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Project "I wear my sunglasses at night" (Bi-xenon projector retrofit) [Pix intensive]
I picked up my Kat (my first bike) a couple months ago, and I only had one major complaint... the headlight. I only have this complaint because my car comes stock with bi-xenon projector headlights... thus providing nocturnal daylight.
I was inspired by a couple of guys who had already done a projector retrofit, and decided to try it myself. Here are the other two threads that inspired me:
Let me take you down the my path of terror, doom and gloom, with a little ray of sunshine at the end.
The first thing I did was picked up a spare headlight I could keep on my bike while I took my time with the project. I picked up a used headlight off eBay for about $30, the drawback, a broken mounting tab (bottom left):
Once I swapped the headlights, I baked mine:
If you notice, the elements are on... Guess what this means. It means I did it wrong
. If you ever bake a light, you heat up the oven, shut it off, then toss in the light. I was lucky and only did minor damage.
I HIGHLY recommend using a heat gun. I saw some cheap ones at Big Lots for around $15, and I got mine at Lowes for $25... it made it so much easier to get the headlight apart.
If anyone else is going to do this, it's good to know how the headlight looks once it is apart. There is a lip on the front piece (clear/black lens) just inside the rear piece. Once you've heated the headlight, if you can get something onto that lip to help pry the light apart... you're golden. Here's a picture of that lip:
And a picture of the housing with the front lens removed:
And, lastly, a picture of all three main components separated:
When taking out the reflectors, you will want to disconnect the one "pivot" corner that is held on by a clip using something like needle nose pliers (picture below). And then you have to rotate the adjuster knobs counter-clockwise until the reflectors totally come out (hint: use a 10mm wrench, it will go faster).
For those that don't know what bi-xenon projectors are, here's a quick lesson. Low beam:
High beam:
A used set like this can be picked up for around $70 or so on eBay. A solenoid is hooked up to your high beam signal and opens the flap to allow light to pass through the rest of the lens, thus requiring sunglasses at night.
Life would be so boring without Dremel tools:
As you can see, I cut a hole.
And... a test fit:
If you're wondering how I mounted them, I used machine screws and the while things are nylon spacers. I shaped the spacers to contour the back of the reflector better so the screw would not put too much pressure on it and crack it.
...would I do it this way again? Probably not. It became a huge pain in the butt, however, it did allow me to go in a week later and make adjustments to the angle of the projectors themselves.
And, with tv magic, we have two completed units:
Units set in the housing:
Units in housing, with shroud:
Units in housing, with shroud and lens:
I then took it all apart:
And painted it:
I used high heat engine paint, just in case. I decided to paint it all black, just because I didn't want it to "bling". I'd rather it NOT stand out when it's sitting in a parking lot.
Here are the projectors back in the reflectors, once painted:
My ballasts, bulbs, relays (more on their awesomeness below) and bi-xenon controllers:
I got the relays from here: http://www.wolstentech.com/products/...delayrelay.php
I think they are very useful. They allow you set a time delay for the headlights turning on, and turning off. So, if you don't want your headlights to come on until you start your bike, you can set it for 60 seconds, and the relay won't fire the ballast until that 60 seconds is up. I have mine set four 3 and 5 seconds (I got two, one for each), for turning on, and 5 seconds for turning off. That way, I can fire up the bike and the headlights will remain on... no cut off = no ballast re-fire = longer ballast/bulb life.
As for getting two, I actually wired each side independently. I wanted to make sure there was redundancy.
I decided to do a time lapse of me doing all the wiring...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewwp-JPUFvk"]YouTube - Headlight install.[/ame]
Both ballasts fit in the piece under the headlight (sorry, no picture), and the rest of the wiring fits over the headlight:
And, the finished project...
Nothing fancy when it's off:
Low beam:
High beam:
Since the projectors are mounted directly to the stock reflectors, the aiming is done via the stock knobs on the back. It took some time to get the aiming right, but once I did, wow, what a difference. I took some before pictures with different shutter times, however, I haven't had a chance to take after pictures to show the difference.
I definitely feel much safer riding at night, that's for sure. All in all, I think I spent around $200 or so on the whole project, and I think it was well worth it.
I was inspired by a couple of guys who had already done a projector retrofit, and decided to try it myself. Here are the other two threads that inspired me:
Let me take you down the my path of terror, doom and gloom, with a little ray of sunshine at the end.
The first thing I did was picked up a spare headlight I could keep on my bike while I took my time with the project. I picked up a used headlight off eBay for about $30, the drawback, a broken mounting tab (bottom left):
Once I swapped the headlights, I baked mine:
If you notice, the elements are on... Guess what this means. It means I did it wrong
. If you ever bake a light, you heat up the oven, shut it off, then toss in the light. I was lucky and only did minor damage.I HIGHLY recommend using a heat gun. I saw some cheap ones at Big Lots for around $15, and I got mine at Lowes for $25... it made it so much easier to get the headlight apart.
If anyone else is going to do this, it's good to know how the headlight looks once it is apart. There is a lip on the front piece (clear/black lens) just inside the rear piece. Once you've heated the headlight, if you can get something onto that lip to help pry the light apart... you're golden. Here's a picture of that lip:
And a picture of the housing with the front lens removed:
And, lastly, a picture of all three main components separated:
When taking out the reflectors, you will want to disconnect the one "pivot" corner that is held on by a clip using something like needle nose pliers (picture below). And then you have to rotate the adjuster knobs counter-clockwise until the reflectors totally come out (hint: use a 10mm wrench, it will go faster).
For those that don't know what bi-xenon projectors are, here's a quick lesson. Low beam:
High beam:
A used set like this can be picked up for around $70 or so on eBay. A solenoid is hooked up to your high beam signal and opens the flap to allow light to pass through the rest of the lens, thus requiring sunglasses at night.
Life would be so boring without Dremel tools:
As you can see, I cut a hole.
And... a test fit:
If you're wondering how I mounted them, I used machine screws and the while things are nylon spacers. I shaped the spacers to contour the back of the reflector better so the screw would not put too much pressure on it and crack it.
...would I do it this way again? Probably not. It became a huge pain in the butt, however, it did allow me to go in a week later and make adjustments to the angle of the projectors themselves.
And, with tv magic, we have two completed units:
Units set in the housing:
Units in housing, with shroud:
Units in housing, with shroud and lens:
I then took it all apart:
And painted it:
I used high heat engine paint, just in case. I decided to paint it all black, just because I didn't want it to "bling". I'd rather it NOT stand out when it's sitting in a parking lot.
Here are the projectors back in the reflectors, once painted:
My ballasts, bulbs, relays (more on their awesomeness below) and bi-xenon controllers:
I got the relays from here: http://www.wolstentech.com/products/...delayrelay.php
I think they are very useful. They allow you set a time delay for the headlights turning on, and turning off. So, if you don't want your headlights to come on until you start your bike, you can set it for 60 seconds, and the relay won't fire the ballast until that 60 seconds is up. I have mine set four 3 and 5 seconds (I got two, one for each), for turning on, and 5 seconds for turning off. That way, I can fire up the bike and the headlights will remain on... no cut off = no ballast re-fire = longer ballast/bulb life.
As for getting two, I actually wired each side independently. I wanted to make sure there was redundancy.
I decided to do a time lapse of me doing all the wiring...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewwp-JPUFvk"]YouTube - Headlight install.[/ame]
Both ballasts fit in the piece under the headlight (sorry, no picture), and the rest of the wiring fits over the headlight:
And, the finished project...
Nothing fancy when it's off:
Low beam:
High beam:
Since the projectors are mounted directly to the stock reflectors, the aiming is done via the stock knobs on the back. It took some time to get the aiming right, but once I did, wow, what a difference. I took some before pictures with different shutter times, however, I haven't had a chance to take after pictures to show the difference.
I definitely feel much safer riding at night, that's for sure. All in all, I think I spent around $200 or so on the whole project, and I think it was well worth it.
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