Headlight mods/upgrades on a wedge GT

I have a thread going on a K-Bike.com forum, thought I would ask here, for those who might not frequent that site.
My 07 GT came without Xenon, so I found a great deal (really cheap) on a Xenon kit. It has the 4300K color range, which is what the car manufacturers normally spec, nice white color. It is also rated at 35W, which is what BMW calls for on their own Xenon option.
This should help a lot, but I am thinking about upgrading the high beam as well. These are H7 bulbs rated at 55W from the factory, Xenon option or not.
There is so much info out there on different types of H7 performance bulbs that it'll make your head spin. Gets really confusing really fast.
What makes the most sense to me might pose a risk, so was going to poll others about it before I act.
Idea is to replace the stock H7's with Osram "Ultra High Output" 65W bulbs.
10W higher than stock, but the Xenon is rated at 35W, whereas the stock low beam is also 55W, so I am going down 20W on the low beam but adding 10W/ea with the high beams (which of course wouldn't be on 100% of the time either).
BUT of course the headlight ass'm is pricey and rather not having it running like a waterfall onto the front fender.
Hoping I can get away with this but wondering if others have done anything similar to their bike. I'd rather just get what I can out of the stock headlight and not add aux lights to it.

Gilly

Oh as an add-on question, does anyone know if the headlight assembly is essentially the same between the standard halogen and the Xenon (optional headlight)?
Gilly

The optical reflector geometry for Xenon and Halogen is different.

In regards to the question of the higher wattage bulb, my concern would be if the bulb socket and surrounding lamp area can withstand the additional heat.

More watts = more heat

10 more watts is 18% over rating

also how often do you use the high beams? for me its usually flash to pass

Quite a bit, early morning commute. Rest of the day, never. But want to see deer before they see me

Assuming your's has Xenon, can you post a pic of the inside of the headlight, say if you were just to walk to the front of the bike and take a pic of the headlight, camera facing down towards the headlight? I could post a picture of my halogen and we can compare.
Gilly

Give me a few minutes........

Here is one view of mine:

Slightly different view:

Had to spiff the headlight up a little. This was the last thing a LOT of bugs ever saw!
Would like to see if we can really spot a difference in the reflector shape.
I would take comfort a little in knowing that the materials used are the same between the 2, but we might not be able to figure that out.
My concern is your concern (times 10!), I don't want to wreck the headlight doing this.
I'm fairly confident the wiring will handle the extra 10W per high beam without throwing a code;shutting off the lights due to increased load. But would like to be sure that the heat of the xenon plus the 65W bulbs won't hurt the housing. The lenses I would be pretty sure are the same material.

Gilly

Gilly said:

Assuming your's has Xenon, can you post a pic of the inside of the headlight, say if you were just to walk to the front of the bike and take a pic of the headlight, camera facing down towards the headlight? I could post a picture of my halogen and we can compare.
Gilly

Click to expand...

Yes Xenon - due to downloading issues I need to post the pictures of the head light in seperate posts

I tried to capture all the geometry of the reflectors for you

Below is looking at the head lamp at a 90 degree angle to the throttle side

From the front

Clutch side

Last one - from the bottom looking up

I'll try to match that one, only reverse image:

Gilly - from reviewing your pictures and mine - the overall geometry at first blush is very very similar.

My only thought on this is that BMW designed it so that the reflector geometry will support both types of bulbs.

Luis

Thanks for your efforts Luis. I am coming to the same conclusion.
Do you happen to know where the BMW Xenon ballast (control unit?) is located on the factory unit? That will also be a concern, I don't know if that gets hot also. I kow where they GET located on the aftermarket, I want to do a "clean" installation.
Still don't know if the 65W highbeams are worth the risk. I did have an higher rated halogen on my 87 K75 until it failed (after about 10 yrs!), no side effects.
Gilly

Not a problem - glad to help.

I think I vaguely remember a high voltage warning sticker when I took the front plastic off.

Below is a picture out of the repair manual

Item 7 is the Control module and item 3 is the Xenon bulb - hope it helps

What will be interesting to see is if there is an area for the factory control unit to be, as can be seen in the illustration you posted.
This would still not guarantee anything, as the reflector assembly is a different part from the outer shell.
They could use the same shell for both, then install the provisions for the control unit depending on which reflector is used.
Obviously the reflector is different, if for no other reason than the "XENON" lettering on the right side of the low beam reflector (that you see through the lense).
I would also think that area where the Xenon bulb unit attaches is different. The black square "thing" on the back of the bulb (probably called the ballast?) must be held in with the spring clip they show (the spring clip or "bail" is another difference). So to me it's obvious the reflector is somewhat different. My ballast is a pod-type inline unit, not part of the bulb or at least attached to the bulb. So it will be interesting to do it.
I take some comfort in the fact that the low beam reflector shape seems identical or at least really close between the two bikes. The high beam would almost have to be the same as they use the same bulbs. Maybe.
Also I believe the orientation of the element in the halogen H7 bulb would be the same as the arc inside the Xenon bulb (longitudinal is respect to the bike).
One other area I am not sure about though, is it looks like the Factory Xenon is being inserted into a capsule of some sort with a dark colored tip. I believe the aftermarket Xenon I am getting may have a gray tip similar to an H7 bulb, but this still might affect the beam pattern I am afraid.

Gilly

Yeah the more I think about it, the bigger a problem I see, but i do tend to overthink things sometimes.
Luis, can you tell by looking what the "gray blob" in front of the xenon bulb is? Does it look like it's held there on small metal legs or more like a test tube with a gray painted end? I am thinking it's a reflector, that faces the bulb, from the outside it looks like dull gray paint.

Gilly

Gilly - on the road responding on black berry so this will be a very long sentence. Anyway I checked the gray thing it does look a reflector that fits over the bulb, there appears to be three detents spaced 120 degrees which maybe how the reflector is mounted into the housing. Of interest the bottom half od the reflector has no opening between 4 and 8 o'clock while the "top" side has notches and slots cut open. You may want to check the fiche on Max BMW site and see if the reflector is shown in the hedlamp assembly exploded view.

Luis