LED vs incandescent brake light bulb

[steven m]

Received my LED brake light module and tested it against the original incandescent bulb.  Very surprised at results.  Maybe I ordered the wrong bulb.  This is the bulb I ordered from SuperBrightLed.com: 1156-R24 Wide.  LED's appear white but turn red when illuminated.  Not like photo on their web site, which shows a red module.  

So, what do you all think?

Steve

[Bob_Roller]

I have heard that the LED replacement lamps in some applications just didn't do a great job, at least the lamps that are currently available .

Not only for brake light applications, but for turn directionals as well .

That's why I opted for the Beacon 2 LED tail/brake light from Motorrad Elektrik .

[steven m]

Original bulb is back in bike.  Will call Superbright on Monday.  I think they must have sent the wrong bulb.  Not only is it not super red, it doesn't appear to be the 100 degree wide angle either.

Steve

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

And what I don't like about the replacement bulbs is that they don't address the fault that many taillight sockets eventually end up with - that being intermittent contact.  I got the Beacon 2 insert like Bob, and couldn't be happier.

Before I made the change, I was frequently opening my taillight to reset the bulb's connection.

[nhmaf]

I'm with Rob on this one - the LEDs eliminate the possibility of a broken bulb filament, but one STILL has the #2 cause of malfunctioning brake lights - dirty/corroded socket contacts, to deal with.   I'm also a happy Beacon-2 customer.  It isn't cheap, but short of someone smashing the rear taillight with a hammer (or something bigger) I KNOW that I needn't worry about the taillight not working now.

[scottyintex]

I got a no load flasher  so I could use LED bulbs in my turn signals......but was disappointed with the results. I went back to the stock bulbs. I followed the lead of some of the others went to a Beacon  LED tail/brake light from Motorrad Elektrik .   That did make a difference..much better. I also tried a LED fog light on the sidecar.........That was really bad. I could have duct taped a flashlight on and had better results.

[Barry]

LEDs eliminate the possibility of a broken bulb filament, but one STILL has the #2 cause of malfunctioning brake lights - dirty/corroded socket contacts, to deal with.  

And with the much lower current being drawn by an LED lamp the contacts would have to be even cleaner.

[Ben_Carufel]

Just ordered a Beacon2 this morning. I read quite a bit about the idea of just replacing the stock bulb with an LED bulb and wasn't impressed. From all descriptions, the Beacon2 seems to be the ticket. I wasn't able to find any good before/after shots of it, so maybe I'll take some once it arrives!

[Bob_Roller]

I added two other items from Motorrad Elektrik, for additional lighting on the rear of the '81 R65 .

The 'Stopper', it's an LED light bar that attaches to the lower license plate bolts .

The other was 'Electro Pods' kind of a generic version of 'Hyperlights', it's two 8 LED modules that flash when ever the brake light comes on .

I mounted these to the back of the storage compartment just above the license plate .

I thought it would be a good idea to increase visibility in this area, after I had a supervisor at work killed in a collision on the commute to work on the Memorial Day weekend 2008 on his Harley, at 0430 by a vehicle that was entering an expressway and hit him at a quartering angle from the rear .

[Ben_Carufel]

I'll also be ordering the Hyperlites. I'm going with the "California" version, as we're only allowed to have lights which flash four times before going solid.

[zebedee]

Received my LED brake light module and tested it against the original incandescent bulb.  Very surprised at results.  Maybe I ordered the wrong bulb.  This is the bulb I ordered from SuperBrightLed.com: 1156-R24 Wide.  LED's appear white but turn red when illuminated.  Not like photo on their web site, which shows a red module.  

So, what do you all think?

Steve

It matches my experience with an apparently good quality LED bulb replacement on another bike.

I used a luxmeter to measure the light output and the LED was consistantly about 40% of the light level of the conventional globe. The appearance was much as your photos show - visibly less bright.

Naturally I did not leave it on my bike.

[Barry]

Makes you wonder how well designed these LED lamps are and if they are being run at the correct current for max light output.

Has anyone made there own ?

It's possible to overdrive LED's up to a point by careful choice of the series resistor which will give more lumens output in exchange for a shorter life.
This might not matter for brake lights.

[nhmaf]

The other potential pitfall of some of these LED designs is that the lense of the LED can be designed for either highly directional lighting or diffuse lighting.   The higly directional type are more effective at putting lumens out, but only in a narrow angle.   The diffuse lense are a little more like tiny incandescent bulbs in their light pattern, but the diffused pattern is noticeably weaker.

[zebedee]

Makes you wonder how well designed these LED lamps are and if they are being run at the correct current for max light output.

Has anyone made there own ?

They're not "designed"; they're made using available LEDs to fit in the space a normal globe fits in. They don't meet any standards, particularly with respect to light output and distribution.

When I checked mine, to my surprise I found the light distribution was pretty even, like a globe, but as I said above, the output was consistently about 40% of the incandescent globe it was supposed to replace. Simply not acceptable.

Don't expect them to get any better - there's no regulatory process driving quality since they cannot meet a standard for incandescent globes, and the future of automotive lighting (already the present in many cases) is purpose built LED lamps, not LED add-ons to lamps designed for incandescent globes.

[Ben_Carufel]

I received my Beacon2 in the mail today.

Let me just say HOLY WOW.

I am a perfectionist, no doubt about it. This part meets and exceeds every single expectation that I have.

I have to get out the big (59 megapixel) camera this weekend to shoot pictures of some stuff for eBay. I'm going to take a few high resolution shots and post them, since there don't seem to be any really good photos on the internet of this thing.

I'll say that I would have been happy with the quality of this product at $125.00 or more. For $59 it's an absolute steal.

I can't imagine why there is anyone out there riding an airhead that doesn't have a Beacon1 or Beacon2 in it.