Over the weekend I dropped in an HID conversion kit into my PC800. The installation was pretty straight forward. I bought the kit from here. The kit’s harness needs some minor modifications (lengthen the ground and positive leads, change out the fuse holder for one that is sealed, etc) but works well. The bulb and bulb housing drop right into a PC800’s headlight. Yes, it is true that this is not a full HID conversion with projector housing and angel eye but it is pretty darn good for not having to modify the headlight housing.
In the photo above you can see a toggle switch complete with red LED at the end that I added to my PC800 in order to turn on and off the headlight circuit. This is so that I don’t over-stress the HID bulb and ballast at initial bike start-up. On my PC800, the headlight turns on as soon as the key is turned. It turns off when the starter is engaged and turns back on once the starter is released. Putting this switch in allows me to turn off the headlight circuit prior to turning on the key and only turn the headlight on after the bike is running. This would also be beneficial for a situation where the charging system goes out on the bike and you need to make a few extra miles to get home. Switch the headlight off and you extend your range. Note that this is illegal in most places but it would be effective.
The switch and its wiring fit nicely into the plastic handlebar covers. I do believe that I might add more switches and indicators on the handlebars considering how much extra space is available.
I spliced into the wires that go to the headlight switch. The middle wire on the switch plug is +12v. If you put a switch on that, you can kill the headlight when you desire such things.
This is all of the HID wiring jammed into the front of the meter panel. There is a surprising amount of room in this space. I zip tied the ballast to the frame just to the left behind the plastics. There are also a few extraneous parts in this photo from my full LED conversion on the bike.
The end result is quite nice. The headlight is much brighter and changing from low to high beam is almost instantaneous. This kit uses a solenoid to drive the bulb forward or back into position for high or low. I bought a yellow bulb but I might change it in the future for a more blue bulb. My original intention was to try to maintain a stock headlight color profile but it turned out more green than I was expecting. The blue bulbs light up the road better but as a driver I HATE seeing them approach me. There must be a good middle point somewhere…
All in all I would recommend this upgrade. It doesn’t cost much, is an easy installation, and provides a good benefit. It also consumes less power than the standard incandescent bulb. That is a win all the way around!