The Honda Owners Club

Just thought you would be interested to know that I have just replaced my dead Halogen bulb to a Halford 50% brighter Zeon unit It certainly improves the brightness, really and the best bit was it was a BOGOF £19.99 you got two. So now I have a spare when I go touring next year

Andy

I did the same on my car a little while ago and certainley noticed the difference. They're not as good as the HID Xenon lights on the wifes car.

On my 400, I converted the bulb holders to take standard H4 bulbs and replaced the 35 watt Japanese types with 60/55 watt Blue Vision bulbs, which would allow three fiqure speeds on unlit roads if it were legal.

Charlie

Hey CB!...got any probs with the additional heat generated from the system?..

Chris

I did the conversion (the tab spacing is different on the H4 bulb) about 6 years ago as I thought the standard spec Japanese bulbs were pretty crap. Admittedly the bulbs that were in there were probably original and past their best but the upgrade certainley achieved the desired result.

I haven't noticed any additional heat build up. The UK spec bike incidently did have H4 60/55 bulbs fitted and used the same generator and battery so the electrics can handle it. Oh I also fitted a low beam relay like the UK spec model (stops the light switch burning out).

Regards

Charlie

Chimp Boy wrote:Andy

I did the same on my car a little while ago and certainley noticed the difference. They're not as good as the HID Xenon lights on the wifes car.

Charlie

I fitted a pair of new high output bulbs to my Varadero. They were good. They made my single headlight on my BMW look like a candle.

I then fitted a HID Bi-xenon H4 kit to the BMW - fantastic! The H4 Bi-xenon bulb uses a single 'light source' positioned at the centre of focus with an electrical-mechanical shutter to 'dip' the beam. This gives a perfect, flat top dipped beam. The single HID headlight was more than equal to the Varadero's two headlights.

I removed the HID system from the BMW before I sold it and will be fitting it to my Transalp.
It is an easy modification for any bike without a single headlight with a hard shell. A hard headlight shell can cause problems, especially if it is stuffed full of wires.

New double headlight HID systems using various bulbs - H3 - can now be had for less than £100.00. Single headlight H4 Bi-xenon systems should be about the same. Because the 'bulbs' or more properly 'lamps' have no filament they last 2/3 times longer than normal bulbs.

Barry

I looked into the fitting of HID lights to bikes and this was also discussed at length on another forum. One thing that came up was the legallity issue as "Construction and Use" regulations require that such systems be fitted with automatic headlamp levelling to avoid dazzling oncoming vehicles (easy with the vastly increased light output). This was something that was not easily overcome on a bike and I pursued it no more.

The automatic levelling works well on the car and there is no time delay when the shutter changes the focus from high to low beam or vice versa.

They provide fantastic illumination though and when we bought our last car it was a feature that we had to have again, being on the previous car.

The downside is the cost of replacement if one goes wrong or you have an accident. We had a whole unit replaced under warranty and it the invoice showed over £400 plus fitting and VAT! I was glad we didn't have to pay that.

Regards

Charlie

Chimp Boy wrote:Barry

One thing that came up was the legallity issue as "Construction and Use" regulations require that such systems be fitted with automatic headlamp levelling to avoid dazzling oncoming vehicles (easy with the vastly increased light output). This was something that was not easily overcome on a bike and I pursued it no more.

Under the construction and use regulations for motorcycles, there is no provision for HID lighting. That means there is no legislation banning it or as to its use. There is the normal requirement that there should be a 15 degree movement from main to dipped beam. HID complies with this.

The downside is the cost of replacement if one goes wrong or you have an accident. We had a whole unit replaced under warranty and it the invoice showed over £400 plus fitting and VAT! I was glad we didn't have to pay that.

Anyone who can replace a main bulb and fuse can fit an HID kit. The cost has reduced dramatically over the past year.

Woffle sprocket

Hi can anybody help i have a CBF1000ABS can i fit these 40% brighter bulbs to my bike, somebody said they may melt the plastic holders.
Thanks Pete

Hi Pete,

As far as I know it’s the higher wattage bulbs that cause the problems melting bulb holders.

I did try some higher wattage bulbs once but found the beam to be defused. When I took them back out and compared with the standard bulb, the element seemed to be in a slightly different position which would account for the beam not focusing correctly.

I’ve got the standard wattage bulb with the 40% extra blue light in both the Pan and the VFR and I’ve no problems with melting bulb holders and both the lenses are glass. I think they’re better in the Pan than the VFR though.

I’ll see both you and Jordan tomorrow.

I got mine from Aldi.... £3.99 for 2 and a full set of other bulbs for the car.... might not be the dogs but they are brighter than the stock so pleased with them.....