HID on main beam?

[pdes]

Has anyone fitted an HID to the main beam of an RT (2010). I am assuming that this would be impractical due to the start-up time of an HID but someone may have proved me wrong! It would be lovely to have three bright lights (my dipped beams are HID) instead of two bright white and one a dingy brown!!

[Hammam]

I have tow HIDs on my R1200 GS, and I have no problem. Of course, you have to give up on quick warning flahes, when following a slow or undecided cager for example, but you get used to it. It actually calms you down.

[Survived-til-now]

I have HID on my 2005RT main beam. I tried keeping the halogen but it just wasn't bright enough once I got the HID's on low.

 

You are correct about the warm-up time but you might check out a number of manufacturers cos mine are several years old now and I believe some are quicker than others....

 

One thing you might want to know is that once charged the ballast will hold its charge for say 15 seconds and thus give instant restart - very useful if you have to dip for oncoming traffic and want main beam back fast..... As Hammam has said, what you lose is a quick warning flash.

[pdes]

Nice to find a "local" poster! I don't feel so lonely now!! :-)

[Mike]

Let me translate for the Americans here: "Main" beam = High beam.

 

There use to be some options out there that utilized a mechanical shutter system. I'm not sure if they're around anymore.

[johnlt]

I had both high and low beam HIDs on my GSA. The "start-up" time you notice on high beam is to full "hid brightness". Mine did start instantly but at a lower level, probably similar to OEM then took a few seconds to get to full "hid brightness". Flashing oncoming cars did work but was a little subdued. It was noticable to oncoming traffic because I got responses back frequently.

[Hall Vince]

I tried HID on main beam and didn't like the delay (when it did work!)I went for additianal FF50's with 65w bulbs. They are very good.

\v/

[BerndM]

You actually do NOT give up your "Warning Flashes" at all. Even though it does take an HID about 5-10 seconds to come to FULL brightness, there is still an initial "Flash" when first energized that is quite a bit brighter than a comparably short duration flash with the OEM halogen.

I tried this comparison on 2 GSs side by side with my bike with the HIDs and my buddies with H7 Halogens. The Hi-Beam flash was pushed simultaneously on both bikes and I was very surprised how much brighter the HID's flash was than the halogen.

Sort of like looking at a camera's flashbulb.

Regards

Bernd