[LD CBR]

After going with a hi/low plug and play HID kit in my SV650, I was less than impressed. The low beams were pretty good and I liked the extra electrical capacity for accessories, but the "high beams" were horrible. It just shifted the same low beam pattern a little bit higher.

So for the CBR, I decided to go with an HID retrofit. I purchased the Sportbike Stage III kit from theretrofitsource.com. I used the following parts:

-Morimoto 3Five ballast (35W)
-Phillips 85122+ (4300K) bulbs
-GTi-R shroud

I started with a brand new OEM spare headlight for the retrofit. The retrofit process was fairly straightforward. The projector has a threaded body so all that needs to be done is open up the headlight, slide the projector into the bulb opening, and tighten a nut down to secure the projector. The projector comes with an H4 adapter plate which is supposed to align the projector correctly for the most applications. For the CBR headlight this aligns the projector at an angle so I had to grind away the notch and rotate the projector to the correct angle. I also had to cut a small part of the shroud at the top where it was hitting the reflector. Other than that, no issues.

The stock headlight is fine, but the projector is definitely better than stock and my previous plug and play HID kit. There is a clear cutoff so I'm not blinding anyone and the high beam is awesome. I still plan to add some auxiliary lights at some point, but I'm really happy with the performance of the Mini D2S.

Here are the pics:

 

[llory]

Not bad at all! I've considered doing this myself but gotta wait until I got the money. Looks like the GTI-R shroud fits well in our headlight though I'm not sure that would've been my first choice (I really like the gatling gun 2.0 shroud paired with the mini projectors).

Excellent work though!

 

[LD CBR]

Not bad at all! I've considered doing this myself but gotta wait until I got the money. Looks like the GTI-R shroud fits well in our headlight though I'm not sure that would've been my first choice (I really like the gatling gun 2.0 shroud paired with the mini projectors).

Excellent work though!

Thanks. I went with the GTi-R based on the recommendation by TRS. I really didn't have a preference one way or the other for any of the shrouds so I e-mailed TRS and just asked which one would require the least modification. The GTi-R shroud only required a little trimming and it's a simple design that goes well well the stock housing.

 

[rice247]

****, that looks really good. I was thinking about a similar kit. I haven't taken the nose off yet to look at the headlight. How did you separate the lens from the housing? When I did my XRunner, I just put it in my oven for 7 mins, if I remember correctly. I'm assuming you did the same to heat up the glue?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Motorcycle.com Free App

 

[NSU]

Funny, I bought exactly this combination from TRS over the weekend and it should arrive today. Glad to know it will work.

How much trouble was the wiring?

 

[LD CBR]

How did you separate the lens from the housing? When I did my XRunner, I just put it in my oven for 7 mins, if I remember correctly. I'm assuming you did the same to heat up the glue?

Yes, I did 265* for about 7 minutes. It came apart pretty easy.

 

[LD CBR]

Funny, I bought exactly this combination from TRS over the weekend and it should arrive today. Glad to know it will work.

How much trouble was the wiring?

Wiring was the easy part. With the TRS harness it is literally plug and play .

 

[somebody5788]

Love seeing some real retrofits on the little CBR =) I'm going to have to get a harness ordered and do mine now!

Note to everyone though, when you get the projector test it first and make sure the hot spot is correct, and check the projectors focus. Sometimes it's a good idea to add or subtract washers from the projector lens. Also doing that you can make a nice blue cutoff line if you want that look.

 

[rice247]

Yes, I did 265* for about 7 minutes. It came apart pretty easy.

Awesome thanks. I was saving for my exhaust. I think I'll have to get his done first.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Motorcycle.com Free App

 

[Jorsher]

This, my friends, is the proper way to put HIDs on your bike.

Thanks for the post. I will get these in the future.

 

[NSU]

Well, I got mine done today. From start to finish working time took most of the day, about 10 hours, but it was also my first time removing anything from the CBR past the seats, so there were a lot of things I had to figure out.

 

[Maxidax]

Screw motorcycles!!! All I do is look at sportbikes bikes on Craigslist, go miles on my 250, dream about mods, want new gear and desire nothing else. And I live the broke college life. I can't support this!!! But I want it! Rawrrrr XD

 

[somebody5788]

I was just looking at the pictures of this again and had a thought, you may want to double check that the bulb is seated properly. I think it's causing your hot spot to be off centered.

 

[NSU]

My hotspot is off as well (noticeably high and left), and it's tricky to keep the beam pattern level (since we have to grind off the retrofit kit's alignment tab) while fiddling with how the bulb is seated. It wants to rotate clockwise (when looking from behind) as you tighten the harness.

It would be easier to work on if I would take it out the whole assembly but I don't want to go through all that again. I'll continue to tinker with it, but as it is, the projector throws such an incredible amount of light vs. stock halogen that I'm not worried about perfection.

 

[allen]

Looks great.. euro style projectors are so much better than the crummy reflectors we get here on stock vehicles. Massive bonus points for proper aiming and not stuffing some god-awful blue bulb in there.

 

[LD CBR]

I will check the seating of the bulb, but I'm not too worried about it if I can't do anything about it. It doesn't bother me while I'm riding.

I also had the problem of rotational alignment because of grinding off the alignment tab. What I did was mount the headlight on the bike without the lens and aimed it. Then took it off and tightened it. It was tough to keep it from rotating while tightening down.

 

[allen]

"high and left" is one you should fix if you can find a way, that's going just the right direction to bother other people driving (oncoming traffic) even if it's not bothering you. It doesn't look too bad in the photos though.

 

[LD CBR]

Looking at the pics the hot spot is a little off but it wouldn't be something that bothers other drivers. There is no light above the cutoff on low beam.

 

[NSU]

My hotspot is definitely above my cutoff, so on dipped beam it's out of the way.

I have a hard time feeling too guilty about glare anyway. One winking HID lamp won't blend in with the double headlamps behind me in the typical depth misperception case. On the scale of annoyance to society, I'd rank glare from bike HIDs an order of magnitude below the straight-pipe Harley scourge, with the added benefit that HIDs actually do contribute to safety.

A bike is so much more prone to bouncing the headlamp higher over rises and bumps, and leaning the bike unavoidably tilts the pattern right up into traffic. You'd have to have some pretty advanced technology applied to a motorcycle headlamp to match how a car naturally keeps it down on the road and level.

I am thrilled with the outcome of the retrofit.

 

[SantaMonicaRy]

Which wire harness did you order? H4 or H7?