Suzuki GSX650F Forum - www.GSX650F.biz

Hey all, so I'm picking up a GSX650 tomorrow from another member on the forum, after searching for months I finally got lucky!

Anyhow, first thing I need to do from what I hear is deal with the headlight. I know simply adjusting it may help alot, and higher output standard bulbs help too, but I'm set on HID's for at least the low beam. I will be doing alot of riding at night; the roads by me are narrow and twisty, frequently traveled by deer, and there are no streetlights. On the highway... well I'm in NJ so a bright headlight is very important because anything short of a HID beam will go un-noticed in people's mirrors, and people just love to change lanes for the hell of it, going unseen is a death wish.

So HID's it is, but I'm not sure if I should get one for the high beam as well. Sometimes it can actually reduce the sight distance when the lens has a funky shape to it. Does anyone have input on this as far as the GSX650's go? Also, with the info above in mind, how bright is the factory tail/brake light? I might want to upgrade to an LED tail, but if nothing else I have some extra LED bulbs that shound fit into the factory socket.

Chris,

I used to live in NJ (in PA now) so I know exactly what you mean with the deer. I'm also looking into getting an HID kit for mine by summer. For the time being, it's recommended that you ride with your high beams on. (so I've been told whenever I go through a toll both) From what I've read on the forums, something within the 4,000 range for your HIDs should be bright enough and not too hot. There has been much debate over brighter non HID bulbs and which route is the safest for long term use. Let us know what you decide.

I mounted low-beam Xenon allmost in the first week I bought my bike
Since that moment, I haven't used the high-beam more than 4 times.


I found a different taillight (LED) on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.nl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT

I live in Jersey too and I have HID's in low the beam. I considered it for the high beam, but the it seems pretty bright IMO and I haven't had any issue with being able to see. After you install the HID for the low beam, make sure you still align it cause after I installed mine, it was still too low for me to see more than 10 ft in front of me. Let us know how it turns out if you upgrade the high's too.

Cool thanks for the info, I decided to just stick with the low beam for now. The other day I remembered that I had an extra pair of these Hella 'xenon blue' blubs for the high beams in my Denali, bought them for the same reason; to match the color of my 6000k low beam HID's. On the truck the light color is very close and blends well when both hi/low beams are on, so I figure it'll be the same story with the motorcycle. They're 65watts and it's the same bulb type so it plugged right in, it's bright as hell and it should be more than enough as long it doesn't melt anything. This way I can still use the flash to pass trigger thing too. I did some reading on the subject and with the round high-beam lenses the light isn't really focused enough to make an HID upgrade worthwhile. The light will be more 'visible' with a standard halogen bulb.

When I initially adjusted the lowbeam I must have craked that adjustment screw 3 or 4 full turns haha, the high beam adjuster took at least a full rotation too. Kinda crazy it's pointed so low from the factory.

hey... any chance you'll part with one of those two bulbs? or can you find a part # if it doesn't look yellow beside your HID?

my silverstar hi-beam works EXCEPTIONALLY well, but it's got that yellowed hue to it.

Sorry, only one of the bulbs was good so this was my spare! I tried to get a pic of it, you can tell it's definetly a whiter light than the OEM bulb above it. I know the color that is put out onto the road matches the HID light color, but I'm not certain that they'll look the same if you're staring at the headlight.



Oh yeah, my blue LED's are VERY blue so don't let that throw you off. I tried to get a part # off the bulb with no luck. I did Google the bulb and came up with this:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... FUQ8wIwAg#

I didn't remember them being so expensive though! I bought two sets off eBay almost two years ago now and it was around $50 for both sets shipped to my door. My HID light should show up later this week though so I'll get some better pics up then.

Just an update... my HID light came in last night and I installed it. Not exactly plug & play, the kit I received had 4 wires that needed to go through to the housing. Wound up cutting the wiring up, drilling 4 little holes in the bulb cover, then soldering and heat-shrinking everything back togther. The end result looks pretty nice, I took the time to line up all the holes and did the splicing on the inside part of the lens. All you see is a stack of four wires neatly lined up vertically. Drilled the holes slightly smaller than the wire, no silicone or sealent needed.

First impression; holy brightness batman! MUCH better. Not too much light 'scattering', still has a pretty clean cutoff and the excess light is not enough to blind any oncoming traffic. It does still light up my very dark road pretty well. I re-aimed the high beam and it's nothing short of awesome with both beams on.

Relating to this topic however, the 'xenon' halogen bulb I was talking about does not compare to the HID color. Looked nice and blue next to the OEM low beam, now it looks white. No problem for me, but for those trying to 'color match' you'll have to keep looking.

Would it be possible for you to take pictures of where mounted everything and your wiring? Also a pic from on your seat to show the light output? Also where did you order your kit from?

Thanks!

Colin

Sure, yeah I probably should have done a little write-up but I did the install at 2am and didn't think of taking pictures haha. As long as it's not snowing tonight I'll roll the bike out into the driveway and snap a pic of the light output. Hopefully I can snake my camera in underneath the gauge cluster too, I have pulled the thing off 6 or 7 times in the past week and the tabs that lock it in place are starting to show some wear, I'd rather not pull it again if I can avoid it.

Oh and I bought the kit from hidnation.com. They sell single bulb kits for $20, and unline DDM Tuning they will ship it right away. I don't trust DDM at all, they sell a decent product but their customer service is totally hit or miss, and their 'batch' shipping every two weeks is total BS. It can take 3-4 weeks to actually get the product your ordered. HIDNation had this delivered via FedEx in 3 days.

I'm not sure how others may have gotten around the wiring, no matter what kit you order it'll be the same issue with trying to run them through the housing. I decided that if I needed to go back to stock I would just replace the back cover for $20. I was also nervous about cutting up the HID wiring but it turned out to be no big deal. Added maybe 10mins to the install and I think it looks pretty clean.

Awesome thanks man! I've heard the same things with DDM as well.

Well I couldn't get a picture worth a damn as far as the wiring goes. Next time I have a reason to pull the guages off I'll be sure to snap a few pics. Here's a few of the light though.



For reference, my driveway is right about 100ft long (30m) and 14ft wide. Pictures make it seem rather short but it's 2 cars wide.



You can see how yellow my fancy high beam bulb is in comparison, picture doesn't show it too well but the high beam does add a good bit of light.

For $30 and 20mins to install it was a very worthwhile addition.

wow awesome!! thanks I am shocked the highbeam adds that much light... Personally I live in a cooler enviorment and have HID's on my car and sometimes they don't want to start unless the ballast is warm. If and when I keep my HIDs I plan to keep the stock highbeam incase the HID goes out

Low beam is crap on my gsx650f nearly crashed a few times on dark lanes, so i read up on a few posts and bought some Philips 100% brighter bulb with extended vision. Even these are crap bulbs, 100% more light than what, a torch?

Can anyone suggest a bulb which actually works for then and does actually do what it says on the tin?

Did you adjust the beam? Like I mentioned above I had to crank the adjuster screw several full rotations to get the stupid thing pointing right, even with the stock bulb it helped ALOT.

For $30 I'm very happy with my HID bulb...