Better Lights for an NC35

[silentRVF]

Hey guys,
I've just got basic lights on the NC35 (not sure on wattage or brand) but the low beams are pretty useless in the dark, while the high beams piss everyone off in front of me and everyone coming the other way (as soon as I ride behind someone at night with high beams on, they adjust their rear vision mirror )

Therefore, I'm after lights where the low beam will provide me with more vision, or the high beam won't annoy people.. Would be nice if I could get a whiter/bluer light as well..

I looked in the manual and it says the wattage of the bulbs but not what type they are (eg H4, H7)... Should I get better bulbs, or could I chuck a HID kit on it?..

Cheers

[Cammo]

Be careful upgrading your bulbs if the electrics aren't up to it. The vfr doesn't have a low beam relay, not sure about the rvf.

Changing the Jap bulbs (35/60w) for the common H4 55/60w will fry the electrics if the bike doesn't have a low beam relay.

[Neosophist]

The RVF as standard uses the 34901KY2702 (35/60) bulbs.

You can trim H4's down and fit them but unless you do the low-beam relay mod it'll burn the switch out overtime.

http://www.vsource.org/VFR-RVF_files/NC ... mRelay.htm

Step by step guide here.

Best to check what bulbs you have in there first.. probably the Jap bulbs.

[silentRVF]

How about a Hi/Low HID kit (H4)?..

[Neosophist]

Illegal? Bad news?

Since the 'H4' kits are made up of bits.. HID wasn't designed to use a Hallogen headlamp lense but a specially designed projector, so the beam is awful.

Pleanty of people say how much better they think it is and how much safter they feel but 99% of the time your lighting up the floor infront of you and lots of drivers due to the bad beam pattern.

The end result is actually a poorer view / false sense of security as long-range visibility is reduced.

Plus you dazzle other drivers who might crash / crash into you.

Hong Kong is really bad with this problem lately so the police are clamping down on illegally fitted kits.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... sions.html

Have a read of that for a 'techie' explanation of why the kits are bad.

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. This is to say nothing of the massive amounts of glare to other road users and backdazzle to you, the driver, that results from these "retrofits".

Don't do it

I've never seen a decent Halogen converision kit, and after you read the above article you'll probably find out why, i've had people show me that their new kit is 'awesome' only to realise after understanding how headlights work that it's actually shite. :-)

Get some good H4's in there like Philips Extreme

[vfrman]

Or yo can fit some of these...
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=221
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=236

[silentRVF]

Get some good H4's in there like Philips Extreme

Can you get H4 bulbs that do high and low beam though?.. Are they hard to get them to fit and sit straight?..

Or yo can fit some of these...
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=221
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=236

What exactly are they and what are the advantages?..

[superlite]

Can you get H4 bulbs that do high and low beam though?.. Are they hard to get them to fit and sit straight?..

Yep, and easy to fit - just trim the tabs with tin snips/sharp scissors (easy to see how when you try and fit an H4 to the light). Don't be tempted to fit H4s without doing the relay mod though, your switch gear will fry.

[vfrman]

Or yo can fit some of these...
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=221
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=236

What exactly are they and what are the advantages?..

Those are mini projector assemblies. They focus the beam down the road and have a very sharp horizontal cutoff so you don't blind oncoming traffic. The bi-xenon version comes with a servo attached to the cutoff plate that moves it out of the way for high beam. The advantages of these projectors is that they are awesome and light up the road extremely well. You will be able to see much better, will be easier to see during the daytime, and the lights won't blind other drivers.

To me, if you ride at night, these are a must have mod. I have a similar setup in my Fireblade and Toyota 4Runner, and I am researching what will fit in my new Ducati.

I have pics if you are interested.

[code2006]

Cool so has anyone got any info on the relay mod? I want to fit the mini projector ones to my nc35
Thanks Alex