Conversion to LED bulb in Headlight

[drabbit17]

Hello everyone, trust you are doing great.

Everyday I drive my bike I love it even more.

I have a question about LED headlight. The bulb that I have right now when I'm driving at night it doesn't work very well. Nothing is wrong with the bike, its just the bulb that is not to bright.I have the stock one. I live in Costa Rica where the roads are not that great and I want to see clearly if there's a hole on the road and stuff like that.

I've been seeing some bikes with LED bulb on their Headlight and it really makes a difference.

So I want to know if someone has made the conversion from the stock bulb to an LED bulb. If so, which one did you buy and where?

Thanks for the help!!

[Bluesmudge]

Do you have an E or F model?

You have to be careful about putting an H4 LED bulb in the stock reflector housing. Only recently have any LED bulbs been able to produce a light that works with the reflectors designed for halogen use. The bulbs themselves put out a lot of light, but in the wrong spots. Some reputable brands now make bulbs with the correct cut off and put the light in the correct place.

If you have an E model, a better solution is to buy a complete LED headlight that replaces the round headlight you already have. These are designed for LED and will have much better light output.

You can also buy LED auxiliary lights, which will put out way more light than a stock housing converted to LED.

[EdChen]

If you have a naked model like Bluesmudge suggests, it might be best to replace the existing headlamp assembly with an approved LED module. I bought a whole new EMGO headlight bucket to put in a Truck-Lite 27270C headlamp. If you're more looking for "off-road use", or areas that aren't heavily trafficked, I like the idea of additional auxiliary lights that you can switch on and off as necessary.

Alternatively, if you haven't done it in a while, try replace your current bulb, they typically get dimmer with age.

[user11235813]

@drabbit, there's no way you will be helping yourself by trying to get the lens on your gs to work with an led bulb. I recently replaced the stock bulb with this one http://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-xtreme-vision-130-h4-twin and the difference is astounding, it is the brightest bulb available and the colour is excellent, not blue/white but still a bit less yellow than standard. Coming straight at you it looks like staring into the late afternoon sun. Also I have found the correct headlight position is to aim so the flat top cutoff is 2" above the centreline as projected from the midpoint of the headlamp. Usual recommendations are 2" below. This lights the road better, is more visible in the day and does NOT, cause any problems with regards to other motorists. However hi beam will burn out their retinas.

[drabbit17]

Thanks so much for the help.

I'll try to find those bulbs over here or shipped them from the states.

I still have doubts about LED bulb. Why I can't put an LED on my bike?

My gs its an E model.

[drabbit17]

EdChen and/or Blusmudge do you have a link where a can take a look at that LED appoved module??

What should I look for in a bulb to fit and work in my GS? Volts? Watts?

[user11235813]

@drabbit17, if you still need convincing about LED in your headlamp then head off to the candlepower.com forum where they will give you excellent if sometimes belligerent and terse advice and reasons.

The best thing for you to do is to remove your headlamp which is only a 2 minute job, and have a look through the front lens, it has a very complex set of specially designed lenses, it is not symmetrical from top to bottom or from side to side. Even normal H4 bulbs very due to tiny tiny differences in the exact position of the filament. So even a slightly not perfect incandescent H4 will give you diminished performance.

Now imaging how much worse it is going to be using an LED in a housing not designed for it. Even using an LED in the taillight which is less complicated is no good, never mind about the front H4. The reflector and lens is designed so that the source of the light is a filament in the precise shape and position with light coming out in all directions, and LED is nothing like this. If you want LED then you should take the earlier advice and get an LED rig, but it would be easier cheaper quicker and probably better or at least good enough to get the H4's linked to in the first post. I notice you can get them on ebay too at a good price.

[drabbit17]

Hello User11235813.. you convinced me.  I saw the bulb you said and im actually thinking on buying two sets, one for the bike and one for the car.

Thanks again for all the help!

[G.Rossman]

@drabbit, there's no way you will be helping yourself by trying to get the lens on your gs to work with an led bulb. I recently replaced the stock bulb with this one http://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-xtreme-vision-130-h4-twin and the difference is astounding, it is the brightest bulb available and the colour is excellent, not blue/white but still a bit less yellow than standard. Coming straight at you it looks like staring into the late afternoon sun. Also I have found the correct headlight position is to aim so the flat top cutoff is 2" above the centreline as projected from the midpoint of the headlamp. Usual recommendations are 2" below. This lights the road better, is more visible in the day and does NOT, cause any problems with regards to other motorists. However hi beam will burn out their retinas.

I assume this is the replacement for an F model?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[user11235813]

@G.Rossman, I can only speak for my bike which is a gs500 with a 7" standard round headlight

[Bluesmudge]

All GS500 models use an H4 headlight bulb.

[G.Rossman]

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/141750726035


Any idea if this would work?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Bluesmudge]

You could probably make it work.
However, with the advances in LED technology I don't see why anyone would bother with HID kits anymore.

[gregjet]

The problem with most current bikes and LED's that have clear front "lens" and get all their focussing fron the reflector , is the reflectors are designed to give a correct shape from a refelctor shaped specifically for the size shape and position of the emmiters ( filaments in an incandescent bulb). Until VERY recently NO LEDS had emmiters in the right position/shape/size combination so had to be experimented with to give the best light pattern you could manage.
Recently Phillips ( et al) have releases LEDS that emulate the incandescent filament size shape and position so work pretty much straight out of the box. As well they are the latest version of LED's that have a higher efficiency/lumen output.
If you are interested here is a link to the MT07/fz07 site where I put some comparison photos of QI/HID/LED/adjusted LED before the new Phillips came out. I put the new Phillips LEDS in my car so not included and haven't got the new bulbs for the bikes yet. READ the intro, DON'T just look at the pictures, otherwise you will draw completely the wrong conclusions about the amount of light. The experiment was about pattern not luminosity. http://fz07.org/thread/3477/cyclops-led-light-question?page=5

[Mr. BIGGZ]

The problem with most current bikes and LED's that have clear front "lens" and get all their focussing fron the reflector , is the reflectors are designed to give a correct shape from a refelctor shaped specifically for the size shape and position of the emmiters ( filaments in an incandescent bulb). Until VERY recently NO LEDS had emmiters in the right position/shape/size combination so had to be experimented with to give the best light pattern you could manage.
Recently Phillips ( et al) have releases LEDS that emulate the incandescent filament size shape and position so work pretty much straight out of the box. As well they are the latest version of LED's that have a higher efficiency/lumen output.
If you are interested here is a link to the MT07/fz07 site where I put some comparison photos of QI/HID/LED/adjusted LED before the new Phillips came out. I put the new Phillips LEDS in my car so not included and haven't got the new bulbs for the bikes yet. READ the intro, DON'T just look at the pictures, otherwise you will draw completely the wrong conclusions about the amount of light. The experiment was about pattern not luminosity. http://fz07.org/thread/3477/cyclops-led-light-question?page=5

Access to your link was restricted.

[Bluesmudge]

Yes, you must get the very recent LEDs designed with halogen reflectors in mind. Look at ADVmonster for another example.

Otherwise you will just blind oncoming traffic and throw very little light where you need it.

[ShowBizWolf]

Blue, the LED bulbs you're talking about that are designed to work with the reflectors, would this be one that would work?

http://stores.advmonster.com/native-h4/

I know this thread is from the summer but I had some down time here at work and finally did some searching around on this subject. The description of the bulb isn't super detailed and I just wanted to make sure I was understanding what I was reading.

[Watcher]

Maybe I just got a good bulb but being that the stock reflector on an E is mostly just a dish with a glass lens an LED should have little to no issues at all.

I had this one:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-headlight-bulbs-conversion-kits/led-headlight-kit-h4-led-headlight-bulbs-conversion-kit-with-flexible-tinned-copper-braid/2221/4993/

It worked really well in my factory E assembly.

That being said, attempting to use it in a Yamaha FZ07 and a Honda CB500F, both of which had more "geometric" reflectors, proved to be terrible.  Lots of artifacts, and the high beam merely switched the pattern rather than alter light direction and brightness.

[Bluesmudge]

This is the headlight I have on my GSF:
http://stores.advmonster.com/h4-r3-led-headlight/
Compared to the terrible LED technology 3 or 4 years ago, it does a pretty good job of having the correct light pattern and cut off. There is still some scatter that will make the light look brighter to oncoming drivers.  I'm also not a big fan of the white/blueish white color that seems to be standard for LEDs. I wish the would copy the orange halogen color temperature.

I can't say if that particular light will work in the GSE housing since I have a GSF but ADV monster says they will let you return the light if you don't like the beam pattern.
Personally, I wouldn't spend the money unless you were trying to free up capacity in the electrical system for auxiliary lighting or heated grips/clothing. I went with LED because I wanted LED auxillary lights and the total power draw of the H4-RD from ADV monster plus two 10 watt LED aux lights is similar to a single halogen H4 bulb.

[ShowBizWolf]

@Watcher, thanks for the reply!! Awesome info, will be reading more about that tonight I'm sure.

@Bluesmudge, I too like the softer/warmer color for headlights. I completely agree when it comes to the white/blue painful lights coming at us nowadays. Seems that I hear a lot of people that hate them when they are being used by other drivers but also don't hesitate to put them in their own vehicles lol... figures    Also, yes I was thinking of doing this for that exact reason you mentioned... freeing up capacity in the electrical system. Thanks a bunch for getting back to me!