Triumphrat

leafman60

Ok boys, some of you may think this a heresy but I converted my '70 Bonny to HID. This bike has been restored but its configured for my usage as a regular rider : mirrors, turn signals etc. It already had a halogen unit but that was slowly cooking the Lucas switches. The HID units are supposed to pull only 35 watts of power so my main motivation was to ease the load on the alternator.

I used one of the latest design H-4 conversion kits with the slim line ballast and separate striker along with the electromagnetic high/low beam solenoid. The halogen reflector works well in this case and the light output is amazing. Trundling down the road with this 40-year-old bike sporting better lighting than most modern bikes is ironic.

I suppose the current draw is less since I notice the wavering hand of the Lucas ammeter is fanning around much more in the "plus" zone now.

Plewsy

Hi leafman60
I fancied fitting HID to mine would you have a link for the unit you used?
cheers

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KADUTZ

yes more specific info would be appreciated.

leafman60

Hi guys. The unit I used was from www.xenonrider.com I already had an H-4 bulb and reflector so I ordered the H-4 HID kit. If you dont have an H-4 halogen headlight, you should probably get one of those first and fit the H-4 HID to it.

Xenonrider offers a plug-and-play kit for bikes. I imagine it has a diode or something to make the plug-and-play work. Its too technical for me to explain all that here except to say that it should work with your H-4 female connector that goes to the H-4 bulb. Id call or email them first and make sure the plug-and-play will work with a negative ground system aka Triumph. You may need to switch a couple of wires around in the connector.

They offer a "regular" ballast and a "slimline" ballast that is smaller. However, if you use the slimline ballast, you have an extra ignitor component in the works thats wired-in whereas the regular ballast has this integrated in the ballast. Is this sounding complicated ????

I didnt use the plug-and-play kit but wired mine up custom. I tied in the negative wire from the ballast to the same terminal on the headlamp switch that feeds the blue wire to the dimmer switch.

The positive wire from the ballast was grounded into the connectors collecting the other red ground wires in the headlamp shell.

This assures power to the ballast and HID once the headlamp switch is positioned all the way to the right in "on" position.

Next, I connected the electromagnetic solenoid wires from the HID 1. to the regular high beam terminal that used to feed the halogen bulb and 2. ground. Hence, the HID bulb burns all the time as long as the main light switch is on. The solenoid kicks it up to high beam whenever you trigger the dimmer switch to high.

Got that ? lol It aint that bad, once you get into it and think in reverse due to the positive ground.

I guess I need to try and post some pics for those who want to custom wire.

Lucky Strike

Yes please.

Also, I have a feeling that LED bulbs will be available for head lamp use in the near future. There is already a company that makes DOT approved LED headlights. 7" round units intended for use by big rig trucks. Theoretically you could just stuff one of these in your bucket, but they are very expensive. I think they are around $300.00 right now. And, they look very different that a stock headlight.

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leafman60

Im still working on those pictures.

By the way, when you do an HID conversion, if the bulb element comes with a reflector hood on it, Id remove it before fitting the HID bulb into your H-4 reflector. You get a better spread of more light. Mine is working well.

leafman60

By the way, I was able to easily fit all the guts and wires to the HID system inside the headlight shell of the '70 Bonneville. You do have to postion the bigger parts such as the ballast to fit around the master switch etc , but it will all fit with a little room to spare.

leafman60

As I tried to describe earlier, I used the solenoid-operated hi/lo, H-4, HID conversion. I wired it so that the ballast is powered by the main light switch on top of the bucket. The hi/lo solenoid is wired to be controlled by the thumb-operated handlebar dimmer switch.

I stuffed everything into the lamp bucket and didnt have to wrap the ballast or anything.

I need to do a photo illustrated version of this, I realise.

68TR6R

Which kit in particular did you purchase?

SidecarFlip

While HID's draw a lower amperage than a halogen or incandescent (filament) bulb while running, they do draw quite a bit more amperage on start up. It takes a pretty stiff current to light off the bulb plus they don't like to be shut down and restarted in quick succession.

It's sort of like a flourscent tube light. It has to get to 'light off' temperature before it emits useable light.

If you have a bike with daytime lights (like the newer models), I suggest an inline switch to break the circuit while you start the bike. Ar some point the the near future, HID's will be displaced by LED headlights and as the technology advances they to will decrease in price, like the HID has.

With a minimum 20,000 hour lifespan, the LED units are the way to go. You'll never replace an LED unit and if it looses one diode in the cluster, you'll never notice the output difference.

The reason LED's are better is that they make little heat in operation plus it's instant on, with no warm up. The heat generated is amperage used.

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