Dual Headlight HID Projector Retrofit

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

Well, after much research on wiring up dual headlights and on HID's, I decided to do a retrofit. HID's are truly designed to be used with projectors (except for the D2R's which are designed to be used in special HID reflectors). The projectors focus the HID's like they are suppose to be instead of scattering like the regular halogen reflectors do. I don't think it causes too much glare on our bikes. Well, it didn't cause enough glare to other people on the road to flash their lights at me when I just had HID's in the reflectors.

So I was happy with the HID's for awhile since they definitely were brighter than stock. But then I came across a couple of forum threads on other sites that discussed the dual headlight mod. So I kept researching and came to the conclusion that I needed to do a HID projector retrofit in order to have dual HID's that would light up the road the correct way without blinding other drivers.

Well, here is the (almost) finished project.

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

Some pics of the hardware

Here is the kit I used:

What's inside the box:

myoda · Feb 22, 2010

h82loze said:
Here is the kit I used:

What's inside the box:

Mate can you please tell me which one of these is the kit you purchased in the ebay store below? They have an ebay store which makes it easy for payment and shipping to Australia.

http://stores.ebay.com/Retro-Solutions-LLC_Xenon-Projectors_W0QQ_fsubZ261566013QQ_sidZ320757233QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

leo67 · Mar 12, 2009

Ok where did you get the set up I like how it breaks up the surface area of the lens, looks similar to the 675

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

:google:retro-solutions

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

The Process

First you need to remove the seat, and the mid, lower and upper cowls. You may want to prop the fuel tank up to run the wires, but don't necessarily have to.
Now that you have the upper cowl off, you need to remove the headlight assembly.
Once the headlight assembly is off, the fun begins. At this point you need to take the headlight assembly apart to expose the reflectors so you can install the projectors. There are 2 main ways that people use to do this. One is bake it in the oven. The other is to use a heat gun or hair dryer. So, I grabbed my girl's hair dryer and got to work. Just heat up the adhesive around one of the headlights and then pry apart using a flat head screwdriver. There are several tabs that you need to unhook first. An example of the tabs is shown in the picture below in the red circles.

Once you have one side pried open, you need to remove the reflector. The reflector has a shield thing at the top that needs to be removed (in the red box below and has Line Beam on it).

You remove it by taking out 2 screws on the other side (circled in red below).

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

Here is what the headlight assembly looks like without the reflector in it.

Here is what the headlight assembly looks like with the projector installed in the reflector.

And this is a comparison of the projector and the regular reflector setup.

Here is the left side done and the right side opened up ready to start.

And now both finished and ready to go back on the upper cowl.

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

I'll post some pics of them powered on once I get a chance to adjust the beams. That's the one last thing I need to do to finish this project off.

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

All in all, not that bad of an install. I thought pulling the headlight assemblies apart was going to be a pain, but it was actually not too bad. If you go on youtube, you can find several vids of people pulling their headlights apart.

The wiring is a pain as there is not much room for everything. When I have more time I plan on going back in and shortening the wires so that they take up less space. The wiring harnesses that come with the kit have some pretty long wires as the kit was actually designed for cars.

Blade48 · Mar 12, 2009

How difficult was mounting the projectors in the housing? Also i know most projectors have a cutoff inside of them and the projector on the right is crooked from what i can tell.. Other than that it looks great!! :thumbsup:

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

Yeah that pic was taken before I rotated the projector. The high beam bulb is normally rotated 90* clockwise, the notch sits at 3 o'clock instead of 12. I realized afterwards and then rotated it.

The projectors were easy to mount. They are an H7 kit. Which means that the projector housing was designed to fit into the H7 socket of the reflector.

j4ever · Mar 12, 2009

while that's cool....it kinda reminds of the bug eyed yamaha....

moore_power · Mar 12, 2009

Can't wait to see the night shots................Awesome job

henessy_408 · Mar 12, 2009

dayuuuuum thats fn sweeeeet im definitely trying this on my 06

Rocky1 · Mar 12, 2009

Looks good IMO man ive always been a big fan on that halo appearance

cbrider09 · Mar 12, 2009

nice! the light looks alot cleaner

cfaddict · Mar 12, 2009

what bulbs do they use? I was planning on doing something similar but using projectors from an evo 8 that have d2-s bulbs....

:edit: couple more questions...

did you have to hack up the reflector or the light housing at all or is this reversable? and how much does the kit weigh? curious on how much extra weight will be packed on there.

btw, looks great.... you gonna black out the rest of the stock reflector or leave it as is?

h82loze · Mar 12, 2009

Not sure exactly what type bulb it is. I believe it is a d2s without the standard d2s base; made that way to fit inside the projector.

The stock reflector didn't need to be modified at all except removing the shields pictured. The projectors fit perfectly in the H7 bulb cut-out in the reflector. Easy enough to reverse if you would want to.

Not sure on the weight, but not much. These are pretty small projectors. They are designed to be small enough to fit in headlights that house H1 or H7 bulbs. I haven't held the projectors from an evo, so I can't compare.

Not sure if I'm gonna black-out the reflectors. I've seen that a lot of other retros are like that, but I'm fine with how it looks now. I'm still considering it though, but if I do it won't be anytime soon. Next on my list of things to do is 520 conversion w/-1+3 and DCIII's (55 instead of 50 in the back).

spetsnaz · Mar 12, 2009

2 years ago after reading on the board I bought a kit from Germany (forgot the name) what it does is turns on both headlights on but dims the high beam to about 60% so the output is the same as low beam.BUT,if you look from the fron they do not look the same since the highbeam uses dif. reflectors.So, some people adjusted it lower.By the way you still can use high as a norm operation/flick of the light switch.

chaspaw · Mar 12, 2009

My question is can you get just the projectors and use the HID kit im currently using.

h82loze · Mar 13, 2009

snowstud said:
Yeah, I ahve a HID kit already. Would like to just get projectors to use with my bulbs.Post pics when you get them.

Maybe, you would need to contact the company I purchased the kit from. Retro-solutions is a great company and they have great customer service and tech support. The ballasts are very high quality, and you would need to purchase new bulbs anyway. So it would probably be easier to buy the kit and then sell your kit or use it for something else. I did the later and installed my old HID's on my car (after I ordered new bulbs).

franc01 said:
Would you be willing to install the projectors if someone were to send their light housing or on an exchange basis? For a fee, of course!

Thanks,
Franc
'08 1000RR
y/b

:th_SmlyROFL: Actually, if you sent your headlight assembly to me, had the projectors shipped to me, and paid for shipping back to you, I wouldn't mind doing it for you. It's really not that bad once you get started. I was a little apprehensive at first and even considered buying a spare headlight assembly. But, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot and was surprised at how easy it was.

There are a bunch of videos on you tube that are of great help. Here are some that I found very useful.

The video above is the first of a 4-part series.
The link below is for installing CCFL angel eyes, but is good for showing how to open up a headlight using the heat gun/hairdryer method.

snowstud · Mar 12, 2009

Yeah, I ahve a HID kit already. Would like to just get projectors to use with my bulbs.Post pics when you get them.

EddieLima · Mar 12, 2009

Looks nice man. Kinda reminds me of my old 2005 R6.

franc01 · Mar 13, 2009

Would you be willing to install the projectors if someone were to send their light housing or on an exchange basis? For a fee, of course!

Thanks,
Franc
'08 1000RR
y/b

h82loze · Mar 13, 2009

A few night pics

Here are the low beams

Here are the high beams

And a few shots from head-on

h82loze · Mar 13, 2009

I know, I still need to tweak the right side. But, I'm not too worried about it right now as that one is illuminating the right side of the road and road signs and not oncoming drivers.

j4ever · Mar 13, 2009

i love how it looks when its pitch black....it makes it look like angry ass eyes. but when you can see the bike in the light with it....not so much....it just looks kinda funny to me....

moore_power · Mar 13, 2009

Thanks for the great pics...........what distance are you from that garage?

h82loze · Mar 14, 2009

Roughly 25 feet.

ninjaboy76 said:
Looks great Bill. I'm glad you finally got it done. Thanks for all the help. I hope to have my HIDs soon. They should be arriving in the mail anytime.

Thanks Jason. Those should be a fairly easy install. Let me know if you need any help.

cfaddict said:
im sold! thanks for the complete answers! there's no way I could fit an evo projector in there without hacking the crap out of the rear of the headlight, ive done it on car healdights and its no where near as easy as your setup.

I just wish I could get it without the halo, not a big fan

Yeah, I feel ya on the halo's. That's why I got white, so you can't really see it.
Before I found this kit, I was looking at FX35 projectors. They seem to be very highly recommended and one of the smaller size projectors available. But, yeah, then you have to fab a bracket to connect to the headlight assembly, etc, etc. This was much easier.

snowstud said:
Why are there holes cut in the bottom of the housings in one of your pictures on page one? Did you run wires thru there, or? Also, how did you get the led's in the blinkers, did you have to cut wires, any particular type to use? Sorry for the questions, I just like your lighting setup. I have 6000k HID's, but I can't stand one light only being on with the low beams, and everybody flashing me when I put on the high beam. Thanks

Yes, the holes are for the wires running from the HID bulbs. Even with regular HID kits, you will need to drill holes for the wires coming from the HID bulbs. Most, if not all, HID kits will have the HID bulb with 4 wires attached to a rubber grommet. 2 wires from the HID bulb connect to the ballast, and the other 2 wires connect the ballast to the stock headlight wires.

Thanks to everyone else for your kind comments. When I get a chance, I'll try to get some pictures of a long dark road to show how much better night time visibility is.

ninjaboy76 · Mar 13, 2009

Looks great Bill. I'm glad you finally got it done. Thanks for all the help. I hope to have my HIDs soon. They should be arriving in the mail anytime.

cfaddict · Mar 13, 2009

im sold! thanks for the complete answers! there's no way I could fit an evo projector in there without hacking the crap out of the rear of the headlight, ive done it on car healdights and its no where near as easy as your setup.

I just wish I could get it without the halo, not a big fan

snowstud · Mar 14, 2009

Why are there holes cut in the bottom of the housings in one of your pictures on page one? Did you run wires thru there, or? Also, how did you get the led's in the blinkers, did you have to cut wires, any particular type to use? Sorry for the questions, I just like your lighting setup. I have 6000k HID's, but I can't stand one light only being on with the low beams, and everybody flashing me when I put on the high beam. Thanks

Dual Headlight HID Projector Retrofit

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