So....when are you going to start selling the HawkeHID!?!?!? Kevin Hawkins // Greensboro, NC [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.freecfm.com/r/raddboy Y2K Kawasaki ZRX1100 //'93 Yamaha GTS1000 //'85 FZ750
I have the Baja HID headlamp. It comes on as a "pop", then immediately goes dim and rapidly increases to full brightness in 3 to 5 seconds. There doesn't seem to be any delay in shutting it off and restarting. I agree with your comments and the results of many test on the PIAA bluish tint being sold as 85 watt lights with 55 watt power draw. It is a bunch of marketing hype. I have used three or four and found them to be less than satisfactory. The initial impression to the eyes is the bluish tint is brighter, but when using the PIAA bulbs riding in rallies, it was soon obvious that a lot of detail was lost and your eyes were straining to see what could be easily seeing with a conventional bulb of the same wattage. I quickly went back to the higher wattage standard PIAA bulbs could see much better. The slight yellow cast of the standard bulb allows the eye to see things missed with the bluish tint. The HID is better yet...much closer to daylight and lights up a lot more area than a high wattage conventional bulb using 25 % of the wattage. The higher wattage conventional bulb initially appears to the eyes to be a little brighter compared to the HID because the conventional bulb is much more focused with a much smaller beam pattern until you realize the HID is simply more evenly diffused over a larger area and you don't see the dramatic line of light...no light coming from the conventional high wattage bulb. John "Hawke" Laurenson, Jr. http://www.hawkeoiler.com/ > HID: high intensity discharge. These operate by electrifying a gas inside a > small tube, similar to a neon tube. Color of the light is dependant on what > gas is used and in what state. Most city street lamps, the orangy-pink > ones, are high pressure sodium. These also feature low current draw, but > they have a "strike time" or warm-up period to be concerned with. They also > have a delay or cool down period before "restriking", once they are turned > off . This type of lamp is appearing in many luxury car headlights these > days, they give off a blue/violet light. An excellent system if the warm-up > and restrike times can be managed. Someone on the list has an HID headlamp > in their GTS, and could attest to what the warm-up and restrike delays are > like.
