LED Headlight

I bought the LCD bulb shown in the image below. It fits the stock commando headlight (I think,...) I don't need to change the wiring to a H4 plug either. I just open the headlamp shell and swap the stock bulb for this one...

o0norton0o said:

thanks nathan. That's a lot of info. the hella lens and reflector that was linked is not available anywhere.

Click to expand...

Might this be the reflector you are after?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-7-Hella-Rou ... 2381788772

About the ve+ or ve- earth, I have no idea. As a rider of a modern bike (1979), I didn't consider it - mia culpa.
Drop them an email. They replied to me within 12 hours.
I didn't look on the Phillips ones either, but they were out of contention for other reasons.

Is it so hard to switch polarity, or is it considered such a heinous crime against originality?

As I said earlier in this thread, I don't think H4 headlight lamps are polarity sensitive. On a halogen lamp the three pins are isolated from the case and I'd expect the LED replacements to be the same. It's different for the smaller types of lamp where the case is also one terminal for the filament and for these types the LED polarity has to be specified and chosen to suit the bike.

auldblue said:

Click to expand...

+1 That's what I have put in my 850. So far it's working well. Good beam pattern, no (apparent) interference with oncoming cars. Reasonable price.

o0norton0o said:

I bought the LCD bulb shown in the image below. It fits the stock commando headlight (I think,...) I don't need to change the wiring to a H4 plug either. I just open the headlamp shell and swap the stock bulb for this one...

Click to expand...

Intriguing! That wasn't available when I started my searching back in '14, or I probably would have gone that route.

Looking back on the lamp in my H4 reflector, all three of the LEDs are grouped together on the same side. I'm very curious as to the pattern this one will throw.

WZ507 said:

Might this be the reflector you are after?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-7-Hella-Rou ... 2381788772

Click to expand...

Yes, it is! It's even the same pictures from the unit I bought back in '14, albeit from a "different" seller...

nickguzzi said:

Is it so hard to switch polarity, or is it considered such a heinous crime against originality?

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Not heinous, just kind of a pain if you can get a drop-in bulb without going through the hassle and cost of converting. Consider buying the bulb and regulator/rectifier, modifying the wiring harness to adapt to the reg, and, as in my case, re-configuring the electronic ignition that is currently + earth. I'd much rather merely drop in the "correct" bulb, but I'm inherently lazy...

Nathan

Installed this headlight today and it works just fine. No wire switching required; plug and play.

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

Notice it's of the fan-cooled variety. Kinda neat hearing the little fan spool up if you switch on before the engine's running.

Also put in this taillight, an 1157 substitute;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182222603199?_t ... K%3AMEBIDX%

Came as a pair, so I sold one for cost to another forum member. Again, positive-ground specific rom a specialty outfit that supplies LEDs for old cars.

Got the gauge bulbs and pilot light from SuperBrightLEDs, who are local.

Danno said:

Also put in this taillight, an 1157 substitute;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182222603199?_t ... K%3AMEBIDX%

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My experience with white LED bulbs is that, since they're not optimized for the red lens, that not much light gets through if coming from a white LED. How does yours compare to the original 1157 incandescent?

Nathan

Installed this unit in both my norton and triumph, happy with it so far, beam pattern is good and my charge warning light doesn't come on at idle anymore:

Nater_Potater said:

Danno said:

Also put in this taillight, an 1157 substitute;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182222603199?_t ... K%3AMEBIDX%

Click to expand...

My experience with white LED bulbs is that, since they're not optimized for the red lens, that not much light gets through if coming from a white LED. How does yours compare to the original 1157 incandescent?

Nathan

Click to expand...

I have a L.E.D taillight fitted and I could not see any real difference in brightness compared to the old one, but it does pull less amps.

Nater_Potater said:

Danno said:

Also put in this taillight, an 1157 substitute;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182222603199?_t ... K%3AMEBIDX%

Click to expand...

My experience with white LED bulbs is that, since they're not optimized for the red lens, that not much light gets through if coming from a white LED. How does yours compare to the original 1157 incandescent?

Nathan

Click to expand...

Seems a bit brighter. Plus, the current draw is less. I have a blue dot in the middle of the taillight lens and it's visibly brighter than with the incandescent.

I took pics of the taillight with the incandescent bulb and then with the LED. Waiting for them to come to my email to post, but with the old-style bulb, the auto flash on the phone went off, whereas with the LED, it created enough ambient light that the flash didn't trigger.

Aw, man; it looks like my wallet's going to suffer some more! Thanks for the input.

Nathan

Guess which is which.

I suppose I should have taken pics of the headlight before and after, but I can assure you the difference is even more obvious. No idea yet what sort of beam the LED headlight puts out, but the light itself was blindingly bright in the daylight when I put it in.

I got the new LED bulb today in the mail. The swap over into a stock headlight fixture took a few minutes. The back of the LED is the same configuration as the stock bulb, so it drops in the reflector, you reassemble the fixture, and close up the headlight shell. No heat sink, no fan, no changing the fixture configuration to H4 compatible. I just dropped it in and closed it back up. It looks way brighter than the original bulb, but that's probably why many of you went to halogen prior to LED developement because anything is brighter than the original



It has an LED on the top side that's lit for the dip position and it uses both top and bottom LED's for the "brights" It seems like it's pretty bright. I'll have to go for a ride tonight and see how bright it is...

Wow, awesomely bright light, and with the high beam it's just fantastic. The odd thing is that when I rev the bike and let the rpm's fall back to idle, I get no dimming or brightening of the headlight what so ever. I've never had that before. Past headlights always dimmed as the bike rpm's fell to idle. The website says the LED takes 1/4 of an amp on low beam, and 1/2 of an amp on high beam... That's incredible for all the light it throws. I have to post the link because I think it's a worthwhile purchase since there is no modifying, and it actually gives more light while consuming less amperage....

http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.c ... s-shop.php

Danno said:

Installed this headlight today and it works just fine. No wire switching required; plug and play.

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

Click to expand...

Was it plug and play with the stock reflector or with an H4 reflector?

WZ507 said:

Danno said:

Installed this headlight today and it works just fine. No wire switching required; plug and play.

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

Click to expand...

Was it plug and play with the stock reflector or with an H4 reflector?

Click to expand...

I replaced the stock setup with a flat lens Aris H4 many years ago. The H4 bulb that was in there had a flat, circular sheet metal clip that would not work with the LED, so I formed a wire clip with a chunk of coat hanger.

The odd thing is that when I rev the bike and let the rpm's fall back to idle, I get no dimming or brightening of the headlight what so ever. I've never had that before.

Click to expand...

Your LED will not dim until the voltage drops below the designed threshold which on the ones I have is 5V, not tested using an amperage restriction. The top threshold can be 18v or 30v if they are for 24v lorries (no idea of on these what the lower threshold is). This means they would work in a 6v system and put out the same light as a 12v, the 5v threshold would be close and the wattage output of the alternator would be the 6v figure which is lower so I still think the 12V conversion is best. 12v on a dynamo can be a problem with overheating the thin windings so going LED rather than 12V would be a good solution for dynamo's.

I fitted the vintage dynamo LED bulb on my 1958 6v BMW.

It puts out a good light(very visible in daylight) and as a side effect the bulb didn't blow when
The regulator went south and pushed out too much current.