HID Kits for THE Curvy SVS - Worth it?

Originally Posted by Viney

Because the rules and regs for cars use and construtction say that the Headlight unit must be designed for the use of a HID 'bulb' and also must be self leveling as to not blind other road users. I also remember seeing that they have to have a headlamp wash bulit in the car. There are probably loads of other stuff, but those i think are the main points. Also all bulbs must be E marked and there is always some grey area around if these things are approved or not, or just printed on there!

Personaly, i'd have a set in my SV, but just cant justify the cost. Just dont want forum members to come along in a couple of months and say 'I have just been done for having HID's in my bike why didnt anyone tell me?'

What put me off was the inevitable MOT fail for having them. They're a fair bit more work to remove and replace once each year than say, slipping a baffle in. I've got white replacement bulbs from Halfords which are a noticeable improvement (particularly in terms of being seen), but are still road legal.

Well Northy does it as he's only fitted it to one light and seems to be fine with it.

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

What put me off was the inevitable MOT fail for having them. They're a fair bit more work to remove and replace once each year than say, slipping a baffle in. I've got white replacement bulbs from Halfords which are a noticeable improvement (particularly in terms of being seen), but are still road legal.

While this is true of some HID kits, my hids4u kit gets it's power from the H4 plug on the loom, so that handlebar functions work the same. As such it's easy to put a halogen back in.

[yorkie_chris]

Yeah you don't need to remove the ballast, or remove anything, just take capsule out and put it somewhere safe, replace with a normal bulb. 10 minutes if that.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Viney

Personaly, i'd have a set in my SV, but just cant justify the cost. Just dont want forum members to come along in a couple of months and say 'I have just been done for having HID's in my bike why didnt anyone tell me?'

Yah, my link up there has a nice fat warning on if for that reason But, I've never been stopped for it- and not just by luck, I've followed a traffic car along the M8 one night, and been stuck behind various other coppers without problems. Not to mention that since I got it properly set up I've never been flashed by another motorist, which is a good sign. It helps to use a sensible colour, if you fit a mad 12000K purple light or whatever I guarantee you'll get stopped and idiot taxed.

We've got at least one person on here who's got theirs through an MOT- I haven't tried, I just refitted a standard bulb and taped the hid stuff to the subframe temporarily. The only part that could be time consuming is headlight aim- I've found that the HID really needs very different aim to the halogens, and took a while to set up well in the first place, so having to redo that every year would be a pain. But as it happens I just didn't bother, and even though the halogen was all to **** the tester didn't object, it was bad on the road but apparently not bad on the test wall.

I only run with the one HID just because of my damaged headlight, but I'd go back to 2 if I could easily. Instead, I've got a load of spares I do like having the redundancy though, my HID's been reliable but you never know if that'll continue.

Oh nice, I didn't realise that. I was under the impression you'd need to remove the whole HID kit, not just the capsule. I stand corrected, ta folks.

[northwind]

Hey, I suppose technically I could just deactivate the one HID, and tape up the lens, sort of like doing a daylight only MOT but with one functioning headlight still?

[yorkie_chris]

Mine passed MOT, but that place is sensible

So let me just clarify for mot purposes you can take HID bulbs out ( if you have an MOT coming) and put a "normal" bulb back in and the HID kit works with normal bulbs also?? Just like changing the bulbs normally on any bike yeh?

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by sv_rider1990

So let me just clarify for mot purposes you can take HID bulbs out ( if you have an MOT coming) and put a "normal" bulb back in and the HID kit works with normal bulbs also?? Just like changing the bulbs normally on any bike yeh?

my setup is designed to be easy to change, for the MOT i just swap the HID bulbs for regular H4s, take the connectors on the original loom off the HID loom and plug them in the back, 10 minutes work tops

it will take me longer to fit my baffle because i've lost the damn allen bolt that holds it in place