LED Globes

[Adrian]

Hi once again .......
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Once my bike is finally fimished and running I intend to replace the main lights with LEDs.
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Motorworks has a direct replacement kit for the rear but can anyone recommend a kit for the headlamp.
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Thanks guys ........

[Tony Smith]

I just bought cheap Chinese lights until i found one that had decent light and an almost legal cutoff. i probably spent around $30 and  of course I have a spare. Some of the rejects found themselves in our  Kombi. There was really only one pair i bought that were utterly unusable - I binned them. I'm about to convert the instrument lighting to LED as well - going to leave the incandescent in the generator warning light spot for now.

[georgesgiralt]

Hello
I've done that.
I followed the thread on ADVrider on the subject and bought a pair (they are sold like that) of EVITEK bulbs.
They are perfect because the cutoff is perfect and can be adapted to the actual glass of the headlight by turning the bulb in it's fixture.
You do not have to remove the center metallic mask of the light. Only drawback there is an electronic box to install in the headlight so if your Airhead is fitted with the connecting plate in the headlight, this will be problematic.
As per the ADVRider instructions, I contacted the person on the lower page of the web site and she offered a quote for a couple of bulbs. I paid and it took 2 to 4 weeks to have the bulbs in my hand. So keep calm ;-)
AdvRider thread :
https://advrider.com/f/threads/h4-led-by-evitek-f2-has-achived-the-same-focus-as-h4-halogen-bulb-new-2018.1286743/
Evitek site :
https://evitekhid.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-806384579/F2_LED_HEADLIGHT.html
Hope this helps !
P.S. : I forgot to add that I put LED lights on the gauges and on the dash. The gauges are from Katdash and, now, I can see the voltage or read the time on the clock at night...
For the dash, I bought bulbs with a W10 base and a LED on top. And put them on the speedo and tacho.
Be very careful while doing that because the leds I bought had the two wires showing on each side of the bulb base making a short when plugged into the speedo.
And I was obliged to screw the tacho bulb into it's support in order to prevent it to drop into the speedo case. (it is a PITA to get it out...)

[skippyc]

I have a cheap led headlight bulb with a fan in front of it. around town at night it is adequate, i don't ride at night on the open road. Like Tony i have replaced the parking and brake lights with cheap leds which were easy to find.

[Adrian]

http://stores.advmonster.com/native-h4/?fbclid=IwAR1koH6wYCLkI-i8kPjOuH9YKaLEHvMrtQ96jE9XsTElm7vy-1g6kCmKRKk
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I found this - the reviews are good - a couple of 80s bikes have them so this one might be the way to go.

[georgesgiralt]

Well, if you are able to read the pages of ADVRiders about led lights, you'll find that the Evitek is more advanced and better at the job. Get your Snowbum glasses because it will take time and a looooot of reading ... ;-)
This is why I bought it.
But you may have a very different opinion depending on which bike you'll fit it.
On the R65, the Evitek is quite stunning.

[Bob_Roller]

Does the assembly fit inside the head light bucket, or do you need to cut a hole in it for the heat sink ??


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHyY-iI_Vac

[wilcom]

Evitek is more advanced and better at the job

I googled Evitek and saw three different ones, which one did you get?

[mrclubike]

http://stores.advmonster.com/native-h4/?fbclid=IwAR1koH6wYCLkI-i8kPjOuH9YKaLEHvMrtQ96jE9XsTElm7vy-1g6kCmKRKk
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I found this - the reviews are good - a couple of 80s bikes have them so this one might be the way to go.

This was my first LED head light bulb
It worked OK but the High beam was dark out to about 15 meters so i used it with LED floods
Also required removing the baffle inside the headlight 
It burnt out less than a year later or about 8000 miles of riding
So I would go with something else
I think their are better LED H4 bulbs now

After Adv monster burnt out   I converted to a Purpose built LED  Speaker brand  headlight    assembly
I ride at night and on a long distance trips and wanted some thing as dependable as I could get
 
Works very well but is pricey and requires changing  the head light bucket
I had about $250 USD in the whole conversion

 

[mrclubike]

Here are some pictures of the Bucket conversion
It is a very inexpensive EMGO bucket for British bikes
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Emgo-Lucas-Style-7in-Side-Mount-Headlight-Shells-Black-66-65068-2001-0824/331686929184?epid=209927756&hash=item4d3a14e320:g:D3kAAOSw4HNaT92F:rk:29:pf:0
I just had to JB weld some spacer to the mounting bosses to make up the difference in width
When you change to this bucket your head light choices are almost endless because it excepts standard 7 inch DOT Headlight assemblies

[skippyc]

http://stores.advmonster.com/native-h4/?fbclid=IwAR1koH6wYCLkI-i8kPjOuH9YKaLEHvMrtQ96jE9XsTElm7vy-1g6kCmKRKk
.
I found this - the reviews are good - a couple of 80s bikes have them so this one might be the way to go.

This was my first LED head light bulb
It worked OK but the High beam was dark out to about 15 meters so i used it with LED floods
Also required removing the baffle inside the headlight 
It burnt out less than a year later or about 8000 miles of riding
So I would go with something else
I think their are better LED H4 bulbs now

After Adv monster burnt out   I converted to a Purpose built LED  Speaker brand  headlight    assembly
I ride at night and on a long distance trips and wanted some thing as dependable as I could get
 
Works very well but is pricey and requires changing  the head light bucket
I had about $250 USD in the whole conversion

 

That’s the same bulb as I have. it fitted in my 86 mono bike without modification. And it cost about $10.

[BPT]

Georgesgiralt - can you explain "fitted with the connecting plate"?  I'm not sure what you're referring to but I've also never been inside of my headlight.
I've read a ton of pages from ADV rider since you all started this post here.  Most everything sounds good about the F2 bulb and my headlight is the last bulb that have to change to LED.
I guess that the box you mention is some sort of ballast?  Could you tell us about how big it is?  Interesting that I didn't see this box in any of the photos of these bulbs.
Thanks for the info.

[Tony Smith]

Georgesgiralt - can you explain "fitted with the connecting plate"?  I'm not sure what you're referring to but I've also never been inside of my headlight.
I've read a ton of pages from ADV rider since you all started this post here.  Most everything sounds good about the F2 bulb and my headlight is the last bulb that have to change to LED.
I guess that the box you mention is some sort of ballast?  Could you tell us about how big it is?  Interesting that I didn't see this box in any of the photos of these bulbs.
Thanks for the info.

The "box" attached to an LED (as opposed to a HID) bulb is a DC-DC voltage buck converter. BUT, depending on the LED itself it may be reducing the voltage to (for example) 5 volts, or increasing it to 24 or even 48 volts.

Low voltage LEDs are best for our purposes due to the lower heat dissipation problems. I dislike fan cooled LEDs but i do have one on the R65, but then I try not to ride that bike much at night anyway.

My GSA has passively cooled LED main beam that uses several somewhat large loops of braided copper as the heat sink - it works well.

i quickly found a similar product so you can see what I mean.

[BPT]

Thanks Tony. 
Regarding fan vs. no-fan - I'd seen a lot of mention of airflow and it sounded like most people thought the ones with fans were better in the enclosed lights, like our R65.  I've seen the ones with the heat sinks like you showed but thought the fan version might be easier to deal with.

The specific one Georgesgiralt linked to has some good reviews  as far as brightness and good beam/focus.  And that's what I was looking for, one that had a proper beam.

The main thing I was wondering about with his post was the connecting plate - I'm not sure what he's referring to.  Maybe airheads in general?  I thought our R65's were blessedly free of most of the clutter inside the bucket that the other models had.

And that goes to the ballast box...... that's why I was wondering about the connecting plate, to understand how it would interfere with the box.   And also I thought it was strange that none of the pictures of that particular bulb showed any kind of box, another reason I thought they might be a good choice, if they were easy to install.

We can wait for Georgesgiralt to reply and maybe he can give more details.

[mrclubike]

Cooling Fan or no fan
Enough space in bucket
Focusing issue beam cutoff
Dependability
 
All of the issues associated with trying to fit a LED bulb into the stock headlight assemblies is why I just gave up and installed a purpose built headlight assembly

C