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Upgrade to Hid lights ?

4K views 9 replies 2 participants last post by  450fizz 
#1 ·
Anyone tried installing real hid zenon 55watts lights on 2014 kawasaki ninja 1000? How great are they? Plug and play system? Any recommendations? Original lighting is not great even with piaa lightbulbs.
 
#2 ·
I have not installed an HID in this model bike, although I have one in my zr7s.

They are not usually plug and play as you need to run power from the battery to the high voltage transformer to power the HID. You use the stock bulb connector to trigger the low / high beam.

Depending on how you plan to run them (one headlight as low and one as high, or both as low and high) will affect how they are hooked up. A dual use (low/hi) only has a single HID element in it and moves the bulb in the headlight reflector to adjust the beam.

But without a proper HID reflector the location of the HID light may be off in relation to the housing of the OEM reflector, which could result in a less usable light even if it's brighter. This is because the stock reflector is factory designed for the light beams to be at a specific point. HID bulbs can move this point in or out which changes the beam. You may end up blinding oncoming traffic.

HID's can also generate considerable heat and could melt / distort the plastic reflector housing.

There are also issues with the warmup delay time when used as a high beam only.

LED bulbs on the other hand do not usually need an external power run and can use the OEM wiring, however they are still prone to having to be in the "right spot" to get the light to be usable (just like HID's.) There are lots of aftermarket LED bulbs that are crap and although super bright, do not produce usable light.

LEDs also usually have fans and require some fiddling to get them to work right.

Keeping with regular bulbs, although not plug and play, you can get more light from your bike by doing a couple of things. You can run your stock bulbs off a relay (trigger from the stock bulb connector) and new larger wiring to the battery which will allow more current to run the the bulbs making them brighter. You can usually also upgrade the stock bulbs to a slightly higher wattage when you do this relay mod.

If it was me, I'd do my research on LED bulbs, find one that has a dual chip, fan cooled, that is in the same location as an incandescent bulb, and go that route. 2nd option would be upgraded incandescent bulb with relay and wiring, and last option would be HID WITH a proper reflector housing designed for an HID.
 
#3 ·
Tried a couple of led and they did exactly what you said, bright but no usable light. If Hid will melt the plastic cover that won't help either. I personnally think the 2014 headlights had a bit of bad design. I adjusted both beams as to to not blind fellow drivers and run the bike with both headlights on. I quess i will stick to this. I will see if possible to install auxiliary lights somehow. Thank you very much Obo.
 
#4 ·
Is your bike set to normally have one beam as low and the other as high (both bulbs being h7's)?

If so there are a few LED's that may work as a replacement, albeit a bit pricey. You'd likely have to deal with stuffing a ballast in there as well (similar to an HID) but could use the stock wiring.

Again, not quite plug an play, but fairly close.

I'm on another forum with a member who is quite knowledgeable about LED's that work almost exactly (or better) than OEM bulbs. Many of us have already upgraded our h4 bulbs to LED with great improvement. (You bike uses h7 bulbs I think...)

As for aux lighting, there are lots of options for that. Fork mounted may be the simplest option.
You can go from inexpensive to pricey. Each have their pros and cons.

If money isn't a concern I'd go with the Clearwater LED lights.

Here's a review page:

And the main website. The recommend 3 styles for your bike, the Darla, Krista or Erica.
 
#6 ·
Received and plugged in some LED lightbulbs, but the one I got has that fan on the rear and comes with a wire and plug. The problem is that on the 1000 lightbulbs comes with an adaptor that you must plug the lightbulb in and is needed in order for it to lock in place. This was too bad cause it did seem to give nice light. therefore ordered led which is plug and play ( which can be plugged in with adaptor ) TBD. I will keep you posted
 
#7 ·
Here's an update for better lighting. I found these pegs that screw in on front wheel where there's the abs plastic cover. Now i have something i can install some auxilary lighting on. I found a pair of 6x cree led per spotlight, which I'm waiting for. Hoping this will be perfdct lighting. In the meantime, here are dome pics of the pegs
 

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#10 ·
Here's my latest update on auxilary spotlights installed on the front wheel on the pegs previously spoken about. It actually lights up nicely. They were 6 led per light(12 leds) equals supposedly 120watts. Can't wait to see what it will look like when driving at night. But here are domd pics of set up.
 

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