Enginerd's Stuff

As I had mentioned in previous posts I have been planning for a while now to install HID headlights in my 1000RR. I just had a few snags along the way. Originally my fiancée bought me a set for Christmas this past year, as it turned out months later when I went to install them (waited for better weather) they were the wrong bulb type. Of course having waited months to install them I couldn’t just return them, so they will be on ebay soon. I finally got around to ordering them and realized that while I was at it I would get a set for my truck too. I was super excited the day they came and went out to put the set in my truck first. I figured that I would have more room to work which would make the truck a better candidate for my first install then the bike would be second as it would likely be trickier…I was clearly wrong with this logic. After many hours of messing with them (4 or 5 to be entirely honest) and a few people looking with me I accepted defeat for the night and decided I would call the manufacturer the following day. Long story short there was one connector on each side that needed to be flipped on a select few vehicles, mine just happened to be one of them.

Install and pics after the break.

After the busy weekend had passed I decided I would attempt to tackle the installation on the bike. This time I had one under my belt and a few more trick up my sleeve if for some reason they didn’t want to play nice. Unlike the truck I was pleasantly surprised this time. Since I was patient and took pics along the way I’ll walk through the install step by step here.

The first thing I had to do was remove the old plug, grommet, and bulb.

Once the old pieces were out I could put the new bulb in the housing and reinstall the old grommet.

The trickiest part of installing the HID’s is finding a place to mount the ballast. I spent a few minutes looking around when I discoverd that the trim pieces on the side of my tank were a prefect location and just the right size.

When all was said and done I had wires run neatly down the front stay.

I took the bike out to bike night last night and had a chance to get a couple pics of the lights. I still want to take some from the seat to show the light output but until I get those here are some from the front.