Nothing is more frustrating or dangerous than riding at night and not being able to see the road ahead very well or be seen by oncoming traffic. Sure, what is in front of you may be lit up fairly well, but visibility is nothing to compromise. If you could use better lighting from your standard headlight, then a HID (High Intensity Discharge) light may be the path to go.
ElectroSport in Oceanside, California, offers HID lighting options for cars to dirt bikes and have stepped into the cruiser and street bike markets. The company's HID lights feature both high and low beam settings and provide some of the highest levels of lighting output available. ElectroSport bulbs feature a shield that prevents oncoming traffic from being blinded in low beam. The company's HID lights produce a pure, bright, white light instead of yellow-tinted light from halogen headlights. ElectroSport's HID lights also feature a little extra green hue to increase the amount of light that can actually be seen by the human eye instead of other HID kits that typically use blue light, which according to the company, is a difficult color to see and focus on properly.
ElectroSport's HID kit allows for plug-and-play wiring designed to minimize installation time. We wanted to see the increase in light and ease of installation from the company's HID Kit (MSRP $249) on our '09 Ultra Glide. We went to Anaheim-Fullerton Harley-Davidson, where service technician Matt Cortez did the install while we snapped some photos.
1. Here is all that was needed...
1. Here is all that was needed to install ElectroSport's HID kit: HID H4 Lamp (A)(high/low), Ballast with tabs (B), and H4 Adapter harness with relay (C). The HID bulbs are a direct replacement for OEM bulbs. Since there is no internal filament to break in the HID bulbs, they are not affected by vibration, shock, and heat.
2. Matt removed the Philips...
2. Matt removed the Philips screw holding the headlight bezel, and then removed the bezel from the headlight lens assembly.
3. After removing the four...
3. After removing the four screws that secure the headlight assembly, Matt pulled the headlight out and disconnected the OEM H4 bulb plug.
4. For installing the new...
4. For installing the new ballast, Matt secured the mounting tab of the ballast between the headlight housing and the mounting ring using the same hardware. This allowed for no drilling and kept the ballast tucked out of the way of the bulb.
5. After inserting the adapter...
5. After inserting the adapter plug with the yellow seal into the stock H-D harness plug
6. ...Matt plugged the HID...
6. ...Matt plugged the HID H4 plug into the OEM H4 plug.
7. After Matt removed the...
7. After Matt removed the rubber boot from the back of the headlight lens and checked for any deterioration, he unhooked the light bulb retaining clip and removed the old bulb.
8. The new HID H4 lamp was...
8. The new HID H4 lamp was installed in the headlight lens assembly, followed by re-hooking the retaining clip onto the bulb. Note: There is no internal filament in the HID bulb, instead it uses a tiny electrical arc (spark) inside a glass vacuum chamber filled with xenon gas that turns into plasma and glows intensely white.
9. Then Matt plugged the...
9. Then Matt plugged the remaining ground plugs into the ballast and adapter.
10. After inserting the lens...
10. After inserting the lens into the headlight housing and seating it correctly, Matt installed the retaining ring and screws and tightened it securely, followed by re-installing the headlight bezel.
11. Finally, the headlight...
11. Finally, the headlight was properly adjusted and the beam alignment was checked before getting on the road and lighting up the night. We did a comparison between ElectroSport's HID headlight (left) to a stock halogen light in a bagger and found a dramatic increase in light and even white color from the HID light. According to ElectroSport and depending on some factors like headlight aiming angle, a rider can see two to three times further with the HID lights-that's almost 300 percent more light than stock halogen headlights.