The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: marcmax on March 05, 2015, 12:54:42 PM
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Anyone have any experience with an LED h4 bulb in their headlight? I just picked one up dirt cheap at a car customizer going out of business (less than $5).
It is a bit of a tight fit with the large cooling fan on the base but fits inside the stock headlight shell without touching anything. Hooking it up to a battery charger and not being careful where I was looking had me seeing white spots for the next 5 minutes. I appears very bright white and says it only consumes 10w on low beam and 15w on high.
Not even sure if it is road legal here but that didn't stop them from selling them.
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Kinda like Cali guys installing "Not legal for street/highway usage in California" aftermarket exhausts.
Are Jawja LEOs that bored? [smiley=lolk.gif]
Let us know how the LED lamp plays out. You may get some cagers flashing their hi-beams at you.
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I know they are not road legal in the UK and fitting one might result in an MOT test fail if the beam pattern is badly affected. If the beam pattern is good I doubt the tester would notice. Even if the beam pattern is not great they would be ideal as a day time running light.
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I feel for so many of our Western European motorcycle brethren with their layers upon layers of rules, requirements and taxation.
All three of my BMWs carry the Texas Antique Motorcycle license plates; available for bikes 25 years and older. As such, my antiques no longer require a state inspection (MOT for our English cousins).
Marc's Hi-Beam Georgia bike might have the same vintage plate offering. Either way, I've found that running some of my bikes without the so-called legally required equipment has not generated one iota of LEO interest.
Jawja Marc and Texican Monte be biker outlaws. :D
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A bright light is not necessarily a good light. The LED source in the reflector designed for a conventional H4 bulb will not be properly focussed probably resulting in unnecessary glare for other road user (which would adversely affect your safety too). Scattered light will not illuminate the areas of the road needed either.
They are not road legal for good reason.
PS bald tyres are also illegal but common sense should tell us not to ride on them.
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Just on visual inspection holding the headlight shell and aiming it at the garage wall it has almost an identical pattern as the conventional h4 bulb.
The low beam filament in the h4 bulb is shielded toward the bottom of the reflector. This cause the light to reflect more out of the top half of the lens. The led low beam is the same way. It is on the top and emits light in a 280 degree arc that is biased upwards.
The high beam filament in the h4 bulb fills in the bottom half of the light pattern and due to the shape of the bottom half of the reflector is projected further out. The led high beam is biased toward the bottom to get the same effect.
While they obviously appear to my eye to be brighter the biggest difference is in the color of the light. Even the best incandescent bulb is biased toward the yellow end of the spectrum. The import tuners using "blue" colored bulbs are defeating the purpose of a bright light. The first color sensitivity your eyes lose at night is in the blue spectrum. That is the reason high crime areas have sodium vapor lights that give off that distinctive yellowish color. It increases contrast and allows better night vision. This led bulb has a color temperature of 6000k which equates to a clear midday sky color of white.
As for the legality, Georgia does not have a vehicle inspection of any kind. The law states that if it is installed it has to be operational, ie. if you have turn indicators they must work. removing them is no problem, just use hand signals if you are brave enough. You don't even need a title on a vehicle over 20 years old, just a bill of sale to register it.
I have been running a yellow tinted headlight for a couple of years. I have friends in Florida that have been ticketed for a yellow headlight. I have never been stopped and have even had LEO's come over and comment on the looks of my bike when out places.
I researched the Motor Vehicle code before going to the yellow light and all it states is what colors can be visible from the front of a vehicle, white, yellow and amber and what colors are prohibited from being seen from the front, red, blue and green. It states the minimum and maximum height of a headlight from the road surface and the distance they must illuminate an object in the roadway. Everything else is at the LEO's discretion. If you are blinding oncoming traffic I am sure they will get you ticketed but a properly aimed light should be allowable regardless of the "whiteness" and "brightness".
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Do you have a Mfg and or part number on it
I have been very skeptical of LED lighting in general and do not want to spend the money unless I have seen it in person at night
I could use the extra 40watts it frees up to run my heated vest and gloves at the same time
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I feel for so many of our Western European motorcycle brethren with their layers upon layers of rules, requirements and taxation.
Huh? What country made rules that our motorcycles had to have a gearlever on the left, brake on the right, vehicles with cat converters, airbags. Freedom of choice? - you haven't got it anymore, you buy what they say you can buy.
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Well marcmax, I might have to eat humble pie if you really have found an LED bulb that will work in an H4 headlight. Certainly I have not come across one myself. I am frequently blinded at night by wrongly fitted HID and LED units in oncoming and following vehicles.
Regardless of how well it works I suspect the authorities could give you a hard time for using a non-approved headlight on a public road.
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MichaelSydney I didn't set out to prove anyone wrong. I was just trying to see if anyone has any experience with an led bulb. The nice thing is I didn't invest a great deal of money on this one and if I find I am blinding oncoming traffic or getting repeatedly flashed by oncoming drivers it is a quick swap back to a standard h4 bulb. I live in a very low traffic area so once I get everything reassembled I plan on setting the bike on the road in front of my house and taking a series of pics over the handlebars with a standard h4 bulb and then with the led bulb. I will posted them and take comments and then decide if I use the led on the highway.
MrClubike, the bulb came in a plain brown box with very little to identify it. It says M2 LED Headlight, patent no. ZL201320551208.3
A Google search shows its country of origin is China ( where else) and some technical specs but little else. There was nothing in the box but the bulb and a series of base collars to adapt the bulb to various types of mounting.
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I feel for so many of our Western European motorcycle brethren with their layers upon layers of rules, requirements and taxation.
Huh? What country made rules that our motorcycles had to have a gearlever on the left, brake on the right, vehicles with cat converters, airbags. Freedom of choice? - you haven't got it anymore, you buy what they say you can buy.
Ouch.
I have seen aftermarket lights on rigs coming at me at night that make me wish they would get a ticket. I fear the 20W LED running lights I put on my R65 are in that category, though I've tried to aim them at the road and low. Nobody has flashed me yet but I avoid using them when there is much traffic.