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PIAA
- Thread starter Dudley
- Start date
Dudley
New member
Got them online. That is a good price. Below is the information obout the ones I bought.
XTREME WHITE PLUS: The very popular Xtreme White Plus technology is now available in H7 style bulbs. Rated at 4000K and providing 110watts worth of light from only 55watts these bulbs will provide a brilliant Xtreme cool white light that will light up road hazards and street signs long before a normal halogen bulb
XTREME WHITE PLUS: The very popular Xtreme White Plus technology is now available in H7 style bulbs. Rated at 4000K and providing 110watts worth of light from only 55watts these bulbs will provide a brilliant Xtreme cool white light that will light up road hazards and street signs long before a normal halogen bulb
wyliec
New member
Are these the ones you are looking at? I may try these in place of hids.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Xtreme-White-PIAA-Motorcycle-Headlight/dp/B001ECYR48/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1240705149&sr=1-5"]Amazon.com: H7 110W Xtreme White Plus PIAA Motorcycle Headlight Bulb: Automotive[/ame]
Last edited:
Firefly
Active member
Actually all they are is tinted bulbs - they give the illusion of being 'brighter' - but they are not - they actually may be not as bright due to the tinting.
If you really want to see some light - get a HID kit like the NMN one - the difference will amaze you.
Firefly
Active member
The PIAA just seem brighter because it's a different color than your eyes are used to seeing -
HID is the only way to get more actual brightness.
The HID is the best thing I ever did to my Spyder - just need to do the fogs now!
yea. as expensive as these piaa bulbs are and experience with them in my spyder, i would not recommend them.
they were better than stock but i felt i did not get my money's worth.
just my opinion;
if you're not going for a real HID system, skip the any bulbs that throw "HID" in to their marketing. All they do is tint the glass.
Get some quality Phillips or Osram bulbs and you wont be disappointed.
They are much brighter and closer to true light.
http://www.powerbulbs.com/
if you're not going for a real HID system, skip the any bulbs that throw "HID" in to their marketing. All they do is tint the glass.
Get some quality Phillips or Osram bulbs and you wont be disappointed.
They are much brighter and closer to true light.
http://www.powerbulbs.com/
effgjamis
Ride Forrest Ride!
wyliec
New member
I'd like to know also. There are alot of H7's. How would you know which to choose? The selection process shown is for cars only.
Thanks
go to any pepboys or autozones. they all have sylvania silverstar ultra at 4000k. they are whiter and brighter than stock.
you will have to go to performance shop for piaa or pepboys can order them. if it says h7 it will fit.
When you first arrive to the powerbulbs website, first select the united states up in the top right area
Then look in the middle/center area for:
"I know which fitting I need.." In that drop down menu just select H7 and it will show you all they have to offer. Again, just stay away from the ones that use HID cool blue in the name and you'll be good....
BUT, I must say;
Specially since the Spyder comes with Bi-Projectors... Put some cash to the side and save up for true HID. You, just, wont, regret it.
Then, when the budget allows it again, get HID in the fog lights.
Then look in the middle/center area for:
"I know which fitting I need.." In that drop down menu just select H7 and it will show you all they have to offer. Again, just stay away from the ones that use HID cool blue in the name and you'll be good....
BUT, I must say;
Specially since the Spyder comes with Bi-Projectors... Put some cash to the side and save up for true HID. You, just, wont, regret it.
Then, when the budget allows it again, get HID in the fog lights.
Firefly
Active member
None of those are 'brighter' than stock. Complete waste of money to get blue tinted bulbs. They might seem 'brighter' or 'whiter' - but that is just due to the different tint that yuour eyes are not used to seeing.
Get the HID - it's the only way to get actual brighter lights.
sylvania and piaa ARE slightly brighter than stock.
it's them cheap bulbs thats says HID that are tinted blue may actually be dimmer than regular bulbs..
i did say i would not recommend them if you can afford hid
but if people decide not to spend the money on hid they should know easy place to get them. but hid is THE way to go.:thumbup:
Firefly
Active member
Info on why 'superwhite' bulbs like the PIAA put out LESS light than your stock bulbs:
Claims ("55w = 85w", etc.) made for "Superwhite" type bulbs are very misleading. They simply aren't true. Here's the full scoop!
CLAIM: "SuperWhite" bulbs produce 85W of light from 55W of electricity
REALITY: "Superwhite" ("Hyperwhite", "UltraWhite", "Platinum", etc., basically any bulb advertised as being "whiter" than normal) bulbs produce more glare and less seeing light than standard bulbs.
The "55W = 85W" type claims are a sham. Here's how these kinds of pretend wattage numbers are cooked-up: The blue or purple filtration coating on the glass tints the light so that it is "whiter". Most bulbs that actually produces more light (i.e., higher-wattage bulbs) also burn with a whiter color than standard-wattage bulbs. With these color-coated bulbs, only the light color, and not the actual light output, imitates a high-power bulb. There is no seeing advantage to "whiter" light, though some people seem to think that others will look upon headlamps so equipped and go "Wow, cool!". Why they believe anyone else cares what color their headlamps are is anybody's guess.
A major reason why many people find many US-specification headlamps in need of upgrading is because many such headlamps have very low levels of foreground light, which creates a "black hole" on the road in front of the car. There's often insufficient lateral light (left and right) to see critters or people before they run into the road. The "hot spot" creates a narrow tunnel of light that disappears "out there somewhere", with no visual cue to where the beam (and therefore the driver's seeing range or "preview") ends. But these headlamp performance aspects are governed by the optics of the lamp, not by the color of the light. Bulbs with blue or purple tinted glass never improve the performance of your headlamps. They may leave it relatively unchanged, or they may severely reduce it, but they never improve it.
CLAIM: "Our bulbs produce the whitest and brightest light on the road!"
REALITY: "Brightness" is like "Loudness". It's a subjective perception. Is Metallica " louder " than Bach? Most people would say so. That's why audiologists use an objective measurement, Sound Pressure Level, rather than subjective quantities like "volume" and "loudness". And so it is in the science of light. "Bright" and "Dim" are subjective perceptions. Intensity, measured in any of several precisely-defined and scientific ways, is the only real way to gauge or compare output of a light source or performance of a lamp equipped with a light source. A 4-watt flashlight bulb dipped in the purple coating applied to these tinted headlamp bulbs would look "whiter", and might look "brighter", but would produce less light. And so it is with these headlamp bulbs.
The reason why the scam fools people into thinking their headlamps really work better has to do with the interaction of light that is tinted blue (to any degree) with the human eye. This kind of light has been shown in rigidly-controlled scientific studies to create almost 50% more glare than untinted light from a bulb with clear glass. But there's no 50% increase in seeing to go along with the extra glare; there's no increase in seeing at all, and in most cases there is a moderate reduction in actual seeing light. More glare, less seeing: Everybody loses.
CLAIM: Many of these bulbs are sold with claims of specific "color temperature" (e.g. "5000K"). Often, these ratings are accompanied by text to the effect that higher color temperatures are "close to natural daylight".
REALITY: Color Temperature is a real measure, but it is being improperly used to claim improved seeing. Legitimate bulb manufacturers do catalogue the color temperature of their products in technical literature not usually distributed to consumers, because scientists and engineers can use it as a convenient proxy indicator for filament luminance. But it has no predictive value for the performance of an automotive headlamp, nor does it indicate how well you'll be able to see. The idea being sold with these "Kelvin ratings" is that the light is closer to natural sunlight. As with many sales claims, there is a small kernel of truth here, but it's cancelled out by the smoke and mirrors. Noonday sunlight does have a much higher color temperature than most uncoated headlamp bulbs, but there are a great many other differences between sunlight and headlamp light, as well. Not only that, but the Color Temperature rating is really valid only at extremely high light intensity, such as that produced by the sun. At the lower intensities produced by most electric lamps including headlamps, the rating no longer says much about the light, but only allows a limited, referential comparison of different light colors. The tinted bulbs' poor imitation of the color of sunlight does not mean that the headlamp output is "just like sunlight", or anything even close. As with the wattage equivalence claims discussed above, a color-based comparison is being used to imply an intensity and seeing-ability comparison that does not exist. This also addresses the related claims that
CLAIM: "I've got pictures that prove the brightness difference!"
REALITY: Photographs, film or digital, cannot accurately represent the intensity of a light or lamp, because of the many significant differences in the perception of light by the human eye vs. the camera. By simply adjusting the exposure settings or white balance, virtually any bulb or lamp can be "shown" to be superior to virtually any other.
BOTTOM LINE: The laws of physics are the laws of physics. They don't bend even for the highest-paid advertising agency. There is no way to get "85 watts of light for 55 watts of electricity." Tinted bulbs aren't better.
___________________________________
Some companies (PIAA...) even capitalize on this by claiming that their 55W bulbs are as bright as 85W bulbs, among other pseudoscientific claims. Here's how this claim works: Higher-wattage bulbs of a given type generally appear whiter than lower-wattage bulbs. Think of the last time you replaced a 60W bulb in your home with a 100W bulb. So the idea with these "blue" filtered bulbs is to have a lower wattage bulb that mimics the color of a higher wattage bulb, but not its performance. However, there's no getting something for nothing. The altered light color does not mean you're getting more light, or better quality light, just that the light is of a different color.
In fact, you get less usable light from such a bulb than from a regular clear bulb, and here's why: A blue filter removes nonblue components of the light passing through it. Halogen bulbs produce very little light in the blue frequency range. When you put a blue filter on the bulb or lamp, you are reducing the amount of usable light that gets from the glowing filament to the reflector, to the lens and from there to the road. Prove it to yourself using nothing more than the windshield in your car...drive towards a yellow-orange Sodium vapor street light and watch the light as it shines first through the clear portion of the windshield, then through the blue strip at the top. Up there through the blue, it certainly looks "whiter"...but it's also dimmer. If a bulb's sales material focuses on the color of the light rather than the amount of light, you should ask critical questions about the amount of light the bulb produces before choosing to use it.
More info at http://danielsternlighting.com/
Don't waste your money on any of these 'blue, superwhite, etc.' bulbs - save that money and put it towards HID like the kit from NMN.
Claims ("55w = 85w", etc.) made for "Superwhite" type bulbs are very misleading. They simply aren't true. Here's the full scoop!
CLAIM: "SuperWhite" bulbs produce 85W of light from 55W of electricity
REALITY: "Superwhite" ("Hyperwhite", "UltraWhite", "Platinum", etc., basically any bulb advertised as being "whiter" than normal) bulbs produce more glare and less seeing light than standard bulbs.
The "55W = 85W" type claims are a sham. Here's how these kinds of pretend wattage numbers are cooked-up: The blue or purple filtration coating on the glass tints the light so that it is "whiter". Most bulbs that actually produces more light (i.e., higher-wattage bulbs) also burn with a whiter color than standard-wattage bulbs. With these color-coated bulbs, only the light color, and not the actual light output, imitates a high-power bulb. There is no seeing advantage to "whiter" light, though some people seem to think that others will look upon headlamps so equipped and go "Wow, cool!". Why they believe anyone else cares what color their headlamps are is anybody's guess.
A major reason why many people find many US-specification headlamps in need of upgrading is because many such headlamps have very low levels of foreground light, which creates a "black hole" on the road in front of the car. There's often insufficient lateral light (left and right) to see critters or people before they run into the road. The "hot spot" creates a narrow tunnel of light that disappears "out there somewhere", with no visual cue to where the beam (and therefore the driver's seeing range or "preview") ends. But these headlamp performance aspects are governed by the optics of the lamp, not by the color of the light. Bulbs with blue or purple tinted glass never improve the performance of your headlamps. They may leave it relatively unchanged, or they may severely reduce it, but they never improve it.
CLAIM: "Our bulbs produce the whitest and brightest light on the road!"
REALITY: "Brightness" is like "Loudness". It's a subjective perception. Is Metallica " louder " than Bach? Most people would say so. That's why audiologists use an objective measurement, Sound Pressure Level, rather than subjective quantities like "volume" and "loudness". And so it is in the science of light. "Bright" and "Dim" are subjective perceptions. Intensity, measured in any of several precisely-defined and scientific ways, is the only real way to gauge or compare output of a light source or performance of a lamp equipped with a light source. A 4-watt flashlight bulb dipped in the purple coating applied to these tinted headlamp bulbs would look "whiter", and might look "brighter", but would produce less light. And so it is with these headlamp bulbs.
The reason why the scam fools people into thinking their headlamps really work better has to do with the interaction of light that is tinted blue (to any degree) with the human eye. This kind of light has been shown in rigidly-controlled scientific studies to create almost 50% more glare than untinted light from a bulb with clear glass. But there's no 50% increase in seeing to go along with the extra glare; there's no increase in seeing at all, and in most cases there is a moderate reduction in actual seeing light. More glare, less seeing: Everybody loses.
CLAIM: Many of these bulbs are sold with claims of specific "color temperature" (e.g. "5000K"). Often, these ratings are accompanied by text to the effect that higher color temperatures are "close to natural daylight".
REALITY: Color Temperature is a real measure, but it is being improperly used to claim improved seeing. Legitimate bulb manufacturers do catalogue the color temperature of their products in technical literature not usually distributed to consumers, because scientists and engineers can use it as a convenient proxy indicator for filament luminance. But it has no predictive value for the performance of an automotive headlamp, nor does it indicate how well you'll be able to see. The idea being sold with these "Kelvin ratings" is that the light is closer to natural sunlight. As with many sales claims, there is a small kernel of truth here, but it's cancelled out by the smoke and mirrors. Noonday sunlight does have a much higher color temperature than most uncoated headlamp bulbs, but there are a great many other differences between sunlight and headlamp light, as well. Not only that, but the Color Temperature rating is really valid only at extremely high light intensity, such as that produced by the sun. At the lower intensities produced by most electric lamps including headlamps, the rating no longer says much about the light, but only allows a limited, referential comparison of different light colors. The tinted bulbs' poor imitation of the color of sunlight does not mean that the headlamp output is "just like sunlight", or anything even close. As with the wattage equivalence claims discussed above, a color-based comparison is being used to imply an intensity and seeing-ability comparison that does not exist. This also addresses the related claims that
CLAIM: "I've got pictures that prove the brightness difference!"
REALITY: Photographs, film or digital, cannot accurately represent the intensity of a light or lamp, because of the many significant differences in the perception of light by the human eye vs. the camera. By simply adjusting the exposure settings or white balance, virtually any bulb or lamp can be "shown" to be superior to virtually any other.
BOTTOM LINE: The laws of physics are the laws of physics. They don't bend even for the highest-paid advertising agency. There is no way to get "85 watts of light for 55 watts of electricity." Tinted bulbs aren't better.
___________________________________
Some companies (PIAA...) even capitalize on this by claiming that their 55W bulbs are as bright as 85W bulbs, among other pseudoscientific claims. Here's how this claim works: Higher-wattage bulbs of a given type generally appear whiter than lower-wattage bulbs. Think of the last time you replaced a 60W bulb in your home with a 100W bulb. So the idea with these "blue" filtered bulbs is to have a lower wattage bulb that mimics the color of a higher wattage bulb, but not its performance. However, there's no getting something for nothing. The altered light color does not mean you're getting more light, or better quality light, just that the light is of a different color.
In fact, you get less usable light from such a bulb than from a regular clear bulb, and here's why: A blue filter removes nonblue components of the light passing through it. Halogen bulbs produce very little light in the blue frequency range. When you put a blue filter on the bulb or lamp, you are reducing the amount of usable light that gets from the glowing filament to the reflector, to the lens and from there to the road. Prove it to yourself using nothing more than the windshield in your car...drive towards a yellow-orange Sodium vapor street light and watch the light as it shines first through the clear portion of the windshield, then through the blue strip at the top. Up there through the blue, it certainly looks "whiter"...but it's also dimmer. If a bulb's sales material focuses on the color of the light rather than the amount of light, you should ask critical questions about the amount of light the bulb produces before choosing to use it.
More info at http://danielsternlighting.com/
Don't waste your money on any of these 'blue, superwhite, etc.' bulbs - save that money and put it towards HID like the kit from NMN.
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