First night ride. Please help. I don't want to die.

[FloridaSteve]

Had the bike a while but as chance would have it I've done all my serious rides in the daytime. Well today I left late afternoon and returned in darkness... pitch black darkness... which was only slightly effected by the pathetic stock headlight on my 2001 650.

I have good eyesight but that was freaking scary. At least I wasn't in whitetail country. Pitch black cloudy night on a coast road for an hour.

So what is THE go-to solution for these wet matches Suzuki installed? The Pro-cycle HID kit looks the bizz. Any other options in a reasonable price range?

Thx Much.

[fishpost19]

HID kit hands down. Don't bother with anything else

The DR headlight works pretty well with a HID kit, not too much glare, and a nice beam. You'll just have to adjust the headlight down a bit. 4300k kit is nice, puts out the most light, and you can actually see at night, you'll probably rarely use the high beam cause the low is so good

[Bob Onit]

Steve, From what I've read the Sylvania Silverstar 9003 is a direct replacement and about 50% brighter than the stock bulb.

Can be found at any parts store or wal mart.

No offense to fishpost, The HID looks like a great set up but you may want to try the Silverstar bulb first and see how that works for you before you spend the $ on the HID.

Just a thought.

[FloridaSteve]

Thanks Gents. Actually I'm going to try them both I think. I have another late evening ride planned early this week and I have to do something so the $15 solution will go in there today. I'll order the Pro-cycle kit for next week. It's unbelievable that the stock bulb meets any possible legal requirement for a street legal headlight.

[Bob Onit]

Thanks Gents. Actually I'm going to try them both

Steve, I'm pretty sure that the number I gave you was for a DR350

They may very well be the same as the DR560 bulb but I would get the number from your stock 650 bulb and cross ref it to the Sylvania Silverstar.

Good luck!

[Dragonfueled]

Just got my h4 kit from ddm tuning. By far the cheapest and smallest hid ive used. I own 4 sets of there's now there great. I got the 5000k and its pure white. The kit was like 25 bucks and completely plug and play. I bought the low beam only for the Dr but I use the low/high in my Vulcan and it works great , I think thats like 40 bucks. I also put there kit in my subaru wrx and its been awesome.

[foxfire]

For the $, the silverstar is great. But I live in central WI where at dusk, deer dodging is almost a sport. Still not quite enough light for me. I remember seeing somewhere a kit to rewire your stock light to put out more power (or something allong those lines). Anyone know about this? Combined with the silverstar it might just be enough...

[sean84]

an 55/60 watt h4 bulb is going to draw 55/60 watts no matter how it is wired. You might be able to find some 4h bulbs that draw more watts but they might can to hot for the headlight housing and you have only 200 watts of stator to work with(unless you go with a wye to delta conversion)

I have tried both the silverstar ultras and procycle's HID kit and the HID kit is a lot brighter.

the HID kit also has the advantage of drawing less power so you can run another light and not over-tax your stator

[fishpost19]

I paid $55 Aussie Dollars for my setup from eBay. Much more light than a $30 re-packaged Silverstar bulb over here. Don't care if it lasts, I just bought the cheapest kit I could, just to see what it would be like in the DR headlight. So far it has held up really well for a cheapo kit from China. If it takes a shit, I'll replace it with a quality kit

[TallPaul]

I remember seeing somewhere a kit to rewire your stock light to put out more power (or something allong those lines). Anyone know about this? Combined with the silverstar it might just be enough...

I'm guessing you're thinking about wiring a relay into the lighting circuit, so it draws its current directly from the battery, rather than through the switch. This will cost under a tenner and is pretty simple to do, the other thing is make sure the earths are clean and good. Although I fitted HID's to my 954 'Blade and my car, they really are as good as everyone says, plus they draw less current than conventional filament bulbs. I'll definitely be fitting a HiLo kit to my DR once I've finished my USD front end conversion...

[Dragonfueled]

I'm telling ya check out ddm tuning fir the hid kit. It's cheaper then replacing the bulb. There really good. It took me literally 10 minutes to install it Friday night. No I don't work for them lol.

[GISdood]

I remember seeing somewhere a kit to rewire your stock light to put out more power (or something allong those lines). Anyone know about this? Combined with the silverstar it might just be enough...

I think this is the kit you're referring to.

[foxfire]

I think this is the kit you're referring to.

Nope, TallPaul got it with the relay.

[foxfire]

Wait, sorry...checked again, yes and yes...