H.I.D conversion

I've done my dip and main beam. Plenty of room in the headlight cowl for 2x ballast. It is really an easy mod to do yourself, only need to pull the pos and neg connectors off the old bulb and connect to the wires going to the ballast. Job done

Only hard thing is changing the standard sidelight for a LED one as its a bitch to get to. You have to do because the standard sidelight looks all yellow and shite against the lovely white light of the HID. LED light cures that and finished the look off nicely.

You can't just plop an HID bulb into a halogen housing. The light pattern will be all messed up. If you want to do it right you have to get a projector, and not a halogen projector either. A proper HID projector with a non-cheap HID bulb will blow your mind with how much of an improvement it is over stock.

I have a DDM tuning hid kit in mine, the bulb wasn't a drop in fit since it's bigger than the housing, but with a little dremel work it fits just fine. The light pattern is no different than a halogen bulb if you face the reflector on the hid bulb down instead of up.
I work nights so I ride in the dark atleast 5 days a week, and it was a great purchase since the stock one sucks.

This is a good site if you're in the UK. http://www.hids4u.co.uk/motorcycle-hid-conversion-kits/ and there is still a discount code that works! Sure a projector is the ideal setup but if properly adjusted the standard headlight does a great job without being a hazard to others.

I managed to fit one of the ballasts from my 05 into the 08 headlight but I'm going to have to get slim ballasts if I want both again.

Thanks for the referral to TRS, it's the first site I've seen with real info that addresses the issue of a correct housing. I've seen so many HID retrofits in conventional reflector housings that have a ridiculous amount of glare/stray light, even in daylight, but the owners just don't know or care because they have more light out in front. The worst I ever say was an old Volvo with those huge rectangular lights on the freeway; a totally unfocussed indistinct blob of glaring light.
A few years back I was on a BMW board with an ongoing discussion of hi power H-4 bulbs, but it was amazing that no one wanted to accept that half the battle was aiming the light correctly. This is just as true with HIDs, but in a housing not designed for the capsule it's sometimes not possible.

a bit curious, i have a 07 SD, and it differs from those across the pond as it had an integrated high and low beam bulb. I ordered a non US front headlamp assembly and used a HID for the low beam, works great. the High beam is a smaller bulb in the upper reflector, and is now all but useless, but i see that you have put two HID units on yours, what bulb did you use for the upper reflector? I want one!

I could have done a cleaner retrofit, but it was my first time and I didn't have the right tools. The light output is excellent.

Thanks for the pic.
How much do you need to cut from the reflector?

Funklord: Very informative. Thank you.

Looks really good, any chance of a better pic? I wanna see the full power!

Here's my old bike for comparison

"a reflector will never be a projector, but the arc chamber is more consistent in its output across its surface area, and brighter overall, so the end result is a better beam"

A properly designed reflector will work just fine, but they are optimized for a single type of source. The arc chamber does not have hot spots as does a filament, and a reflector designed to utilize those hotspots will be incorrect for a HID, so no, you don't get a better beam, you just have more light out there. You will always have stray light with this setup. If you look at Hidrios pics you see a big hot spot on the ground in front of the bike. A well designed light will give a much more even spread, and makes it easier for your eyes to see.
The new freeform reflector/clear lens (like the SD's) are much better than older style reflector/fluted lens combos, which give horrible results with HID conversions.

also guys, does anyone know if the (US) headlight assembly comes apart...or do you have to do one of those bake in the oven until the glue gets pliable....like say the jap bikes, R1 etc...
I am hoping that I can just disassemble my headlight & remove the plastic lens from the back reflective panel.

thanks Rob

yep, keep us posted and take the time to take lots of pics.

I hardly ride at night but when I do the mediums light more then the high beam...

looks like you could fit two in there with a bit of fiddling after looking at that photo

Looks clean..Might be pretty nice..You said your bike is the black model..??? I'm totally interested in this kit also...Been out in th pitch black of night and my eyesite sucks these days...Also have been tossed about color combos for my ride...Got a white SDR tail section..orange headlight cowls..Still thinking of totally blacking it all out...but was thinking of vinyl wrapping some bits...The headlight you show is swaying my opinion..!!!
I'm waiting to see your conversion bro...How much time and temp in the oven releases the glue to the unit..????
Cheers
Mike

I started a projector install last year based on this thread on ADVrider


Not done yet but perhaps this snow storm will be the impetuous to get this done. I did bake the headlight at about 190'F for about 10 minutes. A little longer would not have hurt

EDIT Sorry just noticed that his pictures are no longer coming up.

Can you repost here.??

Mike

I wish I could it was not my post, but I should take some pictures of the progress I've made so far. That'll give me something to do tomorrow.

You guys are going to make me finish this project. Cool.

Thanks Steph, would be great to see your pics. My kit should arrive Monday according to UPS....then to get on with the retrofit & decision whether to paint my reflector or not.

Glad we're helping to spur you on with completing your project

cheers Rob

Rob et al,

Camera's battery is dead and a whole Sunday with snow.in October got wasted . Perhaps during the week.

Stephan

Soooo....how's the conversion going..??? Any more headway on it..????

Snow bound to the living room bro.??? lol

Hoping to see pics of your headlight setup..
One of my next projects...
AFTER..I finish the 6 I'm working on now...

Cheers
Mike

intriguing thread for the holidays! Perfect mod time IMO

Rob, I always likened the SD to the angular styling of the Tumbler...thought a matte metallic tone would look pretty badazz, like the calipers/spoiler hydraulics



good luck!

if you were a glutton for punishment in completing this, you could do something crazy and potentially fugly like these childish concept sketches (the last one being your orig concept)

okay, got my stageIII kit from the retrofitsource today, but am rather at a loss with all the connections on the harness (EU bike). someone allready experience with it?

thank

Looking forward to the write up. Kudos!

Ok guys, so after the looooong wait, finally.....here is my retrofit write up.

2008 SuperDuke HID Bi-Xenon projector Retrofit project:


I purchased the following from
They are great guys to deal with & have really good customer support.

Sportbike Stage III Kit, which comes with:

- Ballast: Morimoto 3Five (35W)
- Bulb: Morimoto 3Five 4300K
- Projector: Morimoto Mini Bi-Xenon (D2S)
- Shroud: GTi-R
- Wire Harness: H4

Also purchased a roll of butyl glue strip separately.


1. Start by taking off the complete headlight assembly. Before I unplugged all the connectors, I took lots of photos, just incase I had problems re-
connecting them. Taking the assembly off only requires removal of the two allen cap screws at the top & two pins (held on with clips) at the bottom.




2. Once the headlight assembly is off the bike, then dismantle the actual headlight from the assembly. Remove the little smoke flip screen (4x allen cap
screws). In front, just below the instrument panel, is a self taping philips screw, take it out (this allows for the mask housing to split in two). Then
take out the four 8mm bolts holding the headlight to the housing. Once these are removed, you can separate the headlight from the housing. I put
some bubble wrap over my instrument clocks just to protect them from being scratched while being stored.



3. Now you’re ready to separate the headlight. I first, very carefully ran an X-Acto knife along the edge of the shield to slit the glue line. Our European bikes have the perma-seal glue holding the front lens to the rear housing (it sticks like crazy & is very hard) Most Japanese bikes have the softer butyl rubber glue, which comes apart real easy.
Turn on your oven & pre-heat it to 265 degrees F. Place the headlight in the centre of the oven for 7 minutes. Put on some mechanic/work gloves. After 7 minutes, take it out & very carefully start to pry the lens away from the housing. I had to put it back into the oven for another 7 minutes to further soften up the glue. You can use a flat blade screwdriver to help pry the lens away, but be Very Careful, it wont take much to damage the housing, scratch the lens or snap one of the locking tabs. Just be patient, take your time & it will come apart. You may even need another 7 minutes in the oven. Once you have it all separated, use some rubbing/isopropyl alcohol & a scalpel/X-Acto knife to clean off as much of the perma-seal glue as possible.



4. Now you can separate the reflector bucket from the rear housing. Back out the adjuster screws on the rear of the housing & the reflector bucket will pop off. NOTE: before backing the screws out, make a note of how far they are screwed in. A digital camera makes life a lot easier to snap pics as you’re going along.





5. Next I had to Dremel out the existing light bulb hole in the reflector bucket. I had to increase it to 34mm to accommodate the new projector.
I cut out a piece of steel keystock & JB welded it to the H4 adapter. This will provide a way to hold the H4 adapter in place when cinching down the lock nut and keep the projector on the correct horizontal plane (parallel) to the horizon.
I also replaced the stock white silicone crush washer with a black O-ring (1/8" diameter ring, 1 1/8" I.D., 1 3/8" O.D.) I did this to allow more gap between the projector lens & the headlight lens. You’ll need it for when you adjust the headlight range up or down.







6. I then sanded down the reflector bucket using 280 grit water sand paper. Sprayed it satin black using Krylon Fusion plastic spray paint. Seeing as the reflector is no longer going to be used for light production, & it just plain looks better black IMO.




7. I opted for the GTi-R shroud for the projector. This was the one, which gave the most coverage around the projector housing & was low profile enough not to come in contact with the headlight lens.
Assembled the projector into the reflector bucket. Re-attached the reflector bucket to the headlight housing. I opted to use some butyl glue strip for re-assembly…just a lot neater, easier & cleaner than using silicone or perma-seal.
Then, back into the pre-heated oven at 265 degrees F for 7 minutes. (Remember your gloves again) As soon I removed it from the oven, I made sure all clips etc… lined up & then clamped (using 12” ratchet bar clamps) the lens in place for 30 minutes until everything had cooled down.





8. In between waiting for the paint to dry, I ran the wiring up from the battery & located the ballast behind the headlight (on the left hand side).
The Retrofit Source website has good explanations of how to wire it all up.











9. Re-installed the head light assembly into the shroud. Re-mounted it to the bike, re-connected all the wires & tucked the new wiring away behind the headlight. Buttoned everything up & set the headlight range. All done……well almost….lol…while I had the head light shroud off I decided to wire in some new smaller LED turn signals…they sure do look better than the big stock ones.

Dude, you rock! That setup is solid gold pussy! Nice write up. Can we get some night time pics?

Worth the wait Rob..

Great write up and tidy job....

Night pics bro..

Cheers
Mike

thanks guys, I'll get some night time shots as soon as I can. Off to the Int. Motorcycle show in NYC tomorrow....weather forecast is looking shitty for the weekend. Hopefully Monday evening I can get some Lo/Hi beam shots.

cheers Rob

Really killer work. Looks tits! Does that one have the HI/LOW function?

Nice write Rob!

Dit you make the notch in te reflector, where th H4 adapter ring wil locate in, yourself, or was it allready there?

Thanks, Pepijn

Thanks,

And how did you allign the notch on the ring to make sure the projector is leveld horizonlally?

I'm gonna do the mod myself next month when my bike is returning from hibernation.

Grtz, Pepijn

Hi,

This is a great write up, and I am keen to get started on this for my bike.

Just wanted to ask a question about the process though:

When using the butyl tape to seal the housing again, where did you apply it? I can't see it in the picture and I am confused about how it seals the housing. It just looks so neat and tidy, I'm having trouble seeing how you re-sealed it!

Is it applied to between the new sprayed black housing and the clear light cover?

Also, is the butyl tape affected at all by the oven process?

just want to make sure I have all the facts before I attempt this.

Cheers,

I followed the great instructions a few years ago and now finally have a picture (because I am selling the bike).

My change was to paint the area around the projector orange to be a true KTM. And I put an LED bulb in the upper position so that the light color matches.



To do the painting I did the sanding of the bottom portion only and then masked off the entire upper portion. A few coats of engine paint (I had to pick between Chrysler Hemi orange and Chevy orange - I picked Hemi I think - and it is a little off - Chevy would probably have been closer) and remove the tape and then let it cure and install the projector.