LED vs Halogen and others - Headlights ?

[preventec47]

Is there any justification for buying anything other than LED headlights these days ?

 

 

 

[braindead0]

Cost.  DOT approval.  Cutoff.  Fitment issues (fans/coolers).  Probably more reasons.

[William1]

Reflector design. Lots of light is worthless if it not directed where you need it. I see plenty of vehicles on the road with'LED conversions' that are blinding to oncoming vehicles and honestly, light up the path worse.

[Chuck.]

I'd be reluctant to use a LED bulb in a headlight shell designed for incandescent bulb because the light sources are physically different and the results are a lot of light scatter. I do use the brightest Sylvania Silverstar Ultra high output Halogens in my car with great results, but high beams are so bright that I don't like the glare reflected off road signs. 

However for off road those LED conversions do produce about 4-5 times more light per watt than OEM. 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Chuck.

[highmarker]

On 1/15/2019 at 12:57 AM, preventec47 said:

Is there any justification for buying anything other than LED headlights these days ?

 

 

 

Which headlight shroud you working with ? some better than others for reflector design. Some can be helped by raising them so they don't shadow the front fender.  I've used the h4 led conversion bulbs and it helped pull it in and out of the reflector , turning etc while shining on the side of my house at night to get it positioned the best (in the reflector)

Edited January 19, 2019 by highmarker

[JoeRC51]

I've got a 15 LED 4 x 6 LED headlight for a Peterbilt truck on one of my bikes. 15w low and 45w high beam , great beam and cut off and it turns night into day.  No fans , the back is a finned heat sink. 

[EnglertRacing]

I have done a comparison to sylvania ultrastar vs a fan cooled led headlight with two xhp70 emitters (most powerful your likely to find).

sylvania, good spread, good color

xhp70, worse spread, worse color, barley brighter.

[Chuck.]

But if the alternator light output is limited the best option may be the LEDs. Not all of our MC bulb bases are supported by Sylvania.

[Tye Durden]

On 1/15/2019 at 12:57 AM, preventec47 said:

Is there any justification for buying anything other than LED headlights these days ?

 

 

 

No

[EnglertRacing]

10 hours ago, KaToomTime said:

No

With that type of answer, you dont know enough to answer. 

Many of them are shit designs with counterfit emitters.

 

[Tye Durden]

14 minutes ago, EnglertRacing said:

With that type of answer, you dont know enough to answer. 

Many of them are shit designs with counterfit emitters.

 

Pffft what do you know about what I know?  So you post a you tube video that disses LED and that makes you the expert?  You know where you can put your reply. So I didn't add a bunch of qualifiers and but if's to my answer so what. If you want brighter light for a dirt bike get LED.

Edited February 16, 2019 by KaToomTime

[EnglertRacing]

11 minutes ago, KaToomTime said:

Pffft what do you know about what I know?  So you post a you tube video that disses LED and that makes you the expert?  You know where you can put your reply. So I didn't add a bunch of qualifiers and but if's to my answer so what. If you want brighter light for a dirt bike get LED.

If you want a &%$#@!ed up beam pattern thats most likely not brighter than stock get an led.

If you want something actually better you need an engineered combination.

Im no expert but ive dabbled with leds mainly interested in helmet lights.  Then experimented with several led head light retrofits in my truck and on my aprilia.  My findings absolutely mirror whats described in the video.  So basically 90% of the systems I see are pure garbage. And then the 10% that are usually only avaliable in shit blue aka 5000k or 6000k

If you wanna try you want a fan cooled setup with 2 cree xhp70 emitters.  Which are probably going to be counterfit.

[preventec47]

That was an informative video and I understand the importance of light origin vs reflector design.  So what I understand is that

LED bulb assemblies are essentially converted to flood beams instead of spot beams because of irregular reflector angles. 

Certainly on highways with oncoming traffic a narrow low spot beam is desired but  I do believe that LEDs may in fact  be putting

out more light overall but in a flood pattern.   Seems to me more light in a flood pattern off road would/could be a good thing

when you dont have to worry about blinding oncoming drivers.    I have learned in boating that the LEDs do put out

overall a lot more light while consuming less electricity.   The boating application is very much different than headlights

on an auto.

 

 

 

[preventec47]

On 1/18/2019 at 9:20 PM, JoeRC51 said:

I've got a 15 LED 4 x 6 LED headlight for a Peterbilt truck on one of my bikes. 15w low and 45w high beam , great beam and cut off and it turns night into day.  No fans , the back is a finned heat sink. 

Hey, how bout a picture or two and part numbers, source, pricing etc    That sounds like a properly engineered solution....

I did go into a 4x4  offroad auto specialty shop and they had all kinds of optional lights  and lightbars ... some that could fit on a MC

[Tye Durden]

7 hours ago, preventec47 said:

Hey, how bout a picture or two and part numbers, source, pricing etc    That sounds like a properly engineered solution....

I did go into a 4x4  offroad auto specialty shop and they had all kinds of optional lights  and lightbars ... some that could fit on a MC

https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/   LEDs take a beating, filament bulbs have a way of the little wire burning out. One of their bulbs in your stock reflector and a helmet light (and you don't need to spend $155 though their's are super nice)  and you have the minimum recommended for some fun nighttime single track. 

Edited February 16, 2019 by KaToomTime

[highmarker]

44 minutes ago, KaToomTime said:

https://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/   LEDs take a beating, filament bulbs have a way of the little wire burning out. One of their bulbs in your stock reflector and a helmet light (and you don't need to spend $155 though their's are super nice)  and you have the minimum recommended for some fun nighttime single track. 

I bought my h4 led conversion bulb from china, but used a cyclops dc rectifier rather than building one, was plugged for my wiring connectors so was easy peasy...20 some bucks at the time.  I did have to mess around a little to get my china bulb connectored up and mounted in the housing, and the overall length was a little longer than what Daryl sells requiring some adjustment.   So what your paying for is a proven bulb, rectifier,and plugs that anyone can mount up. Cost also reflects most the sale's going to adv crowd who are use to being raped for trinkets.

[EnglertRacing]

The cyclops stuff is nice, they use xhp50 emitters which are decent bud id look instead for something with xhp70

On ebay you can get something more powerful for half. They will sell you one if you ask.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/H4-9003-X70-LED-Headlight-120W-15600LM-Lens-Bulbs-Cree-XHP-70-CHIPS-White-6K-H-L/223382814392?hash=item3402a73eb8:g:GMEAAOSwbEZbFRIo:rk:8:pf:0

[highmarker]

Looking at the price of the x70, maybe cyclops isn't so out of line on the 50 considering it's wired.  Bulb I bought few years ago was like 15 bucks. Don't remember it's rating.

[preventec47]

So what is a good source that has the XP70 AND a reflector bulb mount for a total headlight package that is designed for all the

parts to work together ?