Brighter lights Mk1 single headlamp Trophy BBBB HID H4/3

[Kevin B-2]

After failing miserably to get a beam pattern from an H4/4 I have now fitted an H4/3. Apparently H4/4 do work well on clear lensed lights but not on lights where the lens is used to create the beam pattern. Well thta's what Hids Direct now inform me!

So my H4/3 4300k kit is now supplied and fitted.

Plus
Reasonable quality kit.
Quick delivery.

Negative.
The supplied + lead intended to go to the battery is too short and will need to be extended. (It's just a half car kit and this lead is too short.
There is masses of spare cables. It is half a car kit but the full wiring loom is integral so there are loads of spare cables that can't be removed. So many that they are difficult to retain and hide.
The bulb is the wrong shape and will not fit the headlight assembly without reshaping either the bulb casing or the headlamp bulb mounting area. As both the bulb and headlamp are plastic either can be easily filed to fit.
The standard bulb retaining ring can't be used with the H4/3 design. Luckily there are 3x small holes in the headlamp that in the perfect position to hold the new bulb and 3 small self tapping screws did the trick.


So the final question - how good is the light output:-

First switch on very dim, don't worry they warm up over about 10 - 15 seconds and get significantly brighter also with 4300k bulb it is pure white.
Dip beam - much brighter, reasonable pattern but some light leakage into what is/should be total dark areas with a conventional bulb. Will it pass an MOT? I'm not certain.
Main beam - much brighter, beam pattern is wider horizontally but narrower vertically; so more of a flat plane to the light pattern.
On both beam patterns the light output is probably 20 - 30% more than the 100/80W bulb that was fitted for a short time. Though my eyes aren't calibrated in lumens so how would I really know other than offer an opinion?

I don't think it is the improvement that advertisers suggest but it is good so I wont send it back and would probably fit one to any bike I owned.
If it doesn't pass the MOT due to the dip beam light leakage (I don't think it's too bad but it is there) I will probably refit the original bulb for the MOT then swap back to the HID.

Riding at night is much more pleasant and less risky. I have noticed that cars now dip before they come into view rather than blinding me first; clearly the beam is projecting much further and brighter and cars are noticing me much sooner. On dual carriageways cars travelling in my direction in the outside lane seem to pull over much sooner and let me past.
When I'm on dip no car coming in the other direction has yet flashed it's lights so this reinforces my thought that the light leakage isn't that bad.

Finally, HIDS4U (I bought from HIDSdirect at £45) advertise their bulbs as the best on the market and sell strongly on quality. Would a HIDS4U kit be much better both in light output, pattern and would their "bike kit" have less waste wiring to hide? At £98 for a HIDS4U kit I couldn't justify the cost of finding out.

[john tabberer]

Hi Kevin,
How that you have got the kit working,
you could considder shortening the excessively long wires and joining them back together with solder and Heat shrink tubing, the only ones you can't alter are the High voltage leads to the lamp... 23000 volts might leak out... :^)
 
I also have more peripheral light on dip. but as you say, that seems to make you more visible to car drivers and other road users...
 
My series 2 trophy has passed the MOT twice with the HID's installed no problems,
 
It's also passed the MOT with one LED stop and tail light and one standard stop and tail...
 
Basic theory... 'construction and use' regs expects the Stop Light to be 21 watts... LEDS aren't 21 watts... as long as there is one 21 watt lamp in the rear light  housing there should be no complaints from the MOT Man or Mr Plod... I have had more stop and tail lights fail than any other lamp on any vehicle, so I hope and expect the LED Lamp to act as a safety backstop.....
 
Imagint having a 21 watt LED stop lamp... the people behind you would go prematurely blind...

 
Last time I went to Glasgow on the bike I had two working stop and tails when I left Yorkshire,
and when I arrived in Glasgow they had both failed... on the tail fillament. which was bad news cos it was night time...
 
I took a spare fuse out of the fuse box, pulled the connectors off the front brake light switch and shorted them together with the Fuse, whilst I rode to the nearest Filling station to buy spares...
 
on the thought that it's better to have the wrong light than no light on the back of a bike at night
 
 

 
--- On Fri, 30/10/09, Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...> wrote:


From: Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...>
Subject: [TriumphTrophy] Brighter lights Mk1 single headlamp Trophy BBBB HID H4/3
To: TriumphTrophy@...
Date: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 5:26 PM


 



After failing miserably to get a beam pattern from an H4/4 I have now fitted an H4/3. Apparently H4/4 do work well on clear lensed lights but not on lights where the lens is used to create the beam pattern. Well thta's what Hids Direct now inform me!

So my H4/3 4300k kit is now supplied and fitted.

Plus
Reasonable quality kit.
Quick delivery.

Negative.
The supplied + lead intended to go to the battery is too short and will need to be extended. (It's just a half car kit and this lead is too short.
There is masses of spare cables. It is half a car kit but the full wiring loom is integral so there are loads of spare cables that can't be removed. So many that they are difficult to retain and hide.
The bulb is the wrong shape and will not fit the headlight assembly without reshaping either the bulb casing or the headlamp bulb mounting area. As both the bulb and headlamp are plastic either can be easily filed to fit.
The standard bulb retaining ring can't be used with the H4/3 design. Luckily there are 3x small holes in the headlamp that in the perfect position to hold the new bulb and 3 small self tapping screws did the trick.

So the final question - how good is the light output:-

First switch on very dim, don't worry they warm up over about 10 - 15 seconds and get significantly brighter also with 4300k bulb it is pure white.
Dip beam - much brighter, reasonable pattern but some light leakage into what is/should be total dark areas with a conventional bulb. Will it pass an MOT? I'm not certain.
Main beam - much brighter, beam pattern is wider horizontally but narrower vertically; so more of a flat plane to the light pattern.
On both beam patterns the light output is probably 20 - 30% more than the 100/80W bulb that was fitted for a short time. Though my eyes aren't calibrated in lumens so how would I really know other than offer an opinion?

I don't think it is the improvement that advertisers suggest but it is good so I wont send it back and would probably fit one to any bike I owned.
If it doesn't pass the MOT due to the dip beam light leakage (I don't think it's too bad but it is there) I will probably refit the original bulb for the MOT then swap back to the HID.

Riding at night is much more pleasant and less risky. I have noticed that cars now dip before they come into view rather than blinding me first; clearly the beam is projecting much further and brighter and cars are noticing me much sooner. On dual carriageways cars travelling in my direction in the outside lane seem to pull over much sooner and let me past.
When I'm on dip no car coming in the other direction has yet flashed it's lights so this reinforces my thought that the light leakage isn't that bad.

Finally, HIDS4U (I bought from HIDSdirect at £45) advertise their bulbs as the best on the market and sell strongly on quality. Would a HIDS4U kit be much better both in light output, pattern and would their "bike kit" have less waste wiring to hide? At £98 for a HIDS4U kit I couldn't justify the cost of finding out.

















     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Kevin B-2]

That's a job for the depths of winter and I might get another ride this year; even though it looks like the weather has finally caved in to Autumn. I was hoping to ride down to the New Forest to meet my brother today who is collecting a "spares/repair" VFR750 (£150, scottoiler, corbin seat and all plastics fully intact, I know the owner and it was working nicely when replaced by a ZX10 6 years ago) but it looks like it'll be a drive rather than ride.

The problem with shortening the wires is that the longest ones are the HV ones and these also have a fairly large coil around them but taking out any unnecessary cabling will help.

All I need to do now is find a nice (but cheap) light that also has dip/main H4 or perhaps fog lamp (I want to improve dip even more if I can) and make use of that spare cable by buying a second ballast and HID bulb.

Enough is good, more is better.

Finally: I wander just how good heat shrink is; do I dare reduce the length of the HV cables? What will 23000 volts do to the electrics if it get into the rest of the system or shorts to earth through the frame? Will the engine management system survive? Do I dare risk it?


--- In TriumphTrophy@..., john tabberer <rebullet@...> wrote:

>
> Hi Kevin,
> How that you have got the kit working,
> you could considder shortening the excessively long wires and joining them back together with solder and Heat shrink tubing, the only ones you can't alter are the High voltage leads to the lamp... 23000 volts might leak out... :^)
>  
> I also have more peripheral light on dip. but as you say, that seems to make you more visible to car drivers and other road users...
>  
> My series 2 trophy has passed the MOT twice with the HID's installed no problems,
>  
> It's also passed the MOT with one LED stop and tail light and one standard stop and tail...
>  
> Basic theory... 'construction and use' regs expects the Stop Light to be 21 watts... LEDS aren't 21 watts... as long as there is one 21 watt lamp in the rear light  housing there should be no complaints from the MOT Man or Mr Plod... I have had more stop and tail lights fail than any other lamp on any vehicle, so I hope and expect the LED Lamp to act as a safety backstop.....
>  
> Imagint having a 21 watt LED stop lamp... the people behind you would go prematurely blind...
>
>  
> Last time I went to Glasgow on the bike I had two working stop and tails when I left Yorkshire,
> and when I arrived in Glasgow they had both failed... on the tail fillament. which was bad news cos it was night time...
>  
> I took a spare fuse out of the fuse box, pulled the connectors off the front brake light switch and shorted them together with the Fuse, whilst I rode to the nearest Filling station to buy spares...
>  
> on the thought that it's better to have the wrong light than no light on the back of a bike at night
>  
>  
>
>  
> --- On Fri, 30/10/09, Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...>
> Subject: [TriumphTrophy] Brighter lights Mk1 single headlamp Trophy BBBB HID H4/3
> To: TriumphTrophy@...
> Date: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 5:26 PM
>
>
>  
>
>
>
> After failing miserably to get a beam pattern from an H4/4 I have now fitted an H4/3. Apparently H4/4 do work well on clear lensed lights but not on lights where the lens is used to create the beam pattern. Well thta's what Hids Direct now inform me!
>
> So my H4/3 4300k kit is now supplied and fitted.
>
> Plus
> Reasonable quality kit.
> Quick delivery.
>
> Negative.
> The supplied + lead intended to go to the battery is too short and will need to be extended. (It's just a half car kit and this lead is too short.
> There is masses of spare cables. It is half a car kit but the full wiring loom is integral so there are loads of spare cables that can't be removed. So many that they are difficult to retain and hide.
> The bulb is the wrong shape and will not fit the headlight assembly without reshaping either the bulb casing or the headlamp bulb mounting area. As both the bulb and headlamp are plastic either can be easily filed to fit.
> The standard bulb retaining ring can't be used with the H4/3 design. Luckily there are 3x small holes in the headlamp that in the perfect position to hold the new bulb and 3 small self tapping screws did the trick.
>
> So the final question - how good is the light output:-
>
> First switch on very dim, don't worry they warm up over about 10 - 15 seconds and get significantly brighter also with 4300k bulb it is pure white.
> Dip beam - much brighter, reasonable pattern but some light leakage into what is/should be total dark areas with a conventional bulb. Will it pass an MOT? I'm not certain.
> Main beam - much brighter, beam pattern is wider horizontally but narrower vertically; so more of a flat plane to the light pattern.
> On both beam patterns the light output is probably 20 - 30% more than the 100/80W bulb that was fitted for a short time. Though my eyes aren't calibrated in lumens so how would I really know other than offer an opinion?
>
> I don't think it is the improvement that advertisers suggest but it is good so I wont send it back and would probably fit one to any bike I owned.
> If it doesn't pass the MOT due to the dip beam light leakage (I don't think it's too bad but it is there) I will probably refit the original bulb for the MOT then swap back to the HID.
>
> Riding at night is much more pleasant and less risky. I have noticed that cars now dip before they come into view rather than blinding me first; clearly the beam is projecting much further and brighter and cars are noticing me much sooner. On dual carriageways cars travelling in my direction in the outside lane seem to pull over much sooner and let me past.
> When I'm on dip no car coming in the other direction has yet flashed it's lights so this reinforces my thought that the light leakage isn't that bad.
>
> Finally, HIDS4U (I bought from HIDSdirect at £45) advertise their bulbs as the best on the market and sell strongly on quality. Would a HIDS4U kit be much better both in light output, pattern and would their "bike kit" have less waste wiring to hide? At £98 for a HIDS4U kit I couldn't justify the cost of finding out.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>      
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

[john tabberer]

I think the HV leads are best left intact... the other wires though are fair game...
 
I know that RS components (www.rswww.com) can supply adhesive lined heat shrink, which both shtinks and bonds to the insulation of the wires...
it's likely that other companies also sell the same stuff.
 
Best of luck. regards John

--- On Sat, 31/10/09, Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...> wrote:


From: Kevin B <kandlbarrett@...>
Subject: [TriumphTrophy] Re: Brighter lights Mk1 single headlamp Trophy BBBB HID H4/3
To: TriumphTrophy@...
Date: Saturday, 31 October, 2009, 8:28 AM


 



That's a job for the depths of winter and I might get another ride this year; even though it looks like the weather has finally caved in to Autumn. I was hoping to ride down to the New Forest to meet my brother today who is collecting a "spares/repair" VFR750 (£150, scottoiler, corbin seat and all plastics fully intact, I know the owner and it was working nicely when replaced by a ZX10 6 years ago) but it looks like it'll be a drive rather than ride.

The problem with shortening the wires is that the longest ones are the HV ones and these also have a fairly large coil around them but taking out any unnecessary cabling will help.

All I need to do now is find a nice (but cheap) light that also has dip/main H4 or perhaps fog lamp (I want to improve dip even more if I can) and make use of that spare cable by buying a second ballast and HID bulb.

Enough is good, more is better.

Finally: I wander just how good heat shrink is; do I dare reduce the length of the HV cables? What will 23000 volts do to the electrics if it get into the rest of the system or shorts to earth through the frame? Will the engine management system survive? Do I dare risk it?

--- In TriumphTrophy@ yahoogroups. com, john tabberer <rebullet@.. .> wrote:

>
> Hi Kevin,
> How that you have got the kit working,
> you could considder shortening the excessively long wires and joining them back together with solder and Heat shrink tubing, the only ones you can't alter are the High voltage leads to the lamp... 23000 volts might leak out... :^)
>  
> I also have more peripheral light on dip. but as you say, that seems to make you more visible to car drivers and other road users...
>  
> My series 2 trophy has passed the MOT twice with the HID's installed no problems,
>  
> It's also passed the MOT with one LED stop and tail light and one standard stop and tail...
>  
> Basic theory... 'construction and use' regs expects the Stop Light to be 21 watts... LEDS aren't 21 watts... as long as there is one 21 watt lamp in the rear light  housing there should be no complaints from the MOT Man or Mr Plod... I have had more stop and tail lights fail than any other lamp on any vehicle, so I hope and expect the LED Lamp to act as a safety backstop.... .
>  
> Imagint having a 21 watt LED stop lamp... the people behind you would go prematurely blind...
>
>  
> Last time I went to Glasgow on the bike I had two working stop and tails when I left Yorkshire,
> and when I arrived in Glasgow they had both failed... on the tail fillament. which was bad news cos it was night time...
>  
> I took a spare fuse out of the fuse box, pulled the connectors off the front brake light switch and shorted them together with the Fuse, whilst I rode to the nearest Filling station to buy spares...
>  
> on the thought that it's better to have the wrong light than no light on the back of a bike at night
>  
>  
>
>  
> --- On Fri, 30/10/09, Kevin B <kandlbarrett@ ...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Kevin B <kandlbarrett@ ...>
> Subject: [TriumphTrophy] Brighter lights Mk1 single headlamp Trophy BBBB HID H4/3
> To: TriumphTrophy@ yahoogroups. com
> Date: Friday, 30 October, 2009, 5:26 PM
>
>
>  
>
>
>
> After failing miserably to get a beam pattern from an H4/4 I have now fitted an H4/3. Apparently H4/4 do work well on clear lensed lights but not on lights where the lens is used to create the beam pattern. Well thta's what Hids Direct now inform me!
>
> So my H4/3 4300k kit is now supplied and fitted.
>
> Plus
> Reasonable quality kit.
> Quick delivery.
>
> Negative.
> The supplied + lead intended to go to the battery is too short and will need to be extended. (It's just a half car kit and this lead is too short.
> There is masses of spare cables. It is half a car kit but the full wiring loom is integral so there are loads of spare cables that can't be removed. So many that they are difficult to retain and hide.
> The bulb is the wrong shape and will not fit the headlight assembly without reshaping either the bulb casing or the headlamp bulb mounting area. As both the bulb and headlamp are plastic either can be easily filed to fit.
> The standard bulb retaining ring can't be used with the H4/3 design. Luckily there are 3x small holes in the headlamp that in the perfect position to hold the new bulb and 3 small self tapping screws did the trick.
>
> So the final question - how good is the light output:-
>
> First switch on very dim, don't worry they warm up over about 10 - 15 seconds and get significantly brighter also with 4300k bulb it is pure white.
> Dip beam - much brighter, reasonable pattern but some light leakage into what is/should be total dark areas with a conventional bulb. Will it pass an MOT? I'm not certain.
> Main beam - much brighter, beam pattern is wider horizontally but narrower vertically; so more of a flat plane to the light pattern.
> On both beam patterns the light output is probably 20 - 30% more than the 100/80W bulb that was fitted for a short time. Though my eyes aren't calibrated in lumens so how would I really know other than offer an opinion?
>
> I don't think it is the improvement that advertisers suggest but it is good so I wont send it back and would probably fit one to any bike I owned.
> If it doesn't pass the MOT due to the dip beam light leakage (I don't think it's too bad but it is there) I will probably refit the original bulb for the MOT then swap back to the HID.
>
> Riding at night is much more pleasant and less risky. I have noticed that cars now dip before they come into view rather than blinding me first; clearly the beam is projecting much further and brighter and cars are noticing me much sooner. On dual carriageways cars travelling in my direction in the outside lane seem to pull over much sooner and let me past.
> When I'm on dip no car coming in the other direction has yet flashed it's lights so this reinforces my thought that the light leakage isn't that bad.
>
> Finally, HIDS4U (I bought from HIDSdirect at £45) advertise their bulbs as the best on the market and sell strongly on quality. Would a HIDS4U kit be much better both in light output, pattern and would their "bike kit" have less waste wiring to hide? At £98 for a HIDS4U kit I couldn't justify the cost of finding out.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

     

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]