LED Headlight

nickguzzi · Sep 19, 2016

An incandescent lamp like a halogen is about 10% efficient, so 54w of your 60w gets turned in to heat not light.
A LED lamp is roughly 3 times as efficient, 3 times as many lumens per watt, so a 3600lumen lamp which may consume roughly 40w, will have a net heating effect of far less than a 60w halogen lamp. And roughly 3 times the lumens output.
In fact one of the unforeseen problems is that in cold snowy areas the lamps do not get hot enough to melt off frost, snow and slush. Would that be a problem for most old bike owners?

The problem with many LED's sold for auto use is that the internal packaging to get two light sources for main and dip, or move a single light source to obtain the same effect is not yet fully resolved in many cheaper examples. Many replacement reflectors are also woefully sub-par compared to what has been available in the hey day of 7"reflector/H4 headlamps.

Given a little development and encouragement all will be well, in the mean time, the Phillips ones are supposed to be excellent, if expensive.

baz · Sep 19, 2016

o0norton0o said:
Do any of you using LED bulbs worry about melting wires inside your headlamp shell from the greater heat these LED bulbs generate?? My headlight shell is a rat's nest of wires. I have the lighting switch, 2 beam indicator lights, and an ameter mounted in my headlight shell. That makes for a lot of wiring inside the shell. I'd love a brighter headlight, but I also don't want to melt any wiring...

I see there's LED bulbs with and without fans. That tells me things get hot... I don't ride much at night, but a simple bulb swap without any modifying to have a brighter headlight that has a lower amperage draw would be a good thing, so long as I don't burn up my wires... comments about heat build up?? thanks.

I have had an led headlight bulb with built in fan in my Norton for over a year no heat problem i would say it's cooler than the h4 that was in there cheers

N0rt0nelectr@ · Sep 19, 2016

paff said:
I am thinking of fitting an led headlight lamp had anyone tried one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252378123184?ul_noapp=true ?

If so are thy any good ?

I got an LED bulb last year for my bike to replace the halogen bulb. Got it out of China. Before I ordered it I asked about positive ground and got the reply that it wasn't polarity sensitive. Got a pack of 2 Cree LED bulbs for under $10 as I remember. When I got them I hooked one up to a battery and swapped the leads around and it worked with no issues. Been in my bike for over a year with no problems.

John Ebert

paff · Sep 19, 2016

N0rt0nelectr@ said:
paff said:

I am thinking of fitting an led headlight lamp had anyone tried one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252378123184?ul_noapp=true ?

If so are thy any good ?

Click to expand...

I got an LED bulb last year for my bike to replace the halogen bulb. Got it out of China. Before I ordered it I asked about positive ground and got the reply that it wasn't polarity sensitive. Got a pack of 2 Cree LED bulbs for under $10 as I remember. When I got them I hooked one up to a battery and swapped the leads around and it worked with no issues. Been in my bike for over a year with no problems.

John Ebert

Thanks for the info John. I have contacted the vendor via ebay but as yet i have not received a reply.

Danno · Sep 19, 2016

Ordered one of these this morning.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261969580758?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Nater_Potater · Sep 19, 2016

To help alleviate all the concern of heat buildup, please see permanent-solution-dim-commando-headlight-t20361-45.html#p265392
I ran some interior temp tests when I first converted to LED, and discovered my fears were unwarranted. Two years/eight thousand miles later, and no regrets.

Nathan

gripper · Sep 19, 2016

Danno, thats the one I bought. pretty antisocial to oncoming traffic. OK to be seen by, but not to see with. I wonder if some of the posters on here actually ride at night.

N0rt0nelectr@ · Sep 19, 2016

paff said:
N0rt0nelectr@ said:

paff said:

I am thinking of fitting an led headlight lamp had anyone tried one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252378123184?ul_noapp=true ?

If so are thy any good ?

Click to expand...

I got an LED bulb last year for my bike to replace the halogen bulb. Got it out of China. Before I ordered it I asked about positive ground and got the reply that it wasn't polarity sensitive. Got a pack of 2 Cree LED bulbs for under $10 as I remember. When I got them I hooked one up to a battery and swapped the leads around and it worked with no issues. Been in my bike for over a year with no problems.

John Ebert

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info John. I have contacted the vendor via ebay but as yet i have not received a reply.

It took several days to get a reply when I asked my question. Be patient.

John in Texas

gripper · Sep 19, 2016

The Phillips LED H4 are £165 on eBay. The extreme vision 130% are 1/10 of that. (for a pair) The LED ones do seem to feature a shroud to sort out cut off and LEDs on both sides of the bulb. Thats a lot of dosh though.

Danno · Sep 19, 2016

gripper said:
Danno, thats the one I bought. pretty antisocial to oncoming traffic. OK to be seen by, but not to see with. I wonder if some of the posters on here actually ride at night.

I rarely do, even on the more modern ZX-14 I put most of my miles on. Between deer, dogs and masses of bugs, night-riding just isn't something I let myself do. For me, it's really more about reducing current draw while being able to get home if I get caught out after sunset.

Nater_Potater · Sep 19, 2016

Danno said:
gripper said:

Danno, thats the one I bought. pretty antisocial to oncoming traffic. OK to be seen by, but not to see with. I wonder if some of the posters on here actually ride at night.

Click to expand...

I rarely do, even on the more modern ZX-14 I put most of my miles on. Between deer, dogs and masses of bugs, night-riding just isn't something I let myself do. For me, it's really more about reducing current draw while being able to get home if I get caught out after sunset.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much light the flea-bay headlight puts out at night. One thing that really comes to light :lol: is that the high beam doesn't kill the low beam like a conventional incandescent bulb does. Consequently, none of the width and depth of the low beam is lost when on high beam. So, from what I can see, I would actually lose something if switching back to the standard H4.

Nathan

o0norton0o · Sep 19, 2016

My bike has the original commando headlight,.... with a "blub" in it. I have no clue if it's an H4, a Z28, or a .357 magnum.

So, for me to switch from a stock headlight to a LCD headlight..... I would need to buy:
-A new LED bulb (obviously)
-A new reflector for the inside of my headlight ?? or does the stock reflector one work??
-Something else???

thanks...

Nater_Potater · Sep 19, 2016

o0norton0o said:
My bike has the original commando headlight,.... with a "blub" in it. I have no clue if it's an H4, a Z28, or a .357 magnum.

Original? Definitely not an H4.

o0norton0o said:
So, for me to switch from a stock headlight to a LCD headlight..... I would need to buy:
-A new LED bulb (obviously)

Something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CREE-H4-900 ... true&rt=nc

o0norton0o said:
-A new reflector for the inside of my headlight ??

Converting to an H4 is the way to go to open you to the majority of replacement bulbs. permanent-solution-dim-commando-headlight-t20361-45.html#p265489 You'll also need to adapt your harness to the H4 pin configuration. permanent-solution-dim-commando-headlight-t20361-90.html#p312414

Nathan

nickguzzi · Sep 20, 2016

Between the ebay ones and the Phillips in terms of price are http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/3 ... _p_83.html This was the company that answered my questions about current draw - on the same day and across 7 hours worth of time zones.
Getting good reviews for offroad and dirtbikes and other electrically challenged bikes, as well as older road machines with H4 fitting.

Danno · Sep 20, 2016

nickguzzi said:
Between the ebay ones and the Phillips in terms of price are http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/3 ... _p_83.html This was the company that answered my questions about current draw - on the same day and across 7 hours worth of time zones.
Getting good reviews for offroad and dirtbikes and other electrically challenged bikes, as well as older road machines with H4 fitting.[/quote}

Good with + ground? Didn't see anything in the specs.

o0norton0o · Sep 20, 2016

thanks nathan. That's a lot of info. the hella lens and reflector that was linked is not available anywhere. I really like the "daylight bulb" feature in my current headlamp, so my headlight has some illumination during the day, but the actual high powered bulb in the headlight is off. All of the other H4 conversion kits that I have found don't seem to have a hole to mount that daylight bulb, so I am wondering if I can just buy a LCD bulb, swap the wiring terminals for an H4 network plug and then still use my current headlight reflector... (In other words, I wonder if theres an LCD bulb that has a base ring that fits an old headlight reflector OR are all LCD bulbs only made in H4 format)

I'm guessing that I can't use my current headlamp reflector, so my search will continue. I live near that cyclopsadventuresports location, so I am going to call them today and ask 1000 questions...

maylar · Sep 20, 2016

The Wipac Quadoptic reflectors are available with or without the pilot side light and left or right hand dip. I have one with an H4 halogen and it works well.

o0norton0o · Sep 20, 2016

I found an answer. This guy trimmed the base of an H4 LED and made a clip to hold it in the stock reflector...

http://keepingtherockersrolling.blogspot.com/2014/12/an-led-headlight-bulb-take-that-lucas.html

But it's clearer to me now that I either need a new reflector with H4 bulb compatibility OR I have to butcher the LED bulb's mounting base to fit the norton reflector..

auldblue · Sep 20, 2016

E Byker · Sep 20, 2016

Just to let everyone know I bought a complete made in china LED replacement light it will not fit in the Lucas headlight shell the w clips do not fit after re bending etc they interfered with the shell temporary install on my goldwing not bad light output and pattern

LED Headlight

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