XENON Bulbs?? Need Help

[wildkid]

Which XENON bulbs fit a import zxr? and also which ones work well as ive heard some are worse than the standard bulbs because the pattern is totally messed up?
Having said that, if i do this will it still pass its MOT?

[cargo]

Your lights need to be correctly alined to pass MOT.

[gavinfdavies]

i've got a copy of the mot guidelines on my pc somewhere, the manual the testers use. for bikes as long as the beam cuts out at the usual height and is yellow or white (NOT blue!) then it'll pass. uk lights are allowed to rise slightly at the left to illuminate the verge, but universal flat patterns are legal.

i've got a hids4u slim type kit fitted to my bike (check my post under electricals) and the single 35w xenon bulb is better than two high powered h4s. these ones are legal. oh, and get the pure white, not blue types. the whites ones are actually brightest and you don't look like a chav! this better light means about 10-20mph boost to rideable speeds on a roads at night. Oh, and if you're really flush (standard kit is about £80 per 35w setup, or a bit more for a super powerfull 55w) you could run a pair of 55w xenons, should be roughly equivalent to 8 h4 bulbs!

I'd recommend hids4u, so do Harris performance (of chasis and moto2 fame)

[wildkid]

Can you post me a link to the kit mate? and how easy are they to fit? Thanks a lot mate

[gavinfdavies]

here's my post;

viewtopic.php?f=125&t=12006

take special note of the link for altering the bulb holders;

http://www.zxrworld.co.uk/zxr400/iridium.html

here's the kit i used;

http://www.hids4u.co.uk/h4-hids4u-slim- ... ycles.html

that is only for one bulb. If you're not running heated grips (when sap the power required for a second) I'd recommend getting either the twin 35w H4 motorcycle kit (which comes with thin ballast [basically a transformer the size of a laptop hard disc- takes your 12v and boosts it to roughly 24,000v for initiating the spark, and the slowly lowers it to a steady 200v to maintain the spark which is the light source]) or the twin 55w H4 fit (under normal kits) but the later will come with larger ballast (size of a fat cigarette packet). either kit will give you a phenomenal amount of light! My only extra bit of advice would be to request extra long cables to run to the bulb, allowing you to stash the ballast under the tank. These should be free of charge. That's what the guy in mcn did anyway.

[Neosophist]

This is somethign talked about a lot on several other forums. Ironically HID lights are illegal under UK law full stop. It is only EU law that allows them to be used in the UK.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... sions.html

This is a great link for information on it.

For cars the legislation is quite clear that almost every retro fitted HID kit in the UK is illegal. For bikes it appears to be a grey area but anyhow.

A proper HID(which is what I assume you mean by Xenon) uses a projector housing rather than a reflector housing. In the early days of these retro-hid kits you had a hacked up bulb that fitted in your standard headlight.

This was essentially crap.. HID's need a projector housing to produce a correct beam pattern so you got a messed up crap of light.. people thought it was better as it lit more of the immediate area (much like fog lights) but this is actually a bad thing as your eyes adjust to the immediate area rather than the long distance and you can miss hazards.

No matter what anybody says, sticking an HID bulb inside a normal reflector housing will never produce a correct beam pattern

Newer retro fit kits use a proper projector housing, you cut up your existing lamp and install the projector housing into them.

Some of the projector housings are not e-marked and some are, fitting them inside another headlight is also grey.

At least by using a projector unit hacked into another casing you will be getting a decent beam pattern that wont blind other drivers. I wouldnt like to argue one out in an RTA though, especially if the other driver claims you blinded them.

I have seen some impressive retrofitted HID projector houses in OEM headlamp casings but I just stick to Phillips X Treme bulbs in all my bikes, knowing that there totally legal, brighter than normal h4s, cheaper than hid kit and knowing that i wont have any problems with them, visibility isnt a problem either.

Each to their own.. if you do want to do it though, be aware its all a grey area so you do run the risk of getting shafted by a policeman, even if they cant do you for illegal xenon you can still get a 60.00gbp fine for bad headlamp adjustment or whatever its called, plus insurance nightmare.

The best beam pattern you will get is by fitting a projector housing into your headlight, it is correctly focussed and you should be able to adjust it.

http://www.blindinghid.com/hid-conversi ... rojectors/

Plenty of websites like this about.

If your thinking of sticking a HID bulb soldered to a H4 plug into your normal headlight, honestly forget it. it might be brighter and look better but youll have worse overall vision, blind other drivers and face a nightmare if anything bad happens.

Hope that helped somehow

[gavinfdavies]

I'd say that was certainly true for alot of older kits. The one i use comes with a larger metal shield around the bulb with two holes to simulate the h4 hi low systems. Also you just slightly modify the base plate, no soldering needed.

the beam pattern on mine is more like a modern pattern ie very bright with a sharp horizontal cut off, as opposed to a gradual continuation above this cut off that older lights tend to do. Meets the mot regulations in that regard, and isn't dazzling to others.

i seem to recall that the law for cars is that xenons need to have automatic wash and auto dip. Hence the grey area with bikes. We don't use seat belts either.

in summary my kit as described in my thread meet all current mot regs, and produces the correct pattern at the right distance.