Led Headlight Install - 5Th Gen

[Iakona]

The LED itself does look to be a Cree unit, but the bulb base and extra stuff definitely isn't. I agree with everything else JZH said though. At the end of the day, you've put in a slightly higher output light with a better color, but it's still working with a reflector base that wasn't designed to work with it. I think that honestly, it would've been better to put the money spent on those led bulbs toward a projector retrofit if you were looking to improve the headlights on the bike.

[Switchblade]

If your happy with them that's all that matter's.

[apexandy]

I know I haven't done all of the technical research some of you have, but from the information I have read the LED bulb is designed, dimension wise, to place the LED in the same position as the filaments of a regular halogen bulb. From the beam pattern photos zoom-zoom provided it doesn't appear the light spreads significantly higher above the stock cutoff points for low and high beam. His tests weren't preformed at the exact same time and maybe even with the bike in a slightly different position. The cutoff still appears quite sharp, and I would think the headlight could be adjusted a touch lower if glare appeared to be a problem. The only significant differences I see, and would expect given the technical specifications is a brighter, whiter light, and a more "filled out" high beam below the cutoff because the low beam is active at the same time. Maybe I don't completely understand how easy it is for glare to become an issue with beam cut off points, but given the evidence here I don't see an issue personally....

But I could be wrong.

[2thdr]

Too hard to tell absolutely without actually looking into oncoming lights on the road, but tend to agree with Andy...seems like additional "scatter" is only lower than OEM bulb, not higher where it would blind traffic. HID's OTOH are a different story. Almost all I have seen without specifically designed lens are terribly blinding with huge scatter...

[Iakona]

I know I haven't done all of the technical research some of you have, but from the information I have read the LED bulb is designed, dimension wise, to place the LED in the same position as the filaments of a regular halogen bulb. From the beam pattern photos zoom-zoom provided it doesn't appear the light spreads significantly higher above the stock cutoff points for low and high beam. His tests weren't preformed at the exact same time and maybe even with the bike in a slightly different position. The cutoff still appears quite sharp, and I would think the headlight could be adjusted a touch lower if glare appeared to be a problem. The only significant differences I see, and would expect given the technical specifications is a brighter, whiter light, and a more "filled out" high beam below the cutoff because the low beam is active at the same time. Maybe I don't completely understand how easy it is for glare to become an issue with beam cut off points, but given the evidence here I don't see an issue personally....

But I could be wrong.

It's actually very easy to tell. If you look at the low beam comparison on page one, the light is about an inch, maybe an inch and a half higher. That's on a garage door, what I'd think is probably 8 feet away, at the most. When I first put my bike back together, my headlights were aimed too high, about the same amount, and drivers would often flash high beams at me when I was riding at night. It doesn't take much to end up being blinding to approaching drivers down the road. And yes, you can adjust it down to try to prevent glare, but you're basically defeating the purpose of improving your headlights at that point, because now you're pointing your lights down because of excessive glare, rather than to actually aim them properly.

[zoomzoom]

I have been thinking about upgrading the headlights on my bike for a little while, among other things, and I had been searching about doing an HID upgrade. One of the drawbacks I can gather from using an HID upgrade to the headlights is that the HID bulbs use the existing headlight reflector and, since the bulb shines out in all directions the lights tend to create a LOT of glare towards oncoming traffic. Considering that I have trouble with the glare myself, I did not want to install something that would cause other drivers difficulty. Hence I did not want to install an HID system without also going to the extra effort of installing the projectors as well. This involved removing the lens of the headlight, removing the existing reflector, installing the retro-fit projectors, and was arguably not exactly a plug and play installation. I don't mind doing all that extra work, but mainly I was concerned with running extra wiring for the headlights, and honestly the cost was a LOT higher after factoring in the cost of the projectors. One of the kits I looked at was nearly $300 US complete with the projectors.

After reading a number of posts and a few threads about the HID's causing excess glare to oncoming traffic and the extra wiring implications because of the ballasts and current draw on start-up, I started thinking about an LED option. There are a number of cars on the market now that have LED headlights so I was sure that there must be an aftermarket option available and after about an hour or so on Google, there were a great many options.

One company that came up frequently when searching LED's was a company called Cree. Apparently they manufacture some of the best and brightest LED's on the market and it just so happens that they manufacture LED lighting upgrade kits for cars, bikes, boats, RV's, etc, etc, etc. There were a number of sources that offered Cree LED Headlight kits but most seemed to be out of either China or Hong Kong and the shipping costs to Canada were a little expensive considering the overall cost of the kits. After a bit of searching I found a company in the US that sold a kit and it came with 2 year warranty, and the shipping was quite reasonable. Here is a link to the site that I purchased the kit from in case anyone else should be interested in trying it out.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think Cree, Inc. (4600 Silicon Drive, Durham, North Carolina 27703 USA, Tel: +1 919-313-5300, US toll-free: 800-533-2583 Fax: +1 919-313-5558) actually manufactured the LED headlight kit you just installed... So if buying "genuine Cree" was important to you, you have probably been ripped off. (Did your package originate in the USA? I've had eBay sellers claiming to be based in the USA who strangely shipped to me from China...)

Now, as for the LED "bulbs" themselves, they look to be of decent quality from the pics. However, you have to wonder if the LED chips they've used were actually manufactured by Cree, given that you now know that the seller/manufacturer most likely lied about the manufacturer of the kit and simply applied Cree's trademark all over the box. Perhaps "genuine Cree LEDs" is the new "genuine Bosch ballast" or "genuine Philip HID Converion Kit"? Cree LED chips are fairly common, so it is possible that they are genuine, but it's impossible to say for sure. I mean, you can buy fake micro-SD memory cards from China these days--fake stuff is endemic, so your only real defence against fake certain types of products is to only buy from a reputable manufacturer (and no, eBay is not a sure sign of a reputable supply chain...)

Finally, I'm impressed that you've recognised that there is a problem with HID conversion kits, in that the lobbing of an HID bulb into a reflector headlamp is a virtual guarantee of unacceptable and dangerous levels of glare, due to the major differences between the dimensions of an incandescant filament and an HID capsule. However, just looking at the LED you can see that the shape of the LED emitter is even more incompatible than an HID capsule! I think the only thing that is keeping these LEDs from being worse, glare-wise, than an HID conversion kit is that the LED's output is so much lower than HID. Look at your "low-beam" photo. Everything above the original H4 "cut-off" will be seen as glare by oncoming drivers. The LEDs bleed light above the cut-off because you have fit a light source with a different shape into the OEM reflector. (And then you spaced it out of position by 1-2mm using those shims.)

HID conversion kits also shield the low beam, btw. The glare problem is not due to a total lack of shielding, it is because the unshielded part is simply incompatible with the OEM reflector--which is exactly the same problem you have with these LEDs.

Ciao,

Hey JZH

In all honesty I can't completely disagree with any of your points but I feel I should offer up this information.

1st. The company I purchased the Cree Kit from is located in, and the kit was shipped from San Diego, California. One of the reasons I chose to purchase a kit from a US supplier (or importer perhaps, don't know) was because the shipping costs from the US to Canada were far lower and much quicker. Does this mean that the kit or any part of it was actually manufactured by Cree Inc. NO. As a consumer there can be no doubt that much of what we purchase was manufactured in another country or outsourced to another company by a local manufacturer. The fact of the matter is that the kit was sold by an American Firm and they are the ones who are standing by the 2 year warranty that was supplied with the kit when it was purchased, and they are the ones to whom I am to return the parts for warranty purposes should the need arise. I was not solely looking to purchase "Cree" products, more that I was interested in the kit itself as a whole. The actual bulb and chips on the bulb have the name Cree laser etched in to the surface of the parts so I think it MIGHT be fairly safe to say that the parts are indeed made by Cree Ind. The rest of the kit may not contain parts made by Cree Industries but they are certainly compatible with the product I purchased and the kit performs as intended.

2nd. I agree that there is the potential for excess glare coming from the bulbs due to the fact that, as you have said the bulbs are not perfectly compatible with the OEM reflector. In a perfect world, everything would work as intended and no modifications would be required. That being said I will adjust the headlights accordingly should the need arise if excessive glare becomes an issue and many people start flashing their high beams at me in disgust. Were I to install an HID system in the headlight housing without installing a projector to focus the beam the excessive glare caused by light being reflected off the ENTIRE stock reflector housing would most certainly be an issue for oncoming traffic. This is one of the reasons I decided that the LED bulb might be the better option as since only the upper diode is illuminated with the use of the low beam the only portion of the reflector being used (for the most part) is the area ABOVE the centerline of the LED bulb. This light is then reflected more down and forward to the road surface. With the bulbs placed side by side one of the things I looked at before install was the position of the center line of the filament in the stock halogen bulb vs. and both the high and low beam portion of the filament appear to be directly in line with the center line of the LED diodes. Is the cutoff line of the LED bulb as sharp as the stock halogen NO, but it is awfully damn close. The great deal of the light from the reflector is being direct down at the road surface directly in front of the bike to a distance of approx 40-50 feet due to the nature of the fact that LED's tend to produce light in a more directional fashion than a traditional filament style bulb. Pictures do not always due justice to how things look in real life and thus a bit of objectivity need be applied when looking at the pictures. An LED upgrade such as the one I have done is not perfect in all situations and may not be to everyone's liking but then what in life does work perfectly all the time and in all situations.

As for the kit, I am happy with the results so far and feel the money was well spent. I do not wish to go to the effort of purchasing an HID projector, nor do I really wish to crack open the stock headlight housing so they can be installed. By far, the majority of my riding is during daylight hours and what little evening riding I do, will be safer being that I will be able to see a bit better when riding on dark roads. The HID's without a reflector IMHO would be far more offensive to the vision of the oncoming traffic. The other main point I would like to make is that this particular kit is 100% EASILY reversible. Disconnect the factory harness, remove the bulbs and ballasts, and re-install some factory H4 halogen style bulbs. If the money turns out to be wasted then so be it, that will be on me, and no one else.

[Switchblade]

[Guest]

I saw nothing in the Ebay posting that says this is completely made by CREE. Per the listing:

"...our lamp adopts genuine CREE LED CHIP..."

That tells me the kit isn't 100% CREE, but the important part, the lamp, is.

Looks good, and makes me kind of envious.

[JZH]

I have been thinking about upgrading the headlights on my bike for a little while, among other things, and I had been searching about doing an HID upgrade. One of the drawbacks I can gather from using an HID upgrade to the headlights is that the HID bulbs use the existing headlight reflector and, since the bulb shines out in all directions the lights tend to create a LOT of glare towards oncoming traffic. Considering that I have trouble with the glare myself, I did not want to install something that would cause other drivers difficulty. Hence I did not want to install an HID system without also going to the extra effort of installing the projectors as well. This involved removing the lens of the headlight, removing the existing reflector, installing the retro-fit projectors, and was arguably not exactly a plug and play installation. I don't mind doing all that extra work, but mainly I was concerned with running extra wiring for the headlights, and honestly the cost was a LOT higher after factoring in the cost of the projectors. One of the kits I looked at was nearly $300 US complete with the projectors.

After reading a number of posts and a few threads about the HID's causing excess glare to oncoming traffic and the extra wiring implications because of the ballasts and current draw on start-up, I started thinking about an LED option. There are a number of cars on the market now that have LED headlights so I was sure that there must be an aftermarket option available and after about an hour or so on Google, there were a great many options.

One company that came up frequently when searching LED's was a company called Cree. Apparently they manufacture some of the best and brightest LED's on the market and it just so happens that they manufacture LED lighting upgrade kits for cars, bikes, boats, RV's, etc, etc, etc. There were a number of sources that offered Cree LED Headlight kits but most seemed to be out of either China or Hong Kong and the shipping costs to Canada were a little expensive considering the overall cost of the kits. After a bit of searching I found a company in the US that sold a kit and it came with 2 year warranty, and the shipping was quite reasonable. Here is a link to the site that I purchased the kit from in case anyone else should be interested in trying it out.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think Cree, Inc. (4600 Silicon Drive, Durham, North Carolina 27703 USA, Tel: +1 919-313-5300, US toll-free: 800-533-2583 Fax: +1 919-313-5558) actually manufactured the LED headlight kit you just installed... So if buying "genuine Cree" was important to you, you have probably been ripped off. (Did your package originate in the USA? I've had eBay sellers claiming to be based in the USA who strangely shipped to me from China...)

Now, as for the LED "bulbs" themselves, they look to be of decent quality from the pics. However, you have to wonder if the LED chips they've used were actually manufactured by Cree, given that you now know that the seller/manufacturer most likely lied about the manufacturer of the kit and simply applied Cree's trademark all over the box. Perhaps "genuine Cree LEDs" is the new "genuine Bosch ballast" or "genuine Philip HID Converion Kit"? Cree LED chips are fairly common, so it is possible that they are genuine, but it's impossible to say for sure. I mean, you can buy fake micro-SD memory cards from China these days--fake stuff is endemic, so your only real defence against fake certain types of products is to only buy from a reputable manufacturer (and no, eBay is not a sure sign of a reputable supply chain...)

Finally, I'm impressed that you've recognised that there is a problem with HID conversion kits, in that the lobbing of an HID bulb into a reflector headlamp is a virtual guarantee of unacceptable and dangerous levels of glare, due to the major differences between the dimensions of an incandescant filament and an HID capsule. However, just looking at the LED you can see that the shape of the LED emitter is even more incompatible than an HID capsule! I think the only thing that is keeping these LEDs from being worse, glare-wise, than an HID conversion kit is that the LED's output is so much lower than HID. Look at your "low-beam" photo. Everything above the original H4 "cut-off" will be seen as glare by oncoming drivers. The LEDs bleed light above the cut-off because you have fit a light source with a different shape into the OEM reflector. (And then you spaced it out of position by 1-2mm using those shims.)

HID conversion kits also shield the low beam, btw. The glare problem is not due to a total lack of shielding, it is because the unshielded part is simply incompatible with the OEM reflector--which is exactly the same problem you have with these LEDs.

Ciao,

Hey JZH

In all honesty I can't completely disagree with any of your points but I feel I should offer up this information.

1st. The company I purchased the Cree Kit from is located in, and the kit was shipped from San Diego, California. One of the reasons I chose to purchase a kit from a US supplier (or importer perhaps, don't know) was because the shipping costs from the US to Canada were far lower and much quicker. Does this mean that the kit or any part of it was actually manufactured by Cree Inc. NO. As a consumer there can be no doubt that much of what we purchase was manufactured in another country or outsourced to another company by a local manufacturer. The fact of the matter is that the kit was sold by an American Firm and they are the ones who are standing by the 2 year warranty that was supplied with the kit when it was purchased, and they are the ones to whom I am to return the parts for warranty purposes should the need arise. I was not solely looking to purchase "Cree" products, more that I was interested in the kit itself as a whole. The actual bulb and chips on the bulb have the name Cree laser etched in to the surface of the parts so I think it MIGHT be fairly safe to say that the parts are indeed made by Cree Ind. The rest of the kit may not contain parts made by Cree Industries but they are certainly compatible with the product I purchased and the kit performs as intended.

2nd. I agree that there is the potential for excess glare coming from the bulbs due to the fact that, as you have said the bulbs are not perfectly compatible with the OEM reflector. In a perfect world, everything would work as intended and no modifications would be required. That being said I will adjust the headlights accordingly should the need arise if excessive glare becomes an issue and many people start flashing their high beams at me in disgust. Were I to install an HID system in the headlight housing without installing a projector to focus the beam the excessive glare caused by light being reflected off the ENTIRE stock reflector housing would most certainly be an issue for oncoming traffic. This is one of the reasons I decided that the LED bulb might be the better option as since only the upper diode is illuminated with the use of the low beam the only portion of the reflector being used (for the most part) is the area ABOVE the centerline of the LED bulb. This light is then reflected more down and forward to the road surface. With the bulbs placed side by side one of the things I looked at before install was the position of the center line of the filament in the stock halogen bulb vs. and both the high and low beam portion of the filament appear to be directly in line with the center line of the LED diodes. Is the cutoff line of the LED bulb as sharp as the stock halogen NO, but it is awfully damn close. The great deal of the light from the reflector is being direct down at the road surface directly in front of the bike to a distance of approx 40-50 feet due to the nature of the fact that LED's tend to produce light in a more directional fashion than a traditional filament style bulb. Pictures do not always due justice to how things look in real life and thus a bit of objectivity need be applied when looking at the pictures. An LED upgrade such as the one I have done is not perfect in all situations and may not be to everyone's liking but then what in life does work perfectly all the time and in all situations.

As for the kit, I am happy with the results so far and feel the money was well spent. I do not wish to go to the effort of purchasing an HID projector, nor do I really wish to crack open the stock headlight housing so they can be installed. By far, the majority of my riding is during daylight hours and what little evening riding I do, will be safer being that I will be able to see a bit better when riding on dark roads. The HID's without a reflector IMHO would be far more offensive to the vision of the oncoming traffic. The other main point I would like to make is that this particular kit is 100% EASILY reversible. Disconnect the factory harness, remove the bulbs and ballasts, and re-install some factory H4 halogen style bulbs. If the money turns out to be wasted then so be it, that will be on me, and no one else.

It's always difficult to tell someone they've bought a pig in a poke, but you're taking it well!

1. It doesn't matter too much where it came from; such kits are illegal to sell for use on the roads of the United States (and presumably, Canada), because they, like HID kits, are not OEM replacements. Yours may have come to you via San Diego, but it was almost certainly made in China. I mention the illegality issue because companies engaged in such businesses usually get served with cease and desist orders by the federal government sooner or later, so if you're really expecting them to be there in two years, well, I wouldn't. It would be very foolish of you to believe that the branding of this kit in any way implies the actual origin of its components. Send Cree an email if you don't believe me. I lived in Hong Kong quite recently, and I can assure you that the Chinese entrepreneurial spirit is not even slightly diminished by the forging of hologram "security features", much less a simple laser etching or two.

2. You have misunderstood how HID conversion kits work. I have installed them (and subsequently removed them) and they do indeed shield the "low beam" from the reflector. If the light were reflecting off the entire reflector, that would be almost the same as the "high beam", so all of the alleged H4 HID conversions have some way of shielding the reflector on low beam. All HID conversion kits also attempt to position the HID capsule in approximately the same position as the incandescent filament in an H4 halogen bulb. But the HID source of light, and the LED source of light are completely different shapes than the incandescent filament, so as you say, the result ain't gonna be perfect...

[EDIT: I just noticed that the LED chips supposedly used in this kit only have a 125-deg viewing angle, so right off the bat you're missing 55-deg the reflector was designed for. Not sure if that is significant in the real world, but it does show that they're not trying very hard to make this kit truly compatible...]

In fact, the main reason why HID conversion kits produce so much glare is down to the dissimilar shape of the source of light, compared with the incandescent filament in an H4 halogen bulb. The resulting cut-off on your LED conversion does look fairly even (I've seen HIDs all over the place), but it's still well above the OEM cut-off, and that's just on a garage door less than 10 feet away. That glare is only going to get worse for other people the further away they are from your bike.

The saving grace in this is that your LEDs appear to be so much dimmer than HIDs, that the glare may never become much of a problem for other road users. At least, I hope so!

Ciao,

I saw nothing in the Ebay posting that says this is completely made by CREE. Per the listing:

"...our lamp adopts genuine CREE LED CHIP..."

That tells me the kit isn't 100% CREE, but the important part, the lamp, is.

Looks good, and makes me kind of envious.

So, if I toss in one part (allegedly) made by Honda, I can sell any 'ol Chinese motorcycle as a "Honda"? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. This box is carrying the "Cree" trademark, which means the manufacturer and seller is "passing off" their product as one made by another company (indeed, zoomzoom bought it, in part, for that very reason). Assuming Cree did not make the kit, that's fraud.

And yet you still believe that they're telling the truth about the origin of the components they've included in their kit? Why?

Ciao,

[zoomzoom]

Since it would appear that my use of the word CREE in the title of my headlight upgrade has offended some viewers, I have changed the title of the thread to read, "LED Headlight Upgrade"

If anyone should wish to use the kit that I purchased, please beware that kit may not be exactly as advertised, according to some.

NOTE: The LED bulbs do indeed function as per their intended purpose. The ballasts do indeed provide power to the bulbs, and the fans do indeed go round and round and provide cooling air to the heat sinks on the bulbs. Since I am apparently a dumb, back country yutz, who understands nothing about advertising or manufacturing principles, I can not say that the kit was actually manufactured by the company named on the box. I CAN however offer that the kit performs as intended and provides far brighter lighting than the stock headlights and whether they are brighter or not I will leave that up to you to decide.

Please be aware that I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, nor will I in the future be employed by Cree Inc., nor have I in any way been paid to place this "How To Install" on VFRD. I merely found a kit that interested me, that I thought would provide more light than my current headlights and that it was tremendously easy to install AND relatively inexpensive. Also I thought that this information was worthy of sharing with the members of VFRD and possibly anyone else who might think to share this thread with others that they know.

There, I do believe that I have now covered most, if not all the bases.

Merry Christmas to all and the hopes for a Happy New Year.

[Rush2112]

[EDIT: I just noticed that the LED chips supposedly used in this kit only have a 125-deg viewing angle, so right off the bat you're missing 55-deg the reflector was designed for. Not sure if that is significant in the real world, but it does show that they're not trying very hard to make this kit truly compatible...]

125-deg emitted angle from a LED is a wide angle LED, many incandescent headlight bulbs have a silvered tip so the light does not transmit straight out the front but rather must be reflected and focused off the parabolic mirror, that in conjunction with the metal base of the bulb probably blocks close to the "missing" 55 degrees if not more, as far as the horizontal spread of light if the "missing" 55 degrees was effecting the beam it would be more narrow side to side and I don't see that in the images ...

Many LEDs are much more focused, like 35 degrees of emitted light, 125 degrees is actually a lot for a LED

[Switchblade]

Since it would appear that my use of the word CREE in the title of my headlight upgrade has offended some viewers, I have changed the title of the thread to read, "LED Headlight Upgrade"

If anyone should wish to use the kit that I purchased, please beware that kit may not be exactly as advertised, according to some.

NOTE: The LED bulbs do indeed function as per their intended purpose. The ballasts do indeed provide power to the bulbs, and the fans do indeed go round and round and provide cooling air to the heat sinks on the bulbs. Since I am apparently a dumb, back country yutz, who understands nothing about advertising or manufacturing principles, I can not say that the kit was actually manufactured by the company named on the box. I CAN however offer that the kit performs as intended and provides far brighter lighting than the stock headlights and whether they are brighter or not I will leave that up to you to decide.

Please be aware that I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, nor will I in the future be employed by Cree Inc., nor have I in any way been paid to place this "How To Install" on VFRD. I merely found a kit that interested me, that I thought would provide more light than my current headlights and that it was tremendously easy to install AND relatively inexpensive. Also I thought that this information was worthy of sharing with the members of VFRD and possibly anyone else who might think to share this thread with others that they know.

There, I do believe that I have now covered most, if not all the bases.

Merry Christmas to all and the hopes for a Happy New Year.

Your killin me . I like the logic .

[rangemaster]

Since it would appear that my use of the word CREE in the title of my headlight upgrade has offended some viewers, I have changed the title of the thread to read, "LED Headlight Upgrade"

If anyone should wish to use the kit that I purchased, please beware that kit may not be exactly as advertised, according to some.

NOTE: The LED bulbs do indeed function as per their intended purpose. The ballasts do indeed provide power to the bulbs, and the fans do indeed go round and round and provide cooling air to the heat sinks on the bulbs. Since I am apparently a dumb, back country yutz, who understands nothing about advertising or manufacturing principles, I can not say that the kit was actually manufactured by the company named on the box. I CAN however offer that the kit performs as intended and provides far brighter lighting than the stock headlights and whether they are brighter or not I will leave that up to you to decide.

Please be aware that I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, nor will I in the future be employed by Cree Inc., nor have I in any way been paid to place this "How To Install" on VFRD. I merely found a kit that interested me, that I thought would provide more light than my current headlights and that it was tremendously easy to install AND relatively inexpensive. Also I thought that this information was worthy of sharing with the members of VFRD and possibly anyone else who might think to share this thread with others that they know.

There, I do believe that I have now covered most, if not all the bases.

Merry Christmas to all and the hopes for a Happy New Year.

Your killin me . I like the logic .

Agreed. AND, I still want to try 'em out in my '97.

[V4 Rosso]

This box is carrying the "Cree" trademark, which means the manufacturer and seller is "passing off" their product as one made by another company

Some companies like Microsoft and Intel pay computer manufacturers to put their name on their products

These lights use these Cree LEDs. The drivers, or ballasts as the OP calls them, are not made by Cree as Cree does not make drivers. These Cree high power LEDs are also very popular in bicycle lights as they are very bright and relatively energy efficient. You see tons of low cost (<$100) lights that are advertised as using Cree LEDs where the more posh/expensive bicycle lights like Lupine (some over $1000) only mention using Cree LEDs on their website and in the manual that comes with the light.

[MBrane]

One thing I noticed about the pictures of the beam patterns is that the LEDs seem to cast a lot of light onto the road surface directly in front of the bike. This is a problem with HID conversions as well that nobody seems to mention. You are blinding yourself by brightly lighting up areas very close that do not matter at the expense of those farther ahead that do.

Granted the pictures are a poor representation of what you actually see in real life. I appreciate the post, the work, and the reporting. I think the jury is still out on wether this is actually an upgrade to the stock H4s. It certainly looks better than the typical Chinese HID crap.

[vfrcapn]

I don't see how Cree is offensive, unless you're a free Jaffa. A free HID kit if you get that reference.

I ordered a set so we'll see. They only claim on the eBay page to using Cree chips, nothing else. Maybe they're fakes, maybe not. I wouldn't know. The "company" is the eBay seller, who sells all sorts of cheap imported junk, but they've been doing it on eBay for 12 years. So I expect they'll be around in 2 years to give a refund if really necessary.

As far as the current H4 set up being perfect? Is that because it has the Honda name on it, they made it perfect? Like the exhaust, front ends, shocks, seats, electrical system, windscreen, ECU programming, etc? So we've all already ruined our 'perfect' bikes by changing all those things, what's one more mistake?

The new VFR has LED headlights, I'm sure designed for the bulb, and I'll bet JZH ends up being the first to retro fit the lens from that bike to the 5G. That's a thread I'm looking forward to reading so get to work on it!

[Switchblade]

All good points .

[Guest]

I don't see how Cree is offensive, unless you're a free Jaffa. A free HID kit if you get that reference.

I'll PM you my shipping details. LOL

[JZH]

[EDIT: I just noticed that the LED chips supposedly used in this kit only have a 125-deg viewing angle, so right off the bat you're missing 55-deg the reflector was designed for. Not sure if that is significant in the real world, but it does show that they're not trying very hard to make this kit truly compatible...]

125-deg emitted angle from a LED is a wide angle LED, many incandescent headlight bulbs have a silvered tip so the light does not transmit straight out the front but rather must be reflected and focused off the parabolic mirror, that in conjunction with the metal base of the bulb probably blocks close to the "missing" 55 degrees if not more, as far as the horizontal spread of light if the "missing" 55 degrees was effecting the beam it would be more narrow side to side and I don't see that in the images ...

Many LEDs are much more focused, like 35 degrees of emitted light, 125 degrees is actually a lot for a LED

Oh, I agree, 125 degrees is very wide for an LED. But you're missing the significance of the difference. Have a look at an H4 bulb.

The "low-beam" LEDs are pointed up, not forward, so there is no relevant comparison to halogen bulbs with a silvered tip. H4 bulbs have shielded low beam filaments (with the shield on the bottom), which allows 180 degrees of light to hit the reflector--the entire upper half of the reflector. These LEDs only allow 125 degrees of light to hit the upper half of the reflector. Certainly, the missing light is probably only the side-to-side illumination, which is not as important as the main part of the beam, but the only reason it is missing is because the Chinese developers of these bulbs could not find a more suitable light source, but went ahead with the design anyway.

I defer to the more experienced IP lawyers on this site, but if third party manufacturers are allowed by Intel or AMD to use their trademarks, then they will have written licenses reflecting those arrangements. If you honestly think that is what is happening here, I think I still have that bridge for sale...

Ciao,

The new VFR has LED headlights, I'm sure designed for the bulb, and I'll bet JZH ends up being the first to retro fit the lens from that bike to the 5G. That's a thread I'm looking forward to reading so get to work on it!

Hmmm... I shall let you know about that! The "8th-gen" is expected to be in the dealers here in the spring, and I do intend to give the bike a close look (if not a test ride), and as we all know, if it has a Honda part number, it can be ordered...

Ciao,

[Burkov]

I don't see how Cree is offensive, unless you're a free Jaffa. A free HID kit if you get that reference.

YOU SIR MADE MY DAY

[Switchblade]

I don't see how Cree is offensive, unless you're a free Jaffa. A free HID kit if you get that reference.

I'll PM you my shipping details. LOL

Got it ..

http://www.zianet.com/jsager/sg-gods.html

[Switchblade]

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[zoomzoom]

Interesting alternative. Not sure what the actual connector looks like for the bulb but it might work. The add says it has bi-xenon intensity so I would have to assume that it somehow changes the light output by altering the power going to the bulb. Being a three sided bulb it would not be able to simply turn off one LED to become a low vs, high beam operation like the kit I used. If they are 125 degree LED's though it should be able to use the entire reflector since there would only be 120 degrees between each diode. Maybe I'll order one just to try it for shits and giggles. LOL

[zoomzoom]

Considering that winter has befallen my home town and weather shall not be overly conducive to riding for a little while I shall not be able to really test out the new lights for a while to come. When I took the photos with two bikes side by side the weather was about -15*C and thus not very good for riding. That being said I did take my bike for a spin a little while later in the early evening after it warmed up a bit and the lights did make a WORLD of difference. A lot more light is cast ahead of the bike, including a fair bit more on the ground directly ahead of the bike. The area in front from about the tire to 4 feet ahead there is more light than I ever remember there being. The extra light here is not annoying at all and I really quite like it. The area from about 5 ft to say 30 feet is filled out nicely and there is definitely more, and brighter light than ever before. There also appears to be a lot more light to the sides of the road (contrary to theory that the LED's only have a 125 degree spread and that I will be missing 55 degrees of light to the side, must be extra diffusion off the reflector) and since the light is whiter, I find the color contrast makes objects being illuminated to be much easier to see. Not really sure how to describe this, sort of something one must see to understand. If you have ever driven a car with HID headlights, or one of the new models with LED headlights you may understand but everything the headlights illuminate just seem easier to see.

This is all after only a short (maybe 30 km's) 20 minute ride. In the whole time, I had not one high beam flash, and not one person ahead of me was seen to be dimming their rear view mirror, and I paid close attention to this as with most vehicles without tinted window it is relatively easy to see someone adjust the mirror. I also paid close attention to the where the light beam was being cast on the vehicle directly ahead of me, and how far the headlights of the cars beside me cast their headlight beams. From fairly quick first impressions on the road, the amount of light being cast is fairly similar to a current body style BMW M3 hard top convertible, as I was riding beside one down the highway for a short period.

One thing I never mentioned in my original post is that the garage shots were done on different days, and the LED headlight photos were done with the bike about 2 feet further away from the door as I had to move the bike back to get to the power panel in the garage when a circuit breaker tripped. This would likely account for the main difference in the height of the cut off line. Apparently I had a few too many Christmas lights plugged into the outlet on the front of the house. Oops, my bad.

A lot of people in my home town of Kelowna are in the over 65 year range and most of the seniors are VERY quick to flash their high beams at you if they protest your bright lights. There are also a LOT of younger guys in town that work in the oil patch and drive highly lifted, newer model 4x4's, and with their headlights being an extra 10 inches higher off the ground, they are glaringly bright even in stock form as they are nearly eye level when you are driving. As a result, most people are used to flashing their lights at you if you accidentally leave your high beams on when you come of the rural side roads that are unlit and head in to town where there are street lights. There is a guy living in the apartment block just a half block from my house with a 2005 VFR who has converted to full HID's and he says he is ALWAYS getting flashed. He said if it wasn't for the fact that the factory harness is now all chopped up he would go back to stock headlights.

When my wife came outside with me to flick the switches on the headlights from Low to High for me she made an interesting comment. She turned on her headlights (no comment) and when I turned on the new headlights on my bike her comment was "Shit, my headlights SUCK. You were planning on doing the same to my bike, right?" Naturally my response was the same any happily married man would make, "Why, Yes dear!!" LOL. Seriously though, my wife, who normally does not pay a huge amount of attention to adding farkles to her bike was definitely on board with a headlight upgrade. Even with stock bulbs in the headlights (Sylvania Silverstar H4 bulbs in both bikes by the way) she commented that the headlights on her bike were not quite as bright as the stock headlights on my bike. This may in part be due to the fact that the 5th gen has a completely clear headlight lens whereas the 4th gen is not totally clear.

Am I happy with them, YES, I would have to say overjoyed at this point. Hopefully biking season this year is not far away and I can provide some more comparisons, but for now, I will have to wait till winter ends. I have ordered a second kit for my wife's bike (96 VFR) and plan to retrofit her headlights as well. When I finished I will definitely post up some before and after photos and I will be sure to be more careful about leaving the bike in the same position so that there is a more accurate depiction of the difference.

Hope everyone has a great New Year and all the best.

[Switchblade]

I think you definitely pick the right LED distributor ....