18-MAY-2006
Stock 55w H7 halogen bulb - low beam
18-MAY-2006
Philips VisionPlus 55w H7 bulb - low beam
18-MAY-2006
Stock H7 halogen bulb - 55w low beam
18-MAY-2006
Philips VisionPlus H7 bulb - 55w low beam
SOLAS reflective tapes
There was no light sources from the motorcycle. The bright light you see here was the SOLAS reflective tape.
SOLAS applied to the back of leather jacket
SOLAS reflective tape applied to the front of leather jacket
The bright light on the bottom right was from my riding pant legs.
21-SEP-2008
Hella auxiliary running lights
To increase night time visibility, I installed a pair of Hella FF50 running lights. They are awesome!
HID (High Intensity Discharge) Lights - October 2008
After 2 years, the Phillips Vision Plus bulbs are getting dimmer and dimmer. So I was looking for another set of Vision Plus for replacement. They were about US$40 a pair after shipping. I also happened to read a lot of good reviews on the HID (High Intensity Discharge) conversion kit sold by vvme.com. I checked it out and it was only $67 after shipping from Beijing China. A few years ago, HID used to be a few hundred dollars.
HID lights are much much brighter than halogen and consume less current (35w each) than the halogen (55w each). However, the start-up voltage is 23000 V. The battery's 12V input to the HID ballast ramps up the voltage to 23000 V to ignite the HID bulbs and once it's ignited, the voltage dropped back. HID bulbs also need some time to warm up to full brightness and they don't like to be switch on and off quickly (like flash-to-pass).
They also come in different bulb temperature from yellow (smaller Kevin degree) to blue (higher Kevin degree). vvme carries HID from 4300 deg (also pure white) to 15000 deg (blue). I ordered a pair of 4300 deg and they arrived California from China in 5 days.
