xenon or hid?
 

whats better or will they do a pretty equal job
at £8 for the xenon and £50 for the hid is it worth the cash

Re: xenon or hid
 

Well true Xenon is actually HID, but the term has been hijacked by the crappier bulb manufacturers to make their products look better.

However, from everything folks have said HID is much better than any incandescent bulb. If you can live with having an illegal light fitment, the HID is probably better.

Review TLW and Y-C's comments about the HID, they both have them fitted.

Re: xenon or hid
 

HIDs are definitely brighter, whiter, you can't compare the road lit up under halogens and HIDs

The downsides are that they're currently illegal, and in the case of the SV will need a relay to stop them blowing the headlamp fuse if you install twin H4s on a faired model. make sure the reflectors are aligned properly or you'll **** off a lot of road users

LP, if you thought the HIDs on the SV were bright wait til you see them on the daytona, twin projectors are extremely visible in the mirrors...;)

Re: xenon or hid?
 

Here's a writeup I did when I fitted mine...

http://79.123.35.161/showthread.php?...=hidding+plain

It works very well, with my parts at least, ymmv though since different kits could give different results.

A good conventional bulb like a nightbreaker gives very good light too, more than adequate I'd say, but I hate night riding on unlit roads so I'll take all the light I can get- and for that, accept no substitute ;) Like TLW says, the lighting's still inefficient- a proper HID light in a reflector designed for the job makes much better use of the same "volume" of light- but by sheer brute force even the inefficient lighting you get in the stock headlight is still very effective. And no dangerous glare whatsoever in mine, which is usually the big drawback.

Re: xenon or hid?
 

what h number blub does the sv use

Re: xenon or hid?
 

H4

Re: xenon or hid?
 

HID is xenon.

For a decent upgrade use some quality halogen bulbs like the nightbreakers. For something else, then get some HIDs.

My HID is a 35w 5000K type, you have seen this in action illuminating fog on shap...

For excess, you could fit a pair of 55W HIDs, these might well put out a decent amount of light.

Re: xenon or hid?
 

p.s the "xenons" for a couple of quid are likely to be cheap halogen bulbs painted blue to give out whiter light. They are utter mince, chav tat that would generally make the "candle in the wind" lamp on my RD400 look impressive!

Re: xenon or hid?
 

a poet you are my friend

Re: xenon or hid?
 

Yup, the cheap bulb industry is quite a funny one... Add a tiny amount of xenon to a halogen bulb so you can cover the packaging with xenon!!11!, it actually works less well but who cares? And then, as YC says, tint it so that it looks all blue and HID-dey, but of course you're not changing the spectrum output, you're actually blocking part of the light, making the output lower. It's great.

And people LOVE these bulbs. Some guy on SV Rider got in a big fight with me a while back, said I was an idiot for spending more for a HID kit when he had "genuine hid xenons" which were better, and cost $2 each. How did he know they were better? Well, they were really blue, right, and also the packet said so.