HID Conversion on a 12GS (pictorial)

[JimVonBaden]

Originally Posted by tallguy-09

I paid for $35W 5000K lo-beam hid50.com ~$130 shipped to Canada.
I paid $170 for a set of P3 LED's so $130 is not that expensive.
Regarding VVME: It depends. I paid $59 for a kit containing 2 lamps/ballasts...not working on my 2010 GS, period.
VVME refused to refund $10, insisted the defective ballast to be shipped back to China or $10 for a new one, won't happen!
Considering that I spent ~2-3h's in the garage installing/removing everything VVME and then replacing with the hid50 lo-beam HID
the $130 were actually really cheap. I may be wrong but for now it feels right.

I have to wonder if the 2010 has something different, or if your kits were defective. I have seen the occasional defective ballast, but not both at once.

Jim

[JimVonBaden]

Do I remember you saying you swapped the ballast around to check if the one would work on low beam?

Yes, low and high beam operate differently. High beam will come on with the key, and low beam is not activated until you start the bike, so maybe the ZFE on yours has just low enough tolerance for spikeing that it kept faulting for your bike where it doesn't for others?

Jim

[grpweld]

Just ordered the dual 35W 5K H7 from hid50.com, les said the 5K has a truer color illumination than the 6K at night

[GSguy]

Originally Posted by grpweld

Just ordered the dual 35W 5K H7 from hid50.com, les said the 5K has a truer color illumination than the 6K at night

I put the 5k in my 07 and have been very happy, not sure I would go any higher but would be interested in one level lower just to see how it looks.

[grpweld]

Originally Posted by tallguy-09

Picture showing 4300K bulb, don't think there's much difference to the 5000K I'm now using.
Definitely nicer than stock H7, closer to LED color spectrum.

Tallguy,

You have the 35W version correct? Are you happy with that or do you wish you would have gotten the 50W. I ordered the 35W but it won't ship until tomorrow so I could still upgrade. The reasons I ordered the 35W was not to blind oncoming drivers & price difference!

[grpweld]

Originally Posted by tallguy-09

Removed the side panels and front peak, mounted the ballast on the outside
of the oil line holding bracket.

Good info there tallguy! I will do my low beam side the same, & take a good look at the high beam side.
How long did it take to recieve your package?

[RobStar]

One of my DDM 55w H7 ballasts failed last week after a little more than four months.

DDM answered the phone, told me how to tech out the bulb vs ballast and explained the warranty process.

It was the low beam ballast so they suggested I temporarily use the high beam ballast connected to the low beam.

At $45 a pair I decided not to screw around with warranty and ordered another complete set. That order was placed 11/18 and shipped today 11/20.

This will give me a spare ballast and two spare bulbs for the future, plus I don't have a screw around shipping the dead ballast back... though I guess I still could. It's not worth the time IMHO.

I was very skeptical of DDM from the beginning and if you look at their BBB report it is an "F" on every level. However, my two purchase experiences have been good.

As for the product, they worked well and out of the four original units purchased I've had one failure. In some sense and considering the price point I consider them almost an "expendable" item. Everyone complains or bemoans that they come from China but if we were waiting on US made products at an affordable price we'd all still be using touch tone landlines instead of smart phones.

I mounted my ballasts under the instrument cluster on top of the oil cooler / guard.

RobStar

[AndyM]

Originally Posted by RobStar

One of my DDM 55w H7 ballasts failed last week after a little more than four months.

DDM answered the phone, told me how to tech out the bulb vs ballast and explained the warranty process.

How did they say to do this? I had the 55w high beam fail after a day or two last June and haven't gotten around to figuring out if it's the bulb or the ballast. The low beam has been running for over 20k miles without issue. Like you I won't bother with the warranty as I wouldn't mind having the spare parts anyway.

[RobStar]

Originally Posted by AndyM

How did they say to do this? I had the 55w high beam fail after a day or two last June and haven't gotten around to figuring out if it's the bulb or the ballast...

It is embarrassingly simple or it was for me!

Simply swap the cables between ballasts or swap bulbs. In my case it was easy to swap the cable and the ballasts so at this point I have a low-beam by running with the switch in high-beam on position.

Plus I have two WARN HID lights and my BMW fogs with PIAA upgrades in them so even without the proper headlights I'm more than covered in conspicuity and what I can see.

RobStar

[grpweld]

Got My hid50.com kit 35W 5K bulbs day before yesterday (2 weeks W/the holiday) did high & low beam 3 hrs ( had a hard time with the beak removal the first time) Had to move the balast around a couple of times. Rode her home after work last night, country roads, no sreet lights! WOW what a differnce almost like day light except on the left sweepers! This morning when I started her up the bulb flashed then nothing WTF*%#*^. The high beam was fine, I restarted her & light worked fine. So wth happened there?

[GSguy]

Originally Posted by grpweld

This morning when I started her up the bulb flashed then nothing WTF*%#*^. The high beam was fine, I restarted her & light worked fine. So wth happened there?

This happend to a buddy at work and a few days later needed ballist replaced.

[Rollmo]

Great pictorial, Jim. Ordered my vvme set yesterday, will be my first mod on my new GS.

[Florida Lime]

Originally Posted by grpweld

Got My hid50.com kit 35W 5K bulbs day before yesterday (2 weeks W/the holiday) did high & low beam 3 hrs ( had a hard time with the beak removal the first time) Had to move the balast around a couple of times. Rode her home after work last night, country roads, no sreet lights! WOW what a differnce almost like day light except on the left sweepers! This morning when I started her up the bulb flashed then nothing WTF*%#*^. The high beam was fine, I restarted her & light worked fine. So wth happened there?

The igniter tried starting the light, but for whatever reason, it didn't fire up. I've had it happen on rare occasions also, on my Buell.
When it happened with a brand new DDM 55W ballast lhigh beam set-up on the GSA, I replaced the ballast with another 55W DDM ballast.
When that didn't work, I tried a new bulb.
Then the error eliminators.
Finally had to use a 35W ballast and it works fine. ???

My 55W low beam had no issues - until recently.

If the temperature goes below 45 degrees, and I start the bike up - the 55W low beam will not fire up. The 35W fogs do, the 35W high beam does, and the 35W Fuegos will, but NOT the 55W low beam.

Works fine when it warms back up.

I will NOT be using the DDM 55W stuff again.

[Stressfest]

Looking into this at the moment. Do all these kits require drilling of the cap? Any plug/play solutions for a 2010 GS?

[yellowbirdrs]

Originally Posted by Stressfest

Looking into this at the moment. Do all these kits require drilling of the cap? Any plug/play solutions for a 2010 GS?

No, you need to drill the cap to pass the bulb or maybe you can disassemble the wire connectors and pass under just like the OME bulbs wire