H4 LED Headlights? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

H4 LED Headlights?

When I was upgrading my bike to LED headlights, I tried a cheap bulb because it looked promising for the price. My bike uses H7 bulbs, but the principle/problem is similar. I installed them and they were bright to look at but didn't project very far down the road. I bought a larger more expensive set which are my current bulbs and perform much better. Here is what I found after I had all 3 sets in front of me.

Bulb Comparison

As you can see, the location of the LEDs was way off causing the pattern to be insufficient to illuminate the road ahead. The cost was low enough that it was worth the effort to investigate it though.
 
Sparkcycle said:
When I was upgrading my bike to LED headlights, I tried a cheap bulb because it looked promising for the price. My bike uses H7 bulbs, but the principle/problem is similar. I installed them and they were bright to look at but didn't project very far down the road. I bought a larger more expensive set which are my current bulbs and perform much better. Here is what I found after I had all 3 sets in front of me.

Bulb Comparison

As you can see, the location of the LEDs was way off causing the pattern to be insufficient to illuminate the road ahead. The cost was low enough that it was worth the effort to investigate it though.
Click to expand...

Interesting picture thanks. Have you taken apart the good ones to see how they are getting the heat back to the heatsink? It is a long way to travel if they are just relying on thermal conduction through aluminum. I am amazed they can get so much light out of the good bulb without blowing it up.
 
Sparkcycle said:
When I was upgrading my bike to LED headlights, I tried a cheap bulb because it looked promising for the price. My bike uses H7 bulbs, but the principle/problem is similar. I installed them and they were bright to look at but didn't project very far down the road. I bought a larger more expensive set which are my current bulbs and perform much better. Here is what I found after I had all 3 sets in front of me.

Bulb Comparison

As you can see, the location of the LEDs was way off causing the pattern to be insufficient to illuminate the road ahead. The cost was low enough that it was worth the effort to investigate it though.
Click to expand...
How many sides is that led shining on.
That's what gives massive forground but no width.
Also, hell will freeze over before those put out 6000 lumens
 
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The bulb at the top of the set of 3 is the problem bulb. The one on the bottom is awesome. It shines brighter than any bulb I've installed and has a beam pattern that matches the Halogen output but much brighter.

The bulbs are powered by a ballast which drives them (possibly over-drives them as the product specs mention 40V). Each bulb has 2 sides each putting out 3,000 Lumens (6,000 per bulb and 12,000 per set is advertised). Seeing as the CREE XLamp XHP50 chip, which has a similar form factor, can output 2500 Lumens, I don't see why this chip can't put out a similar amount of light. But, I don't have any measuring equipment aside from the burned-out craters which were my eye sockets when I looked at them after installation.
 
Maybe with enough contributions we can filter out the good from the crap and find out why.

First ... "Decent". I just came back from a ride out into the country specifically to test this: http://dynamicinno.ca/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_62&product_id=52 Bike in question uses a single H4 bulb.

Due to a change of rear tire size that happened at the same time, I have to adjust the aim downwards a smidge. High beam illuminates trees without actually projecting further down the road. But even before that adjustment (aimed a bit too high), it's decent. It's not overwhelmingly bright on low beam - it's not a match for HID - but it's enough to ride comfortably at night at normal speeds. I suspect that re-aimed down a bit (which I've done but haven't test-ridden) it will be a little better.

The good thing with this bulb is that the low beam pattern remains on when you select high beam. That's not the case with the stock halogen bulb (on any headlight that uses H4). It's also not the case with the older LED H4 that are in my FZR400.

Second - "Meh" leaning towards "do not buy". https://www.amazon.ca/Headlight-Con...487819459&sr=8-13&keywords=9012+led+headlight

This one is in my car. It's not as bright as the stock headlights. It doesn't project light far enough down the road. This was an experiment ... OEM HIR halogen bulbs are crazy expensive and it was about the same to try this as an experiment than to replace a stock burned bulb. I still have them in the car - they're not *that* bad - but I am looking for something better. In this application I want to be able to install the dust cap on the back of the headlight housing, so I'm concerned about the distance from the mounting flange to the back of the heat sink. This one fits. But the single H4 Dynamic Innovations bulb on low beam in the bike (2200 lumens) does better than the two of these in the car even though they claim 8000 lumen output for those.

Third - "cheap crap". Can't find the online ad that I bought them from but they look just like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2pc...Projector-Lens-H11-LED-Bulbs/32695027594.html

With those installed, turning on the fog lamps results in no discernible change in illumination ahead of the car. The bulbs come on but they don't do anything - and that's relative to the headlights described above, which are also underwhelming. Note the similarity of these bulbs to post #1 in this thread, even though the shape of the plug is different. No heat sink, no external power supply.
 
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