One can never have enough coherent photons spewing out of the front of one’s motorcycle. The stock halogen H4 bulb producing 55 watts on low-beam and 60 watts on high beam for each bulb may be enough for commuting around well-lit suburban areas, but it sucks when wandering the rural landscapes of the mighty West…and downright dangerous when chugging through the deer-infested mountains of Eastern Oregon.

Hella FF50 - eBay Goodness at $40

I tried adding a set of Hella FF50 lights and they improved things substantially for the $40 investment. It felt like the high beams were improved by 1/2. Instead of 110 watts I was up to about 220 watts of light and ran for some months like that.

Upgraded GE Bulbs - Not Worth the Money

I tried some different bulbs that were the same wattage, but supposedly made a bit more light. Not much of an improvement.

HID Nirvanna - Hella FF200 Xenons Rock!

I scored a set of Hella FF200 Xenon Lights. They are true High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights. Don’t listen to the cheesy sellers of traditional halogen bulbs that claim HID or HID-like. These are the suckers in high-end Mercedes, don’t have a filament, and actually produce a high voltage arc that turns a chamber of salts into a plasma. They’re normally in the $600 to $700 range, but I scored a set off e-Bay for $315.

After a bunch of futzing around I was able to get the sizable ballast/igniters stuffed into the nose without making the tupperware bulge out.

The light output on these things is nothing less than absolutely phenomenal! The HID lights actually use less watts than a halogen bulb, but produce about 3 times as much. Combined with the sizable reflector I would be using 35 watts each for the high beams and 55 for the low beams. The shot below is about the equivalent of 470 watts for the consumption of 180 watts.

Gotta Have Some Boulevard Bling - HID Low Beam Conversion
Not to be content with things, my buddy announced a group buy for converting H4 bulbs over to true low beam HIDs. Wouldn’t work for folks wanting high and low, but since I had the elephant-ear sized FF200’s doing that duty….it sounded perfect. Perfect except where to stuff the additional set of ballasts and igniters?

In some haste I stuffed them in some spots I found, but not without interfering with the up and down motion of the windshield. …ummm….I have to admit I tried to not move the windshield at night as I didn’t like the idea of losing low beams while underway.

So, since I have the bike apart it’s time to do things right! About half the reason I tore the front end off was this issue. Warchild to the rescue once again with the HID light installation farkle.

My version looks like this:

With the nose fully off I think I convenientally found a new place to mount the FF200 igniter/ballast units that doesn’t interfere with the Tupperware.  These sizable units have been a thorny problem trying to find a nook or cranny to fit them.  And I have it lucky compared to the ‘06 and newer bikes where space is even a more rare commodity.

With some zip ties I can minimize the chance they interfere with the windshield and the high voltage leads are stressed like the former position.

Next installment:  I should have this thing buttoned back up and on the road!