LED for headlight?

I have a Harley-riding buddy who was talking [bragging?] about the LEDs he had ordered for his Road Glide.

Which, of course, got me to thinking: as Grisos are vastly superior bikes, do we have any headlight LED replacements out there?

Several advertised on fleabay.

Pete

Specifically for GRiSO, or a generic LED MD headlight?

To the intarweb thingy...

I may be incorrect, but LED headlamps simply don't make much sense to me.  One of the biggest problems with LED lights in general is that they don't disperse light well and are very unidirectional.  I don't see that as an advantage in a motorcycle headlight.  Lateral light bleed is a good thing when riding in the dark, especially on unlit backroads.

Sure, the LEDs are very efficient, but it's not like the GRiSO is starved for wattage.  Shit, you could power a waffle iron atop the pillion with the GRiSO generator...  Yummy!

Personally, if I were dissatisfied with my current H4 options I might consider an HID upgrade, but the LED, not so much.  Besides, LEDs REALLY don't like vibration...  

Maybe I'm ill-informed.

It's my understanding that LEDs can be fairly direct - in certain configurations.  LEDs in house lamps have been working well more recently, because of some heat-dispersal design efforts.

On a bike [in a car, too] I would think a lot of the effectiveness would be dependent upon:

1.  whether the headlight is a reflector or not.  
2.  whether the LED light directs light rearward [like most headlights], laterally [like the most recently-designed floorlamp lights, or directly ahead [like flashlights].

The only LED GRiSO headlights I saw on eBay today replaced the entire lens assembly with 3x LEDs.  For $100-$150 USD, out of Merrye Olde Englande.  I was more looking for an H4 replacement; the HIDs don't seem to meet my bang-buck ratio.

The reason the only LED options you can find involve the whole assembly is because that is the only way they can make them work.  The require a specialized reflector to be (semi-) effective.  You will never find an LED H4 that simply pops into the stock bucket.

Heat simply is not an issue with LED lamps.  The power draw is so low that they just don't produce much of any heat at all.  I just don't see any advantage in an LED headlamp for the GRiSO at all.

Consider the possibility that the lamp(s) would fail while you were out on the road.  It's not like you can source a replacement at the next auto parts store you come across.  Like I had said, LEDs REALLY don't like vibration so their purported long life really doesn't apply on a motorcycle.

Maybe they look cool on a show bike or HD butt jewelery, but from a practical standpoint, if you are a rider who values a headlight, I really don't see any appeal.

Huh - I hadn't considered the vibration aspect of the replacement. Duh. Kind of a Big Deal, obviously.

OK - nothing to see here...move along.   

My mistake, I guess you can buy LED H4 bulbs...

eBay seems chock full of them

Yet still, I can't imagine any advantage they would have over current halogen H4 options...

Well, so much for that option too..    Perfect for a Road Glide I guess...

LEDs aren't a problem on the GRiSO. Well, at least for the rego/number/tag plate. I use a three LED assembly over the plate.

Most of the LED replacement headlight assemblies look like shit, are made of plastic and IIRC, ALL require some sort of DIY assembly to get them to fit a GRiSO.

I think LED lights are a fad.
That I have no interest in.
C'est la vie.

DM

LED lights are not a fad - but - they are immature as a technology, as yet. They will come to the fore eventually. There are two main issues: Focussing and fading. Focussing will be sorted out, fading is inherent in LEDS and always has been.

I have most of the lights in my house with leds now. To just change the H4 with aled has problems. The reflector is made for the small filiament that a nowmal bulb has. Getting enough light out of led needs more space. And heat is a problem there. Getting as much lumen as a halaogen you will need about 10-12 watts led. Where a bulb has no problem with heat, the led has. And running a led at higher temperature shortens it's life.

So H4 replacements are not the  way to go, but special designed headlamps are, that have a reflector made for it and can get rid of the heat.  They exist but are not cheap. look here and the price:
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or trucklite, they cost half:
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The Truck-Lite 27270C is the latest new. Look here for a review:


Other manufacturer:
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But look if they are legal in your country, and look at the trucklite website for details

Hmmm...interesting. I wonder how that 27270C compares with my stock headlight? The JW Speaker looks like the better light overall, but the price...not a chance, on my salary.

If you google a bit you will find comparisons from people who bought them. Also lots on advrider forum

...bah. I've been through the AdvRider forum on this [and other] topic. After a few pages, the discussion devolves into arcane minutia regarding sourcing, relative lumens and other irrelevant BS.

There are a lot of great options for H4 out there. I put a pair of the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra's on the Stelvio and they are near Bi-Xenon in brightness and color temp. Excellent lighting.

For auxiliary though, it is tough to beat the LED stuff. Monster lighting with very little wattage draw. I use the smaller Clearwater aux lights on the Stelvio and they are MUCH brighter than the headlights and throw a really nice long and wide light.

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You can see the comparison here. You'll find that visibility with the lights is much greater. I attribute it to a light designed around a specific housing and light. I think it would be very hard to get an LED to work right in a standard headlight housing.

Last season I had several trips through the local mountains at night. Fast trips. I found the biggest impediment to going really fast (other than fear and common sense) was the horrible lack of lighting when the bike is leaned over in tight turns. Sure, the headlight puts out adequate light when upright, but a lean angle combines with the beam configuration to produce a big black hole, right where your sight line should be when negotiating a tight turn. Anybody have a fix for this? Other than slowing down?

Auxiliary lights mounted on the forks will help a great deal. You can angle them out slightly to cover the less well lit areas of your headlight. There's some pretty slick mounts that mount right at the brake calipers.

Been running Clearwater lights in several different types for years. worth every cent. They are the only accessory OR FACTORY (ya the ones the bike Came with) LIGHTING system that has never failed....NEVER Failed. Had a set of glendas on my 02 bonnie when i got hit head on by the lane crosser that bike did several endos and even ejected the battery... along with me and the forks and the front wheel etc. but i saved the clearwaters off the wreck and they still worked (looked like crap though) Mailed them to Glenn and they re-did them to new and sent them back. He did kind of annoy me though they would not even let me pay the shipping for the return,,, much less the repair...

If Glenn designed the wiring and electrical system in our bikes and built it....we would never even bother to have a wiring diagram

Uzidzit wrote:

Been running Clearwater lights in several different types for years.  worth every cent.  They are the only accessory OR FACTORY (ya the ones the bike Came with) LIGHTING system that has never failed....NEVER Failed.   Had a set of glendas on my 02 bonnie when i got hit head on by the lane crosser that bike did several endos and even ejected the battery... along with me and the forks and the front wheel etc.  but i saved the clearwaters off the wreck and they still worked (looked like crap though)  Mailed them to Glenn and they re-did them to new and sent them back.  He did kind of annoy me though they would not even let me pay the shipping for the return,,, much less the repair...

If Glenn designed the wiring and electrical system in our bikes and built it....we would never even bother to have a wiring diagram

  

Glad you're still with us.

Ya sorry, Been uber busy, some work stuff finally breaking.... but I digress,

Piaa has the right idea with the rear facing led into the reflector the only issue is heat which piaa 570 housing does not deal with well (very short led life). the beam pattern is also only soso, I actually have a patent app in for a cooled rear facing led headlamp design that makes a bonkers amount of light has active thermal mgt, and a high beam with a good even beam pattern, and self leveling so it serves as its own cornering light... the issue is $$$

The Clearwaters btw have a lot of features built in that, they do not even bother to mention like the built in thermal mgt. that turns down the duty cycle if the lamps are over heating, teflon insulated silver plated motion rated wire :-), silicone jacket, adhesive lined shrink tubing etc etc etc... the only downside they are bright like sun, I am working on some honey comb driving shields for the kristas to make them a little more friendly to other road users...but it is nice to be able to be able to singe the retinas of the asshat in the bmw on the cell phone, dicking with his i-pad in the left lane when required.