Now I can enjoy night riding

Since owning the Bandit I've never really enjoyed night riding and one particular ride up to Mt Nebo in a group really had me frustrated with the poor candles the Bandit has. I had wanted to improve the lights but did not want to add spotlights as I wanted to maintain the lines of the bike. Since I had a spare headlight assembly I figured I could try out HIDs and if it all went pear shaped no real loss. So then it was trying to find suitable HID conversion kits. Not something many stores stock over the counter for Bandits. So eventually I found this website:

https://www.ledaustralia4x4.com.au/

They sell HID kits shipped to you for $100 all inclusive, nothing more to buy, plug and play. After ordering the wrong kit initially and sending it back and chatting to the owner and giving him the exact light fitting number and Make/Model/Year (Suzuki/Bandit/2004) of bike, they sourced the kit and resent it to me for no additional cost. I thought that was brilliant in its own right (let alone the lights).

So last night I got to play and it was so easy to fit, just unplug the existing globe, plug in the new globe with trailing loom of wires and fittings, plug the loom into the original light plug and it works. Then I set about mounting the ballast and tucking away the loom wires. Ballast is bolted up behind the fairing using the back of the fairing bolts. looms cable tied to the fairing mounts. You almost wouldn't know its aftermarket. Tonight I was able to take it out at night to see what the difference is.

So what is the difference, in a word amazing. I took these photos which are not the best, but hopefully show what the HIDs are like.

Front yard low beam then high beam.



One of the roads out back in the forest near where I live, no lights.


Low beam.


High beam, that bright spot is a speed limit sign a couple of hundred metres away.


As for the delay in high beam engaging, yeah it does take time initially but once warmed up switching it on/off brings about almost instant brightness. Looking forward to a decent night ride now just to see how it compares to other bikes lights.

Goo dresult and good service from the supplier - a win win.

What wattage did you get? because my HIDs are nowhere near as good as that

I didn't want to tinker with the standard wiring so stuck with a standard 55W, 6000k set up. I have to say I am very happy. Did a long ride today to scrub in the new tyres that were fitted yesterday (PR3's) so I could also then monitor the lamp heat and see if it would affect the housing. Barely much difference to the standard halogen bulbs in terms of lamp heat.

I checked out the site TOG. Was it a simple plug n play change over ?

Yes it was, you get the HID bulb which plugs into the ballast unit and then the standard plug plugging into the bike light plug, no mess, no fuss. Ballast unit has a couple of standard mounting holes, plus a plate to screw it to that you can then screw down. I added the plate so I could then screw that down using the fairing bolts. Then added some cable ties just to hold the wires in place. Everything is fairly neatly tucked away. It was a very simple solution. The instructions will say you need to drill out the housing to accept the lamp, this is not the case for mine at least, make sure you try it before doing any drilling.

ThatOtherGuy wrote:I didn't want to tinker with the standard wiring so stuck with a standard 55W, 6000k set up. I have to say I am very happy. Did a long ride today to scrub in the new tyres that were fitted yesterday (PR3's) so I could also then monitor the lamp heat and see if it would affect the housing. Barely much difference to the standard halogen bulbs in terms of lamp heat.

Looks like I'm going to have to upgrade mine because mine are only 35W 6000k and although better than standard their not the quantum leap in performance I was expecting

madmax wrote:

ThatOtherGuy wrote:I didn't want to tinker with the standard wiring so stuck with a standard 55W, 6000k set up. I have to say I am very happy. Did a long ride today to scrub in the new tyres that were fitted yesterday (PR3's) so I could also then monitor the lamp heat and see if it would affect the housing. Barely much difference to the standard halogen bulbs in terms of lamp heat.

Looks like I'm going to have to upgrade mine because mine are only 35W 6000k and although better than standard their not the quantum leap in performance I was expecting

I figured don't go over the wattage (wiring remains unchanged) but monitor the lamp heat. Overall I got it right (for a change) so very happy.

ThatOtherGuy wrote:

madmax wrote:

ThatOtherGuy wrote:I didn't want to tinker with the standard wiring so stuck with a standard 55W, 6000k set up. I have to say I am very happy. Did a long ride today to scrub in the new tyres that were fitted yesterday (PR3's) so I could also then monitor the lamp heat and see if it would affect the housing. Barely much difference to the standard halogen bulbs in terms of lamp heat.

Looks like I'm going to have to upgrade mine because mine are only 35W 6000k and although better than standard their not the quantum leap in performance I was expecting

I figured don't go over the wattage (wiring remains unchanged) but monitor the lamp heat. Overall I got it right (for a change) so very happy.

Your right I wouldn't go over 55W