| Author | Message | ||
     Russ189 |
After my second ride on my recently acquired Uly nearly ended with t-boning a feral hog the same size as the bike, I decided to do something about the stock headlights. Found a Chinese company called Kingtech Auto Parts that sells knockoff HID projectors for a fraction of the name brand prices. Having had good luck in the past with Chinese HID, I decided to give them a go and bought two "KT-MT5" lights from them. If nothing else, the english translations on the box they came it were worth it! Anyway, they are too big to fit in the stock housing, so I took it apart and built a little extension out of sheet metal to mount them in. Apologies in advance for no masterfully photographed build report. Figured I would snap a few pictures for anyone interested in doing the same. I don't have any pictures of the headlights on at night, but they have the same excellent beam pattern as any HID projectors. Looking forward to a night ride this week when it dries up here in the Bay Area. This projector needed ~1/2" more depth in the housing, so I cut a 4.5"x9" piece of sheet metal and bent the sides to make a 1" deep box that fits snugly on the back of the housing. It's attached with 6 little bolts through the circular lips on the housing. https://picasaweb.google.com/pollock.russell/UlyHID?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO70lZHg7LyhVw&feat=directlink (Message edited by russ189 on March 25, 2012) | ||
| Xbimmer |
Wow that's innovative, how did you get the headlight assembly apart without tearing it up? | ||
| Russ189 |
I released the 4 tabs with a flat blade and slowly pried the housing apart with a knife edge. There is a little bit of silicon holding it together, but it gives as you work the knife around. | ||
| Pos90 |
Looks good. Is the front of the projector lenses tight against the inside of the factory lenses? Do you have any before and after pics of the light output? | ||
| Sekalilgai |
nice work! thanks for sharing Ken | ||
| Motorbike |
Good job! That looks pretty cool, like a pair of eyes, especially that last pic. Thanks for posting. | ||
| Djohnk |
http://eshop.ktautopart.com/home-list/kt-mt5-211.h tml | ||
| Russ189 |
Thanks Pos90 -- The reason for building the back on the housing was to keep the projectors from hitting the factory lens. With the lights I used there is probably 1/4" spacing. Sorry, no pics of before/after light. I only have a point&shoot camera, so automatic aperture/shutter speed changes would make the dark/bright pictures misleading. The beam pattern looks like any other HID projectors. Very bright and very defined cutoff. | ||
| Calamari_kid |
Slick. What are the advantages of this over a simple bulb swap with something like the DDM kit? Better light since you're swapping to projectors? I'm going to go with one or the other eventually. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
The biggest advantage would be the sharp cutoff. Simply placing an HID bulb in our regular housing usually causes a bit of light scatter. Love it! Great job! | ||
| Argentcorvid |
I have been waiting for some one else to do this for at least a year, since my "innovative fabrication" skills really aren't there. Does the box just bolt to the normal attachment points on the headlight housing? Thanks! | ||
| Russ189 |
As mentioned, beam pattern is the main advantage. That said, I've been very happy with my DDM kit on my VFR750 for the last few years. I bolted the box to the top, bottom, and outer edges of the headlight circles. One of the pictures shows the outer and bottom bolts of the right headlight. Drill the holes in the sheet metal extension first, put the extension on the back of the housing, and drill through the housing holes to ensure exact fit. | ||
| Rwven |
Russ189, how well do these transition between high and low beam? | ||
| Russ189 |
They have a solenoid in them that moves the reflector to raise the beam pattern. I haven't gotten out for a good long night ride yet, but the highs seem to work quite well. I'm still trying to adjust the lights to the best height. Too bad there isn't a thumb screw type adjustment on the Uly. | ||
| Husky |
You might try the static adjustment suggested on page 139 of your Owners Manual, it works for me! husky | ||
| Argentcorvid |
what i did for my stock headlights, was to take the bike to a level side street, loosen the bottom screw just a bit, and adjust the position to something acceptable while sitting on the bike. the housing was easily reachable. just make sure the screws are tight before taking off again. are the units you bought really 4 inches long? the drawing on the web page you linked to says it is 105mm long. when I was investigating putting projectors on my bike, I got a depth from the plastic lens to the outside of the rear housing (where the bulb retainer goes) of around 3 inches. but maybe removing the reflector makes enough difference? | ||
| Russ189 |
The projectors are the dimensions listed on the page Djohnk linked to. Moving the reflector gains an inch or so of depth. The bracket I made gives a half inch more. You can get shorter projectors, but they will be smaller dia which is why I went with the normal sized ones. | ||
| Cyclonedon |
interesting and it looks very well done too! Keep us posted on how they work out for you. I would be interested to see how they are working next year at this time. | ||
| Clang |
Hey Russ - How about an update in this project. Now that you've been using them a few months are you still happy? If you were to do it again, would you use one of the smaller HID Projector kits? The reason I ask this is because the sheet metal box you made looks like it might be a rain trap when moving. Are you having any issues? Thanks, Chris (Message edited by clang on June 16, 2012) | ||
| Russ189 |
Sorry for late reply, been out of town. Managed to get in a 1500mi trip through CA, NV, UT a few weeks ago and still happy with the lights. One thing of interest is that since the lights don't have any scatter and the beams are so intense? direct? (not sure how to describe), on windy dark back roads, you can't see into dips because of the strong shadow the lights throw. If I were to do it again, I would stick with the same lights. The smaller lights are probably easier to install, but larger the lens, better light you'll get, IMHO. Curious to see an installation with the smaller lights to see if it works without having to fab a housing. The projectors are fairly heavy, so may be a challenge securing them to the stock reflector. |
