I ordered and installed The standard DDM running 35 watt HID kit with 4500k bulb on my motorcycle. The kit comes with digital ballast wires and bulb. Installation would be fairly simple depending on what type of housing you are putting it in. Advertised startup amperage is up to 6 amp with running amperage of 3.4 amp. The h4 kit comes with a plug to connect to the factory h4 harness on the vehicle but I still had to cut wires to run them through the small hole on my 5 3/4” headlight bucket. The HID kit connectors feel rather cheap and do not provide a snug fit but seem to work fine. I think I’ll need to tape and zip tie everything together to prevent it from being damaged from vibration. I’m also going to apply dielectric grease which I feel should be included in the kit. The ballast is small but it feels like there is just a mess of wires that are just a tad too bulky for a motorcycle kit. Since there is no fairing and space is at a premium on a superglide, I hid all the wires and ballast inside a tool bag that I mounted above the headlight bucket with a hole cut in the back to run the wires.
The light output is significantly increased over halogen and is probably comparable to 60 watt halogen high beam but with shorter range. I removed the xenon bulb protector and cutoff shield as I wasnt sure if the cutoff shield would fit in the halogen housing with the bulb hood intact. The bulb hood allows small spots of light towards the sky as it has small holes around it. The beam profile is wider closer to the bike and seems to have a sharper cutoff which makes it seem like a more compressed hotspot which is still an elliptical shape. There are also artifacts which project up and out in a diagonal fashion on either side of the beam.
I took it for a 10 minute test ride before work tonight and visibility is improved. Since the beam spill is wider I was able to see deer that were ahead of me before they started crossing better than with the factory setup and was able to slow in time to avoid plowing into therm. The beam pattern has strange artifacts and more a obvious cutoff on the hotspot which is very annoying but visibility is definitely improved.
Overall I think this product was a good budget improvement but with a couple of drawbacks that I can live with for now. I plan on finding a spare headlight housing to tear apart and see if I can incorporate a projector lens to improve the beam pattern. I’ll also post beam shots with the cutoff hood if possible.
The kit was $20.25
The bracket was $2.99
And shipping $11.77
Shipping was less than 10 days from china.
Ive read enough HID conversion threads to know that some incandescent housing work better than others when converted to HID. Most of them scatter the beam, ruin the cut off and create glare. These can be extremely dangerous to oncoming traffic. Ive converted my 10” Hella off road lights to 100 watt HID with great success, but they are intended only for off road use.
Yeah, I just need to find a used housing to take apart. I like flashlights but vehicles are more my thing. I wish I knew someone to fab parts. I’m thinking HID low beam with led high beam combo would be perfect. I still haven’t gotten around to finishing my xhp50 light. Maybe when I hit the lotto I can spend all day on my projects and not worry about money.
New HID projector housings arent that expensive and there are many to chose from. Incandescent projector housings generally do a horrible job. Just read a few of the HID forums and you’ll find a short parts list to complete your project in a few hours.
Here are some pics from my crappy cell phone camera ISO 1600 setting. I threw in pics with the BLF D80 and my xhp50 build to give something to compare it to. All in all, its the most bang for the buck lighting upgrade I’ve done at around $30 shipped. Before, I was totally blinded by other vehicles lights completely overpowering mine and I just had to hope that there was nothing in the road for me to hit while riding. That feels like playing russian roulette.
DDM 35 HID
BLF D80 Flashlight
and Both of them together
and here are some pics I took with my wife’s camera a while back. I don’t remember what settings I had it on and the lights are brighter in person and illuminate further than what it shows in the pictures but it’ll give some comparison.
If you want maximum light output with a sharp cuttoff so as not to blind oncoming traffic, retroffiting OEM HID projectors with OEM bulbs and ballast into your stock headlights are the way to go. Far better quality than anything aftermarket and the light output is far higher. I have done a full OEM HID lowbeam, and OEM led foglight conversion on my car and I couldn't be happier. My 65watt HIR1 powered highbeams looks dim in comparison to my lowbeam! Here are some pics.
Thats a very nice beam cutoff and alignment ImagioX1. Unlike most stock reflector mods that put half of the light into the trees and into the eyes of oncomming traffic, yours are well done!
That does look wonderful! Keep in mind I’ll always have half the light output of an automobile with the same setup. I’m looking into projector but I need to take some measurements and find one that fits my little housing. There’s not a whole lot of depth on mine. That and they’re pricey so I’ll have to save my pocket change till I get enough. Back before I had kids I managed to pay cash for a new Harley but now I’m lucky to afford tires. morimoto match box looks like it’s small enough to fit. I’m not sure about others. I was hoping to find complete affordable housings with the projectors n but no such luck
hidplanet.com & theretrofitsource.com are enthusiast suppliers. You can also find a good supply on ebay, once you figure out which housing you’re interested in.
Matchbox projector would not be good for headlight use. The beam does not have a hotspot and thus you would only be able to see whats directly in front of you and have no distance vision whatsoever. If you are very budget minded ebay h1 projectors would seem to be the logical choice but a lot of the ebay projector could be considered the equivalent of The Retrofit Sources rejects. For an aftermarket projector kit The Retrofit Source is the way to go. Their products have been proven to be more reliable that the ebay and DDM stuff. Hyluxtec also makes better-than-ebay-quality ballast that are cheaper than TRS's. Best of all though go all OEM. That gets pretty pricey( my setup, fogs included, was well over 1grand.) but when done correctly should last you several years completely trouble free.
Another option, depending on the kind of bike you have, could be LED. JW speaker makes several different LED headlights that are a direct replacement for a lot of the standard conifguration headlights like 7in round headlights and the like that is used on a lot of bikes. Might want to see if they have something you can use.
Follow the advice and use a stock hid setup and retro fit it if you’re going the hid route, and the same for led. Very few of us are lighting engineers, and even then the fabrication of housings/reflectors suitable for on road use is critical. I admit that many stock lighting setups leave much to be desired but it is really easy to get more light for yourself and blind everyone else on the road. It’s also easy to think that you have improved your lighting when you have actually increased glare and reduced the long range visibility you were looking for.
Check out Daniel Stern Lighting for some good reading.
Yeah, the Harley led upgrades are supposed to be made by jw speaker but they’re $$$ and I’ve read that they are OK but fall short compared to HID. Trs has some rejects for $20 that wouldn’t set me back too much. I’ll still have to measure first for clearance if i ever get enough time .There’s just nothing plug and play for 5 3//4 in a bucket. 7” and your good to go since all the big bikes and jeeps use them. I was just hoping someone out there had done the same thing before and could give some advice but after posting on a couple forums I haven’t ran across anyone that has. The Harley forum guys either don’t mind dropping wads of cash or don’t care about dot rules for the most part. I guess that’s what I get for buying a motorcycle from a place that sells $100+ handlebar grips
edit: It might be that they use Truck-Lite instead of JW Speaker.
morimoto match box looks like it’s small enough to fit. I’m not sure about others. I was hoping to find complete affordable housings with the projectors n but no such luck