Topic: LED Turn Signal/Headlight Comparison for you guys if you're thinking what the H

[andy750]

I use the Super Bright 1157 LED tailight bulb in both my 750s (K2, K4) -  also flashes when braking which is good from a visibility point of view. Very visible during the day or night. Handy here in Boston where the traffic is bad.

[CowboyX]

Excellent, thanks.  Which one?  https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/tail-brake-turn/filter/Reference_Number,1157,1,41:

All you had to do was plug and play?

Tell me about it.  I was driving down the expressway here at 1 am with the original headlight and couldn't see anything.  Now I light up the whole highway.

[jamesv220820]

--- and hardly visible from an angle...
This obsession with brightness... For generations we had standard bulbs for taillights and it was collectively agreed on. What do you think will happen, when everybody tries to outbright the other? In Europe a standard brake/taillight has always been 21/5 Watts and I have never heard of any complaints. Do you really think, saving 3 or 4 Watts is a great achievement?
One of our neighbours is a first responder (ambulance). In horror he watches the images on TV of his collegues in the US, that have to work with flashing lights just about everywhere. "Thank God, I don't have to work in such a curtain-fire. I couldn't. It would drive me crazy." Not that long ago, first responders here had just ONE blue light flashing on rooftop. It has always proved sufficient. Everybody, even from a far distance, knew he was approaching an accident or scene of some other event.

I agree with you completely DeltaRider on the tail light bulb.  I think finding the balance of something being just a touch brighter is the best goal and my personal goal (minus the original sealed beam headlight, that thing needs more then a touch brighter) . The Tail light I picked out was when I thought lumens of new bulb should be close to lumens of the old bulb which after installing found out...wow... this is not a touch brighter but much more, and too much so! So I pulled the led bulb out of my tail light assembly and will ordered a few more.  My goal (and peoples goal when switching over) is to find something close to stock light pattern with maybe 10%-20% more light which I think should be the main goal when it comes to switching out lights to LED is finding a similar light pattern, a touch more brightness, and most importantly power savings.  On the little SOHC4's wattage saving is critical especially in Los Angeles. I will say this it does take a lot of trial and error to get this right and tons of patience.  People who go on amazon and just do a search and grab some chinese junk give the people like me doing the LED switch a bad name. Like that japanesse headlight was pricey but compared to a cheap 35 dollar 6kelvin chinese bulb it is outstanding so that one I will highly suggest.  Pertaining to the lightbulb I spoke with Yukihiko Namimatsu over at the company and they are in development of a new bulb which they can get even get the cut off even closer to original, they aren't just about brightness over there. Finally with the taillight I am going to order 6 more bulbs from various manufactures to hone in on the goldilocks zone

[jamesv220820]

Excellent, thanks.  Which one?  https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/tail-brake-turn/filter/Reference_Number,1157,1,41:

All you had to do was plug and play?

Tell me about it.  I was driving down the expressway here at 1 am with the original headlight and couldn't see anything.  Now I light up the whole highway.

Plug and play for the tail light yes. If you do the turn signals you will (depending on your bike might need a diode) need a better flasher. The Sparco Motors flasher is awesome not just for LED's but regular bulbs because the response is so much better then oem so that is something I suggest.


Now for tail light there is no wrong or right answer. I tried to match original lumens and got way more then I was asking for so the search continues.

I can make a quick chart based on simple math but how the light spectrum works and all that stuff it isn't linear so use these sheets only as a very very rough guide. Do not take them as set numbers because there are an insane amount of variables when it comes to lighting (quality of led lights, color temperature, amount of leds , etc etc etc) . This is basically based off the brightest point of light not based off of the coverage of fill of the bulb I originally chose. To do a complete accurate test I would need to grab at least a half of dozen bulbs to hone it in in a fancy testing environment which I might do. 



Anyways CowboyX If you just want to go with a simple one and not do all the searching for the perfect bulb, people are very happy with this one cause it also has a license plate bulb in it

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/1157-led-bulb-dual-function-25-led-motorcycle-bulb/170/767/

[jamesv220820]

Also here is an LED tail light bulb against a modern car.  The car has oem tail lights this isn't your dads Buick where you think the tail lights are out even though they are on.  Just shows you how awful the original isn't up to new standards. As I said to hone in perfectly I will need to borrow a light meter and get a half of dozen bulbs and do it in a completely controlled enviorment.

PS Sorry I forgot to white balance my camera before I did this photo 

[CowboyX]

Anyways CowboyX If you just want to go with a simple one and not do all the searching for the perfect bulb, people are very happy with this one cause it also has a license plate bulb in it

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/1157-led-bulb-dual-function-25-led-motorcycle-bulb/170/767/

Great, thanks for the help.  I had no problem with the Chinese headlight bulb.  But then again I'm not looking to replicate the look I'm looking for brightness.

Same with breake light.  The one you suggested is out of stock.  I'd like the one that flashes also like you said.  Brighter the better.

Is this the flasher relay you suggested?  http://www.sparckmoto.com/Products/Detail/55

[andy750]

I think I got this one...which is now discontinued.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1157-led-bulb-w-brake-flasher-dual-function-1-high-power-led-bay15d-retrofit-car/923/2274/?redirect_disc=0

Some more info here about LED tialights

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=147531.0

Good luck
Andy

[Bodi]

Tough subject to cover.
Headlights have national minimum performance standards plus some old regulations that prohibited "better" lighting... those are mostly gone now but it is not "anything goes". The projected pattern is regulated and only approved tested headlights are legal on the road. As far as I can find out, NO bulb except a standard halogen H4 bulb (or any other replaceable bulb like a 9008) is road legal - xenon, HID, LED... all prohibited in reflectors designed for the halogen H4 or other.
Not that this matters if the pattern and light achieved is good, enforcement is nonexistent. However if your illegal headlight blinds an oncoming driver and causes a crash, life may get complicated for you ... legal, health, or both. Or death.

Comparing lights via pictures is not so easy. Cameras adjust exposure for the light level.

Pics from the rear won't show the luminance out the side of a tail light, this is an issue with the LED tail bulbs that are directional towards the rear.
And when I looked into LED tail/brake bulbs the only ones bright enough from the rear were directional with low side light. The ones with multiple LEDs facing sideways were all pathetically dim. These may have improved since I did my tests about 10 years ago. COB and other LED technology has evolved a lot since then.

Do not use a white LED for signal or brake lights. Use ones in the lens colors. White LEDs are all actually deep blue LEDs with a yellow phosphor coating. The light looks white from the mix of the blue LED and yellow phosphor light (yellow is a mix of red and green). All these (unpowered) white LED chips look yellow since you see the phosphor coating. Filtering out red or amber in a lens loses a lot of the actual light.

For the nitpickers: Yes there are 3 color (RGB) multichip leds that can be controlled to be any color including white but the bright white ones are all phosphor type.

[jamesv220820]

Great, thanks for the help.  I had no problem with the Chinese headlight bulb.  But then again I'm not looking to replicate the look I'm looking for brightness.

Same with breake light.  The one you suggested is out of stock.  I'd like the one that flashes also like you said.  Brighter the better.

Is this the flasher relay you suggested?  http://www.sparckmoto.com/Products/Detail/55

That is the flasher I would recommend, and even though the bulb is on backorder I would wait for it or look for another manufacturer cause all the other bulbs they currently have in stock in red are a bit of a compromise in one way or another

Comparing lights via pictures is not so easy. Cameras adjust exposure for the light level.

Pics from the rear won't show the luminance out the side of a tail light, this is an issue with the LED tail bulbs that are directional towards the rear.
And when I looked into LED tail/brake bulbs the only ones bright enough from the rear were directional with low side light. The ones with multiple LEDs facing sideways were all pathetically dim. These may have improved since I did my tests about 10 years ago. COB and other LED technology has evolved a lot since then.

Do not use a white LED for signal or brake lights. Use ones in the lens colors. White LEDs are all actually deep blue LEDs with a yellow phosphor coating. The light looks white from the mix of the blue LED and yellow phosphor light (yellow is a mix of red and green). All these (unpowered) white LED chips look yellow since you see the phosphor coating. Filtering out red or amber in a lens loses a lot of the actual light.

For the nitpickers: Yes there are 3 color (RGB) multichip leds that can be controlled to be any color including white but the bright white ones are all phosphor type.

Agreed on most pics people take, that is why I lock my canon 1d in full manual lockdown mode so there is no adjustments do to light. I do this to give you the exact visual performance of each bulb.

And yes LED's have come much further in the last ten years! See picture the efficiency is mind-blowing how things have changed.  Think of LED household bulbs when they first came out readiy to the market they weighed a ton and the color spectrum was horrible and now you get them and they are light as a feather and can get the CRI very high.

Totally Agree with you on the last one as well Bodi, Buy the color of the lens don't go white

[CowboyX]

That is the flasher I would recommend, and even though the bulb is on backorder I would wait for it or look for another manufacturer cause all the other bulbs they currently have in stock in red are a bit of a compromise in one way or another

So I forgot I had to change the flasher when I got the bike and got this one...says "LED"         

I'm glad I checked as mine has three wires.  Seems to work.

Also before I came here I had ordered these bulbs for the rear directionals.  They're what the superbrights site recommemded.  I was waiting for them not to fit, not to work, or to blow something out but I put one in and it worked.

I'm going to run it tonight to see if it holds up.

So much brighter.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/1156-boat-and-rv-led-light-bulb-27-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-base-420-lumens/2623/12768/

[jamesv220820]

That is the flasher I would recommend, and even though the bulb is on backorder I would wait for it or look for another manufacturer cause all the other bulbs they currently have in stock in red are a bit of a compromise in one way or another

So I forgot I had to change the flasher when I got the bike and got this one...says "LED"         

I'm glad I checked as mine has three wires.  Seems to work.

Also before I came here I had ordered these bulbs for the rear directionals.  They're what the superbrights site recommemded.  I was waiting for them not to fit, not to work, or to blow something out but I put one in and it worked.

I'm going to run it tonight to see if it holds up.

So much brighter.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/1156-boat-and-rv-led-light-bulb-27-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-base-420-lumens/2623/12768/

Ya I like the sparck flasher because it is a direct replacement size , same as oem. And when I tested the bulbs the A27 from superbrightleds was the best ones from there even though I wasn't happy with the beam pattern and still on a search for better ones. The picture you took it looks pretty white. Did you order white bulbs or amber? or is that just horrible auto exposure at work from the camera?

[CowboyX]

Ya I like the sparck flasher because it is a direct replacement size , same as oem. And when I tested the bulbs the A27 from superbrightleds was the best ones from there even though I wasn't happy with the beam pattern and still on a search for better ones. The picture you took it looks pretty white. Did you order white bulbs or amber? or is that just horrible auto exposure at work from the camera?

Probably a combination but they're white.  I don't care though they are extremely bright and look good at night.

[CowboyX]

Anyone have any experience with these?:

https://safer-turn.com/cart/?coupon_code=OFF20&add-to-cart=682

[jamesv220820]

Ya I like the sparck flasher because it is a direct replacement size , same as oem. And when I tested the bulbs the A27 from superbrightleds was the best ones from there even though I wasn't happy with the beam pattern and still on a search for better ones. The picture you took it looks pretty white. Did you order white bulbs or amber? or is that just horrible auto exposure at work from the camera?

Probably a combination but they're white.  I don't care though they are extremely bright and look good at night.

Well just my two cents but it would be better to switch them out to amber color.  It will be easier for other people to see you which is better

[Alan F.]

+1 for my bike.