LED Headlights

[eflyguy]

I put these in, and have ridden at night a couple of times now. Obviously can't vouch for longevity but I'm pleased with the light output. I have the filters on, which makes them more yellow, and I'm sure that reduces output somewhat, but the yellow is kind of eye-catching - especially now that 6k HID's are pretty much commonplace. Also, it seems that the yellow color means nobody is bothered by high beam at night, which gives you plenty of light down the road.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B2XPK3K

 

[eflyguy]

I need to get out on the freeway and see how they work at speed..

 

[RossKean]

I need to get out on the freeway and see how they work at speed..

I was looking at the customer reviews and one of the first ones was a person who installed on an FJR.

 

[Nanahanman]

I'm way more visible to the inattentive cages now.

How do you know? If they are not looking, they still won't see you.

beam quality is going to be a function of reflector geometry and every vehicle will differ.

And yet, any H4 halogen bulb will work in those different reflectors just fine. This goes to show that it is the poor design of the LED bulbs that are the problem.

they were rated for only 145hrs of use

No free lunch!

You want more light, it's going to reduce the life of the halogen bulb. As for price, I don't see why they are so much more expensive. I suspect the "bend over pricing"

 

[wandering.beast]

Iv tried cyclops through my KLR, advmonster on the ducati monster, but combined with the improved headlight housing that the FJR has over other bikes Iv used, the Auxbeam performed great

 

[Nanahanman]

Why not a "before" picture of the stock light pattern? Also admitted to a damaged lens and admitted to some "light in the trees" but said there was a "great cutoff pattern"

Even this picture shows a poor pattern.

Hard to make a comparison when not done right.

 

[Geezer]

Yes, a before and after picture on the garage door would tell me a lot about how stock compares to the led lamps. I would not expect an aftermarket lamp that is a retrofit to have the same cutoff as the lamp the lens was designed for, but cutoff looks acceptable. I still prefer aux. lights because I can wire them any way I want with respect to high/low beam and separate switches and I don't have to concern myself with cutoff.

 

[Fred W]

I ordered a set of the eBay "bulbs". I'll do a full disclosure of beam patterns before and after.

 

[RossKean]

Atta boy Fred. Take one for the team!

I have to think that someday, someone is going to get it right. The really good stuff generally comes out at a premium price point and drops to a tolerable level once the designs are duly copied and distributed. Remember when HID first came out? (We'll see if it is still too early in the product cycle for a high quality, inexpensive LED.) I hope the 6000°K color temperature is tolerable. Looking forward to your report.

(Do you figure that the 4000 lumen figure is for both high and low beams together? - looks like it from the ad)

 

[Fred W]

If they don't work out I'll only be out $40. I've wasted a whole lot more than that on farkles gone wrong before.

 

[wandering.beast]

I figured if you have a fjr with stock, you already know what they look like. I can throw the stock bulb in and do a comparison, "good cutoff: compared to all other LED replacement modules Iv tested, I dont expect them to be as clean as a projector HID setup, but way better than my Ducati or KLR turned out granted totally different reflector designs as well.

 

[Richouse]

I ordered a set of the eBay "bulbs". I'll do a full disclosure of beam patterns before and after.

Exactly which ones did you order? im just curious if it's the same ones that I ordered...

 

[Nanahanman]

I figured if you have a fjr with stock, you already know what they look like. I can throw the stock bulb in and do a comparison, "good cutoff: compared to all other LED replacement modules Iv tested, I dont expect them to be as clean as a projector HID setup, but way better than my Ducati or KLR turned out granted totally different reflector designs as well.

"Good cutoff" compared to other LEDs still isn't comparing to the cut off of a stock bulb. Getting a bright light is not the issue with LEDs, it's the cut off that is the issue. So you might say it's "better cut off".

The comparison was, as far as I know, not with HIDs which also have optical problems when retrofitted to a lens system designed for an H4 halogen.

I still have not seen any LEDs that are DOT approved and replicate the stock cut off patterns. It's easy to make a brighter light source but much more difficult to design it with the safety considerations that manufacturers must comply with.

I'm not trying to be a prick here but if we are going to do comparisons or demonstrations claiming how "good" something is, we should try to do it right.

 

[RossKean]

... I'm not trying to be a prick here but if we are going to do comparisons or demonstrations claiming how "good" something is, we should try to do it right.

I expect that is what Fred is going to do. Stay tuned.

 

[BanjoBoy]

I ordered a set of the eBay "bulbs". I'll do a full disclosure of beam patterns before and after.

Great thet yer do'in this, (We all know how thorough you are.) but since you gotta purdie gen III, that won't apply to the previous gens.

 

[Fred W]

I ordered a set of the eBay "bulbs". I'll do a full disclosure of beam patterns before and after.

Exactly which ones did you order? im just curious if it's the same ones that I ordered...

I should have included that info. but I was replying on my iPad (which is a pain to copy and paste on). I ordered the same set that you did, richouse. I went for a pair of these:

LED H4 replacements from ultimatecomponents on eBay

It is hard to see clearly, but it looks like they have the low beam LEDs cocked upwards, which would be good to help fill in any void in bottom part of the beam. But, it may just be the little shield making that illusion.

Shipping is free, but by the proverbial slow boat. I'll get them sometime next week. No big rush, since the weather here still sucks.

Some of you may remember that I retrofitted my '05 with Bi-Xenon HIDs (many moons ago) and documented what was good and bad about them from a beam cast perspective. I plan to do about the same with these new LEDs.

FWIW - I still have 2 complete sets of BiXenon H4 replacement HIDs sitting on the shelf. The biggest negative of those HID lamps to me was the heat that they generated inside the headlight buckets corroded the reflective coating on the reflector just above the lamps over time. Bad enough to happen on the $300 first Gen headlight bucket. Inconceivable to take that risk with the $800 3rd Gen headlamp bucket. Otherwise, they were definitely brighter and had an equivalent beam cast to the stock halogens, which I could make even better by leaving one lamp in low beam all of the time. I'm hoping these LEDs give similar performance without the reflector heating problem.

I ordered a set of the eBay "bulbs". I'll do a full disclosure of beam patterns before and after.

Great thet yer do'in this, (We all know how thorough you are.) but since you gotta purdie gen III, that won't apply to the previous gens.

I don't think that the reflector has changed very much on any of the bikes that come with halogen bulbs, so up until 2016 the 3rd Gen results should apply to all prior generations pretty well.

 

[RossKean]

Fred

Your ebay link requires sign-in.

I assume these are the ones?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/261993165292

 

[Fred W]

Yes, those are them. That's odd about the link requiring a sign-in as I just reused the one from earlier in the thread.

In any case I replaced it with your (simpler) link in my earlier post.

 

[Nanahanman]

... I'm not trying to be a prick here but if we are going to do comparisons or demonstrations claiming how "good" something is, we should try to do it right.

I expect that is what Fred is going to do. Stay tuned.

I'm all "eyes"

 

[Richouse]

My LED headlights came in today and luckily I didn't have too much going on so I installed them. Took them about a week to come in. The quality seemed good for $21 each, I can't complain. Notice it says DOT at the bottom, I wonder if this means they are DOT approved???



Here is what the LED looks like beside the halogen.



I drew a line on the wall that shows the low beam cutoff. I drew the line before I install the LED (one of the halogens had blown so the halogen cutoff is only one light bulb. This picture shows both the LED and the Halogen on at the same time. You can see the cutoff is almost exactly the same. The LED overpowers the halogen but they are both on. LED is obviously the white light and the halogen is the yellowish light.



After getting them both installed, here is a front shot to show what they look like.



I can't say they were a direct replacement because I had to modify the dust cover a little to make it fit over the LED fan. I can NOT see how anyone could install these without removing the panels. There is just not enough room to work and you can't see anything with them on. At the very least you need to have a place to bundle up and secure the wiring. I made a video as I went to make comments and all. Once I get it edited and uploaded I will share it with you guys. I will post my comments on how they work at night after I get a chance to ride at night.

Enjoy!