HID and projector retrofit - 2012 SV650S

Hi all

I did a lot of lurking when researching how to retrofit projectors and HID lights to my bike, so now the work is underway, I thought I'd register to explain how I'm doing it, in case it helps someone else attempting the same. You might also have some advice!

My bike is a 2012 SV650S with full fairing, heated grips, sliders, and now projectors, otherwise it's stock. Obligatory artsy shot:



I decided I wanted HIDs after a month of commuting along dark country with the stock headlights. I basically got sick of swerving to avoid potholes etc. at the last minute, and at >=50mph they're just not safe. I've seen worse headlights than the SV pointy, but they could also be a LOT better.

Better halogens bulbs were an option (the simplest one), but I wanted great light rather than satisfactory light.

I got my retrofit kit from eBay China, the seller was 'mtfansclub-uk'. It cost me the ticket price (£80) as the seller marked it as a gift, bypassing import charges etc. This was the precise kit, with options being the 4300K bulbs, white angel eyes, red demon eyes, and right hand drive (drive on the left) cut-off option: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2312078975...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT.

My main objectives are see and be seen. I'm not bothered about styling so I ordered 4300K bulbs in the 'note to seller' bit when you pay. First problem was that they ignored this and sent 6000K bulbs instead, but I mentioned it and they're sending 4300k bulbs as a replacement, so at least I'll have spares.

The kit was ordered 18th Dec and arrived 30th Dec. Here's what the kit looks like (all this came in one box):





Note the hilarious Chingrish: 'The endurable quality has to suffer to respect Let our light open a new road the ... ... for you' .

Projectors with bulbs already inserted, and box contents:





Wiring, ballast, and inverter for one side:



All wiring and accessories laid out:



Being married with two kids, this has been a dip-in dip-out project over the last few days. On Friday I stripped down the front end and removed the headlights:



I then baked the headlights at 100C (212F) for 8 minutes, mounted on some wood, after which the lens separated from the plastic housing with relative ease, using a gasket scraper and some oven mitts to split them.

Back of projector lens showing rubber mounting washer and wiring:



The SV650 has a convenient little hole in the back of the reflector that I used to pass the wiring through to the rear:



I had to take the little metal connectors out of the moulded plastic plugs and snapped a couple of the retaining lugs in the process, so I replaced these with crimped heatshrink bullet connectors. Soldered would be ideal, but they need to be easily removable.

Projectors mounted in the reflector unit:



Now it's time to get the beams horizontal. I used two LED torches shone through the back of the headlight to do this. You have to file down the H4 retaining lug to be able to twist the projectors to get them horizontal. The H4 mounts are offset to the right on the SV, so it's not just a plug and play.

Once this is done, tighten the locknut and use Locktite suitable for high temperature applications on the thread. You don't want the projector wobbling about as you ride along, or moving out of horizontal, as this would necessitate a strip down and another baking session.

Next job was to clean all the greasy marks off everything and put the lot back in the oven to re-liquify the adhesive. Then I got it back in the garage and started figuring out mounting points for the controller, ballasts, inverters, and igniters and started making the final electrical connections.

Headlight unit and reflector unit glued back together after 5 minutes at ~100C (212F):



Other things done at this stage:

- Removed seat to access battery.
- Lifted fuel tank to route wiring down the side of bike, all heat shrinked and soldered connections with cables zip-tied to existing wiring.
- Spent a while wondering why I only had one H4 connector with my wiring loom yet I've got two headlights, before coming to the conclusion that only one factory plug is used to trigger both high / low beam solenoids, since the ballast power is going battery --> relay rather than down the factory loom.
- Trial mounted the ballasts, controller, and halo inverters.
- Wasted half an hour looking for a washer that I dropped somewhere in the bike but that never hit the floor. Can't leave those kinds of things un-found on a bike!

The grommet at the back of the unit has two convenient holes that you can use to pass through the high / low, angle eyes, and demon eyes wiring, seen here:



How I mounted everything (all went in quite snugly on the fairing tray under the instrument panel):



Test fit and all looks good.



The 6000k are definitely on the blue side for my tastes, but not at rice as I thought they'd be. The light output is ridiculous, with a very sharp cutoff. Not sure how that will work in corners, but the only time I currently ride at night is when commuting, and leaning a long way over isn't a regular occurrence on that type of journey.

So, all done, except I have a wiring issue: the lights are as expected at low / 'dipped' beam, but when I switch to high beam, both lights switch off. The one thing I didn't do was check the configuration of the kit's connection to the wiring loom, stupidly assuming that it was standard and would be the same layout on all kits. So hopefully I just need to move the pins on the H4 plug.

Next step is to get those sidelights / parking lights swapped out. Although I quite like the contrast, they're just too yellow.

By the way, while I had the seat and tank up, I also wired in my garage door remote opener into the bike's battery and high beams...quite cool and works really well. No battery is required as it gets the power from the bike's battery. You just need to solder the switch closed and take the positive from the switched high beam circuit. I'll be using the pass button.

Hope this helps someone. I'll let you know when I've figured out the high beam problem!

[Bibio]

just like this http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...ight=projector

what i found was that the standard bulb clips were not strong enough to stop the projector housings flopping about so i used epoxy metal to glue the lug plate to the reflector housing. before i put the lug plate in u also cut a notch out of it so i could feed the wiring through.

[aesmith]

How do these dip, does the lamp move or what?

If they're like mine, there's a flap which moves to alter the cut off line of the beam.

There's a company in the US which will supply a bike specific kit for the SV. The kit includes a solid metal back plate to affix the projector housing to (and allows for removal of the reflector completely).

http://www.bkmoto.com/Suzuki%20Projectors?product_id=62

[LewSpeight]

Very VERY interesting read. Exactly what i was looking for.

So, to be clear, what exactly were the biggest hurdles you had to come across? I ironically are 'watching' this exact item on Ebay and wanting to do the same thing, but i use my bike almost everyday so i cant afford to spend more than one day doing this!

Very good write up, and completely what i was hoping to find!

Unless you were someone who fitted these for a living day in, day out I don't see the job being done in a day.

I looked at doing this but didn't think they were road legal? So just bought some new bulbs within the legal range, something like below 4200K?

Would love to be told otherwise though. The devil eye ones look coolest though but I'm certain they are illegal, so I can't really think of any practical use for those.

I have installed independent switched for all the different functions on my setup. Any/all can be switched off for road use.

So you can switch the devil eyes on and off on the fly? Whilst retaining road legal headlights?