looking for easy headlight upgrade

[a1bummer]

Just got my HID Bi-Xenon setup ordered! Now it's hurry up and wait...

 

Bill

[twigg]

I've got the HID 'bulb' and am really pleased with it. I've seen some threads elsewhere showing (admiitedly very old - 8-10 years) test results showing that HID units in H4 headlamp reflectors are not as well focussed as the original, so there is a spread of light outside the main illuminated area.

 

I often don't believe this scaremongering - people said you couldn't use halogen bulbs in older units when they first came out, but I know I'm getting blinded by a lot of car headlights and have started wearing those yellow driving glasses to avoid headaches. I might just be getting older of course, but suspect that maybe I should have the headlight pointed slightly lower than I would have done with the standard bulb. It's not hard on the venture, after all !

 

On that other point, I had my headlight connector block melt several years ago while touring and it wasn't a hot day, so check yours has a good connection, whether you upgrade or not ! (Next time you're in there, finish your coffee first - it's not that urgent).

 

If you are getting flashed then there is light going where no light should go.

 

I just fitted a HID Projector to my "86, a light that can send a beam half a mile down the road. Then I rode it 1500 miles in one go, much of that at night.

 

Not one person flashed their lights at me.

 

If you have a pre '86 there may be room in the reflector (on Snaggletooth's plate) for two 2 1/2" HID Projectors.

 

A good setup can be had for $250, and you will turn night into day.

[ChrisFrench]

Hello,

 

In France, I mounted the HID Bi-Xenon H4 / 3 of the 1st generation and 2nd generation without modification of the OEM wiring.

The bulb H4 / 3 is used for passing or road. There is only one filament.C is an electromagnet which made ​​the switch and crossing road. No strings drawn from the battery. The new relay is connected directly to the connection of the old original H4.

In France, the light does not alume with the starter. To the United States, there must be a switch to turn the HID on the way, if not the balast will not like.

 

The HID consumes 35 W compared to OEM H4. The light output is 3 times more.

 

Without changing wiring, it is imperative the easy relay.

 

PRICE 59.00 Euro

 

http://www.oliverking.fr/kit-moto-h4-bi-xenon,fr,4,KITH4BISLIM1AMP.cfm

 

Chris

[Guest tx2sturgis]

One thing I would caution against is doing what I did. I went to the 80/100 watt bulb without making any other changes. You can see what resulted. It wasn't like this last time I looked at it. I have the fortune of living in a somewhat northern climate where it's not oppressively hot most of the time. You folks that live where it gets blistering hot in summer might be even more likely to experience this phenomenon. Looks like I'll need to convert over to HID sometime next year.

 

I bought the aluminum reflector and ceramic connector, plus a 100/55 watt bulb, but have not installed everything yet. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

 

[capn eddie]

ive been running this h.i.d setup on my 83 for 7 months without a glitch. i can even turn them off using the switch cuz theres no high beam. running them in both cars also, one, for over 18 months now.

 

 

i have one question , here in mo. to get plates new or renewed you have to get your bike or car inspected and they check for all lights to work hi and low beams how do you get yours to pass. with no hi beam.

[Flyinfool]

If it is hooked up correctly you will have a normal low beam and a modulated HI beam during daylight hours. At night you will still have a normal low beam and a normal HI beam.

If you are worried about the modulating HI beam not passing the inspection, just put a small piece of electrical tape over the photo sensor so the modulator thinks it is dark out.

[Keemez]

I bought the aluminum reflector and ceramic connector, plus a 100/55 watt bulb, but have not installed everything yet. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

 

I snatched a ceramic H4 connector off ebay to replace my melted one. This is just a temporary solution- I'll probably wind up converting to HID at some point.

[Flyinfool]

I snatched a ceramic H4 connector off ebay to replace my melted one. This is just a temporary solution- I'll probably wind up converting to HID at some point.

 

HID

[greg_in_london]

If you are getting flashed then there is light going where no light should go.

 

Lol - agree there. I'm not getting flashed, but judging by the amount of numpties who annoy me with badly adjusted lights and how easy it is for me to adjust the VR headlight, I ought to check. The bike's been laid up to save money for a while so I've not done it yet though.

[a1bummer]

Not happy with HID Country at the moment. I still haven't gotten my kit. The add stated it was "Availability: Ships Within 24 Hours". I even payed for "5 day shipping". I wasn't in a big hurry, but I appreciate "truth in advertising". Besides, I ride to work in the dark every morning and would like the better light.

 

Bill

 

FYI, they're on sale for $37.77 right now.

[twigg]

Lol - agree there. I'm not getting flashed, but judging by the amount of numpties who annoy me with badly adjusted lights and how easy it is for me to adjust the VR headlight, I ought to check. The bike's been laid up to save money for a while so I've not done it yet though.

 

When I ride, I ride defensively and am generally more cautious than adventurous. I rarely let other motorists upset or annoy me, I expect them to do stupid things and am simply grateful when they don't.

 

On Sunday I fell foul of a rare moment of real annoyance.

 

I was less than 10 miles from home having just covered 1700 miles with not even a sniff of an incident. I had ridden through pain, through mountains ... even through Nebraska and all had gone well.

 

So I needed to move out to pass the car in front of me. I checked my mirrors, the pick-up in the left lane was well behind. I indicated and moved out.

 

That was when the driver of the Dodge Ram decided to flash his high beams at me from behind!!!

 

Normally that would be the end of it, but I gave way to temptation.

 

"So, you think you can light up my mirrors, huh? Well you don't know it Sonny, but I can play that game better than you".

 

I let him pass, get about 50 yards in front of me and moved out behind him.

 

Then I lit up his mirrors with my HID Projector and I swear that his "self-dipping" rear view mirror dropped so fast that it bent the stem.

 

Juvenile, stupid, even dangerous .... I know all that ... but he'll leave the next motorcycle to ride in peace.

[camos]

Not happy with HID Country at the moment. I still haven't gotten my kit. The add stated it was "Availability: Ships Within 24 Hours". I even payed for "5 day shipping". I wasn't in a big hurry, but I appreciate "truth in advertising". Besides, I ride to work in the dark every morning and would like the better light.

 

About 6 months ago I ordered 2 ballasts from HID Country. The ballasts never came and they did not answer any of my emails. Sicced VISA on them to get my payment back. Won't be dealing with HID Country again.

[a1bummer]

Finally got my HID in a couple days ago. Just got it installed a bit ago. Not dark out yet, but with the garage doors closed and the lights off, I can already see a huge difference. Now I just have to wait till dark so I can see how much of a diff there is on the road.

 

Here are some before and after pics of the difference in light output. The first two are the OEM bulb on low/high, the 3rd & 4th are the Bi-xenon on low/high. The last three are of the bulb itself.

 

Bill

[twigg]

Nicely done.

 

If you ever get around to upgrading to an HID Projector, this is the beam pattern you can expect. The low beam has now been adjusted so that it dips the correct side:

 

[ame=http://s1092.photobucket.com/albums/i418/twigg2324/1986%20Yamaha%20Venture%20Royale/Headlight%20Conversion/?action=view&current=DSCN0333.mp4]Headlight Conversion :: DSCN0333.mp4 video by twigg2324 - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid1092.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi418%2Ftwigg2324%2F1986%2520Yamaha%2520Venture%2520Royale%2FHeadlight%2520Conversion%2FDSCN0333.mp4@@AMEPARAM@@file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid1092.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi418%2Ftwigg2324%2F1986%2520Yamaha%2520Venture%2520Royale%2FHeadlight%2520Conversion%2FDSCN0333.mp4[/ame]

[a1bummer]

So I noticed that when I switch my Bi-Xenon-HID light from low-beam to high-beam it works as it should, but when I switch back to low-beam, it stays in high. If I have the switch set to low when I start the bike, it will switch to high as it is supposed to. But then it's wont switch back to low, unless I turn the ignition key to the off position.

 

Bad relay? Any ideas where I should start troubleshooting?

 

Thanks,

Bill

[twigg]

So I noticed that when I switch my Bi-Xenon-HID light from low-beam to high-beam it works as it should, but when I switch back to low-beam, it stays in high. If I have the switch set to low when I start the bike, it will switch to high as it is supposed to. But then it's wont switch back to low, unless I turn the ignition key to the off position.

 

Bad relay? Any ideas where I should start troubleshooting?

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Did you do the RLU bypass?

[greg_in_london]

I don't know if you wired it up correctly. If you just plug it into the headlight H4 socket, then the computer notices that it is not drawing enough power, assumes the bulb is blown and switches to high beam. How to do it is on other threads - I can't remember how I did it right now. If you wired it right though, then it sounds like a fault.

[a1bummer]

Did you do the RLU bypass?

 

I assume RLU = Reserve Lighting Unit? No I didn't. I didn't know it was going to be an issue. But I found Flyinfools write-up on it and am heading out to do it now.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Bill

 

Well I finally got around to installing my HID Kit.

 

I tried to get some before and after pics of the illumination down the road but my cheap old camera was not up to the task.

 

Installing the kit was easy and took about a half hour of actual work time.

It was a mater of remove chrome strip at bottom of windshield,

remove headlight trim,

remove headlight,

remove bulb from headlight.

 

To install, I put the controller on the flat plastic wall straight behind the headlight with Velcro.

I tie strapped the ballast and relay to a frame piece that was on the bikes right side behind the headlight.

Ran the power lead to my power panel to get battery power.

Connected the ground wire to a frame screw that just happened to be in a convenient spot in the headlight area.

Plugged the existing bikes headlight connector into the mating connector of the Hid control box. I added a wrap of tape to this connection because it plugs in so easy that I was concerned about it coming apart.

Connected all of the remaining wires of the HID system. All of the connectors are different so it is impossible to screw it up.

Dress all of the wire to keep them still and neat.

 

That was the easy part.

As I mentioned early on I was concerned about whether the computer would like this light.

My concerns were justified. The computer did not like this at all. It insisted that the low beam was burned out and automatically switched to high beam. but then it thought the high beam was burned out so it tried to go back to low beam. as well as give a headlight warning on the CMS with its associated annoying flashing red light, and the white headlight reserve indicator on the dash was lit.

 

So now the fun begins.

Step one, the CMS.

Start ripping things apart to get to the computer to be able to jumper the reed switches.

There are a number of threads on here detailing this procedure so I will not go into a lot of detail. (besides this is a PG forum and I was not PG through this whole thing.)

 

Basic steps were

Remove windshield,

Remove mirrors, (mirrors do not have to come off if you have an offset Phillips screwdriver)

Remove dash cover,

remove dash,

remove CMS from back of dash

disassemble CMS to get PCBs out. (Note; while removing the PCBs the 2 displays for the clock and the monitor display will come out and it will look like you broke all of the wires off of them, don't panic, there are no visible wires or connectors, and they are supposed to come off of the board.)

 

As long as I was in there, I jumpered all of the reed switches as long as I was there so that down the road when I replace ALL of the lights with LEDs it will be ready. all of this was to just get the CMS to stop flashing the read light an turn off the headlight out indicator on the display.

 

Step 2, the reserve lighting unit.

After sleeping on it this turned out to be quite easy.

 

For the Reserve Lighting Unit, I simply unplugged it, and using some #12AWG solid wire I made 3 Jumpers to stick in the end of the wire harness connector.

 

Jumper 1 was from Blue/White to Blue/Black. This sends the power to the handlebar dimmer switch.

 

Jumper 2 was from Black to Blue/Green. This provides a ground path for the High beam indicator.

 

Jumper 3 was from Yellow/Green to Blue/Red. This turns on the High beam indicator.

 

The remaining Yellow and Green/Red have no connections.

Tape it up good to hold in the jumpers, and you are all set to go.

 

By doing it this way you can easily pull out the jumpers and plug it back in for stock operation.

 

So you ask, "Was it worth it?"

Dam right it was.

This light is so bright compared to the old one.

The beam pattern is identical to the old beam pattern, and focused well.

In the short ride that I took no one flashed their brights at me.

On a long straight dark road I could see things that were a half mile away.

Even in full sunlight the road signs are lit up brighter by this light.

 

 

Sorry, but I did have a brain cramp and never thought to take step by step pics of this whole ordeal till I was almost done.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45603&page=2

[a1bummer]

Well I got it all taken care of yesterday with some daylight left. I did the RLU by-pass per Flyinfool's write-up and jumped the headlight reed switch. I had already done the brake and turn signal reed switches some time ago. Now the high & low beams work as they should. At the time I though only the "L2" reed switch was all I needed to jump. So when I turned on the high-beam, the white "headlight" dummy light would come on and no blue "High-beam" light. Not knowing any better I just switched the two bulbs around and it looks as it should. I later found in another recent thread that the "L1" reed switch should also have been jumped. Apparently its for the low-beam. I thought maybe it was for the side stand or the low fuel light. I'll have to jump the L1 the next time I have things apart.

 

So if I have it right:

L1 = Low-beam..............Not jumped in the pic, but should've been

L2 = High-beam..............Red jumper in the pic

L3 = Brake/Tail lights.......Green jumper in the pic

L4 = Turn signals.............Black jumper in the pic

 

If I have this wrong, PLEASE, somebody let me know.

 

Later towards dark, I called in my take-out order General Tso's Chicken to the China Buffet about 15 miles down the road so I had a good excuse to see how the new HID light worked. Talk about seeing things in a whole new light! It was like going from a CRT TV with an analog signal to a HD LCD TV with a digital signal. On the down side however, my running lights now look dim and yellow...

 

Bill

[twigg]

I assume RLU = Reserve Lighting Unit? No I didn't. I didn't know it was going to be an issue. But I found Flyinfools write-up on it and am heading out to do it now.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Bill

 

I made the same mistake first try

[Flyinfool]

Me Too......

But then I started pouring over the wiring diagram and typing for a few hours to warn ya.

 

Glad my efforts were/are useful to someone.

 

And you guys even got it to work with the typos on jumper #2 that I only fixed this morning.

 

Now you need to add the switch so that the ballast does not have to light the bulb twice every time you start the bike.

[a1bummer]

Well, the joy of the new HID headlight was short lived! Last night my headlight went out. I only had it for a month! I'm assuming it's the ballast, as when I turn the light on I don't hear any current bleeding through the wires going to the bulb like I could hear before. Anybody know where to start troubleshooting? I'm gonna head out with the testlight and volt/ohm meter in a few to start with fuses and connections first.

 

Thanks,

Bill

[twigg]

Well, the joy of the new HID headlight was short lived! Last night my headlight went out. I only had it for a month! I'm assuming it's the ballast, as when I turn the light on I don't hear any current bleeding through the wires going to the bulb like I could hear before. Anybody know where to start troubleshooting? I'm gonna head out with the testlight and volt/ohm meter in a few to start with fuses and connections first.

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Pardon?

 

What does this mean?

 

Maybe you can better describe what you were hearing, because you can't "hear" current. If you used a bi-xenon kit and heard a noise when the light was on, I would suspect that the RLU was operating causing the bulb High/Low mechanism to buzz.

[greg_in_london]

Can't hear a high tension hum ????

 

Oh yes you can.... It might not be the best way of describing it, but you certainly hear something. When I used to teach science and used a Wimshurst generator you could hear the static crackling and building up as well as feel it as the hairs on your arm stood on end.

 

If you bought a car kit like me, then you'll have a spare ballast and spare light unit, so you should be able to swap out parts without a problem.

 

I haven't heard of one failing before though, so either you were unlucky or I wonder if there was a problem switching and the relay was flicking the high/low switch.

 

[EDIT: It's more of a hiss than a hum.]

[a1bummer]

Bleed through as in the insulation on the wires isn't thick enough. Kind of like the wires on a neon light. Especially the older ones. When the wires touch the frame you can hear/feel current bleeding through the wires. You can see the same thing if you get close enough to one of those huge power line towers.

 

I just got done checking fuses and connections, all is good there. Everything is nice and secure, clean & dry as the day I put it in. Just no power out of the ballast.

 

Next question, If I put the old bulb back in, will everything still work properly with the RLU mod still in place? Or will I have to reinstall it? Just curious because I'm about 100 miles from home and I can get another stock bulb, but I don't have the RLU on hand. If it will work with out the RLU, then I'll get a new bulb locally. If not, I'll wait until I get home to put the original pieces back in and not spend the extra cash if I don't have to. Luckily the LED running lights I put in last week are bright enough to light my way even in the dark. They're about as good at the stock bulb on low.

 

Bill