When I ride, my wife is behind me on the ST2 with a HID projector conversion fitted. We ride with lights on all of the time. So you are saying that her HID has 3 lux, but you cannot measure it? Are you saying that my eyesight is now so bad that I am disabled? The colour temperature is interesting, as a lighting engineer I suggest that you have a look at these HID conversion kits and you will very quickly realise that you can chose the colour temperature in the range from 4300k up to around 8000k. 4300k is as close to daylight colour as they get. An MOT station will see any stray light above the cut off, which you don't get with a decent projector, but will get with a standard reflector, and can fail for that I assume. We don't have MOTs on bikes here.
Here is the DofT statement about aftermarket HiD http://webarchive.nationalarchives....ormation-sheets/aftermarket-hid-headlamps.pdf
Great, but read it " The reason for this is that the existing lens and reflector are designed around a Halogen filament bulb," implies that it is concerned with a lens and reflector, in other words a normal non-projector headlight. A reflector and a projector are opposites. No manufacturer fits HID to a normal reflector headlight, they all fit them into projectors. This document does not apply to me anyway as the DOT have no jurisdiction in France for French registered bikes.
Does anyone use LED bulbs on their 999? Been looking at all the different options on eBay - any recommendations?
Bob, as a lighting engineer you should know why 3 lux cannot be measured and why it is enough to cause disability glare. I am also a lighting engineer and have participated in several CIBSE, LIF and emergency lighting technical committees. You should also know that daylight colour temperature is not static but dynamic. It varies through the day from warm at less than 3000K to cool at over 6500K. Most people associated the cooler 6500K with daylight and the warmer tones with dawn and dusk. 4300K is a colour temp which blends with both. Or at least most likely to. The 3 lux refers to light measured on the retina. This cannot be measured because you can't put a light meter in someone's retina. It is a theoretical calculation. No headlight system has a single method of light control. They all use a combination of reflectors and refractors or reflectors and projectors. Either way. As soon as you change the size and position of the light source the result and beam pattern is not to spec and as a consequence leaves you at risk for MOT failure and insurance liability. It is a modification out with the manufacturers spec.
First rule of light club.......bulbs are things you plant in the ground Lamps are the things that get fitted to luminaires. With tungsten halogen lamps you can have the same size and shape lamp of the same wattage, with the same length of light emitting filament, but if the optic is design for a transverse filament and you buy a an axial filament the resulting beam angle will be a dogs breakfast. HID lamps have tiny, tiny light emitting area, which is one of their advantages. When a luminaire designer is designing an optic he considers first the dimensions of the source and the light emission pattern of that source. This is considered a luminance. He then has to determine how to direct light which is being thrown everywhere into a beam pattern. This may or may not be symmetrical. For the majority of applications this will involve a reflector. On the reflector he will be aiming to create additional luminances which are mirror images of the lamp luminance. The orientation of the each luminance on the reflector will heavily influence the beam pattern. This employs the basic principle of Angle of incidence = angle of reflection And ultimately determines the shape of the reflector. The is determined in part by the size of the light source itself. Hence hid lamps can have smaller optics. In automotive headlight design the objective at this stage will be to design a reflector to produce light at the appropriate angles so that the secondary part of the optic can finish the job of distributing the light as required. The secondary optic is pretty much always a refractor lens. Either a projector lens or a prismatic lens. But really, they are both refractors. Either way, as soon as the size and/or position of the light source is changed then the games up. You can install a complete new luminaire with an optical system designed to suit the light source, which solves the above problem but as @Sev says, there are problems with self levelling. Something I hadn't thought about, but it's an excellent point.
Both off my bikes have HID projectors in them now. Before making statements like the above you should consider that not all countries have MOTs on bikes (we don't here), and it seems that it is only the UK where an insurance company wiggles out of a claim for the smallest modification, of any other excuse that they can think of.
Don't know if you have noticed, but this is Ducatiforum.CO.UK if you think UK members are going to poll everyone else to find out where the live and then research the appropriate laws in those jurisdictions then I think you are being a bit optimistic. Maybe you should take a reality check before posting statements like the above?
Just to clarify ( I'm sure ive said it on here before ) my rsv4 (old 2010 ) model has HID's fitted. They run cooler, are brighter - I myself have no problems with their output and its been through 3 MOT's so far and they've not even mentioned them, no advisories, nothing...
Doesn't the bike MOT allow the HID, or at least not test for it? The cut off through the projector is brilliant, yes if I accelerated the cut off rises but not enough to shine directly into eyes. The HID police here should direct their attention to the Vauxhall Nova types who use them in reflector style lamps, now they DO shine fucking everywhere!!
If I was really picky mine could do with pointing up a bit more but not by much...I don't tend to ride at night so its not really an issue plus it doesn't get used that much either...
Oops, perhaps us overseas members will get chucked off the .CO.UK forum when brexit happens. If you are the forum owner then I apologise for applying for membership under false pretences. And I thought that we were all just Ducati owners.
I am a member of several American forums, but I don't expect the Americans to know about UK law or even comprehend UK words like boot and bonnet when they use hood and trunk. I think you have unrealistic expectations. I didn't say you should be chucked off or not contribute. But don't criticise my post because I failed to take account for where you live. Where ever that is.
We are not the HID police. We were pointing out A) the undeniable physics B) the law, which is crystal clear on it C) insurance will be invalid I am not aware of headlights for different vehicles being treated differently. If people want to do something different they are free to do so.
Huge difference in a Brit on a US forum and a Brit who lives in Europe on a Brit forum. I served the UK all of my life as an Army brat, a member of the RAF and then an MOD civil servant.
Sorry, but I don't see what any of that has to do you expecting everyone else to play mystic Meg as to where you live and what the rules are.
