| Author |
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Tailspining
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 09:05 am: | 
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I've got my Hella's Steve, just tell me where to send the cash.
Gary |
Zoedogg1
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 02:07 pm: |
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I plugged mine with car interior panel plugs and put a fender washer and screw in the backside to lock in place.
CHECK IT...
Dont no, looks okay to me.
Heres the 1125 mirrors, get extenders, they are a MUST you'll see....
 |
Steve_mackay
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 02:38 pm: |
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Anybody in the Milwaukee or surrounding areas wanna be a guinea pig? 
Since I don't technically have a complete firebolt front end on mine, I'd like to fit one to a firebolt to make sure everything clears, and bolts up. |
Austinuu
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 05:04 pm: |
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I am also interested in purchasing the bracket if/when you are able to sell them.
Austin |
Tailspining
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 04:00 pm: |
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Have you found that guinea pig yet? |
Retrittion
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 04:39 pm: |
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Well, I'm not in the area (Washington), but I am interested in this bracket -- anything to convert these useless headlights to something useful (even with brights on I have never gotten flashed by on-coming, tells me a lot). It is sadly ironic that my front low-beam just died last night.
Having done some research I am going to go with two always on headlights, since it has been shown that a single headlight does not give distance information as well to other vehicles due to the way the human eye interprets a single point of light. When you add two lights it drastically improves the eye's ability to "range" the distance. This is a good thing where motorcycles are concerned.
Either way, thanks for working on a solution for us XBers -- I really appreciate it. I know I can bodger up a solution but a solid bracket that fits up nice would be so much better!
New headlights + 1125 mirrors + new rear blinkers = XB nirvana for me! |
Ducxl
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 05:20 pm: |
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HEY!!! Good to see we may be making progress! Thanks Steve.If it helps,i'm IN if you'll have/make one for me. |
Midknyte
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 05:43 pm: |
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When you add two lights it drastically improves the eye's ability to "range" the distance.
Some would argue though that you'll make yourself look more like a distant car... |
Steve_mackay
| | Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 11:45 pm: |
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yes, progress... But not as quickly as I would like. The problem is making it as easy to manufacture as possible. Otherwise it will be prohibitively expensive! |
Ducxl
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 09:12 am: |
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Define,prohibitively expensive? |
Steve_mackay
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 09:37 am: |
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Well, I could make the entire bracket out of two pieces of large billet aluminum. The stock alone would most likely run around $150-$200(Aluminum has double in price in the past 2 years), and then add the multiple setups needed for all the angular holes and such. Stock+machine time+ my small profit would put the bracket in the $350-$450 range. It sure would look cool however But what good would a 'purdy, and expensive billet aluminum piece be if it's hidden behind a fairing?
But, by using smaller pieces of aluminum bolted to the main bracket(for the fuse block attachments and such), will reduce the cost significantly. As long as I can make about 25 of these brackets at a time.
Stay tuned... |
Retrittion
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 01:55 pm: |
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Midknyte -- yeah, there is the issue of driver assumption (two lights=car, thus close together lights=car far away)...
BUT
...one light gives no information on distance (for the most part). Studies have shown that no info is worse than potentially confusing info. Bottom line -- it isn't the be all/end all, but adding two lights that are very bright has been shown to reduce accidents, especially in daytime, in traffic, and at intersections (the theory is that the lights causes the brain to notice and remember the object, much in the way a moving object does this, such as a flag).
Hey, I mainly want light so I can see at night and been seen better, everything else is a potential bonus. Looking forward to an affordable bracket. Any chance the bracket will fit a light that doesn't require modding the plastics? If not, no biggy. Thanks again for working on this thing Steve !
I do know that personally I have had less drivers ignore/fail to notice me since I started to run my brights in the daytime.
My 2 cents. |
Steve_mackay
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 02:12 pm: |
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Nope, all the bracket will fit for now at least, is the Hella 90MM lights. It's by far the best light, IMHO for our applications.
I can not run my brights in traffic at night. I will get flashed by oncoming cars. Something those of you with stock lights probably don't experience much.
And that is without HID. I'm still tempted to do a HID on the low beam. |
Damnut
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 02:32 pm: |
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I did the HID setup with the stock housings. 10000 times brighter/better than stock. It ended up costing me $200 and about 20 minutes of my time. |
Midknyte
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 03:08 pm: |
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No argument on added lights Ret'. Added some running lights myself this winter downseason.
HID + a fresh/replacement housing is a world of difference. Shop around and that $200 can cover the new housing too. Just be sure to get a slim ballast. No room to hide a standard ballast in the R fairing...
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Midknyte
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 03:10 pm: |
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Steve - Why couldn't you use a block of [appropriate type of] plastic to machine your bracket out of instead of a billet of aluminium? The stock bracket assembly is plastic, or fiberglass, or whatever... |
Steve_mackay
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 03:34 pm: |
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Bradly, I've thought of this. And I need to get quotes on some appropriate plastic to do this.
But what I fear, with my limited experience machining plastic, is it tends to warp, considerably.
But it is an option I am looking in to as well. I have a meeting set for Monday to look in to the feasibility of this project.
The stock bracket is glass filed nylon. |
Spike
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 04:51 pm: |
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I may have missed it, but has anyone looked into having a set of stock housings recoated? It seems like some company out there should be able to come up with a coating that won't melt. By now there should be plenty of bad housing floating around that could be used for testing.
Any thoughts? |
Firebolteric_ma
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 04:58 pm: |
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I did the HID setup with the stock housings. 10000 times brighter/better than stock. It ended up costing me $200 and about 20 minutes of my time.
My Hella's were brighter than Damnuts new lights, If you go the HID's I would get the BRIGHTEST ones they make. He got the 6 or 8k I believe. They were a VERY bright white type beam.... Almost on par with the Hella's.... |
Midknyte
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 05:37 pm: |
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Couple of guys here have gone round on the re-coating (expense and hassle upwards if not more expensive than just a replacement housing) and chrome paint (which did not last well) ideas. Short of the aluminum/oven tape, you'll still end up with deterioration if you stick with the halogen bulb.
Not to slight Steve's efforts, and there are those who will want the Hella's anyway, but I think the easiest, most economical, and a very good solution is just to get a new housing and convert to HID.
The light output is magnitudes better and they really do run cooler. You literally burn your finger if you touch the side of the low beam housing once it is up to temperature. With an HID in there, the top portion of the housing still gets hot, but the sides and bottom just warm - much less heat in there. Anecdotal evidence, but I do not expect to have to replace my housing again...
My vote goes 6000k too. Whitest output and should not draw LEO attention. |
Tailspining
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 10:32 pm: |
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Everyone is assuming that the deterioration of the headlight assemblies is from the heat generated by the bulb. I don’t think this is the case. It is my belief that sunlight is the cause of the deterioration. Think about it, the lens designed to disperse light from a single, small point. Now, what about the reverse? If the Sun is shining from the other side of the lens, what would happen? It would melt or burn the reflective coating. Have you ever fried ants with a magnify glass? My money is on Hellas and Steve’s bracket. |
Damnut
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 09:32 am: |
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Tailspining......... I beg to differ. The deterioration of the headlight assemblies are definitely cause by the bulbs. They get so hot that it actually melts the plastic. I can take a picture of a lowbeam that I have at home that shows the plastic melted on the side of the lens. There is actually a hole in the plastic. |
Tailspining
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 - 09:29 pm: |
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Any updates Steve? |
Blake
| | Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2008 - 12:22 am: |
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Melting may not occur until after the coating is degraded thus allowing the light/heat to hit the un-shielded plastic. |
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