Recent post about upgrading to brighter headlight got me looking. Found Sylvania Silver Star H4 bulbs at auto parts store. But Sylvania has High Intensiy Discharge (HID) Xenarc bulbs too that are even brighter; advertised as 3x brighter than Halogen. Anyone have HID? Looking for part no's, cost, and any additional stuff required like changing reflector, etc.

 

Uhm.....never mind. Found a couple for E Glides and Road Kings. The kits are $525. If they even make them, I only imagine a slight price break for Sporties but still way more than I wanted to pay for a headlight.

Back to the Silver Star bulbs (Part H4ST). Says good for MC use. Who's got 'em? Problems with excess power draw over stock/charging system issues?

 

I love mine. Got 'em in the H/L and the passing lamps.

They do not draw any more current than the stock bulbs, so no worries there.

I am using a Honda reflector which throws a different pattern than the stock HD also.

 

Got 'em, no probs at all, noticeably brighter, and well worth the 20 bucks or so...

 

Thanks.

I did a little homework for anyone interested. We basically have 3 options for lighting: standard halogen, Xenon charged halogen, and HID.

Standard - Standard 55w/65w 9003 ST halogen bulbs (equivalent to OEM bulbs) are available at any auto parts store for about $8 each. For about $15 or so, you can get alternative wattages like 65w/80w or 80w/100w. I have no personal experience with the higher wattage bulbs but they are reported to be quite fragile and break easily from vibration. They are also illegal, although it's hard to imagine a cop checking your headlight wattage.

Xenon - Xenon charged halogen bulbs are considerably brighter. There's a lot of advertising talk about 4000 degree temperature equivalents, referring to color spectrum. The higher the reported temperature is, the whiter the light. But a lot of sites I hit indicated color temperature is more marketing hype than anything. We should be more concerned with lumens (light intensity), not color spectrum (color of the light).

The blue tint on the glass of Xenon bulbs is to absorb much of the yellow light, and make you think the bulb is whiter (hotter) than it is. This is good and bad. The Xenon gas charge means they put out about 20% more light for a given wattage over standard halogen, and that's a good thing. But reds and oranges penetrate fog twice as far as the blues, so the blue tint means these are not as effective in fog or rain.

A few different brands are available. I went with Sylvania. $38/pr available from any auto parts store as 9003 ST for cages, and as H4 ST which are heavy duty for motorcycles. You'll likely have to special order the H4 ST. No idea how much more rugged the MC variant is. I bought the 2-pack 9003 cage version (one for each bike).

HID - HID bulbs are even better for putting out light, but they require a bunch of electronics to produce the 18,000volts they need to work, and are quite expensive. In 2003, they were about $350 per bulb. I won't be putting $350 lights on my motorcycle anytime soon.

For ref, from the back of the bulb pack, the color comparison chart (yup, the one we aren’t supposed to use as an indicator of quality/performance) shows the following:
Standard Halogen 3200K
Xenon (Silver Star) ~4000K
Xenarc HID 4100K
Sunlight 5400K

 

Darn! You guys did it again. Gotta keep up with ya'll. Bought the Silverstar. Yup, it's brighter, yup it's whiter. And another thing to add to the list of stuff I've hung on this bottomless money pit! [sm=bling.gif]

 

I saw these in the store. Silver Star bulbs (Part H4ST)
This draws the same power as the requlaer baulb, just brighter?

Is there an equilivent for the passing/aux lights on the front?

 

Good info, should be bumped to the top.

 

Was thinking about getting the HD Xenon Performance bulb P/N 67074-02 on page 726 of the 2007 HD Parts Catalog. Anybody know the difference between this bulb and the Sylvania Silverstar? In real life situations, what would be better? Never used Xenon lighting before but I would like something that makes the road in front of me a little more bright with a wider area of coverage. Ideas and thoughts appreciated. Thanks.