I have not had a problem with the standard lights.

Add fog lamps or daylight running lights to improve visibility instead of a potentially illegal modification to an unsuitable lens or deflector.

Several people I know who have fitted HID's seem to delight in the fact that they can dazzle other drivers!

I disagree. We are talking about insurance cover, not legal liability. A civil case only has to show a likelihood, whereas as criminal prosecution needs much stronger evidence. So if there is a grey area in the law, this can easily be exploited by an insurance company.

Nope, I think are fine. I have those rubbish X-Vision lamps, but more a case of 'being seen' rather than 'seeing' (

And fog lamps have the right pattern to deal with fog too.

You've got to wonder about the thought logic there...... "Aha I'm dazzling that oncoming car,,, so the fact he can't see anything but a bright light makes it safer for me"

I had HID's on my last car, and they were pretty terrible in adverse weather (snow, heavy rain, mist & fog).

Well I have to say that I'm delighted with the HID's I've fitted. Went for the 4300K ones, so they aren't stupidly bright, but have a nice spread.

On the MOT side of things, my brother has had HID's fitted to his GS for the last 3 years and its never had a single mention from the MOT Tester.

I tried an HID kit on the Tenere but went back to a Philips Xtreme bulb and a set of LED auxiliary lamps from adventure-spec.

If you wire the HID to the dipped beam then there are a couple of issues. The bike switches on the headlight when you crank the engine over. That means that the starter is hammering the battery at the same time as a large inrush current from your HID kit. The HID kit will probably fail to ignite the bulb and the already weak electrical system on the bike will not be happy.

Also, the dipped beam and the full beam are not on at the same time. If you are running on main beam for a while then change back to dipped then there will be a few seconds of darkness as the system gets back up to brightness (or could fail to ignite).

You can run separate wiring for the kit with a switch to get round the issues but that is more potential for points of failure.

Not to mention the fact that you are attaching some electronics that operate at high frequencies and produce thousands of volts at startup with the electronics being of unknown origin, I don't like the idea that they could cause electrical interference to my bikes ECU and instrumentation.

Al


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This effing fog is doing my head in, & looks like it'll be back for a 3rd straight day tomorrow!!
Anyway: forget the HID stuff - its expensive & questionable re legality.
I would do the following:
1. Only ride a motorcycle IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY in fog - it is AMAZINGLY DANGEROUS & we don't have fog lights as standard....
2. Upgrade standard halogen H4(??) bulb to an Osram/Phillips or similar EC stamped, legal, extra bright bulb
3. Fit day time running LEDs - I saw a self-adhesive set at Halfords for �20 that I may purchase, which should neatly stick onto my hand guards - watch this space...

Finally: fog is not to be messed with!

PS: what about something like this for visibility: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=...ture=endscreen