OPT7 LED lighting

[jct842]

Just ordered a bulb from new egg for the KLX250s . Been looking at a lot of the articles and reviews of lights and will report when I get it installed. I do intend to install a couple of aux led lights and decided to wait to see how this one does. Newegg sells an assortment of small lights in the 1000lm range that are 60 degree or 30 degree and when I see what is lacking I will order accordingly.

The opt7 H4 is 6000K, 40 watt and 3500lm. The OEM bulb is a H4 using 60/55 watts so if I go led on tail/brake I will have a few watts left over for the aux lights.

I spent $55 which is a bit more than some of them from china cost but I have it coming soon and free shipping. On the lesser priced bulbs I noticed most have problems with going from high to low beam and hope I won't see this with the opt7. I really wanted one of the philips that uses a hunk of copper braid for a heat sink instead of the bulky fan but those are in the $100 range.

[jct842]

Bulb came today. Pretty much plug and play. I did add a couple drops of 5 min epoxy on the three ears as the spring was kind of messed up. It is short and the rubber boot could have covered the fan. What I did was to cut away the very end in a circle a little smaller than the fan and pushed it down to the base of the fan.

Made mistake in checking it before installing and looked directly at the lit bulb.....hard on eyes like looking at the sun!

It does have two distinct light patterns......high and low beam unlike some of the cheaper ones that I have read reports on that just dim for low beam. It is raining like crazy here and may be till tomorrow night before I can report on how it is on the road but it does look like I may not even have to adjust the up and down. john

[SpudRider]

That's great. Can you post a link for the bulb?

[jct842]

http://www.newegg.com/Automotive-Lig...tegory/ID-2628
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA4YY31F6487

[SpudRider]

Thanks for posting the links.

Was the LED bulb short enough to fit in the headlight housing without the fan hitting the frame of the bike?

[jct842]

It was short enough that it would have fit inside the rubber boot. Will go out and look to see what the clearance between frame and back of fan is later. I had to cut the back of the boot away and push the rubber down below the fan to get cooling and still seal against dust getting into the reflector. Guess I should have measured between bulb base and the end but I didn't. Maybe tonight I can get some pictures since the rain is gone.

The bottom edge is some where between 3/4 and 1 inch from the steering head, because of the angle of the head the top has much morespace. If the fan was bigger in diameter the clearance would be a lot less.

[jct842]

I give up............rode 5 miles down to town where is a road and signs that would photograph good and fog rolled in. Tried to get on photobucket to post pictures from yard and photobucket is apparently down.

Ok the bulb and reflector are some what a mismatch...is still 100% better than OEM. There are lots of hot spots and they are not bothering me while riding. The low and high beams have the leds set at slightly different angles. The horizontal line in front of bike where the low beam cuts off is not quite as definite as OEM. The high beam is plenty good to ride at highway speeds where it wasn't before. I am definately going to add some self contained narrow beam LED driving lights to come on along with the high beam. OEM watts on high are 65, so I have about 25-35 to play with not exceeding OEM watts by much. The width of both beams might be a tad wider and thats fine with me since we have so small shoulders and brush on a lot of the roads and the deer lurk every where.

In a few years I believe manufacturers will come up with a closer match between led bulb and the reflectors but what I have I am happy with. It could reach out further but at 55 you are not out driving the light.

[jct842]

I installed 2 6 led side lights aimed with the highbeam today. It is wonderful. lights the gravel road up like it is in daytime. I will get the camera out tomorrow night. I mounted them off the lower fork clamps, in the side ways pattern. 2 leds up and down and 3 side to side. With the engine running at over 2k rpm the voltage is 14 volts on low beam and 13.6 on highbeam and I wished I had got a voltage check with the old 65 watt H4. I am running a led 1157 tail light. 76 watts total minus what ever I save with the 1157. Total lumins = 6500

I did block over an area at the bottom center of the headlight lens with paint to remove an objectionable pattern on the low beam and it did not effect the high beam. the pattern was at the top of each side of the low beam pattern. I will probably put silver tape over that area, I used white acrylic craft paint that should remove easily if I need too.

John

[Weldangrind]

Are you saying you're running an 1157 LED?

[jct842]

tail light bulb

[jct842]

Took a few pictures tonight and found I had to run camera on manual to show the difference between low beam and high beam. On auto the camera compensates for the differences in light and pictures look similar.

[Adjuster]

Pictures are very dramatic in the difference.


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[SpudRider]

The photos are impressive.

[Weldangrind]

Indeed. A difference like that could save your life.

[jct842]

You wouldn't believe all the road side critters I spotted last night when I took a ride to photograph the difference in hi-lo beams. I may remount the side lights to vertical as when turning lock to lock they hit the plastic tank side panels.

Since I got 4 of them lights in the set and 2 left over I tried one of them on my 6 volt tractor and only 2 of the 6 tried to light weakly. Will have to find some that are happy on 6 volts. Incidentally I did file open a hole in the dash for the volt meter I got for it about a month ago, nice to know if the battery is down before I waste time trying to start it. When your used to a 12 volt starter a 6 volt makes time stand still!