Has anyone tried this ADV monster H4R2 LED headlight?

[Grimly]

^^^^^ What he said. All of it.
Hard-won experience.
1. Never believe the Lumen BS.
2. Get small emitters.
3. Keep an eye on aliexpress, because if you pick and choose you'll get as good as the over-priced retail offering from the re-sellers in the west.
4. Small emitter LEDs are now cheap enough that if you pick one that doesn't last too well, they're cheap enough to throw away with no remorse.
I bought a pair of small emitter 25W H4 bulbs last night for 13 bucks - fanless, static heatsink - worth giving a go at that price. I was looking for another set of braid-cooled ones, but decided to chance my arm with these. I noticed these ones have sold like hotcakes and have excellent feedback. I'm fairly sure there's enough room to fit the rear portion, but if not I can make room or simply keep them for another vehicle. No great loss. The days of the expensive LED H4 are over.
These ones....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32890571995.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.46384c4dry5umm

[Guest]

When you get your light, please do us all a favor.

Find a wall (a double-wide garage door will work in a pinch) where you can be about 50 feet away and shine your light on it. Get pictures of your current light and the LED bulb, on LOW and HIGH beam. Next, find a lonely section of road or a long driveway. Having bushes and/or trees on the sides are a plus. Get some before and after pictures of the pattern that is projected down the road.

I did this about three years ago, as I was building my shop. I was able to shine the light inside the building against the white walls before shelving went up. VERY easy to see the line of light on the white wall. I then went across the street to the park and shone the lights down a dirt driveway. I did this with several lights for comparison and saw a LOT of difference. Hope your experiment works out well.

By the way, you said something about wanting to change the light to reduce your electrical load. The TruckLite is about the same draw as the ADV Monster bulb, which is just under half the load on low beam and just a bit less than the stock bulb on high beam.

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OK Steve, et. al, did my best.

Image results are at this link;

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8hc4npi3vd5dze5/AABD6EkQs1nn11uagYesyVrQa?dl=0

Wish I could have done everything as you requested but the limitations are laid out in the document. In the end, results I got, for my particular needs and bike are superb. I can't urge, as some like to do, to go with this bulb as it may not work the same and most of you go out at night, too many vampires out there for me, though I might have mistaken the deer and yahoodle drivers for vampires with my poor eyesight.

Comparing the ADVMonster H4R2 LED Headlight bulb & a 55/60w PIAA H4 bulb.
A. Some parameters-
1.Asked to do a test against garage door @ 50 feet, I only have 20 feet available so that’s what was done, sorry.
2. Don’t have a diggy SLR or any camera but a small pocket unit so camera set exposure itself. I did set B&W as the color edition was all over the board and distracting. The LED was dramati- cally whiter light in real life vs images.
3. I was not comfortable to take shots out on the road due to a high density of butt headed yahoo- dle drivers tossing beer cans as they shoot around on the roads here so, sorry again. I tried to get footage with my wee little GoPro cube but terrible results & files way too big anyway, sorry again.
4.I thought had a Sylvania or OSRAM Silver Star H4 but turns out it was a 55/60w PIAA bulb. B. Objective results at this Dropbox link.

Comparing the ADVMonster H4R2 LED Headlight bulb & a 55/60w PIAA H4 bulb.
A. Some parameters-
1.Asked to do a test against garage door @ 50 feet, I only have 20 feet available so that’s what was done, sorry.
2. Don’t have a diggy SLR or any camera but a small pocket unit so camera set exposure itself. I did set B&W as the color edition was all over the board and distracting. The LED was dramati- cally whiter light in real life vs images.
3. I was not comfortable to take shots out on the road due to a high density of butt headed yahoo- dle drivers tossing beer cans as they shoot around on the roads here so, sorry again. I tried to get footage with my wee little GoPro cube but terrible results & files way too big anyway, sorry again.
4.I thought had a Sylvania or OSRAM Silver Star H4 but turns out it was a 55/60w PIAA bulb. B. Objective results at this Dropbox link. ( I will also paste this link in my GS post.)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8hc4npi3v...gYesyVrQa?dl=0


I put images side by side. I know they ain’t great even by my limited standards but do show the patterns of the beams pretty accurately. The improvement (in my opinion) with the LED is greater than the pics show. The LED throws a wider, whiter and brighter illumination On Lo beam the “V” cutoff at top is more noticeable but a lot of “softer” but effective illumination rises above and out to the sides of the main light cone for beneficial effect. I can see much more clearly with the LED on the road. (I know, that is subjective). You can take what you can from this set of images.
C. Subjective-
1. Please realize, as I do, that any results are from my GS850G with a Vetter Windjammer and whatever headlamp housing/lens combo that was installed when I bought the bike in 2002. Stock Vetter? Who knows. I can give you info from what is cast on the lens if you need it, Lem- mee know. (I also have a second headlamp/lens unit with a very different fresnel pattern on the glass but I am not going to try this as I am happy with what I now have.) I am not refuting or downgrading in any way the valuable input that those who have gotten less favorable LED re- sults. Just reporting what I got.
2. I found the pattern of the LED bulb superior in brightness, whiteness and spread than the PIAA Halogen.
3. I found the same results, on the road test, even more so.
4. I thought the Lo beam pattern might be hitting oncoming drivers based on my initial view on the garage door. After I engaged with 7 or 8 drivers and received no “warning flashes”, I realized there was no need to adjust the aim. Aim for hi beam was also fine as the “throw” of that position was sufficient to give me 100’ to 150’ additional strong illumination over the Halogen bulb. Glad, as I didn’t want to tilt the light downward and lose that “long cast”.
5. Again the nice illumination was spread out in a wider pattern both right & left. Nice if I needed to see the nasty nighttime deer (but I don’t ride at night, you might).
6. My final take on light performance. Only better, no downside at all. My situation, again. Your results might differ.
D. Electrical gain-
1. My numerical voltmeter jumps from steady 13.4v to steady 13.7v.
2. My Kuryakan multi-colored LED voltage gauge jumped from a single green display to both greens staying on, EVEN AT IDLE. Used to drop to YELLOW at idle, now stays on Green.
3. At idle headlamp output is the same bright white as when throttle is blipped or running down the road. Its specs’d for 9-32 v so I guess that is accurate.
4. Usually when I plug my bike into the BatteryTender, it will first show RED then after a minute or two switch to GREEN. After really being on the starter for these tests, the BT showed GREEN im- mediately on plugging the bike in. So I took that that the battery was really getting extra charge with the increase in current.
Final, would I get more/better performance with TruckLight?,...of course but totally needed for my personal requirements and way too much for my Social Security check to approve of. I got not just what I had hoped for BUT more for less. Do I think it will work for you? If I knew I’d hock the house & play the stock market.
Will the bulb hold up or crash like Mr. bwringer’s ? Well all I can do is to continue to update my ex- perience as time goes on. I have not seen any H4 bulbs with a one year warranty though.
I hope in some small way this info can help some of you as I have gotten so much help from this site. And thanks to all of you GSers who pitched in on the thread or even just followed it. What a great resource this site is.

DH

[Steve]

Nice pictures. Thanks for taking the time.

Your results are considerably better than what I saw with the early version of the ADV bulb.

You mentioned not wanting to lower your aim, but your pictures show that it might be necessary.
I can't tell how much of a slope is leading up to that door, but from what I can see, the cut-off of the low beam should probably be about the height of the trash bin on the right. It appears to be about a foot above it right now. The true test would be riding at night and seeing the edge of that cut-off about 100 feet away from you. The notch of the V should be directly ahead of you and set so that dark area keeps the light out of the mirror of the car ahead of you. Aiming the light down a bit would get that hot spot on high beam to touch the ground at the door, but still project plenty far down the road. No need to hunt for critters in the trees over the road.

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[Guest]

Nice pictures. Thanks for taking the time.

Your results are considerably better than what I saw with the early version of the ADV bulb.

You mentioned not wanting to lower your aim, but your pictures show that it might be necessary.
I can't tell how much of a slope is leading up to that door, but from what I can see, the cut-off of the low beam should probably be about the height of the trash bin on the right. It appears to be about a foot above it right now. The true test would be riding at night and seeing the edge of that cut-off about 100 feet away from you. The notch of the V should be directly ahead of you and set so that dark area keeps the light out of the mirror of the car ahead of you. Aiming the light down a bit would get that hot spot on high beam to touch the ground at the door, but still project plenty far down the road. No need to hunt for critters in the trees over the road.

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Hi Steve, you are right in that the driveway where the bike is stationed has a slope. I did not make that clear. Past that 20 foot stretch it drops off even more towards the street. The cutoff line of the beam in right about height of trunk lid on a standard soda. Now if someone was scooting about in a MG Midget or TR3 then,...well unless they enjoy daily repairs to the burnout Lucas electrics, they should know better. That is why I mentioned that by my observation and non-reaction of approaching drivers, the height is correct. There is some low level of "spill over", pretty soft but still can be seen. That helps from my point of view but does not in anyway blind drivers or get in their rear view mirror. Around here many drivers are over critical regarding oncoming lights and are very free with walking the flash on you. The actual on road patterns are really excellent and quite different than the Halogen even with the same fresnel lens on.

Appreciate your comments.

DH

[Steve]

I found my pictures from my testing a few years ago. The lights in this test are all being powered by my 850. Not a stock Suzki reflector, though, it's a rectangular Cibie housing in my Pacifico AERO fairing. (It's the bike on the left.)


The lights invoved were: an H4 halogen (probably a Sylvania), the ADV bulb and the TruckLite.
The distance to my shop in the first few pictures is about 75 feet.

H4 low beam.


H4 high beam. Notice the lack of any foreground illumination.


ADV low beam. Note lack of projection down the road.


ADV high beam. Looks like fluorescent lighting, with no 'spot' pointing down the road.


TruckLite low beam. Good spread in the foreground, with a spot that projects up the white line.


TruckLite high beam. Same coverage in the foreground, but a much better spot projecting down the road.


continued

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[Steve]

These pictures were taken inside my shop, before any shelving was installed. The pattern on the wall is slightly distorted because I am pointing into a corner. The corner is straight ahead of the bike. This shows the actual pattern quite well.
Same order as before.

H4 low beam. You can easily see the angle off to the right.


H4 high beam.


ADV low beam. Note the distinct LACK of a pattern.


ADV high beam. Same lack of pattern as low beam, but with additional "pattern" for high, but it's a "critter in the trees" hunting light.


TruckLite low beam. The bright spot lights up straight ahead and the white line.


TruckLite high beam. The wall is too close for the pattern to fully develop, but you can still see how much better it is.


I am glad that you found good results with your new bulb. Maybe these pictures will convince somebody else that better lighting IS available.

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[limeex2]

Great thread for the older bike lights. Can even put these in my older truck. The link provided showed prices in the $30 range. Am I on the right link? Thats cheaper than most bulbs.

[Steve]

Hopefully you have read through this short thread to see pictures and cautions. For further reading before dropping some coin, click HERE. It is a longer thread, but also has a LOT of information.

Just to recap some of the cautions, look at my post #21 in this thread. Note that the "bulb" itself has evolved over the last couple of years, so some of the comments about it now might be irrelevant. It might have gotten better, it might have gotten worse.

Most of the comments/complaints are centered around the pattern that is projected onto the road. There is very little doubt that the LED is brighter, but that is no good if that brightness is not put where it's needed.

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[Guest]

I use the revision 3 pared with a Candlepower headlight reflector and it is about a perfect match. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the twist mount plastic base and solved that by using a new Candlepower boot under the bulb plate so it is a tight fit. They have a revision 4 that probably addressed that problem but I would not use the ADVmonster unless you pare it with a known good reflector that works with it for a lot of the reasons Steve mentions. I know my combination works but it might suck with another reflector.

[Steve]

In another thread from several years ago, I showed the difference in several reflectors using the same H4 bulb and ADV LED bulb. While the H4 bulb had pretty much the same pattern in each of the reflectors (I think there were three in this comparison), the LED was completely different in each one.

It it critical that the light source (tungsten filament or LED element) remains in the proper place, this comparison showed how different the results could be when it was moved. What was most interesting is that it moved in different ways in the different reflectors.

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[limeex2]

Its also what I found in my Versys. Led's need proper reflectors. When changed from a halogen to an Led the light was in the sighs,trees, poor. Dialed it down focused the light in front of me and the new found whiteness/brightness on low beam was able to give me a pattern were I'm not over driving my lights on low beam. High beam was great. My GS's wont get run at much night due to local deer population, but it makes the bike much,much more visible in the daylight that I feel its a worth while investment.

Oldvet66, can you possibly supply links to the system you are using?

[Guest]

I got my reflector at (https://store.candlepower.com/ca53mohe.html). You can't go wrong there, they are excellent reflectors. I wanted to use high power H4 bulbs so I also ordered their ceramic socket and a new weather boot also. I used to live in deer dodging country and even with the high wattage bulb I wasn't satisfied with it. I got one of the early ADVMonster CREE LED bulbs. It was better but not perfect and had a large heat sink. I replaced that one with I believe a ADVMonster H4-R3 because I wanted the flexible braided heat sinks. Great low beam just where it needs to be and a high beam that would light up both sides of the woods and bright enough that I would dim it if I was about to shine it on someones house. I was up in the Franklin West Virginia area on a local ride staying at the Loafers Glory. I was late to sign up so I had to stay at a B&B in Franklin. The Loafers Glory was about five miles out of Franklin on the top of a mountain with some very twisty roads and the deer were everywhere. On the night rides back to the B&B I was very comfortable enjoying the very twisty roads because I could see so far into the woods on both sides of the road that I had no problem seeing any deer running well before they became a problem. I did not like the plastic base on the light I got, it loosened up after taking it out once but it was an easy fix and has been great for some years now. They advertise a R4 version, hope they went back to the stainless steel base standard bulbs have if I ever need to replace it.