LED headlight options | GTAMotorcycle.com

LED headlight options

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stangn99

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Hey all,

I've been toying the idea of swapping out my halogen bulbs for LEDs. I find my current halogen bulbs are just too dim at night, and note so noticeable during the day. I've never had LED lights until recently with my new car. It's amazing how noticeable it is during the day, and so bright at night.

Anyway, anyone running LEDs? I'm considering the Philips 12953BWX2, but it ain't cheap. I read the Cyclops LEDs are comparable, but they charge quite a bit for shipping and they have negative reviews for customer service.

I prefer not to cut/splice or otherwise mess with the bike's original parts, so I'd like to swap it with an led that doesn't require any modification.

thoughts? suggestions?
 
depending on your bike, getting AUX fog lights would be a better option if you want more light and spread. I have LEDs from the factory on my Honda CBX, I've seen brighter candles, so just installed LED aux lights, literally night/day difference.
 
ScorpionT16 said:
depending on your bike, getting AUX fog lights would be a better option if you want more light and spread. I have LEDs from the factory on my Honda CBX, I've seen brighter candles, so just installed LED aux lights, literally night/day difference.
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I've been looking for a set of AUX lights, what did you get and from where?

BTW I have LED's in both headlamp and driving lights and not as bright as I thought it would be as well.
 
Please for all that is holy, dont just swap led bulbs into your halogen housing. It may be better for you but will blind everbody else. If you want more light, aux lights are a great way to go. Flip them on when you are on a dark country road and kill them anytime you are somewhere with street lights.
 
Brian P said:
About 90% of LED headlamps on the market are absolute rubbish. About 90% of the rest are not an improvement over stock.
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Yep. You get what you pay for.

And I also agree that the reflector in your housing may not work for LED's. On my VTX it has a prismatic lens that worked well for my LED conversion (with no blinding issues, and it's WAY better), but my wife's old VStar for example simply diffused the light and scattered it everywhere, resulting in the aforementioned blinding light syndrome. I had to remove it and put a halogen back in because I couldn't stand having her riding behind me in the dark.

You could also consider a HID instead of LED - they provide a more uniform light (much more similar to a halogen, but stronger) and you may be happier. We have 2 identical EV's and I installed LED's in my wifes and HID's in mine. Having driven both out on country roads in the dark I can say 100% that the HID's outperform even the good quality LED's in hers. And they were less expensive too - but you do have to deal with the ballast and possibly a relay setup to provide the startup amp draw.
 
I bought some LED headlights off amazon that have been absolutely phenomenal. They illuminate the road and drivers see me everywhere I go without blinding them. Not a single driver had high beamed me complaining about the brightness. LED bulbs are highly recommended. Aim for 8000 lumens and up.
Good luck.
 
How many do you need? Just one H4?

I went through many cheap H4 LEDs and finally ended up with the Philips Ultinon. I believe it's the same model you mentioned above.

There is just no comparison in my opinion. The Philips stuff is better in every way imaginable. (Well, all except affordability. It's bloody expensive.)

Mine has no cooling fan, but well-designed removable passive cooling fins and a compact external ballast. The beam pattern seems to respect the position of the H4 filament and thus is very true to the original reflector housing dispersion pattern, minimizing glare.

I only used one on my bike. The other is sitting in storage.
 
davephoto said:
How many do you need? Just one H4?

I went through many cheap H4 LEDs and finally ended up with the Philips Ultinon. I believe it's the same model you mentioned above.

There is just no comparison in my opinion. The Philips stuff is better in every way imaginable. (Well, all except affordability. It's bloody expensive.)

Mine has no cooling fan, but well-designed removable passive cooling fins and a compact external ballast. The beam pattern seems to respect the position of the H4 filament and thus is very true to the original reflector housing dispersion pattern, minimizing glare.

I only used one on my bike. The other is sitting in storage.
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I'd need two for my bike, so the Philips will end up costing quite a bit. I did research them quite a bit, and agree that they seem to be the only true replacement.

Would you say the Philips provide more light than the standard halogen bulbs?

I haven't been able to find any Canadian retailers than carry them...where did you get them from?

Sent from my LEX820 using Tapatalk
 
PrivatePilot said:
Yep. You get what you pay for.

And I also agree that the reflector in your housing may not work for LED's. On my VTX it has a prismatic lens that worked well for my LED conversion (with no blinding issues, and it's WAY better), but my wife's old VStar for example simply diffused the light and scattered it everywhere, resulting in the aforementioned blinding light syndrome. I had to remove it and put a halogen back in because I couldn't stand having her riding behind me in the dark.

You could also consider a HID instead of LED - they provide a more uniform light (much more similar to a halogen, but stronger) and you may be happier. We have 2 identical EV's and I installed LED's in my wifes and HID's in mine. Having driven both out on country roads in the dark I can say 100% that the HID's outperform even the good quality LED's in hers. And they were less expensive too - but you do have to deal with the ballast and possibly a relay setup to provide the startup amp draw.
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I did consider HID, but not sure where I'd place the ballasts. I have dual headlights and no place to mount/hide the ballasts.

My old ninja had HIDs and mounting the ballasts was a pain. Not to mention the slim ballasts crapped out often. I'm under the assumption that LEDs with fans will likely crap out too though, but maybe not as quickly.

I'm hoping to find LEDs that are bright, shallow enough to fit in the housing, and safe so I don't blind oncoming traffic.

Sent from my LEX820 using Tapatalk
 
The light output is objectively brighter. How much quantitatively I cannot tell, especially with the difference in colour temperature. What's most important to me, though, is that the Ultinon bulb was the only one I tried that didn't wreck havoc to the reflector beam pattern.

I think Philips went to great lengths to position the LED emitters close to position of an original halogen filament. Several of the cheaper Chinese bulbs I tried (and subsequently returned) had all kinds of incidental glare going on.

I found mine on Amazon last year. It was around CA$140 for the 11342XUX2 set.

Here's a random video I found on YouTube of the ones I have:


You can see the fan-less, passive cooling fins. The black heat sink is removable for installation. The ballast is external, but they are relatively small in my opinion. I had no problem finding a place to stash it.

I took a brief look at the product photos for your model 12953BWX2. They look very similar to the ones I bought. I'd assume they have external ballasts as well, even though I don't see them in any of the product photos.
 
I have Clear Water Designs Ericas, I can't see needing anything more on the street . They are around 6000 lumens each … The kit was quite expensive, but was very complete had great instructions and was almost plug and play.. I did couple solder joints because I don't really trust most taps . It includes an intensity adjustment , and it comes on full with the high beam , and horn. Took me most of a day to install ..
 
I don't know if there's a concern with
GreyGhost said:
Please for all that is holy, dont just swap led bulbs into your halogen housing. It may be better for you but will blind everbody else. If you want more light, aux lights are a great way to go. Flip them on when you are on a dark country road and kill them anytime you are somewhere with street lights.
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really it's the same for LEDs? I thought that was only an issue with HID/Xenon stuff.

Interesting.
 
I had a 2018 Honda CRF250 Rally for a year that had a led headlight.I had several people flash me because they are so bright.Most of the new high end cars and trucks with them are annoying.
 
Get supplemental driving lights. I have a pair of Denali lights that are rigged up to come on full with full beam for dark roads and it’s a massive improvement. I use them during daylight hours too sometimes to be more visible. You can easily angle them to avoid blinding drivers and they come with lenses designed for the bulb.

Edit: Supplemental LED lights have become much cheaper and better quality now, you don’t have to spend a fortune to get good lights that will last.
 
I'd suggest getting HID rather than LED with a 35w ballast. Wouldn't bother getting the HID kit for both lights, just the low beam. I've never had a reason to use the high beam with my HID kit..they light up the road extremely well.
What type of headlights do you have? Are they normal lights, or projectors. The HID kit in combination with projectors are much better over the LED IMO. All of my friends that have used LED have had some sort of problem whether them over heating or draining more power than they should bet etc
 
I may just try getting Osram Unlimited bulbs to replaced the OEM ones. My bikes runs normal lights. The current bulbs light up yellowish.

Both headlights turn on with the bike, and when i use high beams, both lights get brighter.

This means I'd need two HID ballasts with really nowhere to mount them.

I ride a street triple, so don't have much hiding room.
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