Member Contributer HoganLongfellow Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 I've been trying to search but coming up blank, anyone installed HID lights on their 4th Gen? I'd love to make my Viffer more visible to others, I'm thinking this combined with my Hi Vis gear is my best bet!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MBrane Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 Well I removed a set of Chinese HIDs from the 4th gen I recently bought because I couldn't see anything other than the road for a hundred feet in front of me at night. That, and the ballasts were rattling around loose inside the fairing since the double-sided tape mounting had failed. Oh yeah the charging system voltages are correct, and steady now that the system has the proper load. All with a $12 set of 9003/H4 bulbs. Wonder how much the PO spent on the "awesome" HIDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V4 Rosso Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 On my first ride with HIDs I was on a straight rural road, only one other vehicle on that road, coming from the other direction. It turned left into a driveway right in front of me. I had to brake hard to avoid a collision. So much for more visability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabio222 Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I had HiDs on mine, they were there when I bought it. They were a decent set and were well focused giving fantastic light when out in the middle of nowhere. They didn't nescessairly make the bike ny more visible to others however! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Burns Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 I went w/ the LED's on mine... from what I've been told, they are hard to miss. Light output is certainly better than the stock H4's I replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer RichVee4 Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 I installed LED H4 to replace original bulbs. LEDs are the way to go, plug and play 2x the light with 1/2 the power. LED is positioned similar to filament bulb so light pattern similar to stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabio222 Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 The fact that they use less power would mean more strain on the regulator/rectifier though, just to bear in mind. Same with HiDs anyway so I guess not an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Burns Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 well, you say that... I had done the R1 r/r swap a few years ago... went to the LED setup this past winter, and while it might be coincidence, toasted that r/r first day at Tmac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MadFrog Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 how does a device that uses LESS power result in MORE strain on the regulator/rectifier? It has to regulate whatever comes in from the stator, I don't believe it is affected by how much is drawn from the system. Circuits class was about 25 years ago though, so I could be wrong... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGREGT Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I've got HIDs on my 6th gen on the lo beams (installed by the previous owner), and a headlight modulator on the hi beams (with higher wattage bulbs.) The HIDS are quite astounding at night. Like I have a helicopter flying over my shoulder. If you're thinking about better visability, have you thought about a headlight modulator? I have modulators on all my bikes from Kriss.com in AZ. He sells a great, easy kit. I have one on my 4th gen as well, so it's an easy thing to install as plug & play. I also did a slight improvement on his set up by installing a simple switch on the dash that lets me turn the modulator on and off at will (rather than relying on a sunny day to turn it on like he has is set up originally), thus allowing me to use the regular high beam, the low beam, or the modulated high beam. Let me know if you're interested in the switch setup and I'll explain how I have it hooked up. Super easy. Looks clean. On all my other bikes, I put the modulators on the hi beams to modulate them instead of the lo beam like Kriss suggests, and changed all the bulbs on all the bikes from 55/65w to 100/55w, so they modulate AND have more wattage. The bulb upgrade is simple and doesn't change a thing about the bike electrics. Just swap them out. I kept them non-HID on everything except the 6th gen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer deltaboxii Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 I had a set of PIAA HID on my 5th gen. A good kit. Better lighting and visibility but I was not fond of the blue-ish color myself. I went back to stock. I had them up for sale and I believe they use H4 bulbs. Not sure what the 4th gen uses but if you want more info let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greaterx Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Installed HID with delay relay and ballast kit from wiremybike.com. VFR specific http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php/topic/60987-completedcustom-hid-conversion-kit/ Ain't never going back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dedofnite Posted June 5, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2014 Hey Hogan, Not sure about your bike, but I installed an HID kit on an '06 for someone about 2 years ago. The light output was impressive, but the 6th gen headlight lenses are not designed to focus the light from those bulbs. Looked impressive until you tried to aim the lights and realized that most of the light was scattered up in the air, blinding oncoming traffic. (NOT what you want to do to 3 ton cars coming toward you!) Tried taping the lenses to shape the beam, but in the end removed them and installed some nice high wattage H4s and wired the system to keep them on when switching to hi beam, at the request of the rider. (On the 6th gen, the low beam sockets are not wired to use the H4 hi beam filament. Adding those complimented the H7 hi beams nicely). Haven't tried LEDs yet. All the info so far indicates they work very well and use much less current. I would recommend trying that setup. And as Great's video shows, nice, trendy, in a "rice rocket car fashion" sort of way, but a waste of money on the that model bike. IMHO. (And, the relays did work... for a while...) :unsure2: Hope that helps. Ded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MBrane Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 how does a device that uses LESS power result in MORE strain on the regulator/rectifier? It has to regulate whatever comes in from the stator, I don't believe it is affected by how much is drawn from the system. Circuits class was about 25 years ago though, so I could be wrong... The more current the R/R has to shunt to ground makes it's job harder. The more current you draw from the stator the better as long as you don't draw too much for too long. The stator puts out a constant amount of current at any given RPM. The battery can make up for any brief extra load. With the HIDs in my 4th gen the voltage was low, and all over the place. With the 65 watt 9003s the voltage is normal, and steady as a rock. Granted they are not as bright, but the light is actually useable not blinding myself, and others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 Love mine !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 As Ded says, HID bulbs are not designed to work in a halogen reflector lens - making it hard for oncoming vehicles to maintain lane position because they can't see shit is not the best idea I've ever heard. And dirty headlight glass makes the light scatter even worse (which is why most factory fitted HID systems incorporate a headlight washing system). People who've fitted HIDs to reflectors often claim they never get flashed, means nothing. Most road users these days have realised that if you flash a reflector HID kit, the next thing that happens is you get their high beam retort, and if you were struggling to see the edge of the road before, just try staying in your lane now... meanwhile the HID dude goes on his way with warm thoughts of how he "showed that guy"... The only way to go to HID in a reflector len system is to fit HID projectors, as per what theretrofitsource.com sells. I bought a pair of 3" Stanley projectors with Osram bulbs from them for my Nissan Patrol. Not cheap, but there's no better way to improve safety at night, you get a great low (main) beam without causing problems for other road users, and the high beam is off the dial. The Baja Designs 6" HID spread/spot driving lights I also had were made redundant overnight by the projector retrofit. Fit the best halogen bulbs you can get (the 4th Gen reflector is a very good design) and if visibility is an issue, look into a headlight modulator, and/or a LED daytime running light retrofit. You could also make one headlight lens yellow, a VFRD member did that to a 4th Gen once and reported that it did seem to make people look twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 Wot e sed! Note also that the pre-5th gen headlamp unit uses its fluted glass lens to focus the beam, rather than the fluted reflectors (and clear lenses) on the 5th-gen and up. Some people say that HID and LED conversion kits work acceptably well on 5th and 6th-gens, but very few people like them on the earlier bikes. Ciao, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 Wot e sed! Blinding oncoming traffic will get you I spoke to the owner of a HID company, showed him a picture of my 4th gen headlight and he advised against trying to fit his HID projectors. You can start by hookig up the other bulb so both are on at low beam You can then go for yellow H4 bulbs, where you have 2 options: the ones with a yellow glass dome or the ones that claim to give yellow light by themselves all yellows are equal, but some yellows are more yellow than others Go for the domes. Still want to be more standing out in the crowd? Go for LED DLRs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MadFrog Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 how does a device that uses LESS power result in MORE strain on the regulator/rectifier? It has to regulate whatever comes in from the stator, I don't believe it is affected by how much is drawn from the system. Circuits class was about 25 years ago though, so I could be wrong... The more current the R/R has to shunt to ground makes it's job harder. The more current you draw from the stator the better as long as you don't draw too much for too long. The stator puts out a constant amount of current at any given RPM. The battery can make up for any brief extra load. With the HIDs in my 4th gen the voltage was low, and all over the place. With the 65 watt 9003s the voltage is normal, and steady as a rock. Granted they are not as bright, but the light is actually useable not blinding myself, and others. well, the stator most certainly does NOT put out a constant amount of current at any given RPM. On the contrary, the faster the rotor spins, the more A/C current is generated in the stator. That's kind of why we need a regulator along with the rectifier (to convert AC to DC), you know? :) I do agree with the logic that the bigger current draw may mean somewhat less shunt by the regulator, which may make its life easier, but I still don't buy that replacing the regular halogen bulbs with LEDs will mean such a lower current draw on the system as a whole that this will kill the regulator. Also, if your voltage was low and inconsistent wtih your HID kit, I would suspect that the kit itself was defective and the the ballasts or the igniters were screwed up and causing your issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 The DLR's are impressive .. And I use a series type R\R .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MadFrog Posted June 6, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 Wot e sed! You can start by hookig up the other bulb so both are on at low beam In the US, both bulbs come on at low beam anyway. So that's a really easy mod for us. ;) And I'm not sure that using yellow bulbs for headlights would be legal here. They allow it for fog lights, but I would check local laws before making that change in the good ol' US of A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer HoganLongfellow Posted June 6, 2014 Author Member Contributer Share Posted June 6, 2014 . changed all the bulbs on all the bikes from 55/65w to 100/55w, so they modulate AND have more wattage. The bulb upgrade is simple and doesn't change a thing about the bike electrics. Just swap them out. I kept them non-HID on everything except the 6th gen. stupid question- was it a lot brighter with the higher wattage bulbs? thanks for all the feedback everyone!! I actually spoke to some buddies last night about installing HID's when we were out riding; and they said my stock headlights are always the most noticeable of the whole bunch! I definately don't want to blind traffic, just let them know I'm there. Maybe I'll install a harley exhaust - that'll get their attention (kidding lolol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WGREGT Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Yes. You are nearly doubling the watts on hi beam. The bulbs are cheap...look for H4 bulbs, 110 watt on ebay. Only a few bucks each. Plug & play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer JZH Posted June 7, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 7, 2014 Wot e sed! You can start by hookig up the other bulb so both are on at low beam In the US, both bulbs come on at low beam anyway. So that's a really easy mod for us. ;) And I'm not sure that using yellow bulbs for headlights would be legal here. They allow it for fog lights, but I would check local laws before making that change in the good ol' US of A. Each state is different, but when I lived in California I used to run one white, one yellow on my RC36 and never had a problem with the po po. I checked the Vehicle Code and found that yellow headlights were provided for in some way, but I was never sure if it meant that both had to be the same color! Anyway, I was prepared to argue that it was a safety issue (which is was). I used the "French yellow" baloon-thing. Ciao, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MBrane Posted June 7, 2014 Member Contributer Share Posted June 7, 2014 how does a device that uses LESS power result in MORE strain on the regulator/rectifier? It has to regulate whatever comes in from the stator, I don't believe it is affected by how much is drawn from the system. Circuits class was about 25 years ago though, so I could be wrong... The more current the R/R has to shunt to ground makes it's job harder. The more current you draw from the stator the better as long as you don't draw too much for too long. The stator puts out a constant amount of current at any given RPM. The battery can make up for any brief extra load. With the HIDs in my 4th gen the voltage was low, and all over the place. With the 65 watt 9003s the voltage is normal, and steady as a rock. Granted they are not as bright, but the light is actually useable not blinding myself, and others. well, the stator most certainly does NOT put out a constant amount of current at any given RPM. On the contrary, the faster the rotor spins, the more A/C current is generated in the stator. You realize you just contradicted yourself there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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