Jeff.....

I tried installing mine in my stock aluminum housings.... what a pain in the ****. Not only that, but the housing isn't strong enough to be put through Baja punishment with the weight of the light. It took me hours to work on that darn housing, and I ended up tossing them aside. I now have them mounted to my (reinforced) aluminum radiator shrouds. That took me about 30min per side. Piece of cake. I should have done that in the beginning.

Do you have pictures of your alum housings????
I'll share mine if you do yours. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I'll also have my pictures on my website soon.... I just took a bunch.

Oh ya... and with those lights in the alum housing.... how easy is it to adjust the light for side to side and up and down pointing?! I found it was near impossible to get much movement. Unless you loosend the bolt holding the whole housing on... and then it's cake. But that is the sole bolt holding all that on!! Not too good.

Let me know.

 

Here's a link.....

http://www.johnnyairtime.org/project-DS650.html

 

I installed the HID light before I went to Pismo this past weekend. Very easy to install in the stock location (2000 model), no modification needed at all! I will say that I was dissapointed and was hoping the light would be brighter. I don't think it was worth the 199 I paid and if I could do it over again I would just leave it stock. The blue tint does look good though but not worth the money IMHO....

 

Hmm, something's wrong if it's not brighter. Like I said in an above post, a 35w D2S HID produces 3200 lumens - an automotive 55w Halogen produces about 1100~1500 lumens of light.

Focus is of great importance since the burn point of a HID lamp is different than a typical incandecent lamp, the lens itself is also very important. Many times a lens designed for a low output bulb can't properly disperse the extra light produced by a high output bulb.

In my 400EX, one HID easily outperforms two stock bulbs.

Here is a rough test I performed with my stock 400EX headlamp assembly. Note these pictures are not retouched in any way other than I shrunk them to fit side by side on a typical montior. I had an HID in one side of my stock headlamp assy and a stock bulb in the other for this test.

Also, depending on your monitor's quality and settings, you may not be able to see what's really happening. If you see little difference, it's your monitor (I've got a couple in the office that are very poor).

 

I looked at your site and maybe something is wrong! The connections are very straight forward so I'm not sure what it is. The bulb points straight ahead which doesn't seem to be the best way for it to be but that is how the stock on sits in the housing. The HID also has a deflector or gaurd on the bulb which now faces up. Can it be removed for better performance? Any thoughts on other issues?

 

I have to add to this....

It seems your probably correct on your connections. And it is pretty straight forward. HOWEVER.... you are trying to push the best of the best (the HID arc) through a crappy fluted lense built for a low wattage Halogen bulb.

There's a serious bottleneck there... and it's the glass of the stock headlight.

You might be expecting miracles with your new HID. It definitely is a brighter solution, however the reason your complaining IS EXACTLY the reason I didn't spend the money on converting the stock headlight. I figured it wouldn't perform like I'd like it too. In fact.... let me give you an example;

I have (4) Hella 100w Halogen lights (Rally 4000, 8" light) on the front of my truck.
I have (2) 8" HIDs on my other bike.
(and now (3) HIDs on my bomb)

If I fire up all the lights and compare them on a garage door... you can see the difference in color of light... and brightness. However... when I'm out on the open road (in Mexico where it's completely black out, no streetlights, no moon...etc) there's honestly not a HUUUGE difference. NOW... realize I'm comparing 2 to 4 here. But if you do the easy math, a 35w HID is equivalent to a 300w Halogen (supposedly).

Sooooo....
I have 400watts on my truck and 600 on my bike. It's really not that big of a difference for the money. But if you are having to conserve space, like on a quad or bike... then the money is well spent for a serious amount of light.

I currently run a single HID in a stock mount on my XR650. It's amazing over stock. But stock is a bic lighter.
I also am now running (3) HIDs on my Bomb. One Hella HID and two HIDstore lights. The quality of light is amazing. However... it is still limiting. And the factors like distance come into play. HIDs seem to shine to Mars. But sometimes not enough out to the sides... (That's the lense fluting coming into play). I personally like one spot beam for distance and one flood light for close courters. When I'm wide open in the desert or in Mex, you need the spot. But when I'm at Glamis duning... you need more flood than anything. You want light to disperse so much out to the sides... where your looking. All in all... like I said your pushing all that light through a poorly designed lense. If you want true HID quality light... then discard that stock lense and get yourself a Hella HID Euro beam. It's 100% better than what your seeing now. Also... I'm using 3 HIDS now on my quad. Honestly... I could probably get away with only one. But I'm looking to spread out my light AND get the distance I need for high speed. So I have to pay the price for that need.

I'll be putting better pictures on my web of what I'm doing. I know it's a high dollar solution... but it is amazing.

I hope that helps... as I seemed to have gotten a little carried away with my reply. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Johnnyairtime,
I will try and get some pics of mine...they are the same ones you have.
Your set up looks killer!! I wish I had the shrouds too!
I had to really brain storm..to get them to fit into the stock housings.
I don't have much ajustment either,but worked on the fit untill I got them just right.
I also drilled a hole in the upper part of the housings and added a heavy duty ty-wrap for more support
I have 2 dune trips on them and they are holding up fine,and still in ajustment.
I don't think I would trust them for desert racing though.


Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff...!
(and aren't tie wraps just great!! I noticed Bombardier uses them all over. Also... isn't it nice that Bombardier 'thru-bolts' everything!? Sometimes it's inconvenient, but it's great for the subconscious when at 100mph... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] )

It took me a full day to brainstorm and work on the stock alum. Baja mount. And honestly... it looked good and worked, but since I was limited I didn't like it too much. I only completed one that day since I continually had to install/remove/install to test and fit. It took forever.

AND THEN... I installed a shroud ($49/set from Alba Action Sports in my neck of the woods) and instantly removed the baja casing... and installed the light on the shroud. Took me... uhhh... about 20min. And I have ALL THE ADJUSTMENT I'll ever need.

I did however weld a light bracket to the frame this weekend for my Hella HID... and when I did that I also added a tab to bolt the alum shrouds to on the upper side. They currently mount to the "plastics" mount up by the stock light (2 bolts) and that mount was flimsy. So I just put in some precautionary measures. I've got detailed pictures I'll be throwing up on the site tonight... as the Hella HID is now complete and sits much lower and back further in the plastic. My dad said, "It almost looks stock..." [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Ya right?!

IF ANYONE is interested.... I'd be happy to sell them (for almost nothing) my stock Baja aluminum light bezels (one already converted for HIDStore lights) plus shipping.... just send me an email, and we'll work out a price! (Note: only one is stock and would work for a stock light. The other... is cut, re-worked and complete for an HID light.)

 

Johnny how do the smaller HID's compare to the bigger Hella?? I'm looking at a set of 6" with built in ballasts for my boat. There the Mcoullough 930x Models


Mac
cmacclel@comcast.net

 

Besides the color of light.... they are very similar.
I have to say, the Hella looks awesome, but the lights are very close in brightness and pattern.

I know the McCullochs.
A nice light with a built in igniter/ballast.
They are trying to make them again in square... as well as fog and pencil.
For a boat... I think they'd be too bright. Reflection off the water and such.

My dad just actually bought some good flood lights that are halogen.
He put 4 around his tower. Really nice output, not too bright.... and allowed us ample light.

Oh well...
Good luck.