K11 Owners Group

[drikko]

So faced with buying Piaas at an enormous cost I decided to convert my existing Hella FF50 to HID. Turned out to be really easy and at 5% of the cost of the PIAAs very affordable as well. And the light!! Phenomenal!! It's a wonder all those photons shooting out the front don't slow the bike down.

So here's the result, along with a swag of bugs from the recent SS1600:-



The HID kit is from an ebay seller elconline although there are many others. I chose the 4300K temp and the FF50 takes the H7 bulb. If you have a different driving light then you should be able to get something to fit it as well. Just search eBay for "HID Motorcycle H7 kit" and you should find something in your area. This particular kit is also available from http://hidcountry.com/Products/motorcyclehidconversion.php (Thanks to Naked Hoof for pointing that one out).

So this is what you get in the box:-



Power goes in the red and black wires, just wire this in instead of the original bulb. Note this is polarity sensitive, ie the red wire must be +ve.

You need to pull the light apart to install the bulb and drill a big hole in the case. I did it in the middle next to the original hole. The big rubber grommet fits in there well:-


To mount the light, I already had 2 holes under the chin of the fairing I used for some previous lights, I drilled holes in the FF50 bracket to suit, but if I was doing it again I would use the supplied bolt in the middle. I don't like drilling holes in the bike but at least these are not visible really. You need to take the black cover plate out which is 4 screws to get at the other end of the bolts.:-


For the ballast I used double sided foam tape to stick it to the inside of the fairing under and just behind the horn on the right hand side:-


The other bit of the ballast sits in front of the forks under the headlight quite neatly. Cable ties used to keep it and the wiring under control.


So under the left hand vent you can see the wiring for the 3 relays, 2 for the hi/lo headlight and one for the FF50. The left switch turns all headlights off and on, some of you refer to this as the euro switch which ours aren't fitted with, and the right one turns the FF50 off or on, but the on only works when the high beam is on of course. I'm going to install a bit of matte black plastic over the relay wiring to hide it eventually. I also have a 6 pin connector between the relays and the wiring to make it easy to remove the sidecover.


So I am much happier with setup than the HID headlight which to be honest was a disaster, and WAY cheaper than the PIAAs, although I will admit the PIAAs are neater as the ballast is inside them, but unfortunately I'm poor...... And yep it works brilliantly! I have a second FF50, I might set it up so that I can fit it for long trips and take it off again for the bulk of the time. But there's so much light now, I'm not sure it's needed.
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K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB

DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.

'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde

[miKeinWIs]

Thanks drikko-
I had held off on the HID idea because I feared the oem reflector would not be suitable.
Now you've given more ideas.
Good riding
Mike

PS-You have that many bugs going into winter?? Crikey. Getting plastered here now but by late fall they're usually done.
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'97 K1100LT
Bought 6/30/09 w/26,750 miles

[Naked Hoof]

Well, my HID upgrade has been installed for a bit now, and I'm not having any of the problems drikko had.

I've had maybe one driver flash me, and I also had my PIAAs on at the time, so I think it was probably the combination of the headlight and the driving lights.

Perhaps drikko has a right side rule of the road headlight housing.

Anyway, I love the HID headlight and the PIAAs. I'll post up some pictures when I get the chance. I'm also doing a brake/taillight upgrade, which I'll post pictures for. Last, I've upgraded the LED upgrade from Drake. Pretty much not using 80% of his kit now because I'm not fond of the green color scheme at all. I've gone mostly blue, with higher powered LEDs than the ones in his kit.
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79 Honda CB750 trainer
traded for Suzuki GS1150e (stolen)
81 Honda CB900F
02 Kawasaki ZR7 (cursed)
93 K1100RS Mystic Red

Dreams should never be reduced in potency by subjecting them to reality. - Lord Snarebottom

[drikko]

Nope, definitely a left side of the road headlight housing, works perfectly with the halogen bulb.
_________________
K1100RS '97
Laverda RGS 1000 '84
Jim Young Trailer Sailer 5.7M WB

DISCLAIMER:- Anything I say may have been when I was drunk so please don't take it personally.

'Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same.'
Oscar Wilde