And .. another LED driving light bites the dust

[Eric L]

Noticed today that my 4 led light from 24x7 on the left side fender bolt has only two of the 4 leds working. Damn, I replaced the first pair only 9 months ago. I thought these things were supposed to last. I may have to re-evaluate the whole daytime vis lights and go with lights that have standard, easily replaceable bulbs.

 

[puppychow]

Clearwater Lights.

 

[900gc]

It seems that "you get what you pay for" applies to these lights. Clearwater and a few other high quality lights most likely are the better deal in the long run. That being said, these may be a good "bang for buck" light. I run 4 of their bullets and lov 'em.

https://www.bikevis.com/motorcycle-cree-led-running-lights.html

 

[Eric L]

OK, bought two sets of the bullets and it's twinkle modulator for daytime and will replace the LEDs with ones from ADVmonster and run therm only when i need to at night. They should last 10X as long then.

900gc, where did you mount the bullets and where are they wired to?

 

[russperry]

OK, bought two sets of the bullets and it's twinkle modulator for daytime and will replace the LEDs with ones from ADVmonster and run therm only when i need to at night. They should last 10X as long then.

900gc, where did you mount the bullets and where are they wired to?

I've got no data to back this up, but I'm guessing that its not the on-time that burning out the LED lamps, but the shaking and bouncing that is messing up a connection somewhere. If that's the case, then running them only at night probably won't help the durability. The best way to find out for sure would be to get a failure analysis done by the supplier or do it yourself.

 

[900gc]

OK, bought two sets of the bullets and it's twinkle modulator for daytime and will replace the LEDs with ones from ADVmonster and run therm only when i need to at night. They should last 10X as long then.

900gc, where did you mount the bullets and where are they wired to?

I powered them from my heated grip lead (which runs off an Eastern Beaver fuse block). Since they only draw 1 watt ea., I did not see the need to tap them to a switched (or separate) circuit. I suppose you could tap the glove box or marker light wires as well.

As to where I mounted them:

https://www.bikevis.com/forum/index.php?topic=688.0

Browse the customer gallery and you'll get all kinds of ideas. Also, as the BikeVis site mentions, the photos don't do justice as to how bright these really are. I don't have the "twinkler" but that will add even more to the effectiveness of these.

Another good writeup:

https://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/bikevis-led-lights/blue-bikevis-bullets.htm

Cheers.

 

[TomInPA]

Noticed today that my 4 led light from 24x7 on the left side fender bolt has only two of the 4 leds working. Damn, I replaced the first pair only 9 months ago. I thought these things were supposed to last. I may have to re-evaluate the whole daytime vis lights and go with lights that have standard, easily replaceable bulbs.

Eric, have you tried the LED lights from Alex at RealTimeIndustires ? I understand the attraction to buying low-cost lights, but if you can get out of the envelope, the Clearwater Lights Kristas really rock

 

[Eric L]

Tom,I just bought a pair from Realtime. I think the marker lights will go on the fork and the bigger lights maybe off the mirror mount, keep them away from vibration.

at this point, in retrospect, the Clearwater lights might have been the better idea :-(

 

[Burnspot]

Unfortunately, one of my 1500 lumen LED units from Realtime gave up the ghost after 1 year; it just went completely dead...all bulbs. I had them mounted on the fork. Rather than scrounging the cash to replace the bad unit, I just removed them altogether...I'll probably get another one next summer. YMMV.

 

[RaYzerman19]

If you disassemble the Realtime lights, you may see that moisture got inside and corroded the circuit board. The problem is the hand-ground lenses occasionally don't seal against the o-rings, so I recommend you apply some silicone grease and reassemble, then ensure the lens caps are snug by checking them occasionally. I know of 3 failures, all due to moisture. Mine have been subjected to some pretty brutal vibration, still going, so not sure vibration is a real issue. The circuit board inside is wrapped in foam to protect it.

 

[Eric L]

Do you grease the o-ring? Like I do for scuba lights and such?

I was wondering if the things overheat.

 

[TomInPA]

Eric, last Fall Clearwater sent out new o-ring seals for their lights as a preventive measure. It is very important that moisture not get into the housings. Seal em up!

 

[Burnspot]

I wasn't aware of all that; however, I never noticed any signs of moisture (fogged lens) and regularly checked that the lens was secure. When I removed the units, I did try to disassemble the bum unit, but once I had the screws out, it didn't want to come apart. At that point, I said WTH and put it back together and put it aside for another day (knee deep in other service projects at the time). I'll have another look after what you've mentioned.

 

[Eric L]

interestingly, I made my first gopro movie with the cam mounted by the front signal light. Holy crap do those lights get bounced around when mounted on the fork!!!!! OK, new ones are going up on the mirrors

 

[Eric L]

So received the hivis bullets, have the new 1800 lumen LEDS, just waiting on the mirror mounts from the friendly guy on this forum. I guess I know what I am doing this weekend..