Scooter
Community

At long last I have installed the HID kit in my G-Max...

I had wanted to by a kit for quite a while - at the Motorcycle Expo there was a guy selling the kits - he quoted me $200 for a single globe kit, I'm not sure if it had high and low beam or was a single beam - can't remember.  Gave me some big spiel about how they were the same kits that BMW put in their cars, they are the best kits available, he is the sole importer of these kits...blah blah blah... 

So me gets on eBay - $72 later and I have a nice HID kit sitting here - bi-xenon (pretty name for high/low beam)

So it sits around here for a couple months - me gets adventurous just over a week ago.

What started out as something relatively simple turned into a bit more than that - the bloody ceramic end-piece on the globe wouldn't fit through the hole in the back of the reflector assembly, so muggins here thinks "ah well, I'll make the hole bigger!" - oh - I can't get my Dremel in the confined space - ok, I'll take the nose cone off!

Now, for the life of me I couldn't work out where exactly the plastic tabs were that hold the thing together after you undo the screws.  No probs, I'll remove some other plastics!

Don't you love how things snowball?

Well, I couldn't work out how to get the back panel of the front bit to move, so I started taking bits off until it moved!  So sue me!

Anyways, this gave me GREAT access to the rest of the scoot for running wires back to the battery and stuff...

The kits comes with globe assembly, ballast, some switch box thingie, cabling...

Essentially the HID ballast draws its power directly from the battery - but you have to wire the control box to the existing H4 connector so it can switch from low to high beam and back.  As seen in the picture below, I attached spade connectors to the wires and stuffed them into their respective spots.

The ballast and control box are stuffed in the front space as well (a tad hard to see; I should have taken a photo before putting the plastics back on):

The control box is directly behind the horn; the ballast is the silver thing with the black and yellow sticker.

I ran 10 amp wire back to the battery, with an inline fuse; nice red/black colour coded wiring running through with other wiring that goes from front to back.  Nice and professional-like...10 amps is heaps; startup wattage is 70W max, running is 35W; this is 6A and 3A (approx) respectively @ 12V.

Now back to the reflector - sadly I didn't take any photos of this as you can't see how much of a TOSSER I am!

I attacked the hole at the back, where the globe enters the reflector, with a sanding wheel on a dremel.  Now think of what happens when you grind away plastic at high speed?  Can you say cornflour?  'cos that's what the consitency of the dust was!  The complete inside of the reflector assembly became coasted in the finest dust you have ever seen!  "No probs, I'll blow it out!"  Can you say IDIOT?

Needless to say blowing didn't work - neither did copious amount of water.  Neither did yelling, or crying, or dancing around on one foot after kicking the house...

"I'll separate the reflector from the clear lens" - can you say GLUE?  They sure as heck don't mean for ANYONE to EVER separate those suckers once they are put together!

It's too late now - I'm committed.  3 hours, 3 Dremel cutting disks, two knives, a screwdriver, some bandaids later...It's apart!  WOOHOO!

Upstairs to give it a careful wash in the sink - knowing it's just silver float on plastic, expecting the whole lot to flake off - thankfully it didn't...

Over to Dad's place - back half an hour later with a caulking gun and some silicon tile sealant - goop it back together - oh great why did I grab WHITE sealant?  Ah well too late now...It don't look THAT bad...

Back on with all the plastics - wow I astonished myself, a screw in every spot where there should be one, none left over...That's gotta be a new record!

Start 'er up - W...O...W...!!!

Check it out for yourself:

Pretty huh?

One last photo, showing the globe and the hole I cut out of the reflector:

Oh - how does it achieve high/low beam?  Well, normally you have two filaments in your globe - one closer to the back of the reflector than the other.  According to some law of optics written by some dude I don't know, when you change the position of the emitter, the angle of the scattereed light changes - thereby giving you one beam pointing to the ground close to your scooter - then when you switch to high beam, it's pointing further away.

The bi-xenon HID globe achieves this by having the glass globe bit slide in and out, moved by a solenoid or something.  Nifty hey?

I do have one problem at the moment:  my battery is pretty well stuffed so when it's low on charge, I can't run the headlight, even when riding along, until it gets some charge back into it.  The G-Max seems to not put out a whole lotta excess current from its charging system...And because of the nature of the Xenon High-Intensity-Discharge system, it's either on or off - it won't glow feebly like a filament globe does when you are sitting barely idling at the traffic lights...All will be ok once I have a new battery im; it runs perfectly with the battery fully-charged...

Link to a coupla more photos: 

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/sgian.dubh/GMaxHIDKit?authkey=5c_3m5QH8Z8

All in all, I would recommend HID to anyone - however I was lucky in that my scoot uses an H4 globe, whereas I have noticed a lot of scooter use weirdo globes - so you may have to make up a bit of an adapter to locate the globe properly into the back of the reflector.
 

What a great read !

I've heard HID headlights current drain is a problem for many scooters / motor bikes charging systems as they simply do not have the spare capacity to cope, perhaps if you have room, a dual battery set-up like the 4WD guys use is the solution.

For anyone that does not have a halogen headlight and is looking for a simpler (although not as bright) solution check out

Classic & Vintage Bulbs web site (an Australian company)

Classic & Vintage Bulbs can supply a halogen bulb the same design as your original tungsten bulb, so you get a bright light with no extra current drain.

 fantastic read and a great result ...looks the ducks nuts

I fitted the same kit (same price too from eBay) to my '750 a few months ago, main reason was due to the LOWER current draw then the standard 55/60 watt globes in it (mine had a standard H4).

The light output was so good I now dont have to worry bout spotlights!

The standard draw of the HID's is only 35 watts, so the scoot systems should be able to cope with that no problem I reckon (they do draw a shitload more on startup, but only for a few seconds).

Just about to put the same kits through my car as well.

Mind you - they are NOT legal......   but well worth the excercise :) 

Making up for lost posts R4? Perfect touch for the Gmax. Bloody coffee went cold (again), thats three coffee's you owe me now and I think you'll owe Kstar a few too

Good stuff Big Fella.

Was the battery the issue last time I saw you?

See ya next Sunday, anyway.

VENTURI:

Good stuff Big Fella.

Was the battery the issue last time I saw you?

See ya next Sunday, anyway.

What was the issue then?  Being hard to start?  I think so...

Ya can't kickstart it - a total waste of time.  Aerox350 managed to kickstart it once, and then turned the bloody thing off to try again!  Prob was he couldn't start it again - but managed to after about 40 kicks... 

SeaComms:

I fitted the same kit (same price too from eBay) to my '750 a few months ago, main reason was due to the LOWER current draw then the standard 55/60 watt globes in it (mine had a standard H4).

The light output was so good I now dont have to worry bout spotlights!

The standard draw of the HID's is only 35 watts, so the scoot systems should be able to cope with that no problem I reckon (they do draw a shitload more on startup, but only for a few seconds).

I totally agree with you - they draw bugger all, except for starting with the ballast - but that's only 70 watts and only for a fraction of a second.

The issue I had with it not starting was due to an exhausted battery, not overdrawing current.  As the light can't dim like a filament globe, it kept cutting out...

SeaComms:

Just about to put the same kits through my car as well.

Mind you - they are NOT legal......   but well worth the excercise :) 

Why would they not be legal?  I have high/low beam, it isn't blue (it looks blue in the pictures but it's actually white) and it doesn't put out TOO much light...What's the issue?  I would be interested to know... 

Scooter HQ:

Making up for lost posts R4? Perfect touch for the Gmax. Bloody coffee went cold (again), thats three coffee's you owe me now and I think you'll owe Kstar a few too

Fair cop - I'll buy you one at the ScooterHQ ride... 

r4vi:

Why would they not be legal?  I have high/low beam, it isn't blue (it looks blue in the pictures but it's actually white) and it doesn't put out TOO much light...What's the issue?  I would be interested to know...

On the Subaru Forester Forum I also hang around this has been discussed over and over until everyone was blue in the face.  So I did a little research myself.  Whilst the sellers may tout 9002 certified (well and good, but all that mean is their manufacturing to Quality Assurance standards), or E-mark or CE tick etc.. all only mean they are electrically safe.

Retrofitting the HID headlight into a standard reflector headlight assembly is not allowed (at least under QLD laws, I would assume the same for all states). The main problem is the intensity of the light. It's around 3000+ lumen's for the 35 watt and 5000+ lumen's for the new 55 watt version (light 'colour' will effect the output efficiency, those with a lower 'K' rating, that tend toward the yellower end of the spectrum will have a higher effective light output). 

Compare this to the standard 55 watt globe of around 500 to 1200 lumen's.

If the headlight is misaligned, the glare to the oncoming driver can be blinding. Even if it is not misaligned, the amount of light that comes out above the low beam cutoff is quite a lot as the scattered light from a normal halogen isn't too bad. The scattered light from a bulb with up to 7+ times the amount of light output means even the scattered light above the low beam cuttoff line is quite bright.

HID's on the other hand, when fitted as standard equipment are in a projector lens arrangement, which has an auto-levelling mechanism to ensure the lights are not blinding oncoming drivers when the car is loaded in the rear.  Without this, they are not legal. Also, the projector arrangement is designed to give very little scattered light above the low beam cutoff line.

In addition, the European Union has declared that any headlight with higher than 2000 lumen output must have a lens cleaning system fitted, as the slightest buildup of dirt and road grime on the outer lens will also cause the light to scatter and increase glare to oncoming drivers.
 

They are bloody bright, and if kept adjusted correctly personally I believe bloody good (hence why I have fitted them myself )

 I was not able to locate the appropriate ADR but:

Quoting from VicRoads Testing Times Bulletin 14, Rev 2 Page 65

These lamps (HID) are so bright and have such a sharp low beam cut-off that special precautions are needed. In Europe the lamps must be fitted with a cleaning system to stop grime on the lens blurring the focus and the vehicle must also have a self-adjusting system to ensure that the lamps are always correctly aligned no matter how the vehicle is loaded.

Gas discharge lamps are now allowed in the ADRs under the same conditions as they are allowed in Europe but many Australian specification vehicles are not being fitted with them and usually the headlamp cleaning and automatic adjusting systems are also left off to reduce costs when the vehicles are imported for sale here.

What this means is that if you come across a vehicle fitted with gas discharge lamps – the rear of the lamp is quite different from a normal lamp because of the high voltage starting system required – unless the vehicle is fitted with a lens cleaning system and has an automatic lamp adjusting system (this may be a self levelling suspension system) you should not issue a Roadworthiness Certificate as the vehicle does not comply with the standards.

So automatic cleaning systems and automatic adjustment/leveling is required here to comply with the ADRs.

Perhaps also interesting to note that Phillips make a range of HID headlamp globes:

Blue Vision  4,000K - ADR approved

Chromium White 4,200K - not ADR approved 

Crystal Vision 4,300K  - not ADR approved

Diamond Vision 5,000K - not ADR approved

Phillips also make a HID upgrade kit with globes of 4,200K,  6,000K or 8,000K !!

To put these in perspective,  daylight is 6,000K.  Given that Phillips "Blue Vision" is approved and yet their "Chromium White" at 4,200K or "Crystal Vision" at 4,300K are not approved it might be reasonable to assume that the upper limit for the ADR's 4,000K.

Dang - I'm in trouble then - my globe is 6000k...This is still white, I thought it would be ok - I would have preferred about 3500k but they were out of those at the time...

I don't have a self-cleaning mechanism but I heep my lens clean - does that count?

I've checked the adjustment and it's actually a bit too low - as I don't ride two-up the height of the beam doesn't change much, except now the forks have worn in and it dives a bit under brakes - but that just shortens the throw of the beam, not lengthens it...

But yeah - it would seem I am a bad boy...Hey, at least I didn't change any of the existing wiring, so I can convert back to the standard globe in about 2 minutes flat!
 

 Yep, thats what I have done - no mods that is, so a change back is a relatively quick job.  I have the 6000k in the bike, and its pretty damn good, but I would prefer the 4000 to get a whiter light rather than the slight tinge of blue it has.  Bloody brilliant at night on a dark road tho, high beam is spectacular :)

Well, mine has a minor mod as mentioned - had to cut the hole a little larger so I could get the HID globe in...

To all intents and purposes I can't really see any blue in a 6000k but maybe my eyes aren't great at seeing the blue...

I agree re high beam - I have sat next to cars along marginally lit/unlit roads and my high beam has been better than theirs - even in quite new cars...MUCH better than the 35 watt original.  Considering the HID puts out about the same light output as say a 100 watt filament globe, it's not surprising I'm happy with it :-)
 

r4vi:

Considering the HID puts out about the same light output as say a 100 watt filament globe, it's not surprising I'm happy with it :-)

Keep going....  Standard 55 watt Halogens put out bout 1,000 Lumens at best, basic 35 watt HID puts out bout 3,300 lumens... (The 35 watt standard scooter globe would be lucky to be near 500 lumens).

So in other words, your putting out the equivalent of 3+ standard car headlights, and since most only have 2, then yep, should be noticeably brighter. I have noticed the same on the bike when overtaking a car at night, my single headlight lights up the road so much brighter than the average car and wow it feels safer to have that bit extra vision on a long dark stretch af 100km/hr road.. The blueish tinge of the 6000k globe is most noticeable in the rain - the light reflects of the wet surface rather than lighting it up. But boy do the street signs react to it - almost blinding when you come round a bend on high beam and sign lights up right in front of you!!