Torque and Chrome

How do I decrease the intensity of my HID motorcycle headlight?

I bought a motorcycle with a very nice, and expensive, HID headlight on it. I love the look of the light, and want to keep it on, but it is far too bright for use at dusk or night. It is only a single ballast, with no moving parts to change from hi/low. It is the only light on the bike other than turn signals. I currently don't ride at night for fear of being a nuisance to other drivers. How can I decrease the intensity of the beam? Are there any lenses/materials that I can place in front of the light to distort the light? I don't think varying the voltage is an option with this type of light. My other option which is a little less considerate but might be more feasible, is to add additional lighting either halogen or super-bright LED. This way I will have something to flash as a 'hi-beam' when drivers think I am driving with my brights on. The bike is customed out and fairly streamlined with a black/chrome theme. I would like to stick with a chrome housing, and as low profile as possible, but yet have an intense enough light that it will be seen as a 'bright' when compared to the HID headlight. Any suggestions?

Public Comments

1. loosen the brackets and lower the headlight
2. My suggestion would be to go back to the stock bulb. Halogens are plenty bright enough. Blinding drivers with the light you currently have isn't a nuisance, it's dangerous.
3. You could switch to a different colour temperature. HID Bulbs over 6000K have a bluer light and are dimmer. One other method would be to install an anti-glare HID bulb. The only other option may be to move back to standard halogen. HID lights are about 3 times brighter than standard halogen, and about twice as bright as uprated halogen, and both are brighter than any current LED bulbs. Neither of these option will be noticeable against an HID bulb.