Zero Knievel

Like what you did with the bulb shields. I wonder why DDM doesn't include that in their design. I know I'm not skilled enough to rig that up on my own.

At todays exchange rate of $1.52206 USD to the £1 GBP that make £200 GBP $304.413 USD Hope that help. Figrues as a guide only. Too bad this didn't come by 6 months ago. Oh well.

Don't know what those prices are in USD, but it figures something like this would come down right after I did my own HEL conversion.

Well, forget about mounting ballasts behind the instrument cluster. I shorted out my instruments (fuse blew) as soon as I got out of the driveway. I'm going to have to do what EVLXX did. I can only hope that I can work them into position without having to totally dismantle the front of the bike again.

You know how much I hate you now....I gotta wonder if I can do the same without having to tear the front down on the bike again.

C-L-E-V-E-R

LOL, yeah, it's a lock nut, that's the "something about it". Not coming loose however, does not equal proper torque. True, but until someone makes an affordable torque wrench that you can break down and fit into a MC tool kit.... I've seen lock nuts with the nylon rings, but I'm not sure how the one on the rear axle works. It has this odd metal feature on it, but I can't see what it does that keeps it from working loose.

I just go as tight as I can manage with one hand. That's pretty tight...it also ensures that in the field I am able to undo what I did. Never had it work lose. There's something about that nut they give you that seems to have locking properties. It resists coming loose.

That bit really bothered me as well. It'd be nice if the instructions from DDM told you to do that. I was wondering if I was voiding the warranty by modifying the kit to make it fit, but it was the only way it would go on. Interesting about putting the ballasts on the outside of the air ducts. I don't know if I would prefer it to where I mounted (tied between the support for the instrument cluster and the instruments, but I'm not pulling things apart now to redo them. I wish DDM has an option for longer wires. What you get is too much if you stick it all up close to the bulbs and not quite enough to mount them somewhere back on the frame. It would also be nice if their power leads had plugs that matched the bulb connector. I suppose it's secure, but two loose wire blades going into the harness plug isn't what I would have gone with.

With the XX, I'd think that's the only place behind the mirror that has space. Turn signal takes up a nice chunk of room in there.

More like a side track. When I got the trailer, I figure I'd clean it up, get rid of a few rust spots and touch up the paint...replace broken lights. Now that I've gotten it to the frame, the last owner really didn't take good care of it....rust everywhere. The deeper I look, the more I see needs to be fixed. I hope $500 was a fair price for what I got.

Picked up a motorcycle trailer at an estate sale (well, a guy on another forum I know was selling stuff for the widow). Got it for $500. I suspect I still got a good deal, but the wood deck needs replacing, there is rust all over it in places I really couldn't see when I picked it up. Wiring harness damaged. It's going to look like new by the time it's ready to actually haul anything. The prior owner actually welded extra metal on the rear of it and poured concrete into it to add weight.

Some epoxy would seal those holes nicely.

My 2 cents? First thing is your weight. The springs might not be right for you, and changing those are relatively easy. I moved up to stronger springs. I'll know this spring how much they help.

I get the Purolator One filters at my local auto parts store. Don't know of a cheaper place for the air filter than Honda.

Got some rash from a get off last summer. Going to fix it, but I want to touch up the color. Anyone know what OTC paint (spray preferable) is a close match to the '99 Bird's stator cover?

I was thinking along the terms of florescent. I've been told (more than once) that constant on/off strains the ballast because of the power needed to run a fluorescent. Nothing to worry about, but people who like to flick lights on/off real fast are not doing any favors to the hardware.

Not the bulb. The ballast. Flicking on and off a incandescent will shorten the life of the bulb element. Doing the same to a fluorescent/plasma will stress the ballast. A good system can take a lot of cycling before any malfunction can generate.

I would hope "none of the above." My kit comes with a lifetime warranty, so I'm expecting that it should not burn out or be subject to vibration or heat issues. Water shouldn't get to any of the parts enough to cause problems. Everything was sealed so that water couldn't get into the parts. I'm hoping that HID makes the need for high beam greatly reduced.

Here are my pics. First is my first attempt. I bolted the two ballasts together and zip tied them up behind the instrument cluster along with most everything else. Lights wouldn't go back on with them in place. With the second attempt, I hung the ballasts differently thinking I could put the rest of the stuff elsewhere (pics 2 and 3). That didn't work either, but I was getting closer. Finally, I was about to quit and saw that only one ballast could fit behind the lights, so I angled each one opposing each other. As you can see, I color-coded my wires so I'd know which ones went where later. Blue = High beam. For some reason the photos I loaded don't appear in the order listed. I think you can figure it out though. ORDER OF PICS BELOW... 4, 5, 3, 2 1

I took pics. Just didn't take the time to post. Gotta find the relevant ones.

Well, it took a few hours, but I have the whole system together. Never used the hose washers....they wouldn't fit. They were too small and would have fallen into the lamp housing. Installing the ballasts were a total pain in the ass. I did at least 3 attempts to find a place to fit them before I got something that worked. In essence, I wedged one to the left and one to the right between the frame holding the instrument cluster and the instrument cluster. Pure aggravation, but I hope it never gives me a problem. Wires are zip tied up and I even color coded some connections so I'd know which ones go where if I have to disconnect anything. There is almost no free space to work with behind the fairings to put extra hardware in. Thankfully once the front cowl was back on, I could reach up and connect the lamp feeds to the ballasts without too much trouble.

http://www.manyadeal.com/page.html?id=24 I went with 55w because that's what the XX uses for stock bulbs. I went with 4500K because it was the best improvement over stock bulbs. The light temperature is more one of aesthetics, and while I don't know the value of 3000K, the site I found said that 4300K was 3X brighter than stock and the color was very close to standard headlights; with yellow light being reflected off the road (important as it's part of what you need to see distance effectively). Since 4500K was the closest, I went with that. This range was recommended for off-road use because it was for maximum visibility.

Wow. Returning some stuff to the bike shop (didn't use) for credit. I stopped by the service department to see if they had any old spark plug wire lying around I could use. They didn't and one guy commented that if I was looking for something I could "Afro-engineer" I should go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

That, or you could be non-conformist and put the spacers on the back of the lamp housing and insert the bulb through them.