HID Conversion - VVME Kit ( ST1300 )

[KoTAOW]

Submitted by John Herring, aka JohnnyRide
Original article can be found here:  HID Conversion

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HID Conversion - VVME Kit ( ST1300 )

 If you want to revolutionize the lighting on your bike, you have to do this. There is a site out there named VVME.com who sells inexpensive HID conversion kits for under $100 which contains 2 HI/LOW bulbs, 2 ballasts with igniters and the rest of the wiring harnesses required to put off the conversion. Included in that is the controller for the bulbs which cause the high/low effect.  When ordering you have to pay attention to the ballast size, as there are 2 sizes, I went with the smaller ones.
 You also need to watch the type of bulb as there are 2 types of high low bulbs. One has 2 bulbs, the HID "bulb" and a smaller, non HID bulb which is suppose to act as a high beam. I found found this type setup to be substandard for quality lighting.
 The other type of bulb is the Bi-Luxon version which just has the HID bulb but it has a sliding reflector system around the bulb that redirects the light to the High Beam portion of the housing when you flick over to high beam.  When you kick these up on high, it is nothing less than amazing, a panoramic blast of brilliant white light, 4300K is what I bought on the color side, which, I swear  is 45 degrees in spread. What this means is that a tremendous amount of light also hits the road and on both sides of the road are illuminated striking as such. Wildlife can not hide, there is just no way. With that kind of spread, it is a bit harder to out run the headlights in a curve. Well assuming there isn't oncoming traffic, because they would go off in a ditch somewhere from the Eyes of God blasting away the darkness. And, we don't want that. Thank God we have that 7 position adjustment knob on the dash as well as the fine tuning adjustment on the bottom side of the headlight motor.

 I was a bit pessimistic about ordering form a company located in China but I am going to rate this customer service group on a scale of 1 to 10 with a 15. Yep, they are off the chart. I had a hick-up with my credit card and got billed for 4 transactions. At $108 per instance this wasn't cheap and I was thinking, crap, China?!?!? I'll never get my money back, I am screwed. Nope, not the case, I spoke with Owen, their Sales Manager in China, and we got everything worked out, and my refunds secured. What a guy!! I was happy, relieved and impressed.

 After the install, I ought, you know, I ought to go ahead and order a spares kit so to speak in case the design changes and I can't get the same thing again. I ordered the replacement and due to me getting in a hurry, I ordered the wrong bulb kit. (They one that you don't want to order that is not the all-in-one bulb. I get the kit, open it, crap, wrong one. Doh!! So, I figure I'll keep the 2 ballasts and igniters and scrap the bulbs and just order one more bulb. I just didn't want to deal with shipping back to China. So I order one bulb, was charged for one bulb and what do you think I received???? I think Owen saw what I did and figured out what was going on because I received, 2 bulbs and also a complete wiring harness that includes the Light Controller Unit for the price of 1 bulb. EXCELLENT!!!!

So that is why they rate a 15 on a 1-10 scale, excellence in customer service and proactive thinking.



Digital Slim H4-3(9003) Bi-Xenon HID Kit
Starting at: $112.99
Save: 23% off $86.99

Digital Ultra Slim H4-3(9003) Bi-Xenon (Dual Beam) HID conversion kit. This is a genuine xenon HID kit that is E4 & ISO-9001:2000 Approved, NOT those cheap ones that do nothing at all. It can give you both Hi/Low in Xenon HID.

The kit comes complete with a relay harness, and it is Plug-n-Play and easy to install (30-40 min. for a beginner) for your specific vehicle applications and fit directly into your existing headlight assembly. All necessary hardware for installation is included. These kits come with solid metal Waterproof/Weatherproof ballast.
(Installation Demo) (Installation Videos)

Don't be fooled by other sellers who copy our site content and sell cheap "knock-off" HID products that stop working after several months of usage. Our HID kits come with One Year Warranty directly with our factory.

When you add to cart, you can select which color you want.

Available Colors: 4300K, 5000K, 6000K, 8000K, 10000K and 12000K
Special Colors: 3000K, 15000K is $12 more expensive

Probably the most cumbersome chore is figuring out where you are going to mount this stuff.  I went under the front cowl like most people do. They offer a smaller digital ballast and that is the version I bought.  They are the 2 silver looking squares which are shown in the pictures. As you notice they do have milled mounting tabs as part of the ballast casing.
 

There is a considerable amount of wiring harness to hid since it was really designed for an automobile. However, It is possible for all of it to live in the cowling area.  I guess I could have cut it down to size, but it fit so why mess with it.  Some find it easier to take off all the fairing plastic to do this but I basically just released the nose cone of the bike and tilted it downward to gain access.


Here is the right driver side bulb installed. You will have to cut the opening of the dust boot wider so that the bulb can fit though it. No other mods to the lighting area are required or needed. The bulb is actually a 2-piece bulb, it will make sense when you see it.  You put in the H4 frame of the bulb, put the pain in the butt bulb retention spring back down, slip on the boot cover then the actual bulb portion of this assemble slides in the hold and click locks with a quarter clockwise turn.


Just a picture of the HID bulb installed into the reflector. As you can see it is a bit different looking than a standard H4 bulb


The thing about HID lights is that when they "startup", they don't like to be interrupted in that process nor do they like to be turned off and right back on for that matter. I guess technically this might be called,  "hot re-strike time", for lack of term. So when you turn the key on and the lights come on and then hit the start button, the headlights are cut off so the battery doesn't bare the load of the lights while trying to start the engine. Stock lights do this and so do the HID'S.



You will need to retrain yourself on how to start the bike otherwise you might have one light fail to start or both. No damage occurs to the HID, you just have to restart them if this occurs.

What you want to do is either wire yourself up a switch controlling a relay you can flip on after you start the bike or, flip the RUN switch on, on the right handle bar, press and hold the STARTER BUTTON and then turn the key on. That way the lights don't start until after the bike does.

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Thank You again for your contribution John Herring, aka JohnnyRide

[KoTAOW]

Comments by Randy Quam, STOC #2761:

I agree with John's assessment of this product.

I am on my second season with mine and they perform very well. Installation is easy. Ballast location is a challenge but there are options. Jeff B. showed me these lights @ Minden WESTOC so he has had his for more than 3 years now. Customer service and delivery from China came as promised. IMHO these are a far better solution than the PIAA Halogen Super Whites bulbs for the main bucket.

The only caution I have on this lighting package is the high amount of EMI from the ballast. If you have a CB on your bike you may have an issue around noise.

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Comments by WJ Bertrand, STOC #025:

Three years as of yesterday since installing my VVME HIDs with nary a hiccup.  Can't say the same for the LED position lights - both have been replaced once.