makes the sidelights seem distinctly yellow by comparison now!

I was going to do some comparison pics on a test ride but by the time I'd stopped to change the bulb it was sufficiently hot that I could not change it! Got the first set of pics and will post them when I got some comparison pics to show them against

Glad you like the new bulbs-with mine I got free the two blue zenon side lights Did you? These look the part and match pretty much the two main lights now.

No I did not get those so the sidelights now look distinctly yellow (which I'm not that unhappy about as it's quite distinctive/noticable which can only be good for being seen.

As winter approches I'm considering pimping my ride with a few LED's. Should make me all that more noticable on the m/way when I'm filtering and better side visibility at junctions etc.

Was thinking of starting with these http://www.m-99.co.uk/Car_Neon_LED_L...ap_covers.html

Ok managed to get some pics tonight which were quite enlightening!

Pics are comparing a standard yamaha shop bought 55W H7 bulb with 100W 8000K bulbs bought from ebay. The 100W bulbs have quite a strong blue tint on them so quite a bit of the light produced will be bring lost there.

All pics were taken at F4 1.6 secs on a 18mm lens. Camera was handheld so apologies for any camera shake.

This is the Dip beam Standard 55W bulb on the left and the 100W 8000K on the right


http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/4885/55wstddip.th.jpg http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/183...00kdip2.th.jpg


The next two are on full beam. I probaly ought to have chosen a better road to demonstrate this really, or not left the bike on the side-stand!

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/4...tdmain2.th.jpg http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/320...00kmain.th.jpg

The standard bulb seems to provide a much more conecntrated beam with the 8000K one spreading the light around a fair bit more. That seems to work well with the dip beam but does not throw the light as far on main beam (or at least its too weak to be noticable there). Main beam on the 8000K bulb does illluminate the more immeadiate details in front of and to the side of the bike than the std bulb however.

The 8000K bulb is certainly easier on the eye being more like daylight so provides much better contrast than the standard bulb but ultimatly I think the colour cast is too strong at 8000K and too much light is being lost, I'll be looking at some 6000K or warmer bulbs which should yield more light (also our eyes are most sensitive to light in the 5500-6000K range at night - lower in the daytime)

Overall I do theink they are an improvement from my riding tests but not as much as I was hoping with the strong colour cast. For ultimate nighttime visibility I'd be looking at bulbs with less strong of a colour cast (5800K is where our eyes are most sensitive at night). For being seen however they should do the trick nicely unless I later decide to go for sodium yellow bulbs instead!

hid lights
 

Have emailed hid50 but no reply as yet, going round the black sea next year, away for we guess about a month, recently bought a well fitted out xtz, touratech panniers, all the protection etc, but thought the lights were diabolical, friends x are very good, H4 I think, also a little concerned about the rectifier problems, any other known problems I should be aware of as we will be covering about 10,000 miles. Martin

Ive had HID for quite a while of the GS I had and liked it but bear in mind if the ballast goes then you have no lights at all. As a safety measure I ran Hella DE fogs as well just in case. Unlike a normal bulb you cant flick it to dip once the ballast goes.

I had no problems with mine but safety wise its worth thinking about.

Thanks for pics mate!

Hids
 

Guys


Just come across this on the net and have ordered myself the motorcycle conversion.
http://www.hids4u.co.uk/hid-motorbike-conversion-kits-c-7.html

I will let you know how i get on when i receive it and have fitted it

Cheers

Jim

They look to be just what i am looking for!!! Will read your reveiw of them with interest. Which bulbs did you got for? Mark

I have gone with the H7 55w pro max kit. Actually just arrived yesterday and they sent me a H11 bulb so i need to send it back and exchange the bulb. This ballast has the starter fitted into it and i would say it is about the size of two packs of cigarrettes side by side.

There are a couple of things i see as potential problems with this kit

1 where to mount the Ballast as the wiring is quite short.

2 getting all of the bulb and connections into the housing / seals on the head light.

Once i get the bulb exchanged i will put a set of pics and tips on here and give you my opinion on it but from what i had seen yesteday from the dry run they are very bright.

Cheers

Jim

Ok

so got the new bulb, got home and fitted the system to dry run. All ok, But where oh where are you supposed to hide the Ballast unit? the cableing is so short it has to go practicaly next to the front of the bike. Any clues, ideas or suggestions.

it also looks like the bulb connections are going to interfere with the headlight seal on the back, what you are supposed to do is use the existing light supply and plug the Ballast into it, BUT the plugs are all pre sealed so the cannot be dismantled and there is no room for all this gubbins in the back of the light housing.

HELP anyone

Cheers

Jim

i fitted the balst under the right hand side of the tank (velcro) under the grey panel its flat stick it there, then the headlight grommit will need a hole cut and let it stick through.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4..._1362Large.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...17/ballast.jpg

I had HIDs on my GS but theres no way I would run both unless I had a backup such as the Micro De's. If the ballast goes you have no light and if its a H4 no dip or anything. As a safety measure I fitted additional lights just in case which I had on at the same time.

The HID was geat and it made a big difference

Thanks i will have a look at this today

OK

got the lights fitted, Had to take the wires out of the original connector and run them back out due to the supply on the Ballast being so short. Look good so far ballast was fitted under the tank ( Thanks Guys )

one thing i did notice was the bike was a little harder to start, dont know if its just because its bloody freezing here this morning or because or the lights.

I have fitted 6000k bulbs as recommended By HIDS4U anything over gives really blue light and is apparently more for show.

Cheers for the advice guys i appreciate it

Jim