hid conversion kits

This is my first time using this forum so I hope I am doing this correctly. I have a 2005 R1200 RT and want to upgrade the OEM low and high beam headlights primarily for night driving, which I don't do a lot of, per wife's request. After exploring the net a lot and becoming overwhelmed with the options I thought I would ask those in my BMW community. Simple bulb changes don't appear to give me enough of what I am looking for and additional headlights appear to costly for the little time I drive at night, so, I am thinking HID conversion? Any suggestions on my line of thinking, and specific brands etc. would be appreciated. Thanks Baron.

Welcome to the forum Baron!
I saw your other post on this subject and will take it off screen for you later.
Good luck.
Gary

HI Baronk

welcome aboard.

without knowing much about the lighting on your RT, i would suggest that you look into LED replacement bulbs. They have come a long way as to quality of light, and don't have some of the issues that HID lights have.

sdc

I concur with SDC.

I've had an '07 R1200GS and currently have a '12 R1200GS, so being from the same design-generation as your RT there are probably some similarities in the electrical systems. I installed an HID kit in the '07 and it worked just fine, no problems in many miles. Nice and bright, it really punched a hole in the night. With the '12 I was unable to make it work- the bike detected a fault and shut down the low-beam circuit.

LED is a bit more simple and 'seamless,' electrically speaking, and as long as the resistance is similar to the incandescent lamp you replace, the bike should be OK with it. LED is also the least-susceptible to vibration of any of these, and you can use it in your high-beam because unlike an HID, it doesn't need a moment to come up to full brightness- in fact it comes on more quickly and sharply than any type of lamp you can use in a headlight.

HID are unsuitable for high beams as the warmup time is too slow. This affects mainly, of course, the flasher function. Most German cars retain halogen for flashers but many feature movable shielding to achieve both high and low beams with the same HID burner.