Ok, heres my first attempt at a write up. What I did was purchased some 2.5 inch bi-xenon Projectors on ebay that came from an 04 XLR. I paid 140 bucks for the projectors, bulbs and ballasts. This project took alot of trial and error and may times a lot of swearing. But the final result, while not as cool looking as I had hoped, but make the night turn into day. I have tried to get night shots to show the differences, but my camera just sucks. But I can see at least 50 feet of each side of the road and way further ahead.

The main reason I went this route instead of just plopping in some hid bulbs was one, I didnt want to blind everyone coming at me and the cutt off on the projector prevents that from happening, two, the aftermarket hids tend to take some time to get up to full brightness, I didnt want my highbeam taking that long to activiate, and three, I wanted two lowbeams and two highbeams.

Pic one, This is the final modded projectors back side that shows the mounting points that will be used. I used two of the factory adjusters, and one mount from the xlr, which is just a non adjustable ball end lock. I bolted them into place and then put on some cold weld just to keep things from backing out. Ugly I know, but you cant see it anyway.

pic two shows how the shell had to be modified to make clearance for the hid lights, as these had the igniter built in with the bulb. This did cause some issues, but the nice thing about this set up, I was able to extend the wires from my ballast to the headlights as the wires were not high voltage. Again, ugly too, but I just took a heat gun, once th plastic was heated, pressed the areas that I needed room for and just kinda pushed it all together. It may not look it, but the structural integrity seems to be the same.

Pic three shows the projectors mounted in place. Also, a closer look will show that I had to add some material to the edge of the projectors cutoff. the reason I did this was on the xlr, the headights are mounted extremely low to the ground. I had to make a bigger change from low beam to high beam. Also, the projectors mounted in slightly tilted, (I didnt have a choice), so I was able to regain the straight across cutoff this way. and of course, this is with the lenses removed, so your looking inside of the projector.

Pic four shows a simple shrould I made from aluminum flashing, then painted it black. It was only to hide the high/low beam actuator and wires.

pic five shows how the igniter sat just outside of the housing of the rear of headlight bucket.

I have run out of pics, so I will continue below.

 

Picture one shows the rear igniter now covered. I simply used one side of adhesive backed velcro. Its an extra wide piece and looks good in person.

picture two shows some ugly wiring. Everything is soldiered though. I used two seperate power wires with 20 amp fuses, two seperate grounds, and two seperate relays. I only did this in case one fails. The relay is turned on the factory low beam. The high beams for the bixenon projectors is controlled by the high beam wire. The high beam draw is only .3 amps for both projectors, so not much.

picture three shows where I have located the ballast. having the iginiter on the bulb allowed me to lengthen the wires coming from the ballast so I could mount them just about anywhere.

picture four shows the light pattern of my wifes zx6r, which had better lights than my 1000rr and has sylvania ultras installed.

Picture 5 is the pattern that the new projectors put out. Notice how much wider the beam is. Both bikes are the same distance from the garage door and both bikes are on the kickstand, the beam is actually straight across...

 

Ok, last post. The final look is ok, but my main goal of being able to see is what I was after. My headlights now drown out my friends R1, which to anyone that has ridden next to an R1, you know they have pretty good lights. The beam shines so far off the side of the road, you really have to see it to believe it. I now enjoy riding at night.

Its been awhile since I did the mod, but I wanted to make sure they worked out before I posted in the how to. I have about 1000 miles with them so far and they are great. I was worried about them not being stable, but I have had no issues with them bouncing around at all, they are rock solid.

 

Nice write-up & good work! Ironically, I saw almost the exact same mod done on an R1 this past wknd. I personally like the look. But, as you said, its more about being able to see better. Having done my fair share of fab work as well, I can truly appreciate the effort, time, & trouble you went to. Many times though, after the job is done & you're enjoying the fruits of your labor, the irritations of the work tend to melt away. Anyway, congrats again on a job well done.

 

thanks for the positve feedback.

It was all worth it in the end. We have a few rides that are coming up that will surely have late night riding. Before, I always wanted to get home before dark as I hated it so much. Now, I dont care when I get home.

 

Very cool. I personally love the look! Any issues with them heating up at all?

 

No issues with heat at all. I actually have the lens of the projector about a quarter inch from headlight lens and there are no issues at all. I think a big part of it is the HID bulb is completely sealed by the projectors body. Any heat that is made by the bulb is spread throughout the body of the projector and disapates from there.

Before I did the mod, I heard of the XLR's having issues with headlights melting the lens. After a little research, I found out it was the blinker in the headlight that was melting the lens, not the projector.

 

i would through some deamon eyes around them, if there was room.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Now that I think about it, it would probably look pretty good. Now I have to decide if I want to split my headlights again...lol. maybe next winter..

 

Damn that looks very nice dude