Night riding 2: convert stock H7 bulbs to plug and play LEDs .... | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Night riding 2: convert stock H7 bulbs to plug and play LEDs ....

I think if riders want "extra" lighting for when they ride at night they should look into 'Auxiliary lighting' like LED Light bars or the round ones.

If no one is infront of you, flip the switch and turn on the Aux lights. if someone is infront of you, you don't need extra lighting.

Just my opinion.

If it's too bright to follow you I don't think other drivers will appreciate your "ultra bright light" behind them either.

exactly.
 
I put LED replacement bulbs in my car. With the stock projector housing they work great. I'm very surprised.

For the bike, after years of trying HID's and LED's and all kinds of crap I'm sticking to Halogen. They are just easier and more reliable and they illuminate the road just fine. (Then again my bike is a dual H4 setup)

If you can do a swap and it works properly then more power to ya.....but I'm sick of all these bikes and cars with non projector housings and blinding aftermarket lights. It's really really dumb.
Please post a picture of your output. 25 ft from a wall.

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Please post a picture of your output. 25 ft from a wall.

I wanna be polite and say "sure"....but knowing my schedule I won't be able to get to that anytime soon. My apologies.

Besides, a pic snapped with an Iphone at night won't be a valid representation of the output in person. Good or bad.

I can tell you now though that the cut off is nice, in the city it's plenty, and when I have visited my brother previously out in Erin, the drive home at night with no other street illumination they work great.
 
If you can do a swap and it works properly then more power to ya.....but I'm sick of all these bikes and cars with non projector housings and blinding aftermarket lights. It's really really dumb.

Agreed, and if it turns out problematic I'll swap it back out it again for halogen. I have no desire to be one of those people blinding everybody, however based on my experience thus far I have faith that the reflector housing in my VTX will keep a good focus on the new bulb because of its clear lens with internal structure design. It's my wife's V star that I'm more concerned about honestly as it uses a more opaque/frosted diffuser style lens that is more apt to scatter the output from a brighter bulb.

If it's too bright to follow you I don't think other drivers will appreciate your "ultra bright light" behind them either.
I do understand the search for brighter and better if you ride alot at night though.

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See response above. ;)

I don't necessarily ride a huge amount at night but there is at least one trip planned this summer where we will be in some remote territory potentially at night, so I want more light for sure. I don't however want to be blinding others in the groups that I traditionally ride in eitheR, so I'm keeping that firmly in mind.
 
Agreed, and if it turns out problematic I'll swap it back out it again for halogen. I have no desire to be one of those people blinding everybody, however based on my experience thus far I have faith that the reflector housing in my VTX will keep a good focus on the new bulb because of its clear lens with internal structure design. It's my wife's V star that I'm more concerned about honestly as it uses a more opaque/frosted diffuser style lens that is more apt to scatter the output from a brighter bulb.



See response above. ;)

I don't necessarily ride a huge amount at night but there is at least one trip planned this summer where we will be in some remote territory potentially at night, so I want more light for sure. I don't however want to be blinding others in the groups that I traditionally ride in eitheR, so I'm keeping that firmly in mind.
I figured. You've always come across as realistic and responsible. I'm just playing devils advocate.

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Ok, they arrived today and I installed them after work. Quick and easy, actually appear to be very high quality with the electronics separate from the bulb assembly itself so it keeps it more compact. The fan is actually near silent and the bulbs showed no quirks.

Went for a ride after dark and I was quite impressed. Nice crisp white light and things a LONG way ahead of me were lit up well. Road signs and anything with the reflective material on them lit up like a christmas tree, as did the eyes of at least one roadside critter I passed. High beam didn't have as much effect as I would have expected, but I think it has to do with the fact that stuff that a halogen would have lit up on high beam, well...it was kinda already lit up on low beam with the LED.

I followed a friend on his Spyder across Highway 2 through a dark area and he reported no annoying glare in his mirrors, but he said "you are sure visible though". I call that a positive.

Pictures don't really do it justice.

Top of a hill with about easily 3/4 of a KM of road ahead lit up. As mentioned, anything reflective lights up like a Christmas tree. The telephone post visible on the left side of the lane about 3/4 of the way down the hill was probably about a good 300-400m from where I was parked.
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Backroad. There's actually a car parked about 3/4KM ahead of where I was stopped on the shoulder and you can see it lit up somewhat by my headlight.
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This one doesn't look great as the road actually crested downwards a little where the light cuts off but It does show how nicely it lights up the sides of the lanes as well, or in this case, the ditch. ;)
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For basically $25/Bulb, I'm happy with this one.

Not once during an hour out riding, including passing a lot of oncoming cars on dark roads, did anyone flash their high beams at me to suggest I was blinding them, so I consider that a good thing as well.

I will do some more testing.
 
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Its hard to tell from the pics, though it looks like your light is being scattered everywhere. No cut off.

If you point them at a wall (as someone asked me to do earlier) you can better judge what the light is doing.
 
Not going to lie, that looks terrible, and very hard on the eyes. Incredibly spotty.

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Here's my auxiliary lighting.
Notice that the aux. led's are pointing down away from oncoming traffic, and fill in under the main lights, but can still be seen.
If I happen upon a very dark road with no traffic, I can always re-position the lights up with a hex key.

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Cyclops H7s are $95, not certain what you got for $25 or what the differences are. I do know that the Cyclops are compliant with the CANBUS on BMWs . If not you get a lamp-out warning.

You can do that with any LEDs as long as you have the correct resistor wired in there too. You just need to mimic the draw of the OEM halogens.
 
Yes, this what you get from Cyclops plus in needs to fit into a very small lamp housing. Ordered mine yesterday.

You can do that with any LEDs as long as you have the correct resistor wired in there too. You just need to mimic the draw of the OEM halogens.
 
Weird, that above .ca link took me to .com and says it doesn't ship to Canada

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