Why you need HID
From BikeNomads
You are traveling along the highway at night and you see what seems to be a pretty garland of lights approaching around the next corner. Pretty until the time they are facing you, that is. At which point you realize that it is a convoy of trucks, all of whom are traveling at 35 kph - with their high beam on. Frantic flashing doesn't help. Only two dip their lights. You can no longer see the road, or anything else for that matter, apart from those lights. You hit the brakes, and drop speed to 15 kph, trying desperately to see the road. As you drop speed your 35W lights dim further (AC electricals being standard for Indian bikes with a few exceptions) - switching the high beam on again is no help at all. You grit your teeth, curse the inconsiderate b****** in front of you, question the parentage of those who thought that one 35W AC (or 55W) halogen bulb is sufficient for night travel, and crawl on, hopefully on the road, till the convoy passes.
And you also know that increasing the wattage of your bulb (connected directly to the battery) is not the solution, unless you are the sort that prefers to completely drain it in an hour. Of course, in a karizma you can go up to 100W (both filaments on fused relays please!), which makes it a lot better, but on the other bikes, you have to grin and bear it. Maybe curse and bear it, whatever. Because you know that the piffling 35W so thoughtfully provided by the manufacturer will not illuminate anything - until you learn that HID lamps consume only 35W, and throw out light in excess of a 150+W halogen bulb.
So what are HIDs, and how would you go about fitting one on your bike?
HID stands for high intensity discharge, and it is less a bulb, being more closely related to the humble tubelight. Comes with a ballast and igniter, too, just like the fellow on the wall, illuminating the room with his 40W. And like him, the HID lamp is very much more efficient than any incandescent bulb (in converting electricity to light), because any incandescent bulb, halogen bulbs included, is basically a heater, which also incidentally throws out light as a side effect. A small drawback - HID lamps need a few seconds to crank up to full intensity from a cold start, unlike an incandescent bulb.
HID lamps come in various guises, from H1 to H7 (and more) to replace any comparable halogen bulb, in a straightforward manner. Most Indian bikes run 35W H4 halogen bulbs. H4 bulbs have separate filaments for the high and low beams - the HID lamps readily available and meant to be a replacement have a HID tube for the low beam, and a 55W HALOGEN filament for the high beam. (There are also lamps where the tube moves back and forth by means of a solenoid such that the same tube alternates as the high OR low beam but these are considerably more expensive, and not so readily available)
Which means that you will be in a position where you have a so so high beam, which will do only one thing well, and that is to drain your battery as your rectifier unit cannot charge it fast enough. Of course, the dipped beam will be awesome, but sometimes you need to see some distance ahead! Yes, you can always do changes to your alternator coils and fit a different rectifier regulator unit, but if you have a problem with it out of town, NOBODY will be able to sort it out for you. I'd suggest you do not tamper with the stock system of your bike, unless you know exactly what you are doing.
What are your options now, with the limited electrical power at hand?
I've fitted a standalone spot lamp, in place of my high beam (taking a H3 HID). This beam comes on when I need to use the high beam/flash. It will provide a clean, focussed beam of pure white light (buy in the 4300K to 6000K range unless you like yellow or blue/violet lights which produce LESS illumination), that will illuminate a tractor trailer combo pulling farm produce (these are always unlighted, and have no reflector either, ever) over 200m away EVEN IF ONCOMING TRAFFIC HAS NOT DIPPED THEIR LIGHTS. Your 35W halogen will definitely not illuminate them, and if you hit these things, you will surely be in for a bad time. Farmers and the police both feel transporting agricultural produce illegally, at the lowest cost (and fattest profit) is much more important than endangering other people's lives (there is no other reason for the fact that no trailer EVER has lights or even a reflector) .
You may have a problem with the "bulb" not fitting within the spot lamp you have - not only is it longer, and can foul with the glass in front, but it juts out from the back more as well and may not fit properly within the metal body either. While the latter problem can be rectified by filing a hole, and machining some sort of adapter to enclose the hole neatly, it may be more painless to buy another unit in which the HID lamp fits.
The stock halogen bulb in my headlamp unit has been replaced with another HID (again, H3, with an aluminium adapter to advance the tube, about 11 mm, into the focal spot of the reflector). The entire headlamp unit has been focussed down at the road so that it functions as a low beam - and does not inconvenience oncoming traffic. The wires in the harness (near the left hand switch cluster) have been shorted such that it is always on once the headlamp is switched on, regardless of which beam is selected - this eliminates the tube being switched on and off (which is unnecessary anyways), and would lead to a delay as the lamp builds up to full intensity.
The above paragraph is not applicable to those whose bikes provide only 35W of usable power - please do not do this as the combined power drain would discharge your battery even faster than a 60W bulb - leave whatever is in the headlamp as stock - and see to it that the main beam filament does not receive power when the HID is switched on. If you wish to use this filament as well as have the HID equipped spotlamp come on when you use the pass switch, you'll have to fit a diode such that the current does not flow backwards to the halogen filament when the high beam is switched on. This diode is available as standard, at least at HH dealerships. Your mechanic can easily guide you as to which wire goes where.
H3 single HID kits come with their fused relays and wiring harnesses, the latter, apart from being water resistant, are also highly idiot resistant. Once you connect whatever fits into whatever else, you will be left with only four wires which do not seem to fit into anything.
One is a RED wire, which goes directly to your battery and supplies uninterrupted DC power to the ballast igniter combo, and thence to your lamp. There are two black wires, which are the earth wires, and can be connected to the battery, or the body. The last wire is the one which supplies current to the relay which switches the entire assembly on - this wire has to be connected to the wire that supplies the current to your high beam filament. Connect this to the wire coming out of the left hand instrument cluster which supplies the current to the high beam (after checking that it is not the wire coming from the pass switch!). As these units come with a fused relay as standard, nothing much needs to be done regarding the same.
However, if you are fitting a H3 HID CAR kit (with two ballast/igniter units, and two lamps, but only one fused relay) and want each one to operate independently, you will have to provide an independent relay and fuse for the second unit. The relay can be fitted anywhere, and I recommend fitting a Maruti van fusebox for the extra fuse(es) which can also provide power to your horns, and other accessories as well, bypassing the stock wiring altogether, and making everything more efficient and long lasting, while at the same time building an element of redundancy into the setup.
What are the points to remember, once you have the whole jing bang set up?
Check that your headlamp is switched off before starting. Yes, you may be doing it when you kill the engine, but it does not take bystanders much to reset the switches, trip timer, etc while doing their hair in your mirrors while you are away. There is a lot of voltage fluctuation while the engine is being cranked, and the igniter requires a large current to light up the lamp, too. Not good for either.
Align this spot beam properly. Straight ahead, and very slightly to the left is good - on wide roads, the beam will be limited to your side of the road, esp if you are on the left hand side, near the shoulder. It will still leave you with a blind spot to the right if there is oncoming traffic on high beams, but at least you will be able to see obstacles on the road in front of you. Easily
Hide the ballast, and change the bolts on the spotlamp to nonstandard bolts (allen, whatever) - make it more difficult for the casual thief. Remember, though, the wire leading to the lamp from the ballast is not very long.
USE IT RESPONSIBLY. You have no business to keep it on when there is oncoming traffic that has dipped their lights. Even for those who have not, flash a couple of times to remind, but here, your life is more important than somebody who does not dip in spite of being reminded. And those who dip and then go back to the high beam get no mercy...
Illegal? Hmm, so you should slow down and stop when blinded, getting onto the shoulder if necessary. Two wrongs don't make a right, right? Just a few probs on the highways "maintained" by the gubmin. Sometimes there is no shoulder. You get off the road, you die. The gubmin does not penalise those driving with their high beam on in spite of oncoming traffic on the highways. Ever. The gubmin does not penalise unlighted trailers (farmer profit before life). You hit one at speed, you die. There is no proper medical evacuation service provided by the gubmin on our highways. They should, but don't. So you can die from injuries that you would have survived had prompt care been available. Thats because the gubmin is totally out of touch with realities (that's why tractors, top speed - 40 kph are allowed two headlamps, with 60W high beams whereas a bike that can travel thrice as fast is supposed to have one 35W bulb), the rules being made by those who have NEVER driven on the highway, let alone at night.
The responsibility to stay alive at night is YOURS, not the gubmin's, they just frame the rules which sound good, and will get you killed if you follow them (for which they accept no responsibility either). Sooner rather than later.
Me, I'd much rather stay alive. Dunno how you feel about staying alive, if illegally.
The HIDs help you do just that, on our highways at night.