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Anyone using LED replacement bulbs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter twhite
  • Start date Start date
T

twhite

Guest
Always concerned about the single rear taillight not catching someone's eye until it's too late on a dark road, I noticed there are replacement LED bulbs.

They claim advantages of brightness and the second "filament"(brake light) lights much more quickly vs. a normal bulb. They also claim very little heat and great durability and vibration resistance.

My question is does anyone have any experience with one on your bike?

I also wonder can since you get these bulb with white LED's or red LED's, does it make a difference? Will a red LED combined with a red taillight lense reduce the overall brightness?
 
I use them in mine, and have had excellent results with them. My bulb is 'clear' with red 'filaments' inside. It does not do the 'flash in circles' thing like some do, it is just an ordinary 1157 replacement, with a substantial load savings on the stock GS electrical.. 8) My lense is of course, red, and makes no difference in output.
 
Re: Anyone using LED replacement bulbs?

Tim
I too was interested in LED lighting and did some surfing for information. I found that LED's withstand vibration well and have an almost unlimited lifespan. The ones intended as
tail light replacements consume aproximately 10% of the power that is required by a filament bulb. Their viewable angle is narrower than a filament bulb. (probably not a consideration for a tail light) In the photo documentation of them I viewed online, at night, they did not appear as bright as a standard bulb and were more difficult to see in daytime bright light. The local schoolbusses have converted to LED tail lights and the lights I have seen are not as bright as the older bulbs were. Since a stock tail light bulb is about 23 watts, and the LED replacements are aprox 2 watt draw, my thought is it is better retain the bulb tail light on the bike and just add a couple of LED's if increased visability is desired. It would only increase power consumption by about 4 watts and that small amount should not be a problem for the charging system. I wouldnt consider them for turn signal replacement.

Earl

twhite said:
Always concerned about the single rear taillight not catching someone's eye until it's too late on a dark road, I noticed there are replacement LED bulbs.

They claim advantages of brightness and the second "filament"(brake light) lights much more quickly vs. a normal bulb. They also claim very little heat and great durability and vibration resistance.

My question is does anyone have any experience with one on your bike?

I also wonder can since you get these bulb with white LED's or red LED's, does it make a difference? Will a red LED combined with a red taillight lense reduce the overall brightness?
Click to expand...
 
Re: Anyone using LED replacement bulbs?

earlfor said:
Tim
I too was interested in LED lighting and did some surfing for information. I found that LED's withstand vibration well and have an almost unlimited lifespan. The ones intended as
tail light replacements consume aproximately 10% of the power that is required by a filament bulb. Their viewable angle is narrower than a filament bulb. (probably not a consideration for a tail light) In the photo documentation of them I viewed online, at night, they did not appear as bright as a standard bulb and were more difficult to see in daytime bright light. The local schoolbusses have converted to LED tail lights and the lights I have seen are not as bright as the older bulbs were. Since a stock tail light bulb is about 23 watts, and the LED replacements are aprox 2 watt draw, my thought is it is better retain the bulb tail light on the bike and just add a couple of LED's if increased visability is desired. It would only increase power consumption by about 4 watts and that small amount should not be a problem for the charging system. I wouldnt consider them for turn signal replacement.

Earl

twhite said:
Always concerned about the single rear taillight not catching someone's eye until it's too late on a dark road, I noticed there are replacement LED bulbs.

They claim advantages of brightness and the second "filament"(brake light) lights much more quickly vs. a normal bulb. They also claim very little heat and great durability and vibration resistance.

My question is does anyone have any experience with one on your bike?

I also wonder can since you get these bulb with white LED's or red LED's, does it make a difference? Will a red LED combined with a red taillight lense reduce the overall brightness?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Do you have a link where to buy LED bulbs, or discription of them?
 
One thing about using them for turn signals is that they don't draw enough current to use the standard flasher unit, you must use a timer to make them flash
 
Re: Anyone using LED replacement bulbs?

Karl, when I finished my surfing, I deleted most of the bookmarked URL's. The ones I have left are:
http://www.chromeworld.com/lighting/lighting.html
http://www.motorcyclelighting.com/universal-hyper.html
http://www.onestoplights.com/LightLight.html
http://unifiedmarine.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/00284.4.018925234614392189

The first two sites are manufactured lights. The 3rd site is components if you wish to build your own. The last site is boat trailer LED tailights that could be used on a motorcycle.
Sorry, but I lost the sights with the tech specifications. I may be able to find them again, but if I do, it will be luck. :-) :-)

Earl

[quote="kz"
Do you have a link where to buy LED bulbs, or discription of them?[/quote]
 
earl
Im still waiting for the hover craft to fly. Whats the scoop
 
I found that insurance is not available in the U S for non commercial production hovercraft. (building one at a time on a per customer basis does not qualify) The only way I could have insured it would have been to register it as a foreign vessel and insure it through Lloyds of London. Insurance premiums exceeded the value of the craft. I could have absorbed the loss of my personal craft, but the liabilities that could result from an accident were too great a risk to ignore. I dismantled it. It performed beautifully and exceeded design specs, but there will not be any.

Earl


slopoke said:
earl
Im still waiting for the hover craft to fly. Whats the scoop
Click to expand...
 
I picked up a led marker light for my bike but it was way to bright for a marker light so I wired it to the brake light as a auxilary brake light.
I also have a tail light intergrator that turns the rear turn signals into tail lights and brake lights as well as turn signals.
so I now have three tail and four brake lights!! you would have to be blind not to see my brake lights now.
 
My old mans oil truck uses LED lights. Each ~5" diameter light has around 20 relatively large LED's in it. They are used for brake lights, turn signals, backup lights and auxiliary rear-facing lights. When the aux lights are on, they certainly light up the night. I guess it depends on the quality and number of LED's in each 'bulb' unit.


-=Whittey=-
 
One thing I noticed with LED lights is that they light faster, so in effect going from not on to fully lit, like NOW!. This will get a persons attention. Just look at the brakes on a new Mercedes, BMW or Cadilac. Follow one for a bit and you will notice the difference.
 
When I did my research into this subject some months ago, I found some articles by unbiased authors/mags on the web. The result of their testing (as opposed to anecdotal evidence where no side-by-side real-time comparison is possible) was that available LED replacement lights did not light as effectively as incandescents. I'll wait for technology improvements. I would expect a much different story when LED light panels are engineered into a vehicle, as opposed to plugging in to an existing incandescent socket.
 
In that case, Just drive down the Hiway, notice all teh 18 wheelers' that have LED lighting systems on the trailers. It is what the industry is going to
 
propflux01 said:
In that case, Just drive down the Hiway, notice all teh 18 wheelers' that have LED lighting systems on the trailers. It is what the industry is going to
Click to expand...

My point exactly! When a LED panel is engineered for the purpose I'm sure it has many advantages over incandescent lighting, but the research and testing I read said the plug-in replacement lamps don't perform as well as the original incandescent bulbs (all other things being equal). None-the-less, I would expect the plug-in LED replacement bulbs to outperform incandescents in some circumstances, especially when the incandescent bulb is not getting all the power it needs for full brightness due to faulty/dirty wiring or connections. No doubt LED's will be the technology of choice soon. By the way, I do have LED panels on the car and the motorcycle I use daily, and I think they're great!
 
earlfor said:
I found that insurance is not available in the U S for non commercial production hovercraft. (building one at a time on a per customer basis does not qualify) The only way I could have insured it would have been to register it as a foreign vessel and insure it through Lloyds of London. Insurance premiums exceeded the value of the craft. I could have absorbed the loss of my personal craft, but the liabilities that could result from an accident were too great a risk to ignore. I dismantled it. It performed beautifully and exceeded design specs, but there will not be any.

Earl


slopoke said:
earl
Im still waiting for the hover craft to fly. Whats the scoop
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Shrink it down and make a RC model out of it.
 
Over the course of about 3 years, that was how I did my R&D.
100 mph 1/4 scale RC hovercraft models. :-) You wouldnt believe what full scale wind tunnel time costs. :-) :-)

Earl

Jay B said:
Shrink it down and make a RC model out of it.
Click to expand...
 
Have a LED stop/tail on my Harris, can't speak for myself as I can't see it but all my friends say it is far brighter than standard. :lol: Most new model bikes are now fitted with LED stop/tail set up's e.g. YZF R1, Honda 'Blade.
 
I have 3 LED's on my bike. the stock tailight bulb, and 2 round 2" dia Aux tail/brakes on my 'GK. the stock tail was (about a year ago) 14.95 and I went through JEGS to get them. the others were a special type because of the way the original bulb fit, the standard 1157LEd wouldnt work. I get nothing but "Boy, you really shine when you hit those brakes" from my weekly riders group. they are very bright, and I have noticed that since I installed them, my headlite no longer dims when I hit the brakes (remember I had 3 1157's in there before), and I can use my running lights all night long without any apparent discharge of my system. To me, they are worth it-bar none.
 
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