• Welcome to the new B.I.R.D. Forum. Please be sure to read the "New Member / New Registered ? Please Read" thread in the Coffee Shop. This contains some important information. To become a full member ( £5.90 a year ) simply click on your user name near the top on the right I hope you enjoy the new site ................ Jaws ( John )

HID head lights....

firephil

Registered User
Hi all,
What a fantastic upgrade,being seen by others great,seeing the road a head at night(at last) excellent.
Highly recommended.
Cheers.
 
N

Ned521

Guest
Hi,
As a new owner I'm looking at all sorts of up-grades and one being
the headlight, can you tell me which one you fitted and where from please.
Cheers
Ned g0551p
 

noobie

Clueless in most things
You will need a H7 fitment. Some use just the dipped and some use dipped and main. The only downside to using it on the main beam is that it takes a few seconds to get to the brightness it should be which makes the quick main beam flash not impossible but more delayed. Personally I always found just on the dipped enough

Best to aim for is between 4500k -6000k range and most people go for the 6000k which gives a nice crisp white with a very slight blueish tinge similar to Audis, Bmw's etc

Jaws motorcycles does them as does many other places with ebay being a popular place too. I'm sure some others will be along to say which ones they found best, ones to avoid etc.

Word to the wise, under no circumstances touch the actual glass part of the bulb as grease from your hands may reduce its lifespan.
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
Do the main as well if you ride at night. Only downside in the real world is the complaints you get about the brightness from people in Belgium.

6000k as above is ideal, nice white light.
 

CBRDEAN0

Registered User
Prefer the HID projectors because you can have a pair of low beam and instant high beam.
The cut off is razor sharp like the newer car headlights too.
 

Vinterceptor

Been there, and had one
Club Sponsor
On a slightly different note. My bike was very lazy to start the other day, I connected a tester across the battery and there's very little increase in voltage when increasing the rpm. I suspect the stator is fk'd Will check into it.

I suppose the fitment of HID's and LED's besides the advantage of better lighting, also give the advantage of reducing demand on the notoriously unreliable charging circuit
 

noobie

Clueless in most things
They do indeed lower the requirement for the eletrickery amounts. By how much? The boffins will be able to quantify I'm sure.
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
They do indeed lower the requirement for the eletrickery amounts. By how much? The boffins will be able to quantify I'm sure.

The official measurement is 'quite a lot'.

:-0)
 

CBRDEAN0

Registered User
On a slightly different note. My bike was very lazy to start the other day, I connected a tester across the battery and there's very little increase in voltage when increasing the rpm. I suspect the stator is fk'd Will check into it.

I suppose the fitment of HID's and LED's besides the advantage of better lighting, also give the advantage of reducing demand on the notoriously unreliable charging circuit

I read an article that suggests reducing the load on the charging system is actually worse for it.
Our R/R units are the SHUNT type so they dump excess to ground without unloading the stator.
The less load you have - the more the r/r needs to dump.

Now - if you swap to a SERIES R/R - they do stop charging and unload the stator when required so lower demand is better for the stator.
Typical example is the SH775 r/r that people have started trying in place of the famous FH020AA that many upgraded to.
 

CBRDEAN0

Registered User
They do indeed lower the requirement for the eletrickery amounts. By how much? The boffins will be able to quantify I'm sure.

Standard H7 bulb is 55w ( draw on the system is around 5 amps )

Most HID setups are only 35w ( draw on the system around 3 amps )

So a 35w HID is using 35% less power than a 55w H7
 

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
headlight bulbs are 55w and a standard HID is 35w
So ( given 12 volt rather than 13.XX ) as the feed, the standard 55w jobbies will dray about 4.6 amps, while HID will draw a little less than 3 amps.
Might not sound a lot but remember that is times two if you are on high beam and as time goes by ANY improvement on current draw is amplified.
Also worth going for LED tail light.
Standard bulbs are 5/21 watt of which there are two.. so with the brakes on and side lights ( 5w in the front ) you are going to be drawing a further 4.7(ish) amps
Change to LED tail light and you are going to alter that to about .45 amps.. a massive saving
 

ScottyUK

Filtering Through
Read Only
The HIDs charge their ballasts with ignition on. You then press the starter which cuts the power and then re-applies it. That's not good for the HIDs. Also I've found that the ballast charging takes a chunk of the power and my clocks go funny after the engine starts.

I fitted an old right hand switch gear and only turn the HID on when the engine is running. I then get no clock issues.

In fact I forgot to do that date and my tacho stayed at 0. HID switch off, ignition off, ignition on, engine running, HID on and all good again.
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
I read an article that suggests reducing the load on the charging system is actually worse for it.
Our R/R units are the SHUNT type so they dump excess to ground without unloading the stator.
The less load you have - the more the r/r needs to dump.

Now - if you swap to a SERIES R/R - they do stop charging and unload the stator when required so lower demand is better for the stator.
Typical example is the SH775 r/r that people have started trying in place of the famous FH020AA that many upgraded to.

dont really understand that - does it explain why Bird charging systems regularly let go?
 

CBRDEAN0

Registered User
dont really understand that - does it explain why Bird charging systems regularly let go?

It basically means that in a perfect world - the bike would use all the power given out by the stator so there is nothing to dump to ground.
it is the dumping to ground that causes most of the heat.
The stator is always loaded too - so it gets hot when working.

Heat is the biggest enemy for standard electrical components so they eventually shut down.

A SERIES regulator would stop charging the battery when it is full and would unload the stator so it can cool down.
This should make the charging system components last much longer.
 

The_Ormston

Registered User
The HIDs charge their ballasts with ignition on. You then press the starter which cuts the power and then re-applies it. That's not good for the HIDs. Also I've found that the ballast charging takes a chunk of the power and my clocks go funny after the engine starts.

I fitted an old right hand switch gear and only turn the HID on when the engine is running. I then get no clock issues.

In fact I forgot to do that date and my tacho stayed at 0. HID switch off, ignition off, ignition on, engine running, HID on and all good again.

Or if you are lazy (me) you can fiddle with the lectrics and set the HID up to turn on with a flash of high beam.
Ignition on - no HID
Start engine - no HID
flash lights, HID fires and stays on.

I've also added a bit that can tell the difference between 12V (engine off) and 14V (engine running and throttle blip) so Now once the bike starts I blip the throttle and the HID comes on.

I have to admit though, putting a light switch back on the handlebars is far simpler, and less likely to go wrong.
 

CBRDEAN0

Registered User
In case some are puzzled, the earlier birds had a lights on off switch where as the later ones did not

That was the bright idea of the Europrats

They decided that motorcyclists were not capable of deciding when to use their lights so they made the manufacturers remove the light switch.
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Club Sponsor
The practice of switching HIDS on only after firing up the motor is a good one - I only started doing this when I realised that the HID did not fire up 100% of the time if left permanently 'on'. Obvious when it's dark, not so during the daylight.

Not a nice feeling to arrive at your destination to find the HID was never on.%$fan
 

Lee337

Confused Poster
Club Sponsor
The practice of switching HIDS on only after firing up the motor is a good one - I only started doing this when I realised that the HID did not fire up 100% of the time if left permanently 'on'.

My previous MOT tester tried to fail the Bird on this very point. I argued that if it's dark I'd notice & if it's not, there's no requirement to have it switched on anyway (only low beam is HID).

He still failed me on 'wooden rear brake' (not tested as duel braking should have been) and gave me a list of advisories including all brake discs pitted, front wheel buckled chain too loose & rear wheel out of alignment.

Went somewhere else this year who passed it first time with no advisories & complemented me on the condition of my 17 year old bike.

Guess the other tester was just a :wank: especially as he had to find at least one (if not two) advisories each year. My own fault, I should have changed testers years ago.
 

andyBeaker

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
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The last MOT I had done before I sold the Swedish barge:bow: had an advisory on condition of sills - the tester advised that as they had plastic covers on he could not assess them, despite having never mentioned this in the previous 7 or 8 years. It does seem to be a bit of a game.

Never had a single advisory in ten years of Bird ownership over 150k + miles@tu*. If a motorbike fails an mot the owner should be shot.

Slowly .:-0)
 
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