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Replacement H-4 headlight

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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I purchased a replacement h-4 headlight kit for my 1980 GS850 and installed it today. Just got back from riding it and am very pleased. It is much brighter and whiter than my old headlight. It fit perfectly and now I can carry an extra bulb in case mine goes out.

I got the idea from other on this board. Thanks so much. I recommend this product to anyone. It was less than $25.00 including shipping. Money well spent. :D
 
Congrats. Glad it worked. My 450 has an odd sized lens, so the upgrade kit wouldn't work for me. Had to buy a whole new headlight. Still, a good deal for the upgrade. Way bright! 8O 8O

Michael
 
Any auto store.
I buy/bought mine at Wal-Mart.
I bought the twin pack, always carry a spare $17 USD
 
Best mod I've made to my 77gs550 yet. No more sealed headlight and I keep an extra halogen bulb on the bike. I made the mod after I came out to my bike about an hour away from home and discovered I had no headlight. It was almost midnight and I had to shadow a big rig on the freeway just so I could see. Never again! :-({|=
 
I was going to ask if anyone had tried the Sylvania Silverstar bulb and what they thought. It looks like Joe thinks highly of them?
 
I do too! Joe turned me on to the Silverstar and the difference between it and the halogen that comes with the H-4 is just as dramatic as going from the sealed beam to the H-4 in the first place -- It rocks!

One suggestion, though. I noticed that both of the H-4 lenses I have became hazy on the INSIDE over time (they're not sealed, after all). If you take a moist paper towel and ball it up over a chopstick (or equivalent), it does a nice job of taking off the haze and restoring the brilliance you started out with when it was new. Needless to say you want to be ultra careful not to let anything touch the bulb while it's out of the lens...

Enjoy,
Steve 8)
 
Pardon my ignorance but if you buy from an auto store the headlamp is usually focused symetrically for either LHD or RHD to direct the beam away from incoming traficc.. You can notice this by the direction angles cast into the glass. I am pretty sure that genuine motorcycle headlamps are straight focused.

Regards Simon
 
Simon,

I'm not sure about right or left handed headlights. Besides, the Sylvania Silverstar we're referring to here is just a replacement bulb. I've never seen any indicators of left or right on them either.

Joe
 
They do not have indicators as such, and I doubt if your market is LHD that you would have choices of RHD headlamps. But the car lamps them selves have veins in the glass to refract to the respective amrket where true bike lights are focused straight ahead.. but the car lamps are much cheaper.. The premier lamp over here is a marchion or something similar in name..

Regards Simon
 
Silverstar

Silverstar

I'm planning on getting one also, I could take the old bulb out but I figured I'd ask here first. What's the pin onfiguration on the back of the origonal bulb, does it come straight back, bent back at a 90? angle or is that taken care of with the H4 designation???....Mike
 
Re: Silverstar

Re: Silverstar

mikemilburn said:
I'm planning on getting one also, I could take the old bulb out but I figured I'd ask here first. What's the pin onfiguration on the back of the origonal bulb, does it come straight back, bent back at a 90? angle or is that taken care of with the H4 designation???....Mike
Click to expand...

Far as I know, it will be straight back. It should be the same as the H4. Mine was.
I bought mine at Canadian Tire for about $25. In Canada, the designation for the motorcycle bulb is 9003 ST. I phoned Sylvainia when I couldn't find the H4 ST bulb and nobody knew anything about the H4 ST.

http://www.sylvania.com/auto/silverstar.htm
 
thanks

thanks

I thought I read somewhere the 9003 was the same as an H4 so I asked at Crappy Tire and was told 'no, they're not even close, dumb a##es, I should have known better, thanks.....Mike
 
got one

got one

Got a set MTEC of bulbs today ($60.00 pair), next best thing to a HID system, if you believe their hype.
I tried it out last night and they're not far off, extremely white light, supposed to draw the same as a 55/60 watt bulb with an output of 100/110 watt., ment to check it with an ampmeter before I closed it up but forgot.....Mike
 
Shhhh...

Don't tell the Sylvania Silverstar 9003 happily installed on my bike that it's not even close to an H4.

They are exactly the same style. For some reason, the bulb manufacturers decided to move to a 90XX system of naming bulbs a few years back. In fact, many 9003 packages also say H4 if you look closely.

And Sylvania Silverstars ROCK! They're much brighter and whiter than ordinary halogens (ride next to a car at night on a four lane highway and marvel at how bright and white your beam is) without that stupid pitiful green/blue/pink/purple glow all the ricer "fake HID" bulbs seem to have. Current draw seems to be about the same, too -- I don't feel like taking chances with my old, tired wiring.

Best of all, you can get them at any Wal*Mart for $19 - $20 each.
 
Re: thanks

Re: thanks

mikemilburn said:
I thought I read somewhere the 9003 was the same as an H4 so I asked at Crappy Tire and was told 'no, they're not even close, dumb a##es, I should have known better, thanks.....Mike
Click to expand...



The difference is in designation. You can use either one.

I have not used the Sylvania version, but do have a 5500K bulb that works extremely well, and I bought a pair of them on E-bay for the price of one Sylvania bulb.
 
I bought my silverstar H4ST direct from Sylvania for about $20. My understanding was that in addition to beam projection that the MC bulbs withstand vibration better than their automotive counterparts.

Jeff
 
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