Well, I ride every night of the year, and in Southern Delaware there are many roads with no streetlights whatsoever. So I've done what I can to improve my lighting. The fog lights are a nice addition, but they really only illuminate the first 40 feet or so in front of you.
There are several things you can do to maximize your night time view:
So painting the light bulbs blue makes them imitate the look of real HID bulbs. But lets make this clear - these are NOT HID bulbs - they are just regular bulbs. You might also read about "color temperature" of light bulbs. This does not have anything at all to do with the heat of the bulbs. A higher "color temperature" just means the light looks more blue. A lower color temperature means the light looks more yellow, and the lowest color temperatures look more red.
Color temperature is indicated in degrees Kelvin (°K). But is does not mean heat - it just means that the light output is either more blue (5500°K) or more yellow(2800°K). Noon daylight is roughly 6500°K, so that would be a really nice thing to re-create with a headlamp, if you can find that color temperature. Standard incandescent light bulbs emit colors that are close to 2800°K, which is very yellow looking.
My subjective opinion - yes, the visibility seems better when you use these fake HID bulbs. Try them - you can get a set for $25 or so, so the expense is not a barrier.
It would really be more important, however, to make sure you really increase the light output, not just change the color - move up from your stock bulbs to these, which emit
By comparison, the stock Gixxer headlamp bulbs are:
Yes, the 100W bulbs are a bit more of an electrical demand than the stock 40/50W bulbs. But I've used these for 5 years now with no problems at all - they will not melt any of your wiring, nor your headlamp housings. But I would use a lot of caution - don't go above 100W without recognizing that melted wiring, or light housings, or a dead battery, are real risks. You'll have to experiment on your own.
This should run you about $25. As always, look around on the web a bit, but I don't think you'll find a much better deal. What you're guaranteed to find are lots of guys tryin to sell you "HID bulbs" for $70 to $100 - and of course they are nothing more than regular H4 bulbs like mine that are tinted blue in the same way. Steer clear of those ripoffs. I'd suggest you order from Eurodezigns, even though I hate companies who use cheesey intentional misspellings like that.
Here's what you get for your $25. The mirrored back is just fancy packaging. These are just new light bulbs that you'll want to plug in, just like a house lamp.
In my opinion, the only good way to change the headlamps OR to adjust your headlight beams is to tilt the front fairing frontward. You can try to mess around reaching into tiny places with long screw drivers, and crawling under the bike --- but it's just not worth it. Just bite the bullet and tilt the fairing forward so you can get access to what you need. To start, you'll have to un-do these three fairing screws.
Of course, you'll have to un-do the corresponding bolts on the other side of the bike too !
I took the windshield off, just to make the view easier. You don't really have to take off the windshield, but you WILL have to take these three bolts (see orange arrows) out in order for the fairing to tilt forward. Take off the same three bolts on the right side of the bike too. Note that this means you'll be removing the rearview mirrors, because the two bolts that hold the mirrors on also bolt the fairing to the frame.
Now you can just tilt the fairing forward and expose the rear of the headlights. You'll see a plastic electrical connector on the back of each headlight -- just pull back hard and it will come off. Then remove the rubber grommets on each side. In this picture I've already removed the big round rubber grommets that cover the back of the headlights.
Here's a picture of the grommet removed. They just pop right off. Easy. The word TOP is a hint -- so you know how to put them back.
Look at the next picture below. You'll note the very tiny phillips head screw that you'll have to loosen in order to pop out that wire gadget. That gadget holds the lamp in place. Very important --- it's tricky to remember how that gadget goes in once you've taken it out, so you'll want to only remove ONE BULB AT A TIME!!!! This way, when you have to put the gadget back in , you can look at the bulb in the other side to show you how it's supposed to fit.
On this picture I've indicated ( for later ) how you're going to adjust your headlight beams whenever you need to do that. There are two adjusters as shown. If you turn the screw counter-clockwise, the lights will point more rightward, and vice versa.
You can see the little tiny phillips screw that you'll need to loosen (not totally remove) in order to release that wire gadget that holds the lamp in place.
So now that you've removed the old lamp, you can just stick the new one in its place. Then put everything back together. When you get right down to it, changing your headlamps is no more difficult than changing a light in a lamp at home, except gaining access is a bit difficult.
Along the way, I've pointed out the two fasteners that you will use to point your headlight beams if that is necessary. You may not need to, but if you find that most of your light is falling on the trees above you, or if the headlights just illuminate the first 20 feet of pavement in front of you, then you will need to re-point the beams using these two adjustment fasteners.
Again, I don't really see a good way of re-pointing the headlights without tilting the fairing forward, so that is what I recommend.
Go to TOPYou'll probably find that your headlight beams need adjustment after this. You'll have to get the bike out at night, point it at the garage door, and gradually move the lights up/down until you get them set back the way you want. There's no good way to do this but trial and error, so do not bolt the nose of the bike back on until you've re-pointed your headlights.
Look again at this picture. I have the windshield off, and the instrument display removed, so that I could get access to this tiny adjustment bolt. The hex bolt you see (silver) uses a 5/16" socket wrench. If you turn this bolt counter-clockwise, the headlights will get higher. If you turn it clockwise, they point lower.
The picture is oriented so that you are seated on the bike, looking at the instrument panel area, and the instrument cluster has been removed.
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This is just another simple piece of information that is somehow kept secret from all us regular guys. Here's the bottom line. On your GSXR, you will either have H7 , H4 , or both types of bulbs. What's the difference?
How the hell should I know? I'm not an electrician! But I can tell you that H7 bulbs are either lit or not lit -- they act as SINGLE filament bulbs. Because of this, they have only two prongs at their base : one is for the hot wire, the other for ground.
This is in contrast to the H4 bulbs, which can be lit in low beam or in high beam, so they are DUAL filament bulbs. Since they have two filaments inside them, they need THREE total prongs: one is ground, one is hot for the low beam, the other is hot for the high beam circuit. The H4 bulbs are not meant to have both filaments lit at the same time. When the high beam filament goes on, the low beam filament goes off.
You can look at the table below, taken directly from multiple service manuals, to find what type of bulbs you need. Or even better, just take out your stock bulbs and see what they look like -- you'll be able to figure it out, or the guy at NAPA will.
It's surprising what a hassle it is to just change the bulbs. But the small inconvenience is well worth it. You'l be happy with a very noticeable improvement if you step up to 100W bulbs. And after trying this, you will have learned more about your bike, and you'll feel good knowing that you can replace a burnt bulb, or make adjustments to your beam pointin any time you want.
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