i am thinking about putting HID's on my bike over the winter and was wondering if anyone did it. was it worth it if you did. hard to do any warnings. i heard a few people say the higher heat can melt the plastic or is that a myth. thanks for the help.

 

you can always vent the housings. i didn't think HIDs made that much heat for as small as they are. industrial/commercial HID lighting can reach about 4000* on the inner glass envelope where the metal halide is, but the outer bulb is usually a few thousand degrees cooler.. then again, we're talking many hundreds of watts more power.

i wish i could tell you ya or nah, but about the best thing to do is heatshield the housings with aluminum tape or heat wrap, or vent them with a series of holes and screen or whatever..

 

Don't confuse colour temperature with actual temperature. HIDs won't overheat your reflector, but......

Headlight reflectors are carefully designed to project light delivered from a particular shaped source set at a specific point within the reflector.

Fitting an HID emitter into a stock reflector gives a poor beam pattern with incorrect cut off and unlit areas, Because of the extra brightness the rider is likely to be unaware of this until he hits something he hasn't seen. The poorly controlled beam is also highly likely to dazzle other drivers with an attendant accident risk.

With a two single filament headlight system the low HID beam should be on all the time, because of the warm up delay. For the same reason Hi beam should remain as a halogen for quick switching. To replace dual filament lamps an emitter with a moving shutter is needed. HID emitters need a ballast resistor for each lamp. These can get hot and take up space.

For the EU, HID conversions are illegal because of the poor beam pattern problems, unless they come with a complete reflector and lens assembly. No one makes these due to the cost. They must also be fitted with a self levelling mechanism unless the vehicle has self levelling suspension. This is to avoid accidents caused through dazzling other drivers. This means that only HIDs fitted as original equipment are legal.

For increased visibilty in daylight a yellowish bulb gives the best results. As HIDs tend to be fitted by people wko likethe blueish tint, this is a self defeating move.

The best way to improve the headlights is to fit +80% halogens such as the Phillips Xtreme vision or Osram Silverstars, which are highly efficient and emit more light for stock power consumption.

High power (100W) halogens will overheat and discolour the reflector and lens.

Any attempt to vent the headlamp will **** it. The silvering on the reflector will start to peel and you'll get condensation inside it.

Rob

 

that was alot more than i was thinking about thanks for the info