I ride alot at night and have been thinking about buying the HID bulb. Has anyone installed this High Intensity Discharge headlamp, and if so, how much more light do you experience.

 

H4-ST Sylvania.
Much more, and more white.
Make sure you get the "ST" or it's not for a motorcycle and will quit working soonest.
Thats all I know. I'm sure someone else will provide their input on their experiences and opinions.

 

I have a Harley kit installedon my old FLHS, having adapted it.

It looks great, but frankly I am disappointed with it! The HID feature only works on the low beam, which is the upper crescent shaped part of the reflector (see photo). It produces an intensely bright light which is quite staggering, but the patch of light on the road in the dark is very shallow, although very wide. So it does not give a huge splash of light in front of the bike, but leaves a dark patch immediately in front of the wheel, then a wide band of light, with very sharp cut-off. It is like looking out under a black curtain!

Main beam is very weak and adds very little to the dip beam pattern and I do not find it much use in true dark. The pattern is a complete contrast with low beam, being very narrow and having very poor shape.

The HID bulb is actually 84 volt AC, converted via a ballast from the 14 volt DC supply of the bike. That is how it achieves a much higher temperature light. Main beam is just an ordinary 35 watt DC bulb. I have already changed mine for a Xenon blue bulb, with no real improvement, and have just bought a 100 watt Xenon bulb, but have yet to fit it.

While the low beam is very effective as a daytime light, I really cannot recommend it for serious night riding. I reckon there are probably better Xenon style lights out there with a better beam pattern. It is not as good for riding in the dark as the unit I replaced it with!

[IMG]local://upfiles/36102/0C54AD6FEB114A57B442AB8731B605B6.jpg[/IMG]

 

This $9 upgrade will give you much more light from your stock headlight:

http://www.kuryakyn.com/products.asp...ic&ci=2963

I've been using 85/100W and 90/100W bulbs for 12 years now.

 

Save the money instead of the over priced HID Harley setup and just buy better quality how output bulbs....

 

Fit the "H4-ST" in a RKC 2007 ?
looked in the manual, found:68329-03 [sm=confused06.gif]

 

I installed PIAA's super plasma gt-x H4 bulbs the other night, they say 60/55w =135/125. They sure are freaken bright. cost was $85.00 for a pack of 2. I was going to add passing lamps to the SG but now I don't think I need to.

http://www.piaa.com/Bulbs/Bulbs-H4.html

 

These look pretty cool but is the low beam really purple? That might be a deal killer for me. Blue? Maybe. Purple? I don't know.

 

No, it does not look purple to me, it projects a very wide and very bright light. totally worth the price. It does say purple light, maybe if you are looking at them coming at you it looks purple but definetly not when your in the saddle

 

I installed the HD Dual Halogen headlight kit.



This kit is about $400.00 less expensive than the HID kit. In addition, the Dual Halgoen produces 80% more light than the stock, and only 20% less than HID. I do not think the extra 20% is worth an extra $400.00.