My HID bicycle light

[djQUAN]

I actually made this a few years ago but haven't taken much pictures. I had the chance to take some updated ones the other day so here they are.

Uses the typical 35W bulb/ballast combo used for cars. For power, I used 18pcs of Sony 18650 Li-ion cells but those didn't last long so now I'm using four 3.2V 15,000mAh Li-FePO4 cells in a custom battery pack.

Burn time with the new cells is about 5hrs continuous.

This is the old setup with the 18650 cells:

New setup with the LiFePO4 battery pack and LED tail/brake light (the garage lights are actually turned on in these shots)

power analyzer so I know how much battery life is left.

A shot in a soccer field:

more pictures here: HID Bicycle Light

 

[Speedy78]

Your bicycle appears to have albetter illumination than my truck...

 

[djQUAN]

I'm actually thinking of getting those mini projectors and converting them to HIDs to put on the bike for a more controlled beam. The reflector puts out a ton of light.... everywhere!

 

[djQUAN]

It isn't actually that bad but there's more spill than I'd like that's why I was thinking of getting some cheap projectors for it. I do know how to do HIDs right and have proper projector retrofits in my car.

If you just want to drop in an ePay special kit into the stock reflectors, then as you said "You'll flash blind everyone in front of you. " If you want to get real HIDs for your car, nothing beats a true projector retrofit.

As for heat, a 35W HID lamp produces less heat compared to a 55W halogen because it is lower power, more efficient hence less waste heat. Don't get 55W kits, they just overdrive 35W bulbs shortening the lamp life. I've compared them side by side, 35W vs 55W one on each headlight and the 55W runs much hotter with minimal gain in brightness and the color is shifted to more yellow due to being overdriven.

 

[Cyparagon]

Is that true of all 55W kits, or just the cheap ones? What do you think about the 100W kits?

 

[barbel1976]

when I first got my 2012 jeep wrangler rubicon unlimited I changed both the head lights and fog lights to 35w 6000k hid's ,,,,and the hid's in the fog lights melted the plastic lens so had to replace the lens and went with leds in the fogs light

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

My HIDs looked dimmer from the front than my original headlights. If your headlights look way brighter from the front, you're doing it wrong.

dj Q: I'm gonna sound very hipster saying this, but I had the first 2000 corolla with retrofit. Back in my day, no such thing as replica parts. I wouldn't use replica parts today either. I went with Hella's ballast w/ integrated igniter, and infiniti FX-35 OEM projectors. Swapped the lenses for the lenses from the TSX OEM projector. Sharpened the cutoff. Ran both on Philips 85122.

 

[djQUAN]

Is that true of all 55W kits, or just the cheap ones? What do you think about the 100W kits?

The 55W kit I had was not the cheapest but wasn't the most expensive out there so I have no idea. I haven't encountered a 100W kit. If it were a true 100W, I'd see charging systems struggling since during warm up, it would be about 170W coming into the ballast and about 120W PER BULB at normal running temp (extrapolating from measured 35W kits)

I think I would want a more yellowish light rather than a more blue. More easy on the eyes. I'm not sure what eBay kits are any good or not. They're pretty cheap from what I see ($30)

Stock headlights are just garbage because you can't see anything with them

I have 20% VLT tints on the front windshield and about 5% on all others (for security reasons since I drive alone most of the time) so I wanted the extra light.

when I first got my 2012 jeep wrangler rubicon unlimited I changed both the head lights and fog lights to 35w 6000k hid's ,,,,and the hid's in the fog lights melted the plastic lens so had to replace the lens and went with leds in the fogs light

I had never experienced any melting ever since I played with HID kits. The bulb might have not been properly mounted or was too close to the lens.

My HIDs looked dimmer from the front than my original headlights. If your headlights look way brighter from the front, you're doing it wrong.

Agreed! Unfortunately, for the uninformed, the opposite is true.

dj Q: I'm gonna sound very hipster saying this, but I had the first 2000 corolla with retrofit. Back in my day, no such thing as replica parts. I wouldn't use replica parts today either. I went with Hella's ballast w/ integrated igniter, and infiniti FX-35 OEM projectors. Swapped the lenses for the lenses from the TSX OEM projector. Sharpened the cutoff. Ran both on Philips 85122.

Parts today seem to have improved but it depends, since you have kits from all price ranges. I've seen ones that fail in a few weeks or months. Others have lasted years.

 

[djQUAN]

I just got myself a new bike about 2 weeks ago and transferred the lights and stuff to it.

Since leaving work, I have much more free time to bike in trails with my bro and uncles

I just wanted to share pics of the new bike with the same setup.

Same 35W HID for the headlight

15,000mAh 12.8V LiFePO4 battery pack in custom acrylic case

Headlight and horn switch

I used the old stock horn from my car

12-LED tail/brake light

switch connected to the disc brake mechanism to activate the brake light

The setup seems to hold up in moderate trail riding with me jumping it all over the terrain. The lamp and battery pack are still solid.

 

[DashApple]

Nice ,

I have the 12Ah version of them LiFePO4 Cells , Well worth the money .

 

[BowtieGuy]

Hey dj, how much weight do you think you've added to your bike?

 

[djQUAN]

The battery pack alone weighs about 6lbs. Not sure how much the other stuff weighs but I don't think it's much. I didn't feel much difference when riding it in the trails.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Thanks, that's what I was wondering about. I thought it might be more noticable, especially off road.

 

[djQUAN]

What you do notice though, is the amount of light this puts out. I can easily light up 3-4 lanes of traffic Makes night riding in the trails much more fun.

 

[ped]

I remember when I was a kid, I fitted a microswich to my brake mech to make a brake light...

I got laughed outta town :/

 

[upaa27]

Very nice idea! Although try not to shine it at a car...