Headlight Upgrade

[yorkie_chris]

I have HID in headlight shell from pointy. Works fine.

I had to trim back of lamp slightly for wire to get out of shell easily.

Can anyone report on the effectiveness of upgrading just the bulb, and not getting the full HID kit? I was considering buying some Phillips X-treme Powers for the '99 SV curvy.

And is there a big benefit to upgrading both bulbs? Before/after pics would be cool.

I would say yes, from what i remember of the curvey bulbs they are quite yellow the philips would be white and a lot brighter with more length.

Good to know, I've just ordered a couple Phillips H4's - one for the SV, the other for the Fireblade.

[sauluk]

I've got Osram's which were the bulb of choice from a previous thread on here. I'm very dubious as to whether they made a difference or not. Sure the light is whiter rather than a pale yellow but the light thrown off when I ran them side by side was almost identical.

HID's would be the way to see a noticeable difference.

[fastdruid]

Originally Posted by sauluk

HID's would be the way to see a noticeable difference.

Biggest difference I noticed was swapping from the standard 45/45 to 60/55's!

Has anyone run HID's long term in the SV?

I only ask as some bikes have issues with melted/fogged headlights over time.

Druid

I've upgraded the bulbs (Philips X-treme Power) in both my '99 curvy and my '03 pointy thou'. The improvement was much more noticable on the '03 bike. I think this is because the reflector is a better design on the newer bike. Upgrading the bulb does improve the amount of light, but its the reflector and bulb housing that determines how well the light is directed outwards and thats where the older design falls down a little. That said, the lights do perform better with the new bulbs. And its a good bit cheaper than a HID upgrade...

The thou's' lights are now fantastic - so I'd recommend anyone with a pointy to go fit them - worth every penny IMO.

[Bluepete]

The HIDS4U claim to run cool enough for the melting not to be an issue. They also say that their product is UV filtered which is the cause of the fogging of the lens.

Pete

[yorkie_chris]

Most HID are 35W so put out less heat anyway.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by fastdruid

I only ask as some bikes have issues with melted/fogged headlights over time.

Have you actually got any cases of this happening though?

I've heard it said many times but never actually seen a case, certainly in my own experience it's not been a consideration.

Urban myth until evidence surfaces IMO