LED light upgrades ?

[paulsstag]

I wanted to let anybody who has a TBR7 with the H6M bulb ( not a H4 ). what the upgraded ? bulbs look like plus my thoughts.

The rear bulb upgrade to led just uses less power as i took pictures of normal running and brake light and then pictures with the led bulbs and they looked exactly the same on my camera so no change in brightness which is a good thing , with the upside being possibly longer life and less wattage used.

Next was the head lights , the original halogen had two distinct patterns for dim and brights focused in the center . The LED bulb had an opposite pattern in the shape of a V with the center portion a dark spot the pattern of the lights on dim was the exact pattern but less intensity. I have never ridden my bike at night nor do i intend too but the light pattern seems stupid to me and would probably blind everyone.

I only run the lights for my personal safety so in that regard they put out a brighter light for others to see me and use less wattage and hopefully longer life and also pulling less watts , so for now they stay.

I'm sending some photos of the bulbs i used so you will know which ones not to buy.

[JerryHawk250]

Make sure the bulb is not upside down. The low beam should face up to reflect downward.

[Megadan]

It's all about optics and focal points. The LED's are much further away from the reflector than the incandescent coils, and only emit light to the sides. The reason they are built this way is entirely due to H6M bulbs being built for fog lights, which project light to the sides more than forward. Being further away from the reflector also increases the spread of light horizontally, but sacrifices distance.

The LED's themselves are not very powerful, or run at a very high power, which will also account for a lack of brightness.

If it were me, I would consider a bulb like this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-...-/121626224540

The two LED's pointing up will give a great bright low beam pattern, and one down on with the low beam will give a decent total high beam pattern. The heat sink and three 10w chips will also allow it to put out more light. The Chips are closer in position to the original coils of the incandescent bulb, meaning better beam pattern and distance.

[paulsstag]

Originally Posted by Megadan

It's all about optics and focal points. The LED's are much further away from the reflector than the incandescent coils, and only emit light to the sides. The reason they are built this way is entirely due to H6M bulbs being built for fog lights, which project light to the sides more than forward. Being further away from the reflector also increases the spread of light horizontally, but sacrifices distance.

The LED's themselves are not very powerful, or run at a very high power, which will also account for a lack of brightness.

If it were me, I would consider a bulb like this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorcycle-...-/121626224540

The two LED's pointing up will give a great bright low beam pattern, and one down on with the low beam will give a decent total high beam pattern. The heat sink and three 10w chips will also allow it to put out more light. The Chips are closer in position to the original coils of the incandescent bulb, meaning better beam pattern and distance.

Thanks for the link , i think i will try one and let others know.

As far as the bulb goes there is a small notch so that the bulb goes in one way only so can't be reversed. Next thing i noticed is that the lighting side of the bulb is at 90 degrees to how the halogen bulb is , ie the halogen shield puts the filaments either up or down whereas the led bulb puts them side to side? i will send a picture of the bulbs with the locating notch in the same place.

[paulsstag]

Bulbs with the locating notch in the same spot.

[JerryHawk250]

On my bulb the low beam chips are on top and high beams are on the bottom. But I have the H4 type.
Similar to the one Megadan linked.

[Megadan]

Yep, there are two styles of low/high beam design out there. The older style like I lined and Jerry described where they would aim chips in a 360 degree coverage and only activate the top chips for low beam, then all chips for high beam in order to put the light output on the side of the reflector needed for a given beam pattern. The only real "drawback" to this system is that there can sometimes be more glare to oncoming vehicles since the cutoff line is not very defined, but it can be easily adjusted for with the headlight aim if needed.

The newer style that is more common among the more typical headlight bulb styles like H4 bulbs uses arrays of 180 degree LEDs on the side of a much thinner center section that mimmick the position and orientation of an incandescent bulb more accurately. The low beam array is the further forward of the two and has a small shield on each side that blocks the light from reaching the lower half of the reflector. This gives a wider shallower beam pattern with a sharp cut-off line for low beam. The high beam array sits further back and has no shield so the light hits the reflector fully and giving it a narrower full beam pattern for greater distance. Mine is such a bulb. The only variation in this style of bulb comes down to how the arrays are fired and the drivers. My bulb only fires one series of arrays which means the driver can be smaller and internal since it handles less current. The upside is that it is more compact and does not require a fan, thus reducing power consumption (less than 20 watts). The downside is that it lacks width when the high beam is active, unlike a bulb that keeps both arrays lit during high beam mode, aka a dual pattern. I don't find the lack of width up close too problematic, but I do compensate for it when on a very dark road with my spot lights, which are aimed a bit down and out to the sides.