Completed....Custom HID Conversion Kit

[JES_VFR]

Another update:

While the wife was out of town, I decided to take on a project of laying down a stone walkway and expanding the flower beds. It was 105 degrees that weekend. I am not a landscaper. It sucked, but looks good!

I have more 5000K kits available to ship now, and I ordered a Hi/LO H4 kit for the 5th gens who have been requesting it. Looking at the bulbs, I am not sure how the dust boot will be addressed, as the motor portion on the back of the bulb that moves the shield to create the “hi beam” does not appear removeable. Wiring the Latch and Delay will not be a problem, I will only need to know how the relays are currently configured.

I also ordered an H7 kit for the RC51 folks who were interested. The RC51 (not sure about exact years) uses the same H7 style bulb in low and high beam, with the difference being built into the reflector itself. Wiring in HID bulbs would be simple enough, as would adding the delays. From what I understand (haven’t seen an RC51 apart) the wiring harness actually has H4 connectors, with adapters for the bulbs. The bulbs that come with the kit just have spade terminals to plug into the adapters….but those get removed for the Latch/Delay kit anyway.

If you own an RC51 and are interested in a kit, PM me to work out some of the details.

How are the Hi/Lo H4 kits for the 5th gen's coming???

I still want them even though there are some projects that should have priority.

The rc51 does indeed have the adapters from H4 harness sockets down to the H7 bulbs.I can send you pictures to help.

The issue I see with fitting HID's to the RC51 are the following.

While the low beam is on all time, the Hi beam is not, so the delay while the HID strikes the arc may be an issue. And if you are not going to fit an HID in the high beam because of the striking delay, what do you suggest as the standard bulb will just be utterly washed out by the HID low beam.

[Tightwad]

Another update:

While the wife was out of town, I decided to take on a project of laying down a stone walkway and expanding the flower beds. It was 105 degrees that weekend. I am not a landscaper. It sucked, but looks good!

I have more 5000K kits available to ship now, and I ordered a Hi/LO H4 kit for the 5th gens who have been requesting it. Looking at the bulbs, I am not sure how the dust boot will be addressed, as the motor portion on the back of the bulb that moves the shield to create the “hi beam” does not appear removeable. Wiring the Latch and Delay will not be a problem, I will only need to know how the relays are currently configured.

I also ordered an H7 kit for the RC51 folks who were interested. The RC51 (not sure about exact years) uses the same H7 style bulb in low and high beam, with the difference being built into the reflector itself. Wiring in HID bulbs would be simple enough, as would adding the delays. From what I understand (haven’t seen an RC51 apart) the wiring harness actually has H4 connectors, with adapters for the bulbs. The bulbs that come with the kit just have spade terminals to plug into the adapters….but those get removed for the Latch/Delay kit anyway.

If you own an RC51 and are interested in a kit, PM me to work out some of the details.

How are the Hi/Lo H4 kits for the 5th gen's coming???

I still want them even though there are some projects that should have priority.

The rc51 does indeed have the adapters from H4 harness sockets down to the H7 bulbs.I can send you pictures to help.

The issue I see with fitting HID's to the RC51 are the following.

While the low beam is on all time, the Hi beam is not, so the delay while the HID strikes the arc may be an issue. And if you are not going to fit an HID in the high beam because of the striking delay, what do you suggest as the standard bulb will just be utterly washed out by the HID low beam.

The reason for the high beam is partly angle of light (angled higher to throw it farther). I think a stock bulb for the RC51 would be fine for high beam, even with the stronger HID light as the low beam. The 6th gen uses stock high beam bulbs.

The 5th gen kit has to come...I am getting emails from multiple people...I apologize for not finishing it sooner, but between A.D.D., kids, surgeries, etc I tend to lose focus sometimes. I have cleared some space in the garage to lay out the parts for comparison. There was a thread where someone installed HID in the 5th gen. I can't figure out how to use the search function, but if I can find that thread it will help, as I don't have a 5th gen to trial fit on etc.

If anyone is located in the DFW area, and is interested in fitting an HID kit, let me know and we can set up a time to do a custom install.

[MBrane]

The 5th gen kit has to come...I am getting emails from multiple people...I apologize for not finishing it sooner, but between A.D.D., kids, surgeries, etc I tend to lose focus sometimes. I have cleared some space in the garage to lay out the parts for comparison. There was a thread where someone installed HID in the 5th gen. I can't figure out how to use the search function, but if I can find that thread it will help, as I don't have a 5th gen to trial fit on etc.

If anyone is located in the DFW area, and is interested in fitting an HID kit, let me know and we can set up a time to do a custom install.

Count me in as another interested party for a 5th gen kit. Looks like you did your homework on the 6th gen. :fing02:

The stock lights are pretty good, but you really can't have lights are are too good. The dust boot doesn't look like a huge issue as I'm sure there is something out there that can be made to work.

[BartmanEH]

Tightwad et al, why aren't you using the factory low beam circuit with it's relay? Why bother with running a new power wire back to the battery? The HID kits are lower power consumption than stock H4 bulbs so the factory wiring should be more than adequate. I'm not a big fan of running another battery power line up to the front that could lead to reliability issues down the road. In fact, why not just replace the factory low beam relay with your fancy latch relay and use the DDM kit as intended - connected up to the stock H4 bulb connector?

Hmmm, after reflection, I suppose this has to do with the delay of the 2nd lamp. Feeding the delay relay for the 2nd lamp off the latch relay for the 1st lamp connected to just the factory harness for one lamp would have the power for both lamps running through just one OEM harness wire - is that the problem?

[coderighter]

Tightwad et al, why aren't you using the factory low beam circuit with it's relay? Why bother with running a new power wire back to the battery? The HID kits are lower power consumption than stock H4 bulbs so the factory wiring should be more than adequate. I'm not a big fan of running another battery power line up to the front that could lead to reliability issues down the road. In fact, why not just replace the factory low beam relay with your fancy latch relay and use the DDM kit as intended - connected up to the stock H4 bulb connector?

Hmmm, after reflection, I suppose this has to do with the delay of the 2nd lamp. Feeding the delay relay for the 2nd lamp off the latch relay for the 1st lamp connected to just the factory harness for one lamp would have the power for both lamps running through just one OEM harness wire - is that the problem?

Even thou the HID require less current in normal operation, there is a large in surge of current to at start up to strike the arc. If the voltage drops too low during start-up, it won't light off. The separate circuit is good insurance.

[Metallican525]

Awesome mod, awesome craftsmanship, and as someone else said it looks like I would have done it. Very glad I stumbled upon this thread, the 6th gen kit is now on my list of things to upgrade. Thanks Tightwad for constantly tinkering with stuff to make our VFR's better!!

[Tightwad]

Tightwad et al, why aren't you using the factory low beam circuit with it's relay? Why bother with running a new power wire back to the battery? The HID kits are lower power consumption than stock H4 bulbs so the factory wiring should be more than adequate. I'm not a big fan of running another battery power line up to the front that could lead to reliability issues down the road. In fact, why not just replace the factory low beam relay with your fancy latch relay and use the DDM kit as intended - connected up to the stock H4 bulb connector?

Hmmm, after reflection, I suppose this has to do with the delay of the 2nd lamp. Feeding the delay relay for the 2nd lamp off the latch relay for the 1st lamp connected to just the factory harness for one lamp would have the power for both lamps running through just one OEM harness wire - is that the problem?

Even thou the HID require less current in normal operation, there is a large in surge of current to at start up to strike the arc. If the voltage drops too low during start-up, it won't light off. The separate circuit is good insurance.

In addition to this, which is the main reason, many have found an improvement in the lights by running a dedicated circuit. The wiring on the VFR is very thin, and has a bit of voltage loss across it.

[Tightwad]

So I started looking at the dual beam kit for the older gens. Here is how it works unmodified:

Headlights are disconnected, bulbs are removed.

One headlight connector is connected to the wiring harness for the HID kit.

Wiring harness has battery connections (fused) included.

Both bulbs are trigged from the one headlight connection...so the second bulb connector is left alone.

There is a relay in the wiring kit that works with both low and high beam. I don't know why they used it however, as the high beam is already relayed.

Each bulb has it's own ballast.

Each bulb also has a small 2 pin plug for the high beam solenoid.

I determined I could bypass their relay module which is really just activating the high beam solenoid, and just use the low/high beam relays to do the same thing, but there isn't a cost savings to do so, just a potential reduction in the wiring. The options I think we have (and i need input from the 5th gen owners on) are:

#1. Use the voltage latch relay instead of the low beam relay, and leave all else as is. This would mean both bulbs fire at the same time, but not until the charging voltage is above 13.2V as determined by the Latch relay.

#2. Partially re-engineer their kit to allow the addition of the bulb#2 delay relay as well by adding it inline with the second bulb. This would allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#3. Completely change the kit, doing away with the added relay, and using the output of the high beam relay to trigger the solenoids inside the bulb housing. This would also allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#4. Do away with the factory high and low beam relays, and use the kit as is.

#5. Same as #4, but re-engineer the kit to use the Latch and Delay relays along with their relay.

The cost will naturally vary depending on the final option choice. It woudl be helpful to have a 5th gen to try this on, as space limitations may dictate the best options.

Any thoughts?

[Metallican525]

So I started looking at the dual beam kit for the older gens. Here is how it works unmodified:

Headlights are disconnected, bulbs are removed.

One headlight connector is connected to the wiring harness for the HID kit.

Wiring harness has battery connections (fused) included.

Both bulbs are trigged from the one headlight connection...so the second bulb connector is left alone.

There is a relay in the wiring kit that works with both low and high beam. I don't know why they used it however, as the high beam is already relayed.

Each bulb has it's own ballast.

Each bulb also has a small 2 pin plug for the high beam solenoid.

I determined I could bypass their relay module which is really just activating the high beam solenoid, and just use the low/high beam relays to do the same thing, but there isn't a cost savings to do so, just a potential reduction in the wiring. The options I think we have (and i need input from the 5th gen owners on) are:

#1. Use the voltage latch relay instead of the low beam relay, and leave all else as is. This would mean both bulbs fire at the same time, but not until the charging voltage is above 13.2V as determined by the Latch relay.

#2. Partially re-engineer their kit to allow the addition of the bulb#2 delay relay as well by adding it inline with the second bulb. This would allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#3. Completely change the kit, doing away with the added relay, and using the output of the high beam relay to trigger the solenoids inside the bulb housing. This would also allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#4. Do away with the factory high and low beam relays, and use the kit as is.

#5. Same as #4, but re-engineer the kit to use the Latch and Delay relays along with their relay.

The cost will naturally vary depending on the final option choice. It woudl be helpful to have a 5th gen to try this on, as space limitations may dictate the best options.

Any thoughts?

Hooooooooly crap dude, I think you're giving us too many options. I'm pretty electrical and mechanical savvy and you confused me with all them choices. I think the best option would be the one that requires the least disturbance of factory parts so that it would ease the install. Seems to me the guys here are willing to pay a bit more if the farkles are of sound design and easily installed. As far as I'm concerned you made a very easy job with the 6th gen kit, and a great design as well. Keep the 5th gen kit as similar to the 6th gen as possible and I feel the VFRD gods will smile upon you!! Just my opinion though.

[Metallican525]

:offtopic:

You may want to start a new thread for the 5th gen kit to get more intel from the 5th gen owners.

[Tightwad]

DDM Tuning no longer carries the slim ballast HID kits that were used as a base for the VFR kit. I am still able to supply the Relays and even specific wiring for other kits, but I won't be supplying the HID hardware until I can purchase the same kits again. I do not like selling products I haven't used myself, or had very good reviews from people I trust. Sorry to the 5th gen owners who expressed interest in a kit, it didn't happen prior to the ballasts going away. I do have the bulbs for the 5th gen, and will still look at developing a kit for when the parts are available again.

[JES_VFR]

So I started looking at the dual beam kit for the older gens. Here is how it works unmodified:

Headlights are disconnected, bulbs are removed.

One headlight connector is connected to the wiring harness for the HID kit.

Wiring harness has battery connections (fused) included.

Both bulbs are trigged from the one headlight connection...so the second bulb connector is left alone.

There is a relay in the wiring kit that works with both low and high beam. I don't know why they used it however, as the high beam is already relayed.

Each bulb has it's own ballast.

Each bulb also has a small 2 pin plug for the high beam solenoid.

I determined I could bypass their relay module which is really just activating the high beam solenoid, and just use the low/high beam relays to do the same thing, but there isn't a cost savings to do so, just a potential reduction in the wiring. The options I think we have (and i need input from the 5th gen owners on) are:

#1. Use the voltage latch relay instead of the low beam relay, and leave all else as is. This would mean both bulbs fire at the same time, but not until the charging voltage is above 13.2V as determined by the Latch relay.

#2. Partially re-engineer their kit to allow the addition of the bulb#2 delay relay as well by adding it inline with the second bulb. This would allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#3. Completely change the kit, doing away with the added relay, and using the output of the high beam relay to trigger the solenoids inside the bulb housing. This would also allow the use of both Latch and Delay relays as the 6th gen has.

#4. Do away with the factory high and low beam relays, and use the kit as is.

#5. Same as #4, but re-engineer the kit to use the Latch and Delay relays along with their relay.

The cost will naturally vary depending on the final option choice. It woudl be helpful to have a 5th gen to try this on, as space limitations may dictate the best options.

Any thoughts?

My vote is for #3.

[JES_VFR]

DDM Tuning no longer carries the slim ballast HID kits that were used as a base for the VFR kit. I am still able to supply the Relays and even specific wiring for other kits, but I won't be supplying the HID hardware until I can purchase the same kits again. I do not like selling products I haven't used myself, or had very good reviews from people I trust. Sorry to the 5th gen owners who expressed interest in a kit, it didn't happen prior to the ballasts going away. I do have the bulbs for the 5th gen, and will still look at developing a kit for when the parts are available again.

What brand were the slim ballasts, Tight'..

I've got contact with a local HID supplier that used to supply the cycle shop. They only sell to resellers so they don't even bother with a website, but I could contact them and find out if they have the slim ballasts you want to use.

[Tightwad]

I have 5 kits on order...product has landed in the US and I should receive them in the next couple weeks. I believe 2-3 are tentatively spoken for, and I need to hold one for the 5th gen development, but I should hopefully have a couple to offer up soon!

With the vast offering of HID components out there, I was not comfortable changing brands/types of ballasts. I am glad these are available to build kits from again!

For the 5th gen, Option 3 looks like the best one, and has netted the best feedback. Of course this also has the most engineering needed to get everything tidy and fitting in place. I have multiple offers of 5th gen owners who can help, but I would prefer to find one in the DFW area who would bring their bike by...this would save a ton of time and confusion I think.

[Vecky5]

I have 5 kits on order...product has landed in the US and I should receive them in the next couple weeks. I believe 2-3 are tentatively spoken for, and I need to hold one for the 5th gen development, but I should hopefully have a couple to offer up soon!

With the vast offering of HID components out there, I was not comfortable changing brands/types of ballasts. I am glad these are available to build kits from again!

For the 5th gen, Option 3 looks like the best one, and has netted the best feedback. Of course this also has the most engineering needed to get everything tidy and fitting in place. I have multiple offers of 5th gen owners who can help, but I would prefer to find one in the DFW area who would bring their bike by...this would save a ton of time and confusion I think.

I hope my name is on the tentative list. I am soooo looking forward to getting these installed. Thanks TW.

[Tightwad]

I have 5 kits on order...product has landed in the US and I should receive them in the next couple weeks. I believe 2-3 are tentatively spoken for, and I need to hold one for the 5th gen development, but I should hopefully have a couple to offer up soon!

With the vast offering of HID components out there, I was not comfortable changing brands/types of ballasts. I am glad these are available to build kits from again!

For the 5th gen, Option 3 looks like the best one, and has netted the best feedback. Of course this also has the most engineering needed to get everything tidy and fitting in place. I have multiple offers of 5th gen owners who can help, but I would prefer to find one in the DFW area who would bring their bike by...this would save a ton of time and confusion I think.

I hope my name is on the tentative list. I am soooo looking forward to getting these installed. Thanks TW.

I notified the owners who I had on my list (not complete I am sure), as I was just notified of the fulfillment of my order. I have also reactivated them on my site.

[JES_VFR]

With the vast offering of HID components out there, I was not comfortable changing brands/types of ballasts. I am glad these are available to build kits from again!

I wasn't suggesting that you change the brand of ballasts that you use, I was only suggesting that I might be able to find you another source for them .

[RC51Nick]

Any more info on a possible RC51 kit?

Thanks,

Nick

[Tightwad]

Any more info on a possible RC51 kit?

Thanks,

Nick

Very possible, I think i even have the parts. What I don't have is an RC51, so it would require a bit of back and forth via email and phone if you wanted to pursue one. Feel free to call me at 972.955.2331 or email me at Tilton@gmail.com. I am available typically from 6pm- 11pm (up later usually) central time.

[JES_VFR]

Any updates on the moveable H4's?

I'd really like to get a set on my 5th gen, both for the great amount of light they throw and the reduced wattage compared to the auto H4's I'm running now.

[Freeheeler]

Any updates on the moveable H4's?

I'd really like to get a set on my 5th gen, both for the great amount of light they throw and the reduced wattage compared to the auto H4's I'm running now.

I would also like to get the HID kit for my 5th gen (& VFRness at the same time). Just checked wiremybike.com and it doesn't look like the 5th gen HID kit is in production yet. Any idea when it may be ready?

[FrankoQ]

Any pics of 5k and 6k color temp?

Ready to buy but undecided about 5k or 6k.

Thanks!

[FrankoQ]

Never mind. 6k ordered.

[JES_VFR]

Well since the wonderful state of NJ has backed away from annual safety inspections, I've pretty much run out of reasons not to do an HID conversion on my 5th gen.

I like the latch and delay relays of tightwads setup, but I have to admit, I'm considering a mini-projector based swap.

How about that one of them Tightwad?

[FrankoQ]

Never mind. 6k ordered.

got my kit today!!!

Just in time for the long weekend and do the install.