I installed an HID on my fatboy this morning and wanted to share how simple it is was to do, how inexpensive the HID was, and lastly show a few pics of how bright this light is.

My fatboy came without passing lamps and I wired the passing lamps independently on a relay to a switch to turn them on and off. Therefore they are completely separate from the harness on the motorcycle. The switch which is on the left side fork tin controls if they are on or not. The relay was run from the battery with a fuse and then to each lamp. The ground is run to the tank bolt on the left hand side. The ignition does have to be turned on for the lamps to be on obviously.

I recently added an HID to my Dyna and found that for some reason it ran much better off a relay than without. therefore all I needed to do for the HID on this bike was use a quick splice into the power line from the passing lamps to the power wire for the HID. The hardest part of the install was pulling the power wire for the HID through the grommet in teh back of teh headlight.

I chopped off the power connector for the HID which was designed to plug directly into the headlight plug. I straitened out a paper clip and taped it to the power wire. I pulled the grommet in the beck of the headlight out inside of the headlight bucket and fed the wire through the grommet until I could reach it with a long needle nose and get it to where my relay is located (under the right side fork tin). The wire was plenty long enough off the power line from the HID although I was not sure it was going to be.

I grabbed a quick splice and figured out which wire was the hot lead to the passing lamps. Splice the red power wire from the HID and teh hot lead for teh passing lamps together for power.

Remove the headlight reflector and the bulb. Install the HID bulb. DO NOT TOUCH THE BULB! Figure out which plug for the ground on the headlight to set the light the way you want. On my Dyna it is set to low beam so I can turn the headlight off with the high beam. On an independent relay such as this low and high beam do nothing which is fine as my HID is a single beam 35W 6000k. Run the connector for the ground (the one I cut off on the positive lead) into eh plastic connector and plug it in to the headlight plug. I zip tie the two plugs together to ensure that they will not come apart. Plug in the HID bulb leads to the ballast. Plug the power plug in to the ballast. The best part is that all this fits inside the headlight bucket with a 7" headlight. Put the reflector back in and the trim ring on and you should be good to go.

Test everything prior to reassembly to ensure it is working properly which at did at each step along the way. Voila. Massive amount of light.

I got my HID's off ebay (2 for $32). I have an extra bulb and ballast just in case and didn't spend $400 on the HD LED headlight. I'll be going for a night ride tonight for sure. I'll get pics then and post them up. If you have questions please ask.

 

Out of curiosity why didnt you want a Hi/lo Bi-Xenon HID bulb?

I ride in the country in the evenings and I cant do without high beam for spotting those little brown devils.

I know you are going to be liking all that big cheap light, its a great upgrade. The light field is impressive.

 

@ Robert

It seems like you put a good deal of work into this addition to your Fatty. This evening, you will reap the rewards of your labor.

@ Mo or Robert

Have you ever had an HID light fail due to vibration?

I am running the HD LED headlight and passing lamps on my Heritage. I live in an area most would consider BFE. Night riding is like walking through a mine field. If it isn't deer or other critters crossing the road, it's road gators, caracasses or other extraneous debris. The independent control auxiliary lamp wire harness kit which allows me to use the passing lamps with the high beam made a big difference. With today's LED technology, illumination from an LED is equal or close to HID. Unfortunately, the cost of LED is far from HID. No one would argue that both are far superior to incandescent.

Safe riding gents.

 

Do you mind posting the link to the exact one you purchased. I have been looking at them too.

 

I am literally installing a cheap HID kit I got off ebay, as we speak. It came recomended from this board. Simple install so far. I added a seperate on/off switch to the ground wire, and mounted it to the back of my cowl so I can turn the light completely off when needed. I felt this was important because of the stories about blowing fuses when starting with the light on with these cheapo kits, as well as other safety reasons. Can't wait to give her a night ride, but now they say snow may be on the way. Shoot!!!

 

You will never get the true sense of how much light it is until you get out on the road. Its like night and day...literally.

Doc, its automotive grade lighting but since I haven't really done much riding I will say so far so good. Railroad tracks are ball busters around here= no problems yet

Sorry, not meaning to hijack the OP and his bad *** ride that just gets badder and badder every mod... mad props!

 

Here is a daytime pic. I'll get night ones tonight.

 

So do these kits have a upper and lower cut off, or are these the bulbs that flood light everywhere and blind oncoming drivers?