H1 to H4 bulbs

[emjaydee]

Hello,
I have been given 2 H4 HID bulbs with 2 ballast and was wondering if it was illegal to change the H1 bulbs for the HID H4 bulb?
Many Thanks

[king1]

No it's not
if you look at past posts you will see other people have done this conversion

[Wookee]

Hmmm.... A good question and one I have wondered about myself.


The law says that if you have HIDs fitted then you must have a self-levelling suspension of some sort and a headlamp cleaning system. This is definitely for cars, but I don't know if it applies to bikes too.


I'm guessing it does though as I can't find a manufacturer who fits them as standard. They shouldn't fail an MOT though as that checks that the lights work and the beam pattern is ok. The chances of getting in trouble with the law over them is negligible, but you never know what could happen with an insurance company should they have some sort of factor in an accident (and one of their standard questions is if you had your lights on).

[emjaydee]

Thank you for a quick responses.

[emjaydee]

Going to steer clear of HID lights I think, a lot of people are saying they are illegal.
 

[papercutout]

If you want to pass them on to someone on here cheap, I'm sure someone will take that risk, happily.

[ChristoT]

I'd quite like them if you're selling!

[stevierst]

You'd be very unlucky to find a cop that knows anything about HID on bikes, and is willing to prosecute you.

I don't even think VOSA would do anything about it at stop check sites, and they're the superpower when it comes to Vehicles.

[topgun44]

Hmmm.... A good question and one I have wondered about myself.


The law says that if you have HIDs fitted then you must have a self-levelling suspension of some sort and a headlamp cleaning system. This is definitely for cars, but I don't know if it applies to bikes too.


I'm guessing it does though as I can't find a manufacturer who fits them as standard. They shouldn't fail an MOT though as that checks that the lights work and the beam pattern is ok. The chances of getting in trouble with the law over them is negligible, but you never know what could happen with an insurance company should they have some sort of factor in an accident (and one of their standard questions is if you had your lights on).

  we get this every year about hid I have hid kit on my fazer for last 3 years and guess what it pass the mot every time hid kit is best mod you can do for fazer as lights   shit

[Wookee]

You'd be very unlucky to find a cop that knows anything about HID on bikes, and is willing to prosecute you.

I don't even think VOSA would do anything about it at stop check sites, and they're the superpower when it comes to Vehicles.

Having checked the question of HID's on bikes out at work (I am a Traffic Police officer) I can tell you they are definitely NOT legal, unless they have the self-levelling suspension and headlamp cleaning system.


The penalty that we could deal with you for is basically a £50 fine and no points. You could get a defect rectification notice too, but that would just require you to put it back to standard. You're unlikely to get done by VOSA as the chances of them working at night are about nil, and obviously you wouldn't be using your bike at night if asked .


The big problem, and the reason I would never do it is the insurance issue. Lights are a safety item and if it can be shown that lights were a factor, however small, in a collision then you're going to have problems.


For instance: You're in a national speed limit at dusk going round a left hand bend in a spirited fashion and your correct position would be near the centre line. White van man coming the other way is cheating over the centre line cos his van really isn't a touring car that can hold a line through the bend. It's not going to end well for you. When we get there to investigate he says he was dazzled by your lights and/or it's a serious injury and we'll take your bike away to be examined.


Regardless of what happens to WVM you could get done for dangerous driving (because you made a modification to your bike that made it illegal) and it will massively affect your insurance payout.

[stevierst]

Well Wookie, your one of the few that does know about it, but at least that's made it perfectly clear.

[Fazerider]

Wookie, that's very interesting.
I had been under the impression that HIDs were supposed to have all sorts of precautions to prevent dazzle, but all I could find when I searched Construction and Use regulations and the MOT guidelines is that self-levelling and lens cleaning equipment must be functional if present… nothing banning the retrofitting of HIDs to existing housings. Where should I have looked?

[Wookee]

You have to remember when Con & Use was introduced ie when HID was just a twinkle in the eyes of the manufacturers.


 You're unlikely to find definitive stuff online about it and/or with MOT testers. VOSA would be the easiest people to contact, but I would always take my cue from the bike manufacturers themselves. Let's face it, if they were legal don't you think BMW would have them on their big tourers??


They are currently an anomaly with MOT testing very similar to the big problem we currently have with tinted front windows on cars. These are illegal, but they will pass the MOT cos they aren't on the list. That's because currently they can't agree who will pay for the testing equipment. It doesn't stop you potentially ending up at the Old Bailey like this bloke. Nor does it stop you winning points and a fine from me.

[Fazerider]

So until MOT legislation catches up with the new lighting technology people are going to continue to assume that if it passes an MOT then it's legal.
I've long held the view that HIDs are a hazard to other road users... even those units installed by the manufacturers are too damn bright and self-levelling does not cope with all the different situations that arise in the real world. The difficulty of self-levelling on a bike is ten times worse, not only is the wheelbase shorter so the degree of pitching is far greater, bikes bank to go round corners... you'd need to have gyro controlled projectors that rotate as well as pitch to correct for use on two wheels.
I'd be happy to have sensible limits on both total amount of light and the intensity. Even those little 1W Cree LEDs favoured by cyclists are a bloody menace, aimed as they are, straight into the eyes of oncoming drivers... usually strobing at about 4Hz and leaving a trail of blind spots across my retinas.