H4 LED Headlights

[Keith Broughton]

Thanks for the link to the product. I will make some time to check it out.
However this may be telling...

• This Bulb is not DOT approved and is for off road use only

 

[Wisconsin v7 Racer]

Worried about blinding other drivers? Sounds safer you can see better and they will have a better chance of noticing you. Who cares if it's not dot approved they will be more concerned with the awesome guzzitech growling pipes on my bike then a headlight being too bright.

 

[Keith Broughton]

the awesome guzzitech growling pipes "

 

[pnguzzi]

Curious how LED lights hold up to a pulsing signal, flashing headlight safety feature.
Anybody?

 

[Keith Broughton]

Considering the LED systems that use a balast and (possibly) a fan, I can see the varaible voltage of a headlight modulator causing problems.

 

[kiwi dave]

My main issue with LED bulbs is the high colour temperature (i.e. colder or bluer) they emit compared with the incandescent lamps. This is shown in the excellent comparison photographs above.

Might be going out on a limb here, but I find it harder to see irregularities or small objects on the road when illuminated by these "bluer" bulbs. I consider anything higher than 3,500°K too cold. YMMV.

 

[Smash Zilla]

Here are some projector low and reflector high beams on my Raven. they are 5000K. Hope this helps.Notice the cat eye effect.

 

[Keith Broughton]

My main issue with LED bulbs is the high colour temperature (i.e. colder or bluer) they emit compared with the incandescent lamps. This is shown in the excellent comparison photographs above.

Might be going out on a limb here, but I find it harder to see irregularities or small objects on the road when illuminated by these "bluer" bulbs. I consider anything higher than 3,500°K too cold. YMMV.

You are quite correct in your observation of contrast vs coulour temperature.
Contrast is better whe the light is farther away from the short wavelength, "blue" light.
That's why fog lights are yellow and the "blue blocker" sunglasses provide better contrast.

 

[John Warner]

. . . when going from the UK into Europe, effort should be made to stop glare . . .

Except on the Stelvio, you don't have to bother, because it's got a European cut-off pattern anyway . . . at least my '09 does!
I've stuck some Tape on the lenses to compensate, good ol' Guzzi, one day they'll grind their way into the 21st Century.

 

[Gerrit58]

I have to add that there are a lot of LED replacement systems. My small test is not reflecting LED replacement kits in General. Might be that the ones sold in Guzzitech's shop are better. I'm a lot in Japan because of my job and light regulation is pretty strict. They follow ECE R48 (EU light regulation). They have (expensive) LED conversion kits (around 250 Euro). If you look at their website (only pictures because my Japanese is pretty bad) you can start to believe in it. They state to have a perfect beam and the tehnical explanation looks pretty good. Funny thing is that the LED's fire at 09:00 and 03:00 clock position! (same as my cheap chinese LEDS).

By the way, a halogen lamp is around 1100 to 1500 Lumen. LED's easily have 2500 to 3000 Lumen. Having over 3000 lumen and avoid glare and scatter is getting more and more difficult.







ipf.co.jp/products/341hlb.html



Anyway a lot to learn on this subject.

 

[Keith Broughton]

There is a design that looks like the pattern of the halogen light source was followed as closely as possible. From the pics, it looks like an excellent result.
Getting this right is a matter of very accurate placement of the LEDs and makes for a more expensive device.
Getting a bright light is easy. Getting it right is another matter.
If we were riding trails and night, it wouldn't matter but we have to play with others on public roads and should respect other drivers.

 

[WayneOrwig]

Curious how LED lights hold up to a pulsing signal, flashing headlight safety feature.
Anybody?

I have designed a dimmer for mine. During the day I use the dimmed LEDs for conspicuity. At night they are off, or when there is no traffic, they are at 100%.
Anyway, when dimmed, they are actually being pulsed. About 20% of the time they are fully on, and the other 80% of the time they are off. This happens about 40 times per second.
A relatively slow headlight modulator is not going to harm them.

 

[Keith Broughton]

Cool!
What is the dimmer design?

 

[GTM®]

Cool!
What is the dimmer design?

https://www.guzzitech.com/store/product/led-skene-dimmer/

 

[Keith Broughton]

Thanks

 

[Gerrit58]

I changed my mind. I drove with the LEDS's and in spite of the bad cut-off I showed in my earleir post in practice they do not blind other traffic. The main reason I want LED is that the early 2008-2010 Stelvio's have low beam over a relay and the high beam is over the switch only. Another funny thing is that when high beam is on, low beam stays on too. Low and high burn together (= 230W/12V=19 Amps) .
That is the reason that early Stevio's only have one healamp switching to high beam.
Since high beam is almost no change to low I wired the left main beam too as most of us do but that results in 2*60 W over the switch and for sure having 120W/12V=10 Amps over the switch only it will iburn the switch over time. These LED's have a much higher lumen on high beam and that makes the difference. Low beam is wider and high beam is stronger. High beam LED's unly use 2*20W=40W= 3,3 amps. I have also fitted an extra Flextra LED high beam 2*10W. This extra light gives a spot light over a distance of >300 meter.
Without changing the wiring now when switching to high beam low beam is off. That is because the LED's have there own logic embedded in the transformer.

Now the main beam switch gets only 60 Watts and the Stelvio is like starship entrerprise without burning the switch and wiring. Great result.

 

[Frank Motoweld]

In my Ballabio 2004 I have been using an H4 LED BULB from Headlight Expert.com With Great success! The lighting is nothing short of phenomenal and has been 100% reliable! I do hear that some Guzzi models have a shallower headlight pod in which physical space may be an issue but not confirmed. Even cars such as Audi Q5 Headlight only kinda equal what my Headlight now does. And the bonus is they send 2 in a box!

 

[boscoman]

I've been running LEDs in my headlamps for about 3 years now without any issues. Like the quality of the light. Only thing I had to do initially was lower the aim a small amount so as to not "blind" on coming traffic.

 

[Bonaventure]

Could a better option be to retain a good xtra output Halogen bulbs like OSRAM Nightbreaker or Phillips Xtreme 130% in the headlights but install Denali LED's down on the NTX's crash bar mounts where the cheapo Hella factory aux lights used to be?

I'm thinking the mix of color temps would be ideal for night driving plus for catching attention of motorists to notice you better. They see the mains up top high and narrow shining in traditional halogen 2700K or whatever, with the Denali LED aux lights mounted low and wide emitting 6000K or whatever. Eye catching !!