Brighter Headlights

I would like to install brighter headlights. I really think the bright blue looking ones are cool and probably give better visibility as well.

I read somewhere about Xtreme Vision Halogen bulbs being good for a Ninja 250 but I cannot find them anywhere. Are these similar and would they work for what I am looking for? http://cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?L1=2&L2=&L3=&L4=&item=PHI_9003CVCD_G

Thanks!

I'd stay away from the "blue" lights. The light output of these is primarily UV. The human eye can't see UV at all and is not very sensitive to the blue end of the visible spectrum. You end up with a lot of glare without getting much usable light.

I personally use Osram (Sylvania) Silverstars in my cars and bikes. Much better illumination than the OEM bulbs while maintaining the same wattage. PIAA also makes some nice bulbs, but they are pricey and I think the Osrams are better.

The Sylvania bulbs rock. Blue lights are generally not good as they are only producing light in a small portion of the spectrum. What you want is lots of white light (full spectrum). Most any of the blue lights that are cheap are simply regular lights with blue tinting and are not actually any better. I would be careful going any higher than a 65/55 watt light (hi/lo beam wattages). You might run the risk of melting plastic around the bulb.

yea, what they said! Just stop by any auto parts store. The price well be better. You need to know what "type" bulb you need. The Ma Kaw site shows it to be an "H4" type. Your looking for XENON gas bulbs or ask at the counter, if they try to give you the "blue bulb" speil tell them you have read up on it and "No Thank You" . Your going to like this light

I have a Silverstar in my Shadow and can see a slight improvement over the factory bulb. However, I think the headlight reflector is just not a very good one on the Shadow. The stock bulb was inadequate, causing me to look for a way to improve it. I subsequently augmented the lighting with a pair of 50W aux lamps.

On my old bike, I had replaced the 80's technology bulb with a Xtravision (claimed 30% more output, Silverstar wasn't on the market yet) and did see a good improvement with that. But compared to the Vulcan, it was maybe a little brighter/whiter than the OE bulb

DaveC said:

Your looking for XENON gas bulbs or ask at the counter

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A Xenon gas bulb is for use with an HID system which requires a ballast to ignite the bulb.

Okay, so no blue lights. I saw a bike a while back that had some and it looked superneat coming towards me, great visibility. My Ex also had a Honda 2000 and it had those type lights and they were superbright; hence, I assumed they would work that way on a bike.

I just put a Sylvania Silverstar in my Legend. It is an H4 buld, got it at PepBoy's for $19.99 pls tax.

Faylaricia said:

Okay, so no blue lights. I saw a bike a while back that had some and it looked superneat coming towards me, great visibility. My Ex also had a Honda 2000 and it had those type lights and they were superbright; hence, I assumed they would work that way on a bike.

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That is Xenon/HID. You have to install a whole new system, not just a bulb in order to do it right.

A blue lightbulb would be bad. A HID kit, like on the S2K might work fairly well.

Okay, no I wasn't just talking about a blue lightbulb but rather the whole blue light experience.

Would anyone know if a HID kit can work on a Ninja250? I don't want to melt the plastic ....

I'm sure you could make an HID kit work on an EX250, but you're looking at a ~$225 investment. Since it looks like you plan to upgrade to another bike in the near future, you want to ask yourself if you think it would be worth it.

Do you really ride at night enough to spend that much money when a $20 Silverstar would likely be adequate?

HID's draw less power, put out less heat and are way brighter. I have never heard of anyone melting plastic with true HID.

I am curious of one thing. What type of light does your bike take and is the lens smooth or rippled? If it is rippled do not get HID you will never be happy with the results and you will probably tick everyone off traveling in the opposite direction.

Also, you can transfer your HID to your next bike just by changing out he bulb for it. Generally they are around $60 a piece.

Skid

www.cqlight.ca

Put them in the high and the low beam, oh what a differance
Some of the guy's on the bmwlt.net site have changed out the low and left the high original and were also happy with the results.

The human eye is most sensitive to light in the blue to green frequencies. However, the blue tinting for a headlight is probably more about marketing than anything. My guess is they are attempting to give the purchaser the look of very expensive, high output, headlights that you sometimes see on high-end European cars.

Best application I have seen of the bluish tint is on a extremely bright, handheld fog light--primarily for use on a boat. The purpose of the blue tinting was to minimize the glare, or reflection, you normally get when shining a bright light into a fog bank. One manufacture does it right and it works. The copy-cats did not do such a good job.

Conclusion? Not sure how well a higher wattage bulb will work with your bike's electrical system, but maybe one of the bulbs others have posted are worth a try. Note that the HID system posted is not legal on the street according the ad on that site.

Those blue bulbs can seem very bright when coming at you but when you are behind them relying on them for visibility and safety they are lacking. Go with the Silverstars. That's the by far best bang for the buck lighting improvement you can make. HID is superior but falls far behind in the bang for bucks category due to the exponentially higher cost than Silverstars.

Well, I went with the overwhelming opinion on this forum and we installed the Silverstar last weekend.
So far, I was only able to admire the new and improved brightness in the garage. The Ninja still has the front wheel off for straightening out, so it will take just a few more days before I can check out the lights on the road. I can't wait.

Thanks everyone!

The Silverstars made a noticeable improvement on Bandit, which needed all the help it could get. They just don't live very long as compared to OEM bulbs.

on my older cars when I want real bright lights I simply run the wirring into a relay system, that draw the main power from the battery directly to the bulb (switch being only a trigger) with nice 10guage wires , it was night/daylight differences... I wonder if this could be applied to the motorcycles, considering the wrring is still 12g but not in such long lenghts car have...

otherwize, Silverstars or get some UK Rally bulbs (illegal in the US (grin)) I ran a set as high beam... was nice and bright (grin - on my car of course).

I used the sivlerstars on the GS and it helped a wee bit. The basic issue on the GS was a lame reflector so no amount of wattage was going to help. When I had the Hellas mounted to the engine guard, it lit up the road a LONG way! That was a couple hundred bucks though. My cheapo KLR has FAR superior lighting to the much more expensive GS I used the silverstars on the VFRs and they were great. I did not notice their life being any shorter than the stock bulbs

Just doing a quick Google, seems like it's around $200.00 to do the conversion...


http://www.xenondepot.com/category.php?category_id=10

Actually HID kits have come down in price. I have been watching prices and many good kits can be had for well under $200.00 these days. For the poor BMW projector headlight assembly, HIDs work wonders. I have had many tell me they removed their aftermarket lights after installing HIDs in their BMW projector headlamp assembly.

During the Katy bike night, I meant to bring along an HID kit for everyone to have a look at...dopey me......I forgot. Next Katy bike night, someone remind me and I'll bring a H1 kit for all to see. If someone has 12 VDC handy, we’ll even fire it up (bring sunglasses…….these things are bright like an arc welder).

High watt or high brightness bulbs are priced from $20.00 to $80.00 each. Some aftermarket light kits are $300.00 and up…plus, you’ve got to mount them…a challenge on some bikes. If you keep your bike for a few years, your lamp replacements could equal the cost of an HID kit.

The high watt lamps tend to darken pretty quickly. Also most are short lived and many also generate additional heat over the OE lamp. Finally, those of you with limited alternator power will appreciate the fact that HIDs draw ½ the current of a stock OE lamp. The only drawback is, you must install the ballast and connect some wires. Oh, BTW, HIDs typically last the life of the vehicle.

By the time the next Katy bike night rolls around, I should have my new BMW peek-a-boo cam tunnel covers with windows installed on my GS as well...yes, that's correct...a window into your BMW boxer engine...you'll be able to see the cams whirling around in there with chains, oil and all sorts of mysterious magic…completely visible and no leaks or concerns regarding heat (the OE cam tunnel covers are mere ABS plastic for heavens sake).

See you west-siders next time….

"Next Katy bike night, someone remind me and I'll bring a H1 kit for all to see. If someone has 12 VDC handy, we’ll even fire it up (bring sunglasses…….these things are bright like an arc welder)."

Will try to remind you. I opted for the Silverstars now but when I upgrade to a bigger bike (whenever that may be) then I am still interested in those HID kits. Just saw a bike with it again yesterday and it looks so good.

I just returned from Germany so, I missed the most recent Katy Bike Night.......I'll bring the HID kit to the next meet.

BTW, I had discussions with several BMW OE supliers while I was there.....some very interesting news about the seals used in the BMW engine and driveline..........Also met with Mahle, the piston and cylinder supplier for BMW......interesting tidbits of information came from these meetings.

pbureau69 said:

on my older cars when I want real bright lights I simply run the wirring into a relay system, that draw the main power from the battery directly to the bulb (switch being only a trigger) with nice 10guage wires , it was night/daylight differences... I wonder if this could be applied to the motorcycles, considering the wrring is still 12g but not in such long lenghts car have...

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Yes it can definately work. On every bike I've checked into it for.