LED Hi-Beams

[Bama Bagger]

OK, Giddyup, you asked for it, you got it!



The front lights in all their glory What you're seeing here are the low-beam HID's and hi-beam LED's from SoCalMotoGear and the 960 cowl lights from BikeMP3. Not a bad color match if I do say so myself.

Hornblower,

A month later, how are those lights working out for you? Any wiring issues as had been discussed in the thread? I do agree the color match is excellent. My only concerns are the LED cowl lights...I want the additional lights for being seen, but also want light thrown down the road filling in where the HID's don't illuminate.

Any feedback is appreciated as I am going to upgrade my lights once I upgrade the windshield and seat!

[Hornblower]

Hornblower,

A month later, how are those lights working out for you? Any wiring issues as had been discussed in the thread? I do agree the color match is excellent. My only concerns are the LED cowl lights...I want the additional lights for being seen, but also want light thrown down the road filling in where the HID's don't illuminate.

Any feedback is appreciated as I am going to upgrade my lights once I upgrade the windshield and seat!

I recently posted an update concerning this on another thread but should have mentioned it here as well. Let me get right to it for you...first, the 960 lower cowl lights are great.They generate a lot of light which spreads out and basically, lights the road right in front of you. These are not "just-to-be-seen" lights but are super-functional. The HID lo-beams from SoCalMotoGear provide great light on down-the-road to the extent the need for hi-beams is somewhat reduced (unless you're Sparky and tend to outrun normal lighting) . Just remember though, if you go with HID lo-beams, be sure to install the lo-beam relay cut out kit to protect your bulbs from early failure. The LED hi-beam bulbs from SoCalMotoGear...well, let's just go through some pros and cons. First, pros...easy install, good color match with HID lo-beams, not particularly expensive, long bulb life, great for conspicuity, and low power draw (note: bulbs were advertised at 80 watts each but that is an equivalent wattage rating while the actual power is closer to 10 watts ea., therefore no problems created for fuses, relays, wiring, etc.). Now, for cons...basically, only one that comes to mind... light output down-the-road is not great. In fact, with the 960's and HID lo-beams on, the LED hi-beams add little additional lighting aside from some fill-in effect. So, in essence, I would like to see a hi-beam LED bulb that would do better as a true hi-beam and I have no doubt this will be available in the not-too-distant future.

Since I've breached the subject of LED lighting, perhaps it would be good to add this little interesting note... current LED technology yields around 100 lumens/watt (and often less). No doubt, that will improve as time goes by and, in fact, Phillips is already claiming to have technology that doubles that. From what I can tell, once we get in the 200 lumen/watt range, you will then have an LED bulb that will be much more effective as a headlight bulb, especially hi-beam.

[Hornblower]

Miles, forgive me for being skeptical, but I really don't see how that would make sense. Now, what does make sense to me is that by directing light back more to the reflecting surface, the beam pattern could be altered and possibly improved. There really is no way, that I can see, that light output (basically lumens) can be amplified simply by a reflective surface. That's a bit like getting into a perpetual motion machine type of thing, don't you think? OTOH, maybe what you've seen is a better method of focusing the beam so it would project better at distance. Now, that does make some sense to me. At any rate, I surely don't know it all and there are many things that I don't fully understand in this life, but I keep trying

BTW, it's my understanding that the way some of the high end car manufacturers are being successful with LED headlights is by the use of multiple bulbs and not a single bulb like we are using here. As you point out, there is no doubt the bulb housing and the associated reflective surface plays an important part by providing the right lighting pattern.

[Hornblower]

by turning the LEDs to face rearward, and reflecting that LED light off the housing reflector...the light that is then projected forward is like X (x5) amount of light. It seriously increased the amount of light that was projected forward.

To further clarify my skepticism with this claim, I guess the part I really have trouble with is the X5. As you can read in my previous post, I started off questioning the entire claim but sort of started "coming around" by looking more at the focusing properties of a well-designed reflector housing and seeing how projecting light down-the-road might be substantially improved compared to simply aiming LED light straight ahead. And Miles, I imagine that was your original point.

Considering the particular LED bulb in question, there are 16 Cree chips involved. Most of those chips are NOT facing forward and are utilizing the reflector. As has been pointed out, that's a good thing. So, here's the problem...those bulbs produce only 800 lumens. When you consider the 35-watt HID lo-beam bulbs are putting out a claimed 3200 lumens, is it any wonder the LED's can't compete with the HID's? To me, this explains a lot. In fact, it's pretty amazing that the LED bulbs (again, running around 10 watts/bulb) are doing as well as they are. Before long, I'm pretty sure someone will introduce an even more powerful LED bulb that will work much better as a hi-beam OR Honda will come out with a multi-bulb LED setup like some high-end cars have. As my friend Miles has pointed out, reflector design will be key

[MichaelG]

Okay, Ken, the sun has attempted to shine here, but it is like pea soup with the heavy fog we are having this morning. Fog Lights are definetly needed today. I went to the Post Office, went to my favorite coffee stand, now have a cup of mocha in my hand, and...I can now reveal to your utter amazement...all this was done just to UP your post count.

Have a nice day, buddy.

[Bama Bagger]

Okay, Ken, the sun has attempted to shine here, but it is like pea soup with the heavy fog we are having this morning. Fog Lights are definetly needed today. I went to the Post Office, went to my favorite coffee stand, now have a cup of mocha in my hand, and...I can now reveal to your utter amazement...all this was done just to UP your post count.

Have a nice day, buddy.

ROFLMBO - You guys are too funny! I love it, technospeak with levity!!!

[Hornblower]

Yes, more levity please

[Bama Bagger]

Hornblower,

Thanks for the information. I think I am going to go the same route as you did knowing that the LED Hi-beam is really more of a "fill" light on top of the LED Fogs and HID Low-beam. I just couldn't stand having the standard near yellow bulbs in those Hi-beam sockets. I am also aware of the low-beam relay cut out kit from reading the boards here.

I have a 2011 Suzuki Hayabusa that I have both low & high beams lit out with HID's plus I added Twisted Throttle LED's as running lights and between all three I light up the road very well. Living here in rural Alabama we have critters on the roads all of the time and no street lights to illuminate anything so I need all the light I can muster.

Thanks again!!!

[Hornblower]

You're welcome, Bama Bagger! I do believe you'll be pretty happy with this setup. One really attractive thing about going this route is the lower wattage you will be running. On lo-beam, you're going from 55 watt halogen bulbs down to 35 watts per bulb. And, with the LED hi-beams, you're going from 55 watt halogen down to around 10 watts per bulb. So, in terms of total wattage, you're saving around 130 watts. Why is this good? We can spend more money and add many more electrical goodies without taxing the electrical system! Yea!

[Deer Slayer]

I will say as Hornblower and I ride from time to time. His big ole LED WHITE lights are are very noticeable in daylight.