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Morimoto Motorcycle H4 Single Headlight Elite System


Allan

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So I wanted to share this because it is another option for upgrading the headlight on this bike. I know we have the Cyclops Supporting vendor on the forums, but I just want people to know other options are out there as well. So this is the Morimoto Motorcycle H4 Single Headlight Elite System
morimoto_motorcycle_single_bulb_kit.jpg
Basically what it is, is an H4 system which has a relay that will plug right into the stock H4 socket of our bike and power a bulb that has up to 3500 Lumens. The kind of neat thing about this H4 bulb though, is that it is not a dual filament. Rather it is a halide salt bulb much like a standard H1 or D2S bulb. So how does it accomplish the H4 low and high beam effect you ask? Well, if you look at the bulb in the middle here between the other two in this picture:
h4_morimoto_3five_hid_bulbs_2_4.jpg
You can see there is a notch cut out in the bulb's chrome looking casing, that is the bottom of the bulb that would face the bottom of the reflector bowl, where your high beam light gets reflected from. Basically how it works, is the light bulb itself is pushed forward in that casing so the light emitting "filament" part of the bulb is not visible through that notch so that no light can be directly shined onto the bottom of the reflector bowl. Then when you engage the high beams, the bulb itself actually gets pulled back so the light emitting "filament" part is now in that notch so light can pass through to the bottom of the reflector, thus giving you a high beam. It really is an innovative H4 design that allows an H4 setup to have a HID bulb which have superior light output.
 
So this kit is cool for a few reasons. The first being, it should be a direct plug and play kit with absolutely no modifications required for our bike. I say should be, because I have actually never installed one so I don't know for sure if the black back part of the bulb would clear the triple tree on our bike, but I am willing to bet a lot of money that it would, because it seems very similar in size to the Cyclops bulb and that clears it.
 
A second reason that is more just a cosmetic one, is you get to choose your Kelvin rating from 4300K to 6000K. So there is just a little bit of personal taste stuff you can do there. If you want it closer to stock light color you can get the 4300K. If you want a tinge of blue, you can get the 6000K. Or if you just want white, get the 5000K.
 
And the third reason, which I think is probably one of the most important, it offers all of the hardware to then do a full projector retrofit if you want to upgrade in the future. Since this bulb is actually a projector HID bulb in a housing that makes it work with a stock reflector, it needs all the hardware to make it run properly. So you get a Morimoto ballast, Morimoto Motocycle H4 Single Output motorcycle specific wiring harness, a Morimoto XB AMP ballast igniter, and a Morimoto 3Five HID bulb for just $87.50. This is a gateway headlight upgrade if you will. Because all of those things that this kit comes with (with maybe an exception to the bulb itself) you can use in a projector retrofit. The ballast, and harness are the same ones that come with the Motorcycle Stage 1 Single kit i used on my bike so when you install this H4 kit, if you ever wanted to go a step further and do a projector, you already have all the wiring done and just need to buy a projector and shroud. That's it. Not the whole stage one kit. Then you just shove the projector in the headlight and plug in the stuff you already have into it and BOOM! Done. Full projector HID system.
 
So I really hope someone tries this on here as I am curios to see how it would turn out. If you want to do a projector retrofit in the future but don't have $150 to spend on a full kit, or don't feel confident enough yet to mod your headlight, then this is the kit for you. It's also only like $17 more than some other lighting kits and you get a lot more stuff that helps your bike regulate power delivery to the light properly. I've heard a few people say that they wish they could take their Cyclops bulb and put it into a projector because they like the finished product so much, but LED bulbs should NEVER be used in low beam applications like a projector. This isn't the Cyclops bulb, but you can take this and make a projector out of it. I'm not saying the Cyclops bulb is bad or you shouldn't buy it or anything, I'm just saying the differences between the two systems and the benefits of this one. Let me know what you all think. I'm eager to see if anyone gives this a shot.

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Can an HID get too hot and melt your light housing? That would be my only concern really. I thought I've heard of this happening somewhere. Dunno how. Dunno where. But it's got me concerned!

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Dammit Allan why are you tempting me, I was so good about not spending money this month.... This kit looks perfect tho.
 
Does retrofit do group buys? Maybe we can get one going here if there is enough interest.

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Can an HID get too hot and melt your light housing? That would be my only concern really. I thought I've heard of this happening somewhere. Dunno how. Dunno where. But it's got me concerned!
This is from Yahoo Answers: 
"Real HID systems with ballasts and xenon short arc lamps, (the type that you are talking about) produce less heat and wont melt your housings.
There also exist "simulated HIDs" which are often labeled as "HIDS" and at one time were much more readily available than real HIDs and often time. Many people sadly still do not know the difference.
 
Simulated HIDs are high wattage halogen bulbs with tinted glass to make them put off a different color fo light, instead of the original 55w, they may be 75, 80, 90, or even 100 watt bulbs which get much much hotter than the original bulbs, and draw more current which can pop fuses. Though these are not real HIDs, these are the types that melt housings and are often referred to as HIDs by people that don't know any better."
 
So the short answer, no. It won't melt it. Haha
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Dammit Allan why are you tempting me, I was so good about not spending money this month.... This kit looks perfect tho. 
Does retrofit do group buys? Maybe we can get one going here if there is enough interest.
I don't want to encourage you spending money if you don't need to, but I really want someone to get this kit.. Haha As for the group buy, I'm not sure if TRS would do something like that. I think there would need to be a pretty large interest, like 15+ people, for them to consider. If there is enough interest shown, I can email Zach at TRS who is the costumer service coordinator and see if he can work something out.
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  • 2 weeks later...
This is also another option. It has the ballast and fan built in. No need to worry about were to put the ballast 
http://www.cyron.com/p-209-headlight-bulb-led-retrofit-kit-motorcycles-abh4k.aspx
 
http://www.socalmotogear.com/PATHFINDER-H4F3-HI-LO-BEAM-LED-HEADLIGHT-p/h4f3.htm

Those are both a lot like the cyclops LED bulb. And those aren't ballasts on them, they are heat sinks for the LED drivers due to the heat the LEDs make when they run. With the American model of the 07 though, the spot where the ABS box would have been is an absolute perfect spot of the ballast and the relay. They seriously couldn't fit in there any more perfect. I'm trying to offer a departure from LED headlights because in my, and probably everybody at TRS', opinion is that LED bulbs are not to the point where they would make good low beam bulbs. That's not to say you can't use them that way if you wanted to, but the hot spot and light distribution of an LED are nothing compared to a proper HID bulb. Everybody can take that for what they will. 
Anyways, TRS would definitely do a group buy if enough people would be interested. It's something like if 25 people are interested, then everyone gets 25% off, or something like that. I'm not sure on the exact details. It would end up being about $66 with the group buy 25% off of the original $87.50.
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The amount of lumens advertised on these systems doesn't seem to make them worth the hassle over the 3800 Lumen H4 LED bulb offered by Cyclops.
 
I have an HID on my ninja, and if I find an LED system for it I am switching back. No more ballasts going bad.

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The amount of lumens advertised on these systems doesn't seem to make them worth the hassle over the 3800 Lumen H4 LED bulb offered by Cyclops. 
I have an HID on my ninja, and if I find an LED system for it I am switching back. No more ballasts going bad.
It's not all about lumens though. If you have an 10,000 lumen light but there is no control to it, you're going to be throwing light everywhere and have hot and dark spots all over. Power is nothing without control. As the technology sits now, and LED bulb will never match the performance of an HID projector. That's why even though these lights have less lumens than the LED ones, many times the lower lumen lights actually are better because the light is more concentrated, spread more evenly, and has a razor sharp cutoff so you're not blinding people. Like here is an LED wall output shot from a forum member here: 
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/22/86819b81cf0646a65b2ab8fbd7397116.jpg
 
Not bad and I know the light isn't aimed so it is high, but when you look at this:
 
http://img.tapatalk.com/6c06afb2-5e15-98ed.jpg
 
There is a clear difference in performance. I'm not saying that the H4 kit listed above will preform like the projectors, because they won't, but I'm saying it will be a "gateway" light upgrade for those who want to do a retrofit in the future. 
 
 
 
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There is a difference between the cyclops without the correct spacer and one with. All that fuzziness and dark spots go away when the light is properly reflected by the factory housing.

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You will still never get the light output of the projector. I'm not saying that the Cyclops suck and you should never buy one, I'm just saying from a pure performance standpoint, they cannot match an HID projector. To each their own though. :)

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And some people do feel that way. I still want someone to try this kit though, because I'm really anxious to see how this does actually look compared to both the Cyclops and the projector.

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@Allan research again. The ballast is built in
 
"The ballast of an HID setup sends a high voltage pulse through its output similar to a spark plugs which travels across the electrodes in the HID bulb, ionizing the halide salts and xenon gas inside it's capsule to create light. Then after the initial spark the bulb is driven with a controlled overload from the ballast. Here, the bulb's capsule is still operating at high voltage and the temperature is rising quickly, vaporizing the halide salts and making the light output from the bulb spectrally complete - which fills out the beam pattern. The resistance between the electrodes also falls; the electronic ballast control gear registers this and automatically switches to continuous operation. In the continuous phase all metal salts are in the vapor phase, the arc has attained its stable shape and the lumen output from the bulb is maxed out. The ballast now supplies stable electrical current so the bulb won't/shouldn't flicker." - TRS
 
LEDs don't need that. If they do, there is something seriously wrong with how that LED was designed. Lol What LEDs do need however, are drivers which regulate the power flow using capacitors, rectifiers, transformers and resistors. Sometimes companies will call this a "ballast" but they are not the same thing. A ballast would be a loose translation of what it really is, as they both regulate power flow, but in two very different ways and an HID ballast does more in igniting the bulb. Also, ballasts don't normally use fans. They should be efficient enough where they don't need fans to cool them down. So they are calling the LED driver a ballast there. They are in no way the same thing. And by that I mean, you can't take the driver from that LED bulb and use it on a D2S bulb and you can't take the ballast from the HID setup and power the LED with it. They are 2 totally separate animals. You should only need a ballast if you are doing HID bulbs.
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  • 3 months later...
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Is that what the LED light looks like? That's pretty pathetic. I cant think of any other way to piss off drivers around me than by having a bright, annoying light shining in their face.
Atleast they know you're there :). Get in a low riding car and have a lifted truck with HID's sit behind you. That's painful. 
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a cyclops and have taken it out. Using the supplied adapters I cannot get the low beam pattern clean enough cutoff . I went to a HID I have. The LED light is better but the HID won't get me killed by other car drivers. The HID is dull and diffused and GREEN ( NOT a projector, just a HID bulb in the std reflector) and the LED clean and smooth but low beam has too much upper scatter.
When will hey make a proper focussing LED???????????
Incandescent is soooo yesterday. ie within 5 years I will be surprised if any motorcycles except VERY cheap ones have bulbs.

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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AlbatrossCafe
I have a cyclops and have taken it out. Using the supplied adapters I cannot get the low beam pattern clean enough cutoff . I went to a HID I have. The LED light is better but the HID won't get me killed by other car drivers. The HID is dull and diffused and GREEN ( NOT a projector, just a HID bulb in the std reflector) and the LED clean and smooth but low beam has too much upper scatter. When will hey make a proper focussing LED???????????
Incandescent is soooo yesterday. ie within 5 years I will be surprised if any motorcycles except VERY cheap ones have bulbs.
I feel the same way dude... I want to take out my Cyclops. I hate that the low/high basically points in the same direction. It also is so scattered. I added the spacer which worked decently for a bit, but it has since become dislodged, and it is scattered again. I think I might try the kit in this post. 
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Dimension of the spacer please? I might have a play. Maybe use the LED as a low beam and add a light for high beam. Or photo as well would be good

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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AlbatrossCafe
Dimension of the spacer please? I might have a play. Maybe use the LED as a low beam and add a light for high beam. Or photo as well would be good
Check page 5 of this thread: http://fz07.org/thread/2701/fz-cyclops-led-bulb-replacement?page=5 
"They are 7/8 inside dia 1.025 outside diam. fiber washers. you may be able to find them in a pluming dept of a good hardware store .062 and .125 thick.
Regards"
 
Smaller spacer is 1/16" and bigger one is 1/8" thick. Most people are using the 1/8" only.
 
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