LED Headlight Bulbs

[MaxD]

Well, they are sure fast and loose with their power numbers on that e-bay ad.  My 93 jeep, probably like some of the buyers of those lights, has a dual battery system with the alternator upgraded from stock 70 amps to 400 amps.  I could strap up a couple of kilowatts of extra electricals on that system, but this little motorcycle system is a different story.  They should be more careful in their power specification. 

I just read an article on the history of LED headlights published by Consumer Reports.  Very little use on a few luxury vehicles beginning 2010, started really picking up around 2017, did not pass 50% use till 2019, about 85% market dominance in 2020.  Latest high end vehicles have some amazing features with these, such as radar detection of on-coming vehicles with continuous fine pattern adjustment to not blind the on-coming driver.  Road illumination by both vehicles is constantly measured during this process to keep the road sufficiently lit up while not interfering with eyesight.  Also obstacle detection and adjust pattern in milliseconds to better illuminate obstacles.   It's like you are driving the Starship Enterprise.  I could not easily find information on the current penetration of LED headlights on new motorcycles.

But with regards to these motorcycle headlight upgrades, it's moving so fast and loose it's hard to just pick a reliable solution at a fair price and go. It reminds me of the gas tank lining situation--a lot more complicated than you would guess going in.   

Here is recent 2020 review of what they are calling the top 10 motorcycle sealed beam drop ins.  I take it with a grain of salt, but it's information to consider.

https://www.carbibles.com/best-motorcycle-headlights/

[The Buddha]

Oooo 93 Jeep ? The one with square headlights ? I want one of those bad. They have LED's for that too BTW, I didn't look much into those. The reviews all pretty much have the "daymaker" as the best. I am looking at an imitation daymaker with a better setup to mount it IMHO.
The biggest issue in a halogen isn't that it puts out too less light - its the fact that they make 80% heat to 20% light. You can make 160 to 200 watts out of a halogen - I know someone who got a $300 ticket in CA for running some of those in a car. The LED I hope makes 80% light and 20% heat. I have assembled LED panels and stuffed em in cigar boxes etc and they all made no heat at all - light up the whole garage and no heat from it - awesome.
Let me read the review you linked.

Cool.
Buddha.

[The Buddha]

I wont touch any of these with a 100 foot stick - except maybe #9 and #12. Neither is the daymaker but #12 is a good imitation. In fact my Bolt's is similar to that.

This one and all of its variations are the worst IMHO for a street bike.

Z-OFFROAD Motorcycle Headlights

You want a sharp V pattern with low beam. And a diamond pattern with high beam. When adjusted properly the Width of the V is about 1 lane wide and the length is ~60 ft from you with the tip of the V being ~10 ft - actually look it up - I am forgetting some of the numbers. I know it by eyeball not by measuring it LOL.

The Z-Offroad crap will light up 1 foot wide for miles. Totally terrible pattern.

Cool.
Buddha.

[MaxD]

On the DZG bulb with 75% 5 star reviews out of 529 total, I posted two questions on Amazon.

The first was to try to get DZG to explain what is going on with the intial failure rate reported in a large fraction of the 10% incidence of 1 star reviews.  The only answer I got was a guy named Jack saying that nothing is wrong with a 10% failure rate.  DZG is not answering about the failure rate, which is of course poor as an initial failure rate.  This is not something approaching 10% in a year--the majority of these failures are happening in the first week or two, sometimes on the first ride.  Units that get past this initial infant mortality stage seem to last well.   

The second is quoted exactly here:

My Question:  "Will the product fit a 2001 suzuki gs500? Will it fit other years? I will post the answer on-line with the gstwins website."
Answer direct from DZG: "Hi, yes, H4 LED bulb works as low beam and high beam headlight bulb in 2001/2002 Suzuki GS500 and many other vehicle types. As long as the bulb model is H4, and the bulb size is okay for installation. Our H4 led will be suitable for these vehicles.  NOTICE: Please check the DZG bulb size detail on the product page and the stock headlight housing to make sure there is enough room to install the LED bulb. Thanks for shopping with DZG."

Ok, they say it fits 2001/2002, nothing specific about other years.  Is it known to the members if the headlight setup is physically or electrically different in other years?

The link to this well regarded LED drop in replacement, except for that initial failure rate, is: https://www.amazon.com/DZG-Motorcycle-Headlight-Conversion-Warranty-1/dp/B07BTTFN1S/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3FJ2RKSHJEYYX&dchild=1&keywords=dzg+h4+motorcycle+led+headlight+bulb&qid=1590437948&sprefix=DZG+%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExM1hJSlFRVjRRV0VLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTMwMDcyQUpJSFUwS1RaMVFTJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2Mjc4MDgyRjQzUFkwMjE3RExNJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

$25 single, $40 for a two pack.  If I bought it now I would go for the two pack because of the failure rate and hope I would not get two units in a row that both suffer early failure.  It seems like an excellent product concept to get a reliable drop-in LED bulb replacement with twice the light at half the DC power.  Users strongly like the pattern (with stock reflector) and color (white) and installation (smallish bulb with fan on front inside reflector and nice fit to standard socket)--it's just the initial failure rate that is an issue.  My guess is that the failure rate is vibration related--something is vibrating loose or breaking on a small fraction of the units.  So personally I think I'll wait a little while and see if they make what is probably a simple engineering change to make it more vibration resistant. 

Not perfect, but none of the solutions except the Sunpie specifically for Harleys seem to approach the easy and near perfect level users would expect for a well engineered solution.   The Sunpie 5.75 inch sealed beam LED drop in for $45 on Amazon is reported to be identical to what the Harley dealers are selling for over $200.  And, it gets 80% 5 star reviews with very low failure rate and a lot of riders raving about how great it is.  Currently Sunpie is selling only for Harleys and Jeeps, but they seem worth keeping an eye on to see if they will expand their offerings to other vehicles.   

[The Buddha]

Yikes 10% failure is unheard of in electronics. If that was the case, we'd have computers and audio equipment trashed at every street corner literally every week.
Anyway I have no idea about my imitation daymakers failure rate - they held up well for the 3 seconds I plugged em in.

However - the room question - you do know the stock H4 bulb is pretty close to the rear of the shell and that bulb is a flush fit with the reflector - If the heat sink is handing off the back of that bulb for any distance you'd hit the rear of the bucket.

Cool.
Buddha.

[MaxD]

Yeah, as an engineer I would consider myself as failing to turn out a product with a 10% initial failure rate that I was advertising as having 30,000 hours of life.

Engineers are human and will cut corners when put under pressure by management.  Just look at the recent Boeing 737Max debacle.  To prevent the very small danger that a professional pilot would stall an airliner, they put in software that takes over and drops the nose to break out of a potential stall.  Problem was, it kept pointing the nose down, down, down until the plane crashed, with the pilots fighting it every foot of the way and unable to prevent the software from diving the plane into the ground at over 500mph.     

[The Buddha]

BTW don't forget much of that software was developed by a company from India called TCS. I truly hope Boeing get rid of those idiots due to this - in fact I'd almost guess Boeing will go bankrupt while clinging on to those fools.

Cool.
Buddha.