Day riding light idea

[hooptytank]

HIDs are stunningly white if you get the right colour temp. I think 6500K is favourite.

The color temp higher than 5500 Kelvin will be blue-ish and actually have less lumens (actual light output) I run 5000K for other applications and are about as pure white as you can get w/o getting yellow.

The suns color temp is about 5000K on a clear day around noon

[e3steve]

Cool (no pun!). Thanks for the info.

I did a fair bit of research before I decided not to buy; reasons for not converting (yet)?

• 1. Can't find an H4 beam unit for CB
  2. Waiting for prices to drop

There are kits available, here in Spain, and are being fitted willynilly by the boy-racers with older cars that have no headlight self-levelling systems; bloody irritating, as the oncoming lights' intensity is dangerously dazzling when poorly adjusted (too high). It's actually illegitimate in the UK to fit HIDs to cars without s-l systems.

Some kits here are even as high as 8000K and show up as purplish light.

You're right about light output; 5000K - 6500K range provides the highest lumen level and ranges from white-white to blue-white. I'll take your advice about the colour temp when I take the plunge; I was considering a blue tinge, but the more of the AM kits I see, the more I think I prefer the whiter 5000K-5500K.

Another consideration: the wiring. Although the consumption is purported to be a nominal 35W, the inrush (current required to 'start' the circuitry) is much greater. I fitted a pair of HID docking lights to a megayacht's tender during last Summer, using the same wiring that previously supplied ample current to a pair of 12V/50W dichroic halogens; the HIDs wouldn't 'strike' as a pair, with only one lamp lighting upon power application. Not always the same lamp, I hasten to add. I increased the cable size by 50%, thus solving the problem.

Measuring the input current to one ballast's LT supply revealed 2.77 Amps once the lamp was lit, but the inrush went overrange, and even blew the 11-Amp fuse in my DMM upon one switch-on!

Food for thought for those intending the conversion on vintage bike.....

[marzini]

Steve— Goffy should have a Wipac H4 reflector unit that will retro-fit into the Honda can. I haven't asked him, but just measure the headlight and see if he has one that size. I've done this to another vintage bike. It even comes with a "pilot" bulb socket for the 23w halogens he sells for daytime riding— but I'm going to try your 5w bulb once my spare burns out.

I hooked up a relay for each beam to save the ancient wires/switches, so I'm getting full current directly from the battery to the bulb on my other bike.

I get the 35/35 H4 bulbs from the Vespa suppliers. Goffy sells them as well.

[e3steve]

Hey Mar'

Thanks for thinking of me on that one. I'll email Paul, once I've found my bike (which is somewhere in the depths of the garage, under a tarp and behind a load of 'to be sorted' crap from my house-move at Xmas).

I run with a Bosch BA20 (Euro cap) 35/35 halogen, that I got from him last year. I'll be doing the relay thing too; I have some tiddler 5A relays from a Jabsco bilge pump AirSwitch -- they'll fit into the headlamp bucket without taking up too much space. Also, with relays, the current routed via the switching and original cabling is greatly reduced to a few milliamps, as you rightly say. And the light filaments' rise-time (from off to full brightness) is much sharper.

I've not forgotten your goodies, btw; just not had the time to tinker with the old girl!

Rgds,

Steve

PS: I'll post some pics of the little relays later, in case anyone here wants to try to source some.