Upgraded to HID Xenon

[Darkside]

JesterNT, Silly question what color bulb did you get the H4 in.

[AgentX]

Hi-

For $25, this is a great tip!  Thanks for sharing.

Questions, though, from the newb- when you guys speak of needing a "bulb housing", are you speaking of something other than the normal reflector into which my current H4 halogen plugs in?  (I ditched my casquette and am using a separate, aftermarket headlamp enclosure mounted to the fork legs by tabs.)

And for installation, what goes where?  Looking at what I suppose is the ballast with the mysterious black plug connection, I am a bit concerned as I've got nothing to plug that into.  Do you need to cut it off and splice it in to the normal wiring harness, or does it accept some sort of connector you can add to the Bullet's wiring?

Thanks!!

[AgentX]

Alright, got mine fitted up, too!  Low-beam only.  I think I might have been able to use a dual beam since my bike has a separate headlamp bucket, but this looks like it'll be brighter than my highbeam now anyhow.  Bike's not running yet so I have no ride report, but jumping power from the battery gives a great preview.

Setup comes in 2 parts--bulb and ballast, with weatherpak connectors between them. 

Electrically, you just connect them to each other (there's only one way to do it) and then there are only two lines coming off the bulb...power and ground.  They have male blade connectors and are fitted in what looks like an H4 bulb configuration, but they're just power input and ground.  I cut them off, along with a rubber surround which didn't fit anything on my bike, and crimped on appropriate connectors for my setup. 


I am hazarding a guess that routing the on-off power surge through the bar switch is doubleplusungood, so thought a relay was the best plan.  Bar switch power (high and low beam leads spliced into one line so both settings give me power to the relay) into the relay switch terminal, with the complimentary terminal running to ground.  Pos power from the battery running across the switched terminals into the positive side of the bulb; negative side of the bulb out to ground.  That's all it took.

Only weird thing I can't figure out is whether the bulb itself is oriented properly.  The filament (or whatever it is in an HID) has a little reflector opposite it.  I would expect this to be positioned underneath the bulb when it's installed, but instead it sits on the bulb's left side.  And the bulb has only one possible orientation in my lamp bucket; the bulb base won't fit any other direction.  We'll see if it's a problem in use.

I also needed to relieve some plastic from a small section of the bulb base so that my particular housing's bulb retaining clip would close.  A minute with a small file was all it took.

[The_Rigger]

I am hazarding a guess that routing the on-off power surge through the bar switch is doubleplusungood, so thought a relay was the best plan.

Good plan. HIDs don't draw much amperage once they're up and stable, but the amperage surge when the cold lamp strikes up it's arc can be pretty heavy.

Only weird thing I can't figure out is whether the bulb itself is oriented properly.  The filament (or whatever it is in an HID) has a little reflector opposite it.

High-Intensity Discharge lamps don't have a filament; they have a small arc gap. Ideally, the arc is burning across the gap in precisely the same position WRT the reflector's focal point as an incandescent's filament is in. As a matter of practice, though, the arc is often shifted slightly. That little reflector may be there as a way of compensating for the capsule's arc gap not being in precisely the same place as an incandescent filament.

I'd be curious to learn how your experiment works out. I've done a bit of experimentation putting HID lamps in my four-wheelers and GoldWings, over the past few years.

[AgentX]

Yeah, half of my headlamp is dark.  Still a hell of a lot of light, but seems like the reflector should be on top.

Unfortunately doesn't look like my reflector can rotate in the headlamp housing.  I'll look at cutting new slots in the reflector and turning the bulb itself.