[areknocun]

Everything looks good .... but.
Ive also retrofitted dual projectors to my bike k3 1000 last winter as I was looking for better light output for night time riding outside city.
After some time using that setup went back and purchased another OEM Headlamp unit to replace projectors which are collecting dust now.
The reason being - everything works great if you are going in straight line or in city, but imagine yourself turning right - you are leaning your bike , same time cut of line is also moving and you are unable to see into turn.
Projectors with cut of lines are great for cars, since they don't lean like bikes, and are self adjusting.
Just something to think about.

 

[Keezy235]

And your also potentially blinding on-coming drivers when the bike isn't vertical... How cool would a "floating" HID be in which the cutoff line was always horizontal, despite the lean angle of the bike..

Hmmmm.. Got me thinking..

Random question, in an HID setup is there a shield (blocks light) that produces the cutoff line or is this dictated by the projector lens ?

Hope This ? Isn't too off topic!


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[blackxds]

And your also potentially blinding on-coming drivers when the bike isn't vertical... How cool would a "floating" HID be in which the cutoff line was always horizontal, despite the lean angle of the bike..

Hmmmm.. Got me thinking..

Random question, in an HID setup is there a shield (blocks light) that produces the cutoff line or is this dictated by the projector lens ?

Hope This ? Isn't too off topic!


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There is a shield that blocks light and produces a cutoff line.

 

[Gixfan]

Everything looks good .... but.
Ive also retrofitted dual projectors to my bike k3 1000 last winter as I was looking for better light output for night time riding outside city.
After some time using that setup went back and purchased another OEM Headlamp unit to replace projectors which are collecting dust now.
The reason being - everything works great if you are going in straight line or in city, but imagine yourself turning right - you are leaning your bike , same time cut of line is also moving and you are unable to see into turn.
Projectors with cut of lines are great for cars, since they don't lean like bikes, and are self adjusting.
Just something to think about.

Yup...you're right about the cutoff line when turning. But hitting the highbeams during a turn would light up the road etc while leaned over.

Lots of people doing the HID retrofits...and I haven't heard of an abundance of accidents due to poor visibility.

There are trade offs associated with any lighting choice.


Keezy: a floating cutoff shield be awesome. probably could work with some kind of gyroscope type mechanism to keep cutoff line horizontal during turns.

When going around a bend....the beam will dip low against oncoming traffic...so it shouldn't bother other drivers.

 

[Gixfan]

95% complete now. Just need to mount the ballast inside the fairing...and tidy up the harnesses etc.

 

[Keezy235]

95% complete now. Just need to mount the ballast inside the fairing...and tidy up the harnesses etc.

Great lookin cutoff line! Pics of where you mount your ballast would be awesome or it didn't happen :biggrin

Edit: is ur bike in ur bedroom?! One love brotha

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[Gixfan]

The bike isn't in my bedroom...it's in the foyer type area near front door.

Would love to park it next to my bed...the xenon HID would be a cool "nite light". LOL

Haven't figured out where to möunt the ballast or relay yet. I quit working on it at 2am.

The retrofit took a bit longer than originally planned because of some mistakes and some unforeseen issues.

Headlight housing "mods"
- trimming down the rear mounting 'boss' on the back of the reflector

-cut hole in top of headlight housing(just above clear lens). Had clearance issues in this area. Resealed the hole with soda can aluminum. Ghetto fabulous!

- cut top of decorative projector shroud("Iris") to allow it to snap into place.
-painted reflector and projector shroud....black

On many newer bikes(and more friendly headlight housing designs) the retrofit process would most likely be VERY simple.

Disassembly/reassembly of the front fairings etc to get the headlight housing in/out is the only somewhat laborious process in a retrofit IMO. In my case, the housing "mods" we're annoying, but certainly NOT complicated.

The wire harness installation is simple to install.
Locating good mounting locations for the relay and ballast is the only time consuming aspect of it.

On a side note: Presently, I don't have the lower OEM projector plugged in. The halogen bulb is VERY yellow looking vs the upper Xenon...and ugly looking IMO. In the pic above the halogen projector looks lit up because the xenon light makes the lens glow a bit. I'm going to try an H7 LED bulb for the lower projector. The led light output will hopefully be close in color to the xenon light.

Going to take the bike outside tonight(in driveway) to adjust the cutoff line to the correct height for riding. Test ride will happen tomorrow night.

 

[Keezy235]

Hate to be off topic, but is that the Ram stem mount? If so, what do you think of it ? I've been trying to find something nice I can ask for my birthday that will let me take videos through my clear windscreen and use GPS when need be..

Care to share How you are adjusting the height of the cut off line? I'd assume the original headlight housing has a way to adjust the beam but I've never taken out my headlight...are you using this way to adjust the cutoff height?

Thx! Definitely plan on referencing this thread in the future when I make the move on some HIDs :biggrin


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[Gixfan]

Hate to be off topic, but is that the Ram stem mount? If so, what do you think of it ? I've been trying to find something nice I can ask for my birthday that will let me take videos through my clear windscreen and use GPS when need be..

Care to share How you are adjusting the height of the cut off line? I'd assume the original headlight housing has a way to adjust the beam but I've never taken out my headlight...are you using this way to adjust the cutoff height?

Thx! Definitely plan on referencing this thread in the future when I make the move on some HIDs :biggrin


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The phone mount is a DIY project. A started with an ill-fated attempt at a magnetic mount.

It's actually a $5 dollar universal phone mount modified to fit the bike stem. It works great!


As far as adjusting the headlight height....the OEM adjusters still work as they did before the retrofit.

 

[KINGFABIAN]

Yup...you're right about the cutoff line when turning. But hitting the highbeams during a turn would light up the road etc while leaned over.

Lots of people doing the HID retrofits...and I haven't heard of an abundance of accidents due to poor visibility.

There are trade offs associated with any lighting choice.


Keezy: a floating cutoff shield be awesome. probably could work with some kind of gyroscope type mechanism to keep cutoff line horizontal during turns.

When going around a bend....the beam will dip low against oncoming traffic...so it shouldn't bother other drivers.

One thing I noticed about the OEM bottom projector is that the shield has those 2 squares notched into it to take account for illuminating both your left and right high corners of the road (street signs ...exc) wether your turning or not. Wether your burning a factory Incandescent bulb or an HID its basically going to give off the same beam pattern due to the style of projector the only difference would be the amount of light and color spectrum. I do notice that my factory projector does a good job of lighting up the signs around me at night. One other thing I have noticed is that the same little spot sometimes hits drivers just right and I have had them flash the beams at me I guess assuming I have my high beams on however the spot is so small once they are out of it & they move into the cut off line they no longer get blinded. Im assuming since its an HID bulb in there the effect is more amplified then the factory bulb. This does not concern me with being so bad it would blind someone and have them run into you ....on the contrary it makes me feel way safer cause my headlight is BRIGHT and I feel safer that those cagers can see me much better at night :thumbup

 

[Gixfan]

Yup...those little square openings(squirrel finders) are def for illuminating signs, animals, people etc on the side of the road, etc.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have covered them up when I did my retrofit. The (soon to be) LED bulb in the bottom projector probably would have cast enough light thru those holes to aid in road sign(etc) visibility.

I don't believe factory HID systems incorporate "squirrel finder" holes....I'm guessing that because the xenons are so bright, it only takes a minute amount of light leaking above the cutoff line to illuminate signs etc.

Blackxds:
I would guess that motorcycle HIDs would/will be more likely to OCCASIONALLY get in oncoming driver's eyes....because motorcycles ride height is more prone to change dramatically when going over bumps. Also the nose of a bike comes up quite a bit during hard acceleration.

 

[KINGFABIAN]

With the factory Audi A6 HID projector the shields are aslo designed to light up the side of the road. When you look at the shield in most HID projectors they are not just straight across, they have a tiny little step in them that lets the light leak upward. That's why its important when doing a retrofit in a car that you place the correct projector in the correct headlight, Driver side projector to driver side headlight so that you don't get that side light affect reversed. As for the situations where I have blinded a driver is quite rare in situations that you described in example going up inclines, leaned at an angles ....exc for that light to hit them just right but its so brief its just fractions of seconds

(just a note, some people have messed with the distance of the shield on the inside by adding washers to change the spacing inside. The result changes the color of that cutoff line that is projected on cars/walls...exc)

 

[Gixfan]

Changing the Cutoff shield to get a different color is a bit OCD, but to each his own I guess.

Yup, the "step" is def to allow more light to be cast in YOUR lane rather than oncoming traffic's eyes.

Some get a bit crazy wanting a super duper crisp cutoff line....when in actuality having the cutoff just a smidge fuzzy is better. That fuzziness is light leaking upward....and will show road signs better, but not affect other drivers.

 

[Gixfan]

Crappy video quality, but it shows the light output of the retrofit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8WY7Y7uoUQ&feature=youtu.be

 

[BFleming]

Holy thread resurrection Batman! Just thought I'd share this picture as I took my headlight apart this weekend. Left hand traffic bike, but you get the idea.
Squirrel finders!