What do your do for high beam other than HID?

[rdwalker]

Hi, all -

I have installed the CQ HID lamps as low beams on my road bikes. Last night I did my first longer night ride with the HID's on the 'RS. These lights are indeed sooooo close to the next best thing after sliced bread! Fantastic.

I did spend some time getting the adjustment just right (1% drop, as per manual) and it paid off: the edge of the beam is just even with trunk edge on most cars and I do not blind the drivers. Unlike some other posters here, I do not delight in pissing off other road users...

On the other hand, I do not want to install HID high beams. I do use them often enough as a warning flash and thus cannot have lamps that take a few seconds to come up. Unfortunately, my existing lamp appears now yellow and weak, seemingly puny by comparison with the brilliant low beams.

This combination seems to be standard method in cars - our Audi has HID low and halogen high beams - but both types seem to have similar output.

What do you guys use? I'd say that simply a higher color-temperature halogen lamps would be appropriate, but all those that I tried in the past were junk. The outpur "color-temperature" was accomplished by a blue film on the glass, not by property of the bulb itself. Looked unnecessarily blue and the overall output was diminished by the filter.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[petevandyke]

Sylvania Silverstars in mine, cost about $20-$26 a bulb and an ENORMOUS difference (I don't care what anyone else says so nah!), can get them at autozone or pep boys...another option is PIAA upgraded bulbs, same lumens but you'll pay another ten bucks and have to order them most likely.

my two cents.

[rdwalker]

Thanks, Peter - I'll look into these.

[pozo_izquierdo]

I use them both...:p

Hella Micro FF halogens (the upper ones) are wired behind the OEM high beam switch. So these will take care of the flashing function. The original high beam is converted to HID and I also have the smaller Hella Micro DE Xenons under the cowling. These both are wired behind a separate switch so I can add them on during night time and of course they are also opertated by the stock high beam switch. But during daytime I kep the extra switch in off position so when I need to flash lights to some jacka$$ the HID's don't try to come along, just the halogens.

The lower halogens are the same as upper but fog light conversion.

Best regards

[petevandyke]

careful...Ari's bike also has super-secret laser beam hi-hi-hi beams that burn the retinas of anyone driving towards him with their hi-beams on, voice-activated through a bluetooth connect in his helmet...not to be confused with the satellite-guided mini-missiles that deploy from under his saddlebags when he presses both turn signals, does a clutchless upshift, leans back on his bakup backrest, blinks his RIGHT eye, and whistles the first five notes of the James Bond theme...

[pozo_izquierdo]

careful...Ari's bike also has super-secret laser beam hi-hi-hi beams that burn the retinas of anyone driving towards him with their hi-beams on, voice-activated through a bluetooth connect in his helmet...not to be confused with the satellite-guided mini-missiles that deploy from under his saddlebags when he presses both turn signals, does a clutchless upshift, leans back on his bakup backrest, blinks his RIGHT eye, and whistles the first five notes of the James Bond theme...

Hey Pete, :histerica

otherwise correct but I'm still working on the first five notes of the James Bond theme. Obviously I must reduce my crackers eating habit when riding...

Best regards

[zippy_gg]

I would go with auxiliary PIAAs under the mirrors that are slaved to the high beam.
Raffy sells the mounts for around $60.00 I think and the PIAAs as well.
There is not much you can do about the stock high beam, except for wasting money on "super" bulbs, regardless of what others (Sorry Pete :p ) might say... so I recommend the additional PIAAs
Hi, all -

I have installed the CQ HID lamps as low beams on my road bikes. Last night I did my first longer night ride with the HID's on the 'RS. These lights are indeed sooooo close to the next best thing after sliced bread! Fantastic.

I did spend some time getting the adjustment just right (1% drop, as per manual) and it paid off: the edge of the beam is just even with trunk edge on most cars and I do not blind the drivers. Unlike some other posters here, I do not delight in pissing off other road users...

On the other hand, I do not want to install HID high beams. I do use them often enough as a warning flash and thus cannot have lamps that take a few seconds to come up. Unfortunately, my existing lamp appears now yellow and weak, seemingly puny by comparison with the brilliant low beams.

This combination seems to be standard method in cars - our Audi has HID low and halogen high beams - but both types seem to have similar output.

What do you guys use? I'd say that simply a higher color-temperature halogen lamps would be appropriate, but all those that I tried in the past were junk. The outpur "color-temperature" was accomplished by a blue film on the glass, not by property of the bulb itself. Looked unnecessarily blue and the overall output was diminished by the filter.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

[petevandyke]

I would go with auxiliary PIAAs under the mirrors that are slaved to the high beam.
Raffy sells the mounts for around $60.00 I think and the PIAAs as well.
There is not much you can do about the stock high beam, except for wasting money on "super" bulbs, regardless of what others (Sorry Pete :p ) might say... so I recommend the additional PIAAs


ahhh yer mama!

lol

for me, the $20 upgrade was a worthwhile investment--I'll never say the silverstars are BETTER than HID's, and I've never seen the setup you guys are talking about but I don't have to to know they would be better...but I do know that having looked at the stock hi-beam bulb, then swapping for the silverstar and looking at that, there was a significant visible difference, so there was a "bang for the buck" factor at work for me there.

Someday I'll look into the additional aux mini piaa's, or throw on a second set of full-blown PIAA aux lights, and put them right in the center, under the main headlight in the middle of my "regular" piaa aux lights...that would make for a kickass flash-to-pass set-up...hmmmmmm

would certainly be more intimidating than my single AA-battery keychain flashlight that I used to use (visualize: "oh yeah? take THIS!!!" as I push up the sliding switch and aim it at the evil cager!)

I need some sleep

[rdwalker]

Thanks, guys, for jumping in and offering me the wisdom of your experience.

I would say that the super-duper auxilliary setup is probably the right way to go (Ari - you are my hero! Where do I get the brain-wave adapter?).

However, for now, I think that I will look into Pete's advice. The issue I had was not that the lights are not powerful enough (I know that, and I know that another light set is the right solution), but rather that the OEM light looks so underpowered - even if it is not - that changing the color of the lamp may make it more comparable.

Also, as I mentioned in other thread, I did fail the NJ state inspection on the lower-beam HID's: the inspector objected to the "blue lights". I am thinking that if the high beam was similar in color and not so contrastingly yellow, I may have not aroused any suspicions.

So, for now, I am going to check out the Sylvania halogen lamps. Later on, I may do it the right way and get the Starship Enterprise treatment.

Thanks!