A LED headlight that works

[thirdwheel]

Here is something I've got to share as it is something that has been the curse of older motorcycles especially those that are used and used in the dark, the lighting is so poor you can be lost to others and the lights coming towards you reduce your night vision to the point it becomes silly to press on.

After reading the report on the Westward Ho night trial in the Jampot with the report highlighting a bike that had a LED headlight that worked well, I was on a mission to track down an LED light that worked. I've now done this and have been shocked at the improvement it has made and is far better than I had hoped, and better even than the halogen in my BMW f650 (night breaker bulb), so much so I've now put an LED in that too.
In my research there were many complaints of LED bulbs just not focusing and this is why I eventually gave up on my HID experiment as well as the bulb not liking the vibes and pot holes. There is a new generation bulb with Philips LED's that are precisely placed to mimic the positioning of a H4 main and dip element, I obtained them from China via the much used auction site for about £50 for a pair. Expensive gamble but I like using my bikes and anything that can make me see and be seen is ok by me.

I've been running a 35w 12v halogen in the bike I have converted to LED, over the winter I had rebuilt the dynamo and converted it to 12v using a solid state voltage controller and a new battery. The 35w halogen was poor but better than the 6v it had before. To put in the H4 LED I needed to wire a H4 plug onto my headlight wiring and replace the lens with a H4 Lucas Item. All that was now needed was to pop in the bulb, plug in the ballast to the bulb and H4 plug, neatly position the ballast in the headlight shell and replace the headlight, I found I needed to reverse the alloy heat sink on the rear end of the bulb as the headlight would not fit the shell unless I did - simple screw off turn round and screw back on.

The difference is unbelievable and the focus on both the bikes was very good but on these bulbs you can turn the bulb in the holder to get a better focus if you need and the allen key you need to do this was in the box with the bulbs.

I've no connection with the seller just a very happy motorcyclist who now can drive a little more safely, and the charge balances at 20 mph now rather than 30mph with the 35w halogen. I've a super bright led sidelight bulb and an LED rear light board (stop / tail) too so this all contributes to giving the dynamo an easier time, the blurb for the spec. of the bulb says it draws 25w which is amazing considering the light it puts out.


Best cheers
George

[saltbox alf]

interesting, I have led pilot bulb (well did have, pre-accident) and found that it was brighter tan the main light. so it's a phillips from china, who in particular? As ihave found varing quality with items from the far east!!! not wanting this to turn into an advert (Clive) can it be a recomandation?

[Groily]

Cheaper than the BPF LED items commonly used (which have attracted some negative comment, some of which I agree with, having fitted three to various of my bikes), and a heck of a lot cheaper than the $250+ prices listed from Philips themselves!
They are very clearly the future.
Hitherto, the best illumination I have had has been from the old Cibié concave-glass headlights of which I am fortunate enough to have 2 . . . if these new ones are better than that, then they will be a must-have!
Like saltbox alf, I'd be interested to know exactly from whom, for the same reasons?

[bjork]

Yes, I'm interested too. Can you post up the item number for the auction site please?

[g80csp11]

ive been using these for a number of years now and they are fantastic .
work on all voltages between 6 and 36V

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000LM-LED-18 ... Swl9BWLkll

ive even fitted to by 1946 G80 , but had to solder the adaptor to fit
they have adaptors for H$ so , easy fit on 7" reflector

used on westwood Ho by Bob Piper and myself

You have to make connections to loom , as no H4 3 pin connector but that's not a problem

on 6 V you have to be a bit careful that if the charging system packs up so do the lights if voltage drops too low , but I just carry old bulb and holder in with tool bag

The price has gone up a bit , they were £ 7.50 , on sale at autojumbles ie. Kempton for about £18, buy direct from china . easy !

[thirdwheel]

I did not put a direct link in the LED bulb because when I read it back to myself it looked more like a blatant advert as I was sounding so enthusiastic about it.
Here is the link : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1Set-Philips- ... Sw~otWg6zC

Interesting about the other LED running down to 6v and at a very good price too at that price it would be worth a punt to see if it worked for you. Came across a chap on the net that had tried them on his TVR and got lots of light but not well focused on dip but a TVR does uses obsolete lorry reflectors so a modern H4 reflector may have worked a lot better.
The concave Cibe was all the rage in the 70's and I saved up and bought one for my A65 it was not a halogen bulb type, but it was not on long as the old lucas reflector worked better. The best reflector I have ever had came on my CX500 but not sure what size it was. I do know the reflector is the critical part of the equation.

Have fun experimenting
Geo

[g5wqian]

i use a "double dipper" LED 6v bulb on my ajs , straight swap for the old prefocus bulb.

only issue i had was that the old headlight was not much good on the pattern and the main beam was up in the air , but after buying a new modern lucas headlamp and putting it in i then had a proper beam pattern and a proper dip and main beam height.

cant fault it now and i run the headlight on in daytime when driving and it hardly uses any current off the dynamo .

[Groily]

thx for the link!

[Stuoyb]

The critical data in changing headlamp bulbs are the lens pattern and the position of the "filaments" within the headlamp. It is the relationship between these two that creates the correct beam pattern on the road.
If, for example you fit a hybrid halogen bulb (H4 with a bpf base) the light source will be out of position - normally further into the lamp and therefore creating more scatter in the beam and the pooling of light on the road is not focussed.
Changing to any of the brighter type bulbs needs to be done in conjunction with a moderm H4 type light unit.
Fitting a brighter bulb on its own will often result in a poorer light on the road.

[Rob Harknett]

Bit of a lottery with LED bulbs, same for cars, I got some H3 dip beam LED's hopeless, may as well not had them on. They seemed OK in daylight when I installed them, they must had ben in the wrong position as mention by Stu. Pulled into a car park and swapped them back to the old type. Pilot light LED's were great bright white light. H3's I have may be OK if any has that type as a pilot light if anyone wants to try them . I won't want them back. Hope Clive will not take that as an advert.