HID upgrade

[biker970]

Thinking of upgrading my headlight to a 12000K HID low / Halogen High kit #H4/9003-HB2. It says the light is light purple. I don't want something crazy but want a brighter light than stock. Do I have to change anything else or is it a direct replacement? Anybody have one that color I don't want to look like these rice rockets with there purple under glow kits. It has a AC ballest also. I have a 1983.

[Flyinfool]

A few things

 

 

1. 12,000K will be very purple and will not make a lot of light. It is more to look cool. Your best bet is a 4,000K to 6,000K if what you want is light to see at night. 4000 is slightly yellow, similar to a halogen and 6000 is slightly blue. They are both mainly white. I how have 5 HID on my vehicles and they are all 6,000K.
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2. You do not want a Halogen High beam. It defeats the whole purpose of having a bright HID light in the first place. You want to get a BI-Xenon so that you have HID for both hi and low beam.
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3. You must remove or disable the RLU. There is a writeup from an 88 on how to do this, it wont be exact for your 83 but it will be close. If you do not do this mod the RLU wil keep switching between hi and low beam at a very fast rate till it burns something out. It is not hard to do, but it is time consuming.
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4. It is a good idea to have the HID on a separate headlight switch. If you do not have a seperate switch then when you turn the key on the HID will light, as soon as you hit the starter, the HID will go off and then have to relight. The starter switch cuts out the headlight to give full battery power to the starter.
   

All of this is well worth the effort, the difference in light output is huge.

[biker970]

Thank you. That's what I was afraid of. I'm going back to the old plan of retrofitting a new style head lamp assembly in place of the old one.

[timgray]

the 83 has a superior headlight compared to the 86+ years for light pattern the 86+ is a polycarbonate lens that will get foggy and significantly reduce light output as it ages. Just put in a silverstar Ultra if you want more light. If you want a better light, check around here, I came up with an idea to use the Hella 90mm projector headlights and another member designed and built the adapter plate to replace the 83 headlight with twin lamps that are better than most current bikes have for headlights.

 

I don't know if he is still making the plates or is willing to make the plate for anyone.

[greg_in_london]

I recommend the HID conversion - it is not that much work, it doubles the light output and uses less electricity. It also generates less heat so nothing in the headlamp unit melts.

 

Mine is old and I point it down a bit to reduce dazzle, I understand that as time has gone on the design/focus became better, but I don't think it's that big a problem (if you adjust properly) these days.

[Galapagos]

Is a conversion kit required for a second gen or is it a plugin? I have 55w driving lights that are blue and would like to match the headlamp and increase output of the headlamp if possible.

[Flyinfool]

Om the 2nd gen it is pretty much just plug in and ad a power and ground connection.

It is recommended to add a switch to be able to turn off the light for starting.

Without the switch if the voltage drops to 10V while cranking, there is a protection circuit built into the HID that will turn it off requiring you to shut off the bike and restart.