Steve Saunders Goldwing Forums banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

LED headlight replacment

4K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  neoracer 
#1 ·
Hello All
I am looking at replacing the H4 bulb on my 81 GL1100i to an LED
But I am wondering if there is anything to be scared of by doing this
and if that works well then I want to convert all lights to LED
thanks
 
#2 ·
Stick with the standard H4 bulb. This has been discussed many times before. Most LED's headlight replacements do not work because the LED is not in the sweet spot on the headlight reflector. Unless you can find one that is, you will not be happy.
 
#4 ·
Yup, many discussions and it has been proven that the "look forward" distance suffers.

It might appear to be hugely brighter in the next 100 feet, but it will be much dimmer a 1/4 mile down the road... in fact, almost dark down there.
 
#5 ·
go with a set of aftermarket driving lights in LED, you can choose width of beam pattern so a spot- 10 degree long beam on one side and 30 or 60 degree wide angle to see stuff darting out from the side of road work great together
Can be purchased singularly so no issues there, ck ebay


stay on regular H4s, not HID kits for us, too much heat in lamp housings
 
#6 ·
Plus with the headlight going off during start up it burns twice until the engine is running. That shortens the life of the bulb.

I have 9 led bulbs that fit the temp/gas gauge, tach, and speedo. They are the push pin type. If you need some let me know your addy , how many,and I will mail them to you.
 
#8 ·
.

Use a H4, Silverstar Ultra. They are brighter than OEM and do last years.

Yes add the LED driving lights, I have had them on my 97' 1500 SE for 5 years. The reason I am spelling out what bike I have is the forum no longer has a place to show what bike you have.

.
 
#9 ·
dont know why people claim too much heat with HID's,been using them for 5+ years on my SEI and Aspy,only problem i had was with one ballast years ago and using a 55w bulb caused aiming problems because i guess the focal length on the bulb was off and bulb was aimed extremely low both high and low beam,switching to 35w bulb solved the problem,have found a ballast which runs at 2.6-8 amps vs 3.5 amp ones most supplied with kits
the LED H4 bulbs i've seen are using high power Cree leds which they say use 30 watts which is almost same as an HID,HD is using 8 Cree leds in the headlights but use some good optics
 
#10 ·
the led headlight was somewhat a success,we used it on a 13 HD trike and it worked fine,light was 6000K and made the mc stand out in a pack,never got to evaluate at night since he seldom rides at night,problem we had during test was that he lost his fm radio during the test but all other functions of radio worked fine,removing the leds returned his radio back to full function,probably had at least 6-7 hrs of running time on light w/o problem other than the radio
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321721351926?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
 
#11 ·
Many of the older style headlights have a diffuser pattern built into the glass ( and a parabolic back reflector):

This is a perfect design for incandescence bulbs( SilverStars ) but will not allow the non-point source of a LED to focus properly way down the road.
The diffuser spreads the already spread out LED light pattern even more.
The LED seems brighter, with much less current ..... but does not give as much " throw "

Several riders in our club have recently switched their 1100/1200 headlights to 35 watt H4 HID systems :

Recent improvements in H4 HID's create almost a point source, so the 30 year old parabolic reflector will actually work, giving about 3 times as much down the road throw .. (so they claim ).

The double on/off switching still remains a problem .... as does the 45 minutes needed to get into/out of the reflector on a 1200 Aspy to change bulbs.

I was planning on switching my 1200A this summer, and trying them out..... ( but I'll keep the SilverStar carefully wrapped up in the top box )

SilverDave
 
#12 ·
i already ave HID which are great but bought the LED light to try on a friends MC,since his H4 on his HD is anemic and cant talk him into HID right now even though i have the parts to install it as a freebie,now will be even harder since the LED's didn't work so well,he seldom rides at night but the one comment i get anytime we ride in a group is that no matter where i am in traffic they always know where i am behind them because of the HID lights,even more when i use my HID fogs
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top