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LED headlights


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Hey, got some really nice LED headlights, the kind with the little shields to make them work in regular reflectors. 

Popped in red LED for the dash.

Changed the coffin screws to torx stainless steel numbers. 

Put some mirror extenders on. 

New fork springs and oil. 

Any of y'all use "Bondic"? It's a UV cure epoxy, they give you a little LED pen light. An LED flashlight for finding pet urine (brand name "PeeDar") works better.fixed the annoying V plastic  too. 

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Also found some hex button head screws from 318 stainless. Just gotta get some black plastic washers. 

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hi, can you get some beamshots on garage door? thx

 

Also, any links to LED bulbs you got? 

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I will. Bike is currently on the Abba stand...new front wheel, brakes (Brembos! Stainless lines, Brembo axial "Gold line" master), rear shock...but I am very pleased with the headlights. 

I bought generic dust covers on Amazon, and could only install the lights with fairing off. I bought a spare headlight unit, and have some projectors that I will toy with retro fitting, but seriously...the LED s are fantastic

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How did you wire the Brembo front brake light switch?  I'm planning to make a connector block out of epoxy on the Brembo switch to connect the stock Honda wires to, unless I find something else tidy.

 

Is your master cylinder lever hitting the edge of the windshield frame at full left lock?  I have a little room to move the MC toward the throttle, which might help.

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CF, I actually didn't get to it today! I had a honey-do list...

I did decide to fix a broken tab on the annoying V piece. I epoxied a split ring for keys to the trimmed hole, then used some 2 part silicone putty to build up the tab. Then I got the idea to epoxy over the silicone.  Better than nothing?

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Cool tab repair! :fing02:

Headlights... kinda sorta. Still has lots of glare above horizontal. Problem is optics was designed for DOT flashlight spot pattern rather than ECE. Changing bulbs won't fix that.

I've come to conclusion that HID retrofit is really only "clean" way to get good lighting without blinding oncoming traffic.

uc?export=download&id=1kO_YVEewwPmBCrMhY
 

uc?export=download&id=1JNGk7wnq4QO18JU-m

 

Here's conversion with single HID projector on Ninja 250. Looking into forming VFR headlight covers from polycarbonate to place HID projectors behind.

 

uc?export=download&id=1NtbH1SpjsV8rR-vF2

 

uc?export=download&id=1DPzyJW1qQWqNHuuD-

 

uc?export=download&id=1uKWZPxjk_Ca975duq

 

Area I'm most interested in measuring with light-metre is this rectangle and try to make it same before & after.

 

uc?export=download&id=1gQ4gV8RH7ABpPouUT

 

 

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Someone upgrading their headlights with the primary concern of not blinding oncoming traffic, unbelievable! Kudos to you Danno. That HID conversion is slick.

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4 minutes ago, Dangeruss said:

Someone upgrading their headlights with the primary concern of not blinding oncoming traffic, unbelievable! Kudos to you Danno. That HID conversion is slick.

Seconded!

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Thanks guys! 👋

 

Having almost been run off-road many times due to encountering glaring lights mid-turn from HID or LED bulbs installed in reflector housings, I certainly don't want to do that to anyone else! 🙂

 

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1 hour ago, DannoXYZ said:

Thanks guys! 👋

 

Having almost been run off-road many times due to encountering glaring lights mid-turn from HID or LED bulbs installed in reflector housings, I certainly don't want to do that to anyone else! 🙂

 

 

Not trying to be funny Danno but how do you know that was the case? They could have been poorly adjusted standard lights. I'm sure there have been some but that doesn't mean they all are are. I think you can successfully fit HiD or Led to incandescent reflectors. 

 

I've had a HiD-Xenon low beam bulb in my VFR1200F for about 5 years now and never had anyone flash me (trust me, drivers flash you over here if Yr lights glare) so I do think you are generalising somewhat. 

 

JMHO :beer:

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I think most people can tell when they're being blinded by an HID conversion, vs an halogen.  The colour of the light is the most obvious clue.

 

Reflectors really cannot properly reflect a light source which is substantially beyond the spec they were designed to handle.  Light follows the rules of physics, and the physics shows that no other result is possible. 

 

But the proof is in the pudding: nearly every beam pattern photo I've ever seen shows clear light flares over the cut-off on these kinds of conversions.  The only question is: how bad is the effect?  See paragraph 1.

 

-=-=-=-

 

I've done a few xenon retrofits over the years and I have attempted a few others, the latest being for my Hiace van.  Because I live in the UK I also have to contend with the cut-off being on the wrong side when I drive in Europe, and I've found very few truly switchable OEM xenon projectors.  Most of the ones with the ability to adjust the cut-off for Continental driving just make the cut-off horizontal across the entire width of the beam.  That works, but is not quite good enough!

 

I have found that certain BMW M3 projector headlights actually allow the left-side cut off to be physically switched to a right-side cut off, but I have yet to try to mount these in a headlight unit.  (FYI, they are from the E90-91 (pre-LCI) UK-spec M3s, and they are made by ZKW.)  The projectors themselves are more plasticky than I'd like, but they should work.  I might try to put one in a bike headlight if they do.

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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I know there are US and Euro specific headlight housings in vehicles with glass lenses (like the 3rd Gen VFR), as they do have prisms molded into them that "focus" the light down and right for US, and down and left for the UK. Not sure the effects of mounting an LED in there, as it is usually a different wavelength of light, and the bulb might have a different beam pattern, which might change how it focuses through the prisms. Way above my pay grade!

 

The projector headlights that I have seen are usually in their own housing, and already "focused" and usually installed behind a (non-prismed) clear lens. They look like an eyeball, so I'm sure those would be just mount and aim, but again I'm just back seat driving here...

 

What happens when you mount an HID/projector inside a glass prismed housing?

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It would be a mess.  The fluting would defeat the focusing provided by the parabolic reflector, convex lens and cut-off mechanism of the projector. 

 

In addition to the fluting and/or reflector contouring, the standard H4 bulb is also rotated to a different position for LHD and RHD versions of the same headlight.  When I brought my US-spec ST1300 over to the UK I swapped in a UK-spec headlight unit, and then when I relocated that bike to Italy I swapped that for a German-spec headlight unit.  I have comparison photos showing the differences of all three of these headlight units (DOT, Euro-RHD and Euro-LHD).

 

For my (1993) FP I was thinking about (slowly) grinding down a circular section of the fluting on the inside of the glass lens to allow the projector beam a clear exit, but this is something I have no experience with and I've never actually attempted to do.  I have the glass portion separated from the reflector and housing , but I have never got 'round to setting up the drill press and some sort of abrasive pad with different grits, which I think is what would be required to create a clear section in the existing lens.  Alternatively, the glass lens could be replaced entirely by a curved polycarbonate sheet, such as a "lens protector", usually attached to the outside of the lens with little sticky Scotchlock pads.  But some sort of housing would need to be created to protect the projector from the elements.

 

For those reasons, it is much simpler to do a xenon retrofit in a housing which does not feature a fluted lens, such as a 5th gen or later bike.  For those, it's just: replace reflector with projector, and you're done.

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

 

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