mounted new tire and making it straight???

[dspadd]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried the plasma-glow xenon blue high intensity bulbs 100/90W, and what the results were. Thanks in advance for the help Dave

[Thor Lancelot Simon]

On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 02:29:17AM -0000, dspadd wrote:

> I was just wondering if anyone has tried the plasma-glow xenon blue > high intensity bulbs 100/90W, and what the results were. Thanks in > advance for the help

These are "high intensity blue" incandescent lightbulbs, yes? *Not* "high intensity discharge" gas-discharge lamps. Standard halogen lamps have a color temperature in the neighborhood of 3000K and are about as efficient as any incandescent lightbulb is going to get. When you filter out some of the yellow light with a blue coating to make them look like fancy gas-discharge lamps, which have a color temperature somewhere around 4500K, all you do is... filter out some of the light. That makes it *dimmer*, not *brighter*. Worse, the yellow light you're filtering out is right at the peak of human visual response, so swapping a slightly brighter yellowish-white bulb for a slightly dimmer bluish-white bulb is particularly dumb; you may be able to convince yourself that it's "brighter" because the color temperature looks like that of the insanely bright gas-discharge lamps some very expensive new cars use, however, it's *not* brighter, and in an objective test you would find that you couldn't see nearly as well by the "high intensity" blue light as by the plain old yellowish light. If you want to risk your safety to look cool, by all means, use one of these ridiculous lightbulbs. Otherwise, I think you'll find that a standard 100/60W halogen bulb (if you want to be kind to your charging system, or 100/80W halogen bulb (if not) or even just a straight 100W/100W halogen bulb (IIRC PIAA makes these) will be much more effective *and* not be a cop magnet. Finally, don't fall for the scam talk about "Xenon bulbs". There may be some trivial amount of xenon in these blue-coated halogen lightbulbs to allow them to claim they're "xenon bulbs" but they are still just standard halogen bulbs with a blue coating; e.g. they have a tungsten filament that gets hot and makes light, etc. etc.. Real gas-discharge lights are more like white "neon" tubes: there is no filament, rather a very fancy ballast applies a very high voltage between two electrodes, which turns the gas into a plasma that emits light. Much more efficient and much brighter for the same power than an incandescent bulb but *very* expensive (and prone to theft!). If you buy one of these "Xenon blue" bulbs thinking you're getting a gas-discharge headlight, and what you receive has a filament in it... surprise surprise, you've been scammed. If you can't find standard 100W/60W bulbs at your local parts place, I note that J.C. Whitney and NAPA both sell them online, as well as 100W/80W bulbs. Part numbers are in the KLR FAQ, I believe. Thor

[Jeff Miller]

Obviously, You have never used one......seeing is believing. I have had one in my KLR for over six months and love it. I have them in every vehicle I own.........INCLUDING my Police Car. Yes, they are not the "true" hid system, but they are brighter, whiter and increase my safety compared to the stock hologen. PlasmaGlow bulbs are street legal and yes there are some "blue coated" bulbs that are not legal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but my experience has been completely different than what you suggest in your post. --- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 02:29:17AM -0000, dspadd wrote: > > I was just wondering if anyone has tried the plasma-glow xenon

blue

> > high intensity bulbs 100/90W, and what the results were. Thanks

in

> > advance for the help > > These are "high intensity blue" incandescent lightbulbs, yes? *Not* > "high intensity discharge" gas-discharge lamps. > > Standard halogen lamps have a color temperature in the neighborhood

of

> 3000K and are about as efficient as any incandescent lightbulb is

going

> to get. When you filter out some of the yellow light with a blue

coating

> to make them look like fancy gas-discharge lamps, which have a color > temperature somewhere around 4500K, all you do is... filter out

some of

> the light. That makes it *dimmer*, not *brighter*. > > Worse, the yellow light you're filtering out is right at the peak

of human

> visual response, so swapping a slightly brighter yellowish-white

bulb for

> a slightly dimmer bluish-white bulb is particularly dumb; you may

be able

> to convince yourself that it's "brighter" because the color

temperature

> looks like that of the insanely bright gas-discharge lamps some very > expensive new cars use, however, it's *not* brighter, and in an

objective

> test you would find that you couldn't see nearly as well by the > "high intensity" blue light as by the plain old yellowish light.

If you

> want to risk your safety to look cool, by all means, use one of

these

> ridiculous lightbulbs. Otherwise, I think you'll find that a

standard

> 100/60W halogen bulb (if you want to be kind to your charging

system, or

> 100/80W halogen bulb (if not) or even just a straight 100W/100W

halogen

> bulb (IIRC PIAA makes these) will be much more effective *and* not

be a

> cop magnet. > > Finally, don't fall for the scam talk about "Xenon bulbs". There

may be

> some trivial amount of xenon in these blue-coated halogen

lightbulbs to

> allow them to claim they're "xenon bulbs" but they are still just

standard

> halogen bulbs with a blue coating; e.g. they have a tungsten

filament that

> gets hot and makes light, etc. etc.. Real gas-discharge lights are

more

> like white "neon" tubes: there is no filament, rather a very fancy

ballast

> applies a very high voltage between two electrodes, which turns the

gas

> into a plasma that emits light. Much more efficient and much

brighter for

> the same power than an incandescent bulb but *very* expensive (and

prone

> to theft!). If you buy one of these "Xenon blue" bulbs thinking

you're

> getting a gas-discharge headlight, and what you receive has a

filament in

> it... surprise surprise, you've been scammed. > > If you can't find standard 100W/60W bulbs at your local parts

place, I note

> that J.C. Whitney and NAPA both sell them online, as well as

100W/80W bulbs.

> Part numbers are in the KLR FAQ, I believe. > > Thor

[kdxkawboy@aol.com]

last year Motorcycle Consumer News did a very extensive comparison test of the various bulbs and found that none of the 'fancy' headlights did anything to increase the candlepower of the light - candlepower is the true measurement of the power of a light source to illuminate an area. The second conclusion was that, like with many other things, just make it different and people will convince themselves that because it is 'different' the claims for being better must be true. Third, it was the pattern of the headlight reflector and headlight lens that dictated how far the headlight reached and how broad a pattern it threw - no change in bulbs can change this design limitation. And fourth, when they put everything to an actual test, they discovered those lights that filtered out the yellow colors actually degraded the riders ability to clearly pick up detail. The only thing that makes a different, MCN concluded, was the wattage rating of the bulb. Pat G'ville, Nv In a message dated 2003-04-01 8:46:18 PM Pacific Standard Time, jlmillerranch@... writes:

> > > Obviously, You have never used one......seeing is believing. I have > had one in my KLR for over six months and love it. I have them in > every vehicle I own.........INCLUDING my Police Car. Yes, they are > not the "true" hid system, but they are brighter, whiter and increase > my safety compared to the stock hologen. PlasmaGlow bulbs are street > legal and yes there are some "blue coated" bulbs that are not legal. > Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but my experience has been > completely different than what you suggest in your post. > > >

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Bogdan Swider]

> So how do I make the rear wheel totally straight? > > Thanks, > > Van A7 >

Take it for a ride and slowly increase your speed. If it tracks solidly at 90 mph it's strait enough. Bogdan

[Thor Lancelot Simon]

On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 04:45:02AM -0000, Jeff Miller wrote:

> Obviously, You have never used one......seeing is believing. I have

Yes, it is, indeed, "believing"; but it is not "knowing". How do you _know_ you can see any better with the blue bulb than with a standard halogen of the same wattage and reflector pattern (a different reflector pattern would not be street legal, FWIW)? Test after test demonstrates that what matters is reflector pattern (fixed by law) and total light output -- the blue bulbs produce _less_ candlepower per watt than normal halogen bulbs, which has been repeatedly confirmed. Test after test _also_ confirms that humans see best in the yellow part of the spectrum -- exactly what's filtered to provide that "lowrider-blue" light from the "Plasma Blue" bulbs. You may _think_ you can see better, but it's a near-certainty that an actual test would demonstrate that you can't. Vision is tricky like that, especially color vision. Watch a class of undergraduates learning to print color photographs (for the first day or so anyway) and you'll get some idea what I mean. Or watch an architectural photographer work indoors sometime; one of the first things you learn is that "white" light comes in all kinds of different colors, and that the human eye is a very, very poor tool for distinguishing between them. Finally, there's no plasma involved with these bulbs -- period. It's pretty hard to take anyone's marketing claims seriously when the first word in the product name is intentionally deceptive. Thor