Scooterotica

know this has been tried before, Mark Tidd and Byron had a go but the standard fluted lens difused the light too much. However, with the advent of the Jockey's H4 replacement headlamp unit with its modern clear glass and focused reflector, I thought I'd have a go and see if it worked any better. I already had the Boxeys unit and bought one of these from ebay for £4.99 (actually I bought 2) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300998659604? ... EBIDX%3AIT
Unfortunately, these lights are powered from a 'ballast' unit which is about the size of a cigarette packet and in my case the wires weren't long enough to allow mounting where it needed to be which was lower down in the horncast. I cut and extended all the wires including the ones to the ignitor and in that state, I took these photos with my I Phone:
Dip beam


Main beam


By comparison, this was my 60/55 watt H4 converted standard light:
Dip


Main


This is what came in the kit


And here's where I mounted the ballast (horns are under the leggies)



Following the about 'test' I read up on extending the wiring with HIDs and the consensus was that due to the very high voltages involved, 20-30kv joining the 2 ignitor wires was not recommended. Pre made extension leads are available though provided you buy an HID unit that follows the norm....mine didn't unfortunately so I still have some soldered and heat shrunk joints but I buttoned it all up and went for a spin on some very dark country lanes around Norfolk last night and was absolutely amazed
Dip


Main


The pictures don't really do it justice, the beam illuminated right across the road in a good wide bright white beam.

I checked the current consumption which is 3.8 amps for main and 4.1 for dip. I was a bit surprised by that until I realised that Dip requires a solenoid to move the lamp.

Now I know it works I will probably buy a more expensive unit at some point

Colin

Thanks Colin, handy to have it on here too
Its a soon to be looked at job for me.

Indeed, very interesting item, Colin was there any problems with extra payment with the customs etc seeing as its from China, bad enough having to pay the 5p for the carrier bag at the take away , seems just the job for the next project.....

Trojan wrote:Indeed, very interesting item, Colin was there any problems with extra payment with the customs etc seeing as its from China, bad enough having to pay the 5p for the carrier bag at the take away , seems just the job for the next project.....

No, no duty to pay. I've bought a fair amount of stuff direct from China with no problems although there was a charge for some parts from India when delivered by DHL I think. The Chinese stuff is so cheap I suppose they don't bother.

The difference looks world's apart, but what about the heat build up, as I have bosetta plastic lens from pm tuning, I imagine it would burn it easily.

jedan71 wrote:The difference looks world's apart, but what about the heat build up, as I have bosetta plastic lens from pm tuning, I imagine it would burn it easily.

I was under the impression that hid runs cooler a friend has a hid conversion on his gts mine has a nightbreaker type bulb , when both scoots are running stationery with lights on his plastic lens is cooler than mine , infact if you leave a gts running with a cover overthe headlamp it can cause heat build up and melt the lense quite why you would leave a cover on a running scooter is beyond me but then again darwin had his theory's

Colin - a couple of Qs

Are you running a full DC conversion on the lammy?

Also did you have any heat problems running 55W in the Jockey's light because stock is only 35W?

That looks a really compact HID conversion compared to ones I've seen in the past. Good VFM even compared to bulbs!

Yes full Wassel DC Sticky, you need DC for HID systems. I didn't try the 60/55 in the jockeys but I can confirm what others have said re HID which seems to run very cool.

Colin

How does the bulb convert from low to high beam?

vRSG60 wrote:How does the bulb convert from low to high beam?

Apart from the high voltage ignitor wires there wires that operate a small solenoid inside the HID lamp which physically flicks the glass bulb up and down approx. 10-15mm. Some HID's have a metal shroud around them but I'm not sure what it contributes. Mine doesn't have a shroud and the dip seems to operate fine