Upgraded headlight bulbs

What's the verdict on upgraded headlight bulbs? I've heard stories of the extra heat melting the lens, has anyone had experiance of this?

it seems osram silverstars are the best buy, & thats wot im going to get , when i get around to it. lol

One of the mags did a thorugh test and the £15 bulbs are a good improvement over run of the mill bulbs. There was a negligible difference between them and the £80 jobbies.

I don't know any brand names sorry.

[embee]

I've fitted the Osram Silverstars in most of my vehicles and would say yes, they are an improvement. The other contender is the Phillips Vision Plus.

I use http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/ You might well find them slightly cheaper elsewhere, but the service from them is first class.

Don't get carried away with the "50%" claims, your eyes don't work that way, but they are better and I'd say worth the cost. I'd want to see the difference of, say, PIAA bulbs before paying that sort of money.

I did a true back-to-back with some OE Osram H4 lamps in my car, and the Silverstars were noticeably "clearer" at longer range, as described in the reviews the vision at 75m is better, and also somehow it seemed "sharper". Can't really explain the difference, just seemed a more even, crisper light.

If you have an SVS with the original 45/45W lamps, they will be a big improvement. If you're going from a typical 60/55W H4 the difference will be less.

If you stick to well known brands you won't get any problems with lens discolouring (UV filters). Apparently half the benefits come from accurate positioning of the filament, which you can't always guarantee with cheaper unbranded lamps.

[rictus01]

Also worth mentioning is the fact the original (curvy) light reflectors are a limiting factor and so no matter what you're not going to get brillient lighting, the newer (pointy) ones seem better, but once again not the best by a long way.

I spent two and a bit years on the SV (with uprated bulbs), using the unlit roads I know well, thinking it was par for the course my eyesight was going, then swapped back to a Speedtriple and suddenly I could see again

Cheers Mark.

Do it, I put the Philips Vision Plus in my k3, and they were night and day better(). Cleaner, whiter light, better range and spread. Made night riding much nicers, plus helps with drivers spotting you too. They had a slight blue tint when you looked at the lights, bling innit

Oh yeah, you can see the difference in my avatar
<---

Yellow is stock, white is Vision plus

In the latest issue of Swedish "Bike" magazine, there was a large test of different bulbs. They used a BMW G650 XChallenge for the test.
The results of the test (Bulb/Low Beam/High Beam):

BMW Standard Halogen/28m/88m
Cobra HID (BiXenon)/61m/106m
Osram Cool Blue/39m/93m
Osram Silverstar/30m/68m
Osram Standard Bilux/30m/68m
Osram Super Halogen/31m/58m
Philips Premium +30%/24m/87m
Philips MotoVision/28m/80m
Philips X-treme Power/20m/58m
Steal 4700K/33m/36m
Pro H4 (Bi-Xenon)/27m/57m

So, according to this test, Osram Cool Blue are the best bulbs unless you want to convert your headligts to real Xenon (expensive on a >K3 that requires 2xH4Dual)

Idiot question - What's the difference between H1, H4 and H7 and which can I use in my naked K5?

[embee]

Originally Posted by Tildo

Idiot question - What's the difference between H1, H4 and H7 and which can I use in my naked K5?

It's the physical shape of the bulb, and whether it is a single filament (main only or dip only) or a twin filament (e.g. H4) main/dip combined.

Only the specified type will fit in the particular light unit.

If you go to http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/ and click on one of the bulb manufacturers (e.g. Osram) it'll come up with a page which shows what they look like.

Check in the owner's manual for exactly which one yours uses (naked K5 should be H4 I'd guess).

I think I've asked this before, but can't for the life of me remember the answer... the manual for my curvy (euro headlight) only states 55W... what are these? H7? H1? no H at all?