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LED Headlight Recommendations

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Angus Brown
(@81rtbc)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Any recommendations on led headlights ? I was just looking and there seems to a wide verity of conversion styles

 
Posted : 06/29/2020 22:11
Kent Willis reacted
Richard W
(@wobbly)
Posts: 2533
Member
 

For the headlamp you'll need an H4 style, which should be constructed using a central column with at least 3 sides. Lots of the cheaper bulbs are 2 sided and do not fully illuminate the reflector... meaning you and the bike are harder to see during the day, and less light on the road at night. You'll also want to remove the sub-reflector inside the headlamp during bulb installation. It simply snaps in and out.

A good quality bulb of this type for 90% daytime riding might be This 3-sided Bulb

For extended night time, you can get even brighter, but they'll have a fan mounted on them and can be harder to fit. Like This Example

Hope this helps.

Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.

 
Posted : 06/30/2020 07:46
Angus Brown
(@81rtbc)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

The headlight examples you gave me don’t translate onto Canadian Amazon and won’t show on my US version. Are they the Sealights ? They kind of look two sided but hard to tell . Also there’s a Beamtech That comes up

 
Posted : 06/30/2020 10:21
Richard W
(@wobbly)
Posts: 2533
Member
 

Don't shop by brand, shop by pillar shape and Lumens (light output). If the board holding the LED chips looks flat, then it is. A 2-sided pillar works great for cars, but not motorcycles. If it looks 2-sided (IOW flat), then it is. That's the cheapest construction you can get, which is why lots of bulbs are offered that way.

Look HERE. The top bulb is your standard H4 halogen (power hog). That's basically a higher Wattage version of what you want to replace. The next 3 are made using flat circuit boards. That's what you don't want. The bottom one uses a triangular pillar construction. That's what you DO want.

Higher output bulbs will have an internal cooling fan, which makes for a bulbous addition to the external end. It looks like all those LED bulbs have the cooling fan, but there are reasonably priced units (lower Lumen output) without the fan. It all depends on if you ride a lot at night.

► Another useful safety addition (which is far less expensive) is to convert your tail lamp bulbs to LED. Since the lens is RED, you only want to buy bulbs with light output in the RED spectrum. Most Airheads will require 2, single-circuit bulbs. Moderate Lumen output with wide viewing angle for the tail lamp, and high Lumen output with extremely narrow viewing angle (IOW "focused") for the brake lamp.

Super Bright LEDs has a web site that list vehicle bulbs by Lumen and viewing angle. I find it helpful. However, all their motorcycle head lamp bulbs are of the sub-par, flat construction. https://www.superbrightleds.com/

Hope this helps.

Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.

 
Posted : 06/30/2020 12:36
Angus Brown
(@81rtbc)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for the details, I’ll see what I can come up with north of the border.

 
Posted : 06/30/2020 12:42
Richard W
(@wobbly)
Posts: 2533
Member
 

This topic is thoroughly covered HERE

Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.

 
Posted : 07/13/2020 12:46

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