Xenon Headlights

[Glimas]

I have been looking on Ebay, does anyone have the Xenon headlights installed. Looking at putting in a pair for insurance on being seen. Do they help with seeing and being seen both in daylight and night time? Thanks for the report

[jmeadows7638]

Yeah Ive Got A Set And I Love Them. I Think Mine Are 12k And They Are Bright. One Of My Favorite Mods.

[KatScratchFever]

What's necessary to get them to run on a bike? Wouldn't those tax the heck out of the alternator/charging system?

[Glimas]

That was my concern and reason for post. Ebay site states they are safe for your electrical system and do not drawn anymore current than stock bulbs. Also wondering if xenon bulbs are another name for HID lights if so they typically draw less current and have a brighter light than stock.

[yellow_kitty_kat]

Behold the glory of HID's!!

Just click here:

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=78144

And click here:

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=78278

I put 5000K HID's in my Kat, plus a new heavy duty wiring harness, for around $150. These pics should speak for themselves.

Lights off:



Lights on:

[Black_peter]

Wow.. Can you roast marshmallows on those?

[yellow_kitty_kat]

Wow.. Can you roast marshmallows on those?

Yeah, you can. But it's the recoil at ignition that gets you...

[kwebbel]

I have been looking on Ebay, does anyone have the Xenon headlights installed. Looking at putting in a pair for insurance on being seen. Do they help with seeing and being seen both in daylight and night time? Thanks for the report

I did install HIDs be sure to take 4300K (best choice) or 5000K (lesser choice), if you want to see/be seen best go for the 4300K, higher colortemps do distinguish less well from daylight.

Wow.. Can you roast marshmallows on those?

As a matter off fact most HID's are 35 watts (seen 50 watts too) with a lot better efficiency (average is 4.7 times better) so they must be less dissipating heat. (basic physics )

[yellow_kitty_kat]

I did install HIDs be sure to take 4300K (best choice) or 5000K (lesser choice), if you want to see/be seen best go for the 4300K, higher colortemps do distinguish less well from daylight.

This is a generic chart showing color output for HID light systems. 5000K is pretty much center of the chart. 5000K lights put out the clearest, most "daylight" like light. Below 5000K and the output slides more into the yellow spectrum, and as you get higher on the Kelvin scale, the bluer the light becomes.

[kwebbel]

4300k = 3300 Lumen
5000k = 3150 Lumen
6000k = 3000 Lumen
8000k = 2800 Lumen
10.000k = 2750 Lumen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumen_(unit)


btw standard daylight colortemperature is about 5700K.

[bijelivuk]

Anybody tried to install 2 xenon lights in Katana? I just bought a pair of projectors so now I somehow need to connect 2 ballasts with 2 xenon lights onto the left connector (where the short light originally is) and my concern is that it could burn the switch or something. Has anybody done something like that?
(hope you can understand me, English is not my native language)

[B-Man]

You should connect one ballast and light to the left headlight connector and one ballast and light to the right headlight connector.

[bijelivuk]

I did some measurements and I guess that there is no chance original switch will live through 2 balasts. my final solution will be that one xenon balast will be connected to the regular left side ant for the other i'll have to install one more switch. balast no.2 will be connected directly to the battery

[DClark]

Those tinted xenon bulbs are junk, they give less light. What you need is a set of
relays to deliver higher voltage to the bulbs.
I did this, got a few extra volts more, and with the clear 80/100w bulb, my
1100 has incredible light.
So, why bother with HID?
Cost of bulb and relays was under $20 too .

[chewbacca]

Be careful with those 80/100 bulbs the ones that were on my bike when I bought it melted the bulb sockets