I am working on getting my new to me 08 1000RR setup to my liking. One thing high on the list for me is getting some better headlights. I do a great deal of riding late night and early morning and need to be able to see better. The previous owner of the bike put some sort of HID kit on the bike, but they are abysmal in their ability to light up the darkness. I think stock would be better even. There is no low beam (just the ring around the HID lights up) and the high beams are really nothing to write home about. I am working within a budget, and would likely have to pay for the install as well, so would like to stay as inexpensive as possible. Brightness is my main goal, looks don't matter so much. Thanks in advance!
EDIT: I forgot to note that while it seems like my headlights are putting out a decent amount of light, they seem very poorly focused and there is no real definitive line where there is light/no light as I seem to see with a lot of HID's. Could it just be that these were installed incorrectly? Something out of alignment maybe?
I just got my bkmoto hid projector retrofit and I have to say its probably the best mod I've done on the bike. I can't believe how bad the OEM lights were before. I didnt go crazy with the options. just got white angel eyes with 6000k blubs. And its an H4 kit so retain your high beams. Its super bright (literally like daylight) and the best part is you dont blind other drivers. My wife was in front of me and said it didn't blind her at all.
Only issue is were to run all the wires. I'm going to have a friend help me extend everything possible so I put the majority of the extra hardware in the tail and just have a long harness going to the front of the bike.
We've tried a lot of lamps, in the end the Osram Nightbreaker worked best for us.
No ballast, no fuss. Just another type of bulb with a different type of gas.
Just Google it.
This sounds very appealing. Unfortunately for me it means figuring out how much stock stuff I need to buy to get the bike back to stock condition. Man, I can't stand when people do modifications to a bike with the cheapest possible crap they can find on eBay. I like the idea of remaining as close to stock electronics wise as possible.
EDIT: Looks like I need H7's
Looks like the standard bulb is a 55W Stanley. Would it be okay to run a 65W bulb in there?
EDIT: After further reading (mostly on candlepowerforum) about both HID's as well as LED H7 bulbs I decided to go ahead and get OSRAM Night Breaker Unlimited H7's. Got a pair of them for less than $25.
After talking to my local mechanic I found out I need a new subharness, headlight assembly, and bulbs. The headlight assembly is the biggest cost, currently looking for used OEM's on eBay. It's too bad front end parts are so often damaged :/
Whatever you do go back to a good hid setup as soon as you can. There's nothings like the ability to see what's in front of you at night. Some say run 35W kiys as they tax the wiring harness less. I've run both with no issues.
It discusses several issues related to HID conversions, here is an excerpt;
The most dangerous part of the attempt to "retrofit" Xenon headlamps is that sometimes you get a deceptive and illusory "improvement" in the performance of the headlamp. The performance of the headlamp is perceived to be "better" because of the much higher level of foreground lighting (on the road immediately in front of the car). However, the beam patterns produced by this kind of "conversion" virtually always give less distance light, and often an alarming lack of light where there's meant to be a relative maximum in light intensity. The result is the illusion that you can see better than you actually can, and that's not safe.
It's tricky to judge headlamp beam performance without a lot of knowledge, a lot of training and a lot of special equipment, because subjective perceptions are very misleading. Having a lot of strong light in the foreground, that is on the road close to the car and out to the sides, is very comforting and reliably produces a strong impression of "good headlights". The problem is that not only is foreground lighting of decidedly secondary importance when travelling much above 30 mph, but having a very strong pool of light close to the car causes your pupils to close down, worsening your distance vision...all the while giving you this false sense of security.
HIDs do not work well with the stock reflectors in the headlights. It's brighter but the beam is diffused. Replacement H7 bulbs are a better choice. The best upgrade are projectors if you want focused distance lighting.
I asked a few questions via email and received a reply the next day, and then exchanged quite a few back and forth emails. I sent in picture of the 08's headlight assembly with the rear caps removed and they think that there is plenty of room back there. Once I get $130 I'm going to buy two and go for it.
I too have a set of the 65W Osram Rallye's on their way to me. I already have the 55W Nightbreaker Unlimited's ready to go as well. Seeing as the stock bulb is 55W I called Candlepower inc (the company I ordered from) to ask about any possible issues with the Rallye. He said that the stock harness will likely be okay, but that some brittleness could develop over time due to the extra heat and that they sell ceramic socket upgrades to prevent that.
I inquired with cyclops adventure sports about fitment in the 08 blade and received this reply:
We have not ran into many issues with fitment of our H7 bulbs. with that said I am unfamiliar with the CBR 1000 fitment, if it uses a rubber boot there should be no issue at all, if its a plastic cap our bulb takes about an extra 1/2 inch clearance at the back than the standard h7/connector setup.
Im happy to take a look if you can send me a photo of the back of your headlight.
Regards
After sending pictures of the headlight assembly I received the following reply:
That looks like there is a ton of room there. one thing we can not see is if they use an adaptor like the Goldwing, hopefully not, in which case our bulb should simply plug in.
Regards
I have a few parts to return for a refund, and once I get the money back in my account I am going to order two of the LED H7's. The only mod that may be a good idea is to drill some small air vent holes in the back covers of the headlight assembly to allow some hot air to escape. I read this on a forum somewhere. I figure that the back of the assembly is well enough protected from rain that it shouldnt be a problem. I'll drill from the bottom up to create a downward angle.
Nice. I will be installing the Osram Rallye tonight and hope to see a good difference. Wondering if the ceramic socket is actually worth it.
You should post back your experience if/when you go LED. I'd be interested in hearing your impressions. Also a few pictures of the mounting of them would be appreciated. I want to see where people end up putting that adapter brick. :agree:
Right now I'm running the Osram Nightbreakers and have the Osram Ralley's in hand ready to go as well. I still plan to order the LED's, just haven't had the funds due to some other issues I've been having with the bike that I wasn't expecting. I will try and post some comparison and install pics once I get them.
@$ 600 for boris to them. About 150 less if you want to do it yourself but didn't work out for me. Good wintertime project considering you will be down for at least a month. Definitely the best cosmetic mod I ever did. He aims and levels the projectors on the bench before he sends them back to you.
Been a minute but I dont believe I bought it. I have to double check. We have pretty much everything but ballasts in the tail section of the bike. MUCH cleaner. Got one more hten to buy so we can put the ballasts in the rear and it will look clean like OEM.
My friend is a wiring genius.
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Honda CBR 1000RR Forums
2.5M posts
50.9K members
Since 2003
A forum community dedicated to Honda CBR 1000RR motorcycle owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about troubleshooting, performance, modifications, classifieds, maintenance, and more!