Anti-glare cap on HID bulb.

[elus1ve]

When I bought my fz6, it already had an after market HID kit. The light throw in the original headlight was horrific. I don't know how the previous owner managed to use it without getting a ticket. Since I did the vs-2 naked conversion on my bike, the light throw has been much better.

However it seems that most HID bulbs have no anti-glare cap, and it can be very annoying for traffic, specially the car in front of me.

So I have worked out my own anti-glare cap. Took a piece of plumbing - a copper cap. Drilled a hole on the bulb shield and the cap. Used a nut and bolt to put them together. Painted it black with heat resistant paint et voila. No more glare :thumbup:

p.s: Don't try any plastic cap, it won't end well.

 

[elus1ve]

Couple more pictures.

In case you are wondering, the high beam is the halogen light, and the low beam is the xenon light. I used a relay wire to have either low or high and not both at the same time. I like it this way, I get to have two colours for my headlight It is also a good backup in case one of them burns down.

 

[Motogiro]

Nice mod and very considerate of you to care about other drivers!

One thing you might consider is start up current each time you turn off the HID and turn it on again. The transformer goes through a high current high voltage start sequence that is not needed with the already hot HID lamp. This can greatly reduce lamp and transformer life. You might want to leave the HID lamp on and just work the Halogen lamp when you need the high beam...

 

[elus1ve]

Yes you are right. I don't think I will even use that high beam much. The HID is so bright already.

I personally don't like this bulb though. I think it is a very inefficient design. When it burns out, I might change it for a bi-xenon bulb. But then if the bi-xenon bulb burns out, I won't have a spare. There is an advantage to having two headlights.

Nice mod and very considerate of you to care about other drivers!

One thing you might consider is start up current each time you turn off the HID and turn it on again. The transformer goes through a high current high voltage start sequence that is not needed with the already hot HID lamp. This can greatly reduce lamp and transformer life. You might want to leave the HID lamp on and just work the Halogen lamp when you need the high beam...

 

[jrevans]

Nice mod, and I wish other non-projector HID owners would do a similar thing. It's incredible how bad the light is from a HID bulb in a normal housing!

When I retrofitted HID bulbs into my pickup truck's fog lamps, I made sure to leave the metal anti-glare caps in there to keep them from being horrible to oncoming traffic.

 

[elus1ve]

Yea I think it is a must to have the anti-glare cap. Annoying other road users is never a good thing.

Next time I drive behind a low car, say convertible Porsche, I'll pull beside the car and ask the driver how's the light on my bike. If I get the thumb :thumbup: then it's good. If I get the finger :Flip: then projector is definitely needed.

 

[MrMogensen]

Last year when I got a deal for 1x H4 HID and 1x H7 HID. There was only a cap on the H4.
The H7 bulp was sharp as welding light and I feel lucky I didn't get frontet by on-comming traffic. After a week I convinced the company to ship me a defected H4 (with a cap) which I fitted on the "naked" H7 bulb.

The light is still quite sharp but I haven't experienced any road-rage about it so I guess it's alright now