uber bright!!!!

[Neosophist]

that box is the ballast.
Neo - they arent illegal depending on heat rating. 4300k - 8000k and the pattern has been adjusted correctly.
but as you pointed out, nothing more annoying that some chavy looking corsa with purple HID lights lol

i have some arriving soon Rhory, il give u a heads up.

I dunno about Ireland but they are 100% deffo illegal over here in the UK.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drs/hidheadlamps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1. The headlamp unit (outer lens, reflector, bulb) shall be type approved to ECE 98 and be "e-marked" to demonstrate this. That can only be done by the headlamp supplier - Hella, Valeo etc. who must test the headlamp in an independent laboratory.

2. Once fitted to the vehicle it must have headlamp cleaning and self-levelling (which can be for the headlamp or can be in the vehicle suspension - some expensive estate cars have "self-levelling suspension" and that is adequate). Also the dipped beam must stay on with the main beam.

3. The headlamp must be maintained in good working order, kept clean, and aligned/adjusted correctly like any other headlamp.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is an offence to supply, fit or use vehicle parts which are not legal.

In summary it is not permitted to convert an existing halogen headlamp unit for use with HID bulbs. The entire headlamp unit must be replaced with one designed and approved for use with HID bulbs and it must be installed in accordance with the rules stated above.

If you require any further information regarding the regulations covered by this fact sheet, please contact the DfT at the address below:

Basically they need to be self levelling and the reflector housing certified by the manufacturer (which requires independant lab testing) which unless you manufacture your own NC30 reflector lenses and have them lab-tested / certified they won't ever be legal.

One of my automotive engineer friends gave me a very detailed explanation of how the reflectors apature and somethign else is specific for HID bulbs to obtain the correct beam pattern, he even said it wouldn't be too difficult to desgin on, it is just getting it E marked that would be the expensive part.

[hannakournikova]

Northern Ireland is still part of th UK, and some friends of mine have had their cars MOT's with them in, and bare in mind over here its the Government that do our MOTs. weird one. Handy info all the same :D

[craigs23]

What's required from the bike to run HID? My CG doesn't punt enough power for them, as the lights run off the alternator...but my next bike might - and I need the illumination for the coming winter, especially if tonight's trip home from work is anything to go by.

[simmo]

all it says in the booklet, is it requires 12v

[Neosophist]

What's required from the bike to run HID? My CG doesn't punt enough power for them, as the lights run off the alternator...but my next bike might - and I need the illumination for the coming winter, especially if tonight's trip home from work is anything to go by.

I've had quite a few beers so this may not be the best explanation but HID bulbs have to have a 'ballast' to supply the proper power to them. They work on a large voltage.. it's not just the 12v you need to worry about, it's the current (or power they draw)

Normal incandescant type bulbs, such as H4 work by suppling 12v to a fillament which consumes 55w of power for H4.. using power law equation (P = I × V.) we can deduce that a 12v bulb using 55w of power is consuming around 4.5amps of current.

The thing with HID's is though their ballast is 12v, some of the heavy duty ballasts require in the region of 135 watts of power!! or 11amps of current. This is over 2x that of a normal H4.

As well as this you have to supply power to all of the other ancilleries and then whatever (or if power is left) it will re-charge the battery.

Not so much a problem on cars with large altenators, but the charging system on most motorbikes is considered by many to be inadequate or close to the threshold anyway.. so installing 135watt HID bulbs (over 2x the normal headlights) is increasing the strain a lot!!

An NC30 has a 350watt (iirc) generator capacity which is sufficient to run HID bulbs.

For my NC24 I replaced the indicator and brake light bulbs with LED cluster bulbs, for 2 reasons... they last practically forever.. their current draw is very low compared to traditional bulbs which leaves any spare power to charge the battery ^_^

Plus I have pleanty of spare power now so may even fit a 100/55w bulb (which is illegal for hi-beam road use) but since I only use hi-beam when no-one is around it shouldn't hurt too much, just give me a bit more brightness when nailing it down country roads in the middle of the night :D

If you do fit HID's and are worried about power, LED bulbs in other areas might be the way to reducing consumption.

Hope thats of some help

[Neosophist]

Northern Ireland is still part of th UK, and some friends of mine have had their cars MOT's with them in, and bare in mind over here its the Government that do our MOTs. weird one. Handy info all the same :D

Once again down the the MOT tester.. the once I took my 306 into my local station and the guy didn't even check it over, he said.. 'thats fine' and issued me a cert (granted car is mint and maintained no matter what) but still :)

Last year I took it to a proper pug dealer and they failed it on one of the side repeater bulbs being too faded from orange!! (pickey bastards!!)

Anyway, back to bikes.. It's like them passing NC24's with the indicators as sidelights.. some fail them, some pass them..

*shrug*

I guess it's all down to interpretation, but if you have an MOT tester or a police officer, or an insurance company who's having a bad day / out to get you they are 100% illegal and you can be done for it.

I'd just say becareful, I don't wanna sound all preachy! hell, back before all this HID became cheap and affordable I used to run Hella 130/90w rally bulbs in my old pug 205

They were bright as fook and required relay upgrades to run but ironically didn't seem to dazzle as much as some of the aftermaket HID kits I see nowadays (Unless you had mainbeam on, then the sucker was blind!)

[dx400r]

Im quite interested in getting my NC30 some HID shaped presents.

The problem I see is that LED tail bulbs dont seem to show up well in natural light. I have seen some fitted in the rear light clusters of a 206 quite hard to see compared to a standard bulb.

So erring on the side of caution you keep the normal bulbs in the taillights. Will there be enough power to power the HID's and not hurt the NC30's seemingly quite delicate charging system/alternator?

I asked the HID question to Rick a few months back and he told me not bother and just stick UK spec bulbs along with the relay to avoid the usual burning out of headlight switch issue.

Anyone got the electrical know-how to achieve a twin HID setup based on the NC30's output figures?

[challymo]

I don't see why you would need a twin HID set up to be honest, I find that the standard bulbs work fine for me no matter how dark, and also have a good hi-beam, just ask any of the cars i have passed who forgot to turn theres off. I can sort of understand if you have an endurance fairing or single light set up. At the end of the day it is in the same class as "not for roasd use" exhaust cans on the modifications scale both are illegal but that doesn't stop anyone as everyone has there own limit on the risk they will take. All i can say is be more careful what you do with them in as you may cause damage to someones eyes if they are improperly adjusted.

[Neosophist]

Im quite interested in getting my NC30 some HID shaped presents.

The problem I see is that LED tail bulbs dont seem to show up well in natural light. I have seen some fitted in the rear light clusters of a 206 quite hard to see compared to a standard bulb.

So erring on the side of caution you keep the normal bulbs in the taillights. Will there be enough power to power the HID's and not hurt the NC30's seemingly quite delicate charging system/alternator?

I asked the HID question to Rick a few months back and he told me not bother and just stick UK spec bulbs along with the relay to avoid the usual burning out of headlight switch issue.

Anyone got the electrical know-how to achieve a twin HID setup based on the NC30's output figures?

Depends on the ballast consumption, i've seen ballasts that state they only need 35watt of power, which means a twin setup would be easy.

Worst case scenario you'll need a big ass relay, an upgraded generator and some wire.

Have you tried road off-road bulbs? 100/55watt arn't any brighter on low-beam, just main which has a relay anyway.. :)

[simmo]

a few more pics,









still not had chance to tidy all the wiring up yet, but will post some 'finished' pics when i have.