HID Xenon bulbs?

[Taipan]

Hi All,

Last year I bought a bike and the guy gave me a aftermarket bulb kit for it, which he hadn't got round to fitting. For some reason i dismissed this as one of those useless LED bulbs and consigned it to the shed.

Anyway, I saw yesterday that my the Tmax has no dipped beam, so I went to the shed to see if I had any H4 (presumably?) bulbs in there and came across the box with the bulb kit in, and realised it wasn't an LED bulb but a HID xenon kit! So, I took it out and had a look and noted it has a reflector shield for the bulb, so it should have a proper beam pattern? I clipped everything together and saw it takes its feed from the OEM bulb connector etc and should really be plug n play.

I'm quite tempted to drop it in on Saturday to see what its like. Anyone else using one of these? Do you get a beam pattern? I'm not interested in fitting it if just pushes light out like those LED bulbs, but if it has a proper beam patten i'll certainly give it a go.

The kit in question; https://www.hids4u.co.uk/H4-HIDS4U-Stea ... n-Kit.html

[The Bern]

Save your time & energy bud, that kit in your lamp will be an MOT FAIL as of the May 20th this year when the new testing regulations come into force ...

"Some motorcycles may be fitted with high intensity discharge (HID) headlamps. Existing halogen headlamp units shouldn’t be converted to be used with HID bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp."

.... so it will be a major fail because ... Light source and lamp not compatible.
As of May 20th this year, if you want to go HID you will need to change the complete headlamp to one that has the lens & reflector that are designed & marked for use of that particular light source.

Taken from .... https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/ ... tion_4.1.4

[Taipan]

Save your time & energy bud, that kit in your lamp will be an MOT FAIL as of the May 20th this year when the new testing regulations come into force ...

"Some motorcycles may be fitted with high intensity discharge (HID) headlamps. Existing halogen headlamp units shouldn’t be converted to be used with HID bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp."

.... so it will be a major fail because ... Light source and lamp not compatible.
As of May 20th this year, if you want to go HID you will need to change the complete headlamp to one that has the lens & reflector that are designed & marked for use of that particular light source.

Taken from .... https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/ ... tion_4.1.4

Great info, thanks.

[sad vampire]

I think you may get away with it if first used before 1 January 1931

Or maybe even if the bike is less than 50cc & first used before 1 January 1972

But it's neither of the above so don't fit it.

[rjc1944]

He might have a 1930 T-Max - they had belt drive back then.......

[Taipan]

I'll probably fit it, to see what its like, as its easily reversible for the MOT. I put one of those LED bulbs in a bike, but they just create a massive pool of light and blind oncoming traffic, unless you train the headlight down so much that it just floods directly in front of you so your eyes adjust and you cant see beyond it! So I'd like to see if they have created a proper beam pattern as its has a directional shield that fits over the bulb, but i'm not riding with it if i'm blinding oncoming traffic.

[Taipan]

Actually, scrub that, the kit if for a H4 and of course the dip bulb is the H7 Doh! So back to the shed with the kit and now to work out how to get the clip off the f*****g headlight bulb!!!

[Jimo]

He might have a 1930 T-Max - they had belt drive back then.......

Many bikes of the '30's period also had Carbide lighting with little reflective or illuminative (is that a word?) qualities.... proper reflective qualities are provided by a combination of purpose designed reflector plus purpose designed lens (glass) and purpose designed and placed lamp, change any of these and you've cocked up a carefully designed system.

At all costs avoid HID lamps unless the vehicle (bike or car) is designed for it.
Jim