Just Put some Philips diamond vision 5000k in both 899 and 1299 and very hapy with the results. The light colour is just about exactly the same as the led running lights In the picture the bike (as you look at it) on the right has the diamond vision on dipped beam the bike on the left original bulbs on dipped beam :thumbsup:
got mine from Car Light Bulbs › H11 | PowerBulbs Philips diamond vision H11 twin pack. 20% off with code advertised on site and free delivery Excellent service
899 easy! just pop the rubber cover above the dipped beam headlight, disconnect bulb, twist and released bulb 1299 bit more fiddly, undo outer screw on tank key guard then slide the plastic shroud that runs along the top of the faring to the nose cone. This gives you access to the dip beam bulbs twist and release the bulb as 899. Word of warning you have so little cable to work with on the 1299 it is a tight job refitting the connector to the bulb! But worth it !
I had a look, the keys guard plastics need to be removed, panelling is from the 1299 after all. Not much room in there, it's tight as a ducks bum.
According to the search that I just did, these bulbs are not road legal in the UK or EU. Also, although the colour is whiter and the colour temp is higher, the rated light output in lumens is no higher than ordinary bulbs. I use Philips Extreme Vision in the monster. The light is still not the best in the world by a long stretch but it is a significant improvement over the original bulb. Personally, I find a yellower light is more user friendly than superwhite/blue-tint lights as its less dazzling when it reflects off road signs etc. Also, I get dazzled by other peoples blue/white lights. Even Philips themselves advertise the Diamond bulbs as a cosmetic upgrade rather than an increase in performance.
And non-road legal means no insurance payout.... especially if the driver that hits you says that you dazzled them first! Just sayin'........
The colour temperature at a given power might make someone think that one bulb is brighter than another, but the light output is measured in lumens as utopia says. The halogen bulb has been made for decades now and is at the end of its development life, it cannot get any better. Any decent 55 watt halogen bulb will have about the same amount of lumen as any other, give or take a percent or two. Because a H11 is newer than a H7 does not mean that the envelope is any better, it just has a different base. The way ahead has been HID xenon (suspect legality on a bike) for the past 8 years or so, because it gives 2.5 more lumen with a consumption of only 35 watts. The LED will take over, not some fancy bulb that you buy online and stick in your existing reflector, but a purpose designed LED headlight unit as per many cars and the 1299 Pani. The old idea of putting a 100 watt bulb in was illegal and pointless too, for nearly double the power consumption, the lumen increased by only about 10 to 15% and fried the bulb connectors in the process! If your bike has a projector headlight, as my ST2 and 848 do, then a HID kit with ballast is the way to go for more light, and I have converted both, but I live in France so there is no MOT on bikes here and I can get away with it. If I still lived in the UK then I would not have fitted HID due to the weird way in which UK insurance companies are allowed to wiggle out of claims.
Not sure if the legal people specify a colour temperature, but 3600k is a little yellow, between 4000k and 5000k is more like white daylight, anything above starts turning blue.
