H4 LED bulbs and other LED lamps

[Grimly]

Oh, yeah; good point. At the moment the connections are all clean but will be undergoing a total rip-out and replacement when the fairing goes on. I'll put an ammeter in line and see what's actually being drawn for now and see if there's any improvment to be had.

 

[Grimly]

Think I'll get one of these, next. The copper-braid cooled ones, direct from China.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252043255597

 

[Guest]

I like the cooling method, looks like what ADVMonster is doing with it's newer lights, more room in the back.

 

[Grimly]

I like the cooling method, looks like what ADVMonster is doing with it's newer lights, more room in the back.

It allows me to use a pair of 5.25" self-contained headlamp units with very tight space at the back of the bulb. Prior to this, they were sitting unused and with no great prospect of being used, on bikes with no great electrical output. Pretty much this unit (cropped off the integrated indicator that appears on later ones).

Interestingly, I notice the current earthmover headlamps are twin-bulb, with an H4 and H3 combo, which if replaced with LEDs will provide a ton of light.

 

[Grimly]

Finally got a pair of the newer braid-cooled H4 LEDs and they work very well with the Koito headlamp shell I fitted in the Vetter. A really nicely defined dip cut-off and a main that's very good indeed. Ignoring the BS claims about lumen output, what I can say is they're 'adequate' and then some. I would have preferred a warmer white, but they're harder to find.
I'm up for another set of these, asap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//272308247720

 

[Guest]

Crazy expensive & way out of most people?s budget, but the most neato LED headlights would be the J.W.Speaker adaptive headlight.
DOT & ECE compliant, and they change the lighting pattern when you corner.
http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/adaptive-led-headlights-model-8790-adaptive/

 

[roeme]

Finally got a pair of the newer braid-cooled H4 LEDs and they work very well with the Koito headlamp shell I fitted in the Vetter. A really nicely defined dip cut-off and a main that's very good indeed. Ignoring the BS claims about lumen output, what I can say is they're 'adequate' and then some. I would have preferred a warmer white, but they're harder to find.
I'm up for another set of these, asap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//272308247720

This is helpful, I've been considering H4 LED's as well and have been looking at the market from time to time, but there are so many to choose from, even when you get specific, exclude the types with a fan, narrow down a color, etc.

Are these stronger than stock H4? (Which is at 55W IIRC?)

 

[roeme]

Crazy expensive & way out of most people’s budget, but the most neato LED headlights would be the J.W.Speaker adaptive headlight.
DOT & ECE compliant, and they change the lighting pattern when you corner.
http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/adaptive-led-headlights-model-8790-adaptive/

Very cool, but I can't help but feel that this would look a bit out of place on a classic GS...anybody got pictures?

 

[Guest]

I think I'll keep the light I've got, way more effective than traditional H4 bulbs of any type. For the price of that ridiculously priced headlight, you could buy a lot of nice new chew toys for your bike.

 

[bwringer]

Finally got a pair of the newer braid-cooled H4 LEDs and they work very well with the Koito headlamp shell I fitted in the Vetter. A really nicely defined dip cut-off and a main that's very good indeed. Ignoring the BS claims about lumen output, what I can say is they're 'adequate' and then some. I would have preferred a warmer white, but they're harder to find.
I'm up for another set of these, asap.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//272308247720

Thanks for the nudge -- after doing some checking around, I bought a pair of these from Amazon. Under $50 shipped with Prime. For me, they tick all the boxes:
- Cooling via heavy flexible braid heat sink -- no moving parts.
- LED emitters are positioned exactly where the filaments on an incandescent bulb would be -- beam pattern is identical.
- Easy to install -- first you install the mounting plate with locking clip, then the LED unit goes into that with an o-ring seal and locks in with a twist. On my V-Strom, I was able to fit the rubber "boot" with no modifications.
- Sturdy metal (cast aluminum) construction.

LEDs don't generate much heat, but what they do generate must be moved away from the emitters by heat sinks. The braid barely gets warm to the touch, and you can feel a little more heat if you touch the housing.

I've been using one on the right side of my V-Strom, and one in my KLR's GS650GL headlight bucket for about a month, and so far have been extremely happy.

As Grimly mentioned, they could be just a touch warmer white, but they're pretty much exactly the same color temperature as newer cars that come from the factory with LED headlights.

I'll be able to post some light pattern comparison photos a bit later today. Watch this space...

 

[posplayr]

LEDs don't generate much heat, but what they do generate must be moved away from the emitters by heat sinks. The braid barely gets warm to the touch, and you can feel a little more heat if you touch the housing.

From the one I tested it is the amplifier that gets hot not the LED.

 

[Grimly]

This is helpful, I've been considering H4 LED's as well and have been looking at the market from time to time, but there are so many to choose from, even when you get specific, exclude the types with a fan, narrow down a color, etc.

Are these stronger than stock H4? (Which is at 55W IIRC?)

Each bulb is approximately twice the light output of the halogen it replaced, I would say. All that and only draws about 2A, so it means I can run three of them on the GS and not tax the charging system.
Like so...

The LH aux light is a hi/lo headlamp from an earthmover, and the RH lamp* is High only, but will be getting replaced with the other earthmover lamp when I get another pair of these LEDs.

*It's a 27W LED array, with 9x3, but is not as bright as the one on the other side.

 

[bwringer]

Here are the promised light pattern comparisons for the Nighteye H4 LED headlamps mentioned above.

This is in my V-Strom. A bit of explanation is needed here.

The V-Strom is known for having great headlights -- there are large twin H4 headlights that do a much better job than most motorcycles of lighting up the road. On my Vee (2002 DL1000), I've replaced the left bulb (closest to the centerline of the road) with a 2500 degree yellow bulb -- "Nokya Hyper Yellow". The right bulb is a normal H4 white bulb (up until I replaced it with the LED). My main reason for this unusual setup is increased visibility, and it seems to work. My theory was that the odd combination would be more likely to be noticed that a single white bulb or two white bulbs. If you see this coming, your brain goes "huh, that's weird". And that's exactly what several people have said to me, to which I say "thanks for noticing me!".

This theory seems to hold up quite well in practice -- I commute daily by motorcycle, and "no-see-um" events are dramatically lower when I'm riding the Vee.

I've also noticed after riding for a few months with this setup that I seem to be a little more aware of where things are in space and how they're moving. I think when something is lit by the unusual yellow color of the left bulb (as well as the white bulb on the right), my brain has learned to form a more precise idea of where it is because it knows exactly where the light is coming from -- I know it's not lit by a car behind me or a street light.

When I switched to an LED bulb on the right, I was hoping that the color contrast would be even more pronounced, and that the added lighting would also aid my ability to see. So far, I've been very happy with the results on both counts.

OK, on to some photos. Here's a shot of the front of the bike in the daytime in front of my office running with the headlights on. LED on the bike's right, yellow Nokya on the bike's left. Pretty striking, even in the daytime.

Here's an uncorrected "before" shot. Both headlights, both incandescent, hitting my garage door (normally a very pale yellow, very nearly white). The overall effect in person is FAR less yellow than this -- the yellow bulb threw the white balance in my phone's camera WAY off. I'm at an angle, but you can get the idea that it's a nice even light pattern with a good cutoff.

In this shot, I've simply unplugged the yellow headlight. This is now just one headlight, the white incandescent H4 on the right. Again, this is uncorrected, but the phone's white balance still went far too yellow, although overall brightness is pretty true-to-life. Still a nice light pattern, no?

Here I've installed the white LED bulb on the right in place of the incandescent. (Yellow bulb on left is still unplugged) Note how much brighter it is, but the pattern is the same. Cutoff is in the same place, and bright spot in the same place. White balance is pretty good, too (the phone's flash is an LED, so I suspect the camera calibrated around LED illumination). This shot gives a pretty realistic idea of what it looks like in real life and what the difference in brightness is. I just noticed that my motion sensing light above the garage came on, and the sky got a little darker (I was doing this right at dusk, so there's a little light in the sky in the earlier shots). Doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the shot.

Here's the LED by itself on high beam:

And no, like a doof I didn't get a shot of both the yellow bulb and the LED in action... in practice, the brighter LED does sort of overwhelm the yellow incandescent. Visibility (what I can see) at night is much improved, and there's less of a yellow tinge to the scene than before. The light pattern still has a nice cutoff, so oncoming cars aren't bothered at all. And high beam also has a nice useful pattern -- same as before only more light.

I haven't yet measured current draw, but according to my onboard voltmeter, the R/R is still coping just fine.

Overall, I'm very pleased. The main issue with other LED replacements is that the emitters are in a different place than the filaments on incandescent bulbs, so you end up with a different light pattern. These bulbs seem to solve that, and at a very reasonable price, too.

The other LED bulb, by the way, is on my KLR650, which is wearing a headlight from a GS650GL. Long story... It's also working extremely well.

And yes, I did finally find some bearings and put the wheel back on my trailer...

 

[Grimly]

Selective Yellow.
Us here in these islands had to paint or cover our headlamps with yellow filters to take a jaunt to France, in the olden days.
However, I noticed the same as you - it works surprisingly well. Just something I've not bothered doing since.
I'm now interested in it again, and there's enough light coming from the LED to maybe not miss some of it.
Worth a try, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow

And some interesting chatter in the background of that article...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Selective_yellow

 

[bwringer]

Thanks, Grimmy -- I knew about the French and yellow headlights, but I didn't know what the correct term was.

One interesting aside on my V-Strom's headlight setup: I've had some questions as to whether it's legal to have one yellow headlight and one white headlight. I've perused the relevant Federal and Indiana regulations (and reviewed the regs and my conclusions with a friend who's a lawyer over beers). As best we can tell, motorcycles are required to have at least one white headlight. However law is silent on the subject of a second headlight, and there's no requirement that the shades match. There's also no definition of "white" light in terms of a range of color temperatures either. So basically, I'm in the clear as long as I have one white headlight and I'm not using a prohibited color (red, blue, or green) on the front of my motorcycle.

We'll leave aside for the moment that I'm engaging in a very minor form of civil disobedience -- the yellow bulb carries DOT (US Department of Transportation) markings, although it is sold as a non-DOT bulb (I suspect it's just a DOT bulb that has an added yellow coating). And for that matter, the LED bulbs are not DOT approved either. I've been in ten or twelve states with the yellow/white headlight setup and in three states so far with the yellow/LED setup and never had any questions about it from the authorities.

 

[MatBirch]

I have the Cyclops on my BMW F650. The performance and durability has been fantastic, and would recommend them to anyone... Who doesn't have to cram it into a shell. I haven't tried, but I sure don't think it would be a go, and if it did fit, the fan would be merely recirculating the heat in the shell.

 

[Chuck78]

I have a Cyclops, wife has ADV Monster. Both are similar U must say, but I think the newest ADV Monster with the flex heat sink may top both of these that we have.

Ultimately I think a reflector designed for LED's like the newest Truck Lite Phase 7 or whatever it is would be by far the best beam cast. The LED retrofit bulbs all seem to scatter the light upwards a but mire, as witnessed by street signs and overhead highway signs being brightly illuminated frpm a VERY LONG DISTANCE away.. I believe the light us not as focused as it could be, however I have not experimented with the cyclops bulb shims that they send out with the bulbs in order to focus the light the best for your reflector application. This may be key here in truly evaluating the performance of a retrofit bulb.

 

[Guest]

Picked up a JW Speaker 8700 Mk2 on ebay for under $200. Like the look, and its killer at night..

 

[GS1150Pilot]

That's a beast of a lamp!

 

[taylor]

Did you manage to get the bulb in the stock housing? I got mine in last night and the clips don't line up with the housing - did you just slide it in or get an adapter/new housing?