Led Headlight Install - 5Th Gen

[Switchblade]

Nice job vfrcapn. Had to get your $15, now he jacked the price to make it up! :D

Oh well, I suspect he just lost a handful of buyers from here. I was seriously thinking about one, and probably another if I liked it.

Damit I was hoping to install LED's and fork brace. Brighter and better handling ...

[zoomzoom]

I found it interesting and odd at the last 24 Hours of LeMan the Audi's had massive and massively bright LED headlight arrays that the commentators said had their own cooling fans. I thought that was one the benefits of LEDs, not heating up like incandescent bulbs. Maybe they meant for the electronics? I'm certainly no expert. All I know is the last time I rode my VFR at night on an unlighted road my headlights were pointed so far down as to be near useless.

Zoomzoom, did you notice and higher readings on your voltmeter while riding with the LEDs? (I thought your earlier post said you had one installed?) that's my main interest in this, lower power draw. Or do the fans negate that?

No increase in voltage according to the voltmeter, but the R/R is designed to regulate the output voltage so there really shouldn't be any extra voltage showing. What I was doing with the test in the garage was to see how long it took for the battery to lose voltage with as much current draw as the bike can generate on its own from the standard equipment. (Ie the headlights on high beam and all running lights turned on). It too a long time to draw the battery down 0.6 V which compared with accidentally draining the battery dead in a half hour when the stock halogen bulbs were installed. The LED headlights only drained the battery to 75% capacity in that time and when I tried to start the bike after she fired right up. Thus my conclusion was that the LED's do indeed draw less current. The little fans on the bike are like computer PC fans and they draw almost no current, something 7 milliamperes or about the same as the LCD voltmeter, and I remember reading a post a while ago about someone who wired in their voltmeter direct to the battery and left it on all the time and it made little if any difference to his battery charge even after a week of sitting. The cooling fans are supposed to be there as a heat sink, though as I noted in my battery load test, even after running for a half hour in the garage they were only barely warmer to the touch than when I started the test.

[zoomzoom]

There were a number of other sellers on eBay that showed similar kits for the H4 lights, and some were less than what I paid, but most were shipped from Hong Kong or China and the shipping offset the lower cost. As I mentioned in an an earlier post their is the guys at VLEDS in the US that have a kit that looks nearly identical and though before it was more expensive, it is now $60 cheaper. Have a look at this company if you're still interested.

http://www.vleds.com/bulb/h4-cxa-2000lm.html

[KevCarver]

I was just curious about the voltage because I've test ridden my bike without remembering to plug in the headlight(s) after some minor work and wondered why the voltage was higher than normal.

I'm not one to leave my key on with the engine off, but I know some that do... _coughMiniCarvercough...

I wish I had caught the $75 sale! Got a bunch of other stuff to pay for first, that's why I was waiting...

[zoomzoom]

I was doing some work to my bike when I accidentally left the lights on. That would be one issue with having your 6 year old helping you with stuff. Their attention span is smaller and they move on from one thing t.o another. I was moving the bike around in the garage as I was having at intermittent horn failure issue (turned out to be a bad connection in behind the fairing) and I had left the key on to test the horn. My son asked me to pull his pedal bike out of the garage to show me how well he could ride, then my daughter wanted her bike, my wife called me for something and I completely forgot the bike was on until I came back out about a half hour later and wondered why the lights were on, then I clued in DOH, "What a dumb ass, I forgot to turn off the key."

Note to Self. Beware the six year old offering assistance, he is a great help, but he can be distracting at times. Gotta love him though as he IS a great little helper. Not to mention an "Always Willing" biking partner. :)

[JETS]

I was interested in this topic also, and in looking around, see that the DOT specs for an H4/9003/HB2 bulb is 1580 lumens. It seems that the visible light power output of the LED you installed is the same as a stock H4, but with a very narrow color wavelength, making the apparent brightness better, which is what you were after in the first place.

There are offerings of higher power LED's I saw, up to 3200 lumens (lumens being the power, or wattage, of visible light emitted), if you want more light.

The wattage consumed by the device to emit that much light is lots less for LED's than filaments of any kind, yet if you go up in light power, you will need more current, but still significantly less than halogen filament bulbs as are stock. LED's are about 15% efficient, meaning 85% of power applied is lost as heat (therefore the heat sink and fan, to prevent overheat damage to the LED).

Standard halogens emit 5% of power applied as light, and get quite hot, but it doesn't hurt them.

There is an issue of reflector design and the size of the light "point" of an LED, and how that point aims and spreads through the parabolic reflector of a stock lens. The LED light emitter is much large than the precise filament of an H4, and will bounce more stray rays outside the reflector and lens envelope's design.

Only by installing and observing for yourself can you judge scatter and glare. One would have to set up a bike with a rider posed at normal riding position and go away far enough to see what other drivers see facing you. Ideally, by sitting in a car as though meeting you on the road.

I would be interested in how you perceive the oncoming cage driver's view. Thank you for making a nice post of the install and for all the trouble you went to in making it available on this forum.

[zoomzoom]

I thank you for your interest in the topic JETS and I certainly value all points of view and opinions. As I mentioned in an earlier post I did notice a vast improvement in lighting quality. As you mention this is MY perception and I certainly hope to not offend drivers coming toward me, though as posted earlier when I did my first test ride, I received no high beam flashes from oncoming drivers. This does not necessarily mean that I did not offend anyone, merely that I received no apparent distaste. Hopefully this will remain.

When I started down the road of this particular mod, I weighed many pros and cons with regard to my decision between HID's (with projectors and I would not go this route without them) and my eventual choice of the LED's. As you mentioned the LED's are more efficient at producing light than incandescent style bulbs and they do produce heat which can cause failure of the electronics. Honestly I was expecting that the bulb after a half hour of running on high (max current) beams would have produced much more heat given that the only airflow was provided by the cooling fans. The fans really don't feel as though they could move a lot of air. Another benefit I think for the LED is that they are more resistant to damage caused by vibration. I have owned a number of vehicles over the years that have used H4, H7 and H11 style bulbs, and all seemed to fail long before their projected lifespans. My cars (Mazda's) all seemed to go through the bulbs like wart for some reason and the service department at the dealership mentioned that they had received a number of complaints about bulb life (or indeed lack thereof) and mainly with the fog light bulb which was mounted to the front bumper. Hopefully the LED will last far longer as not only are they supposed to have a longer life, but they are more resistant to vibration and let's face it, bikes do vibrate, and likely a bit more than a car in this case.

The LED does have a more directional light beam than a traditional halogen but this may help somewhat with the effect of scatter. The reflector is most certainly designed for use with a halogen bulb and I in no way disagree that the reflector is not designed for use with the LED in mind but I think the decreased light intensity to the sides of the diode vs. a standard halogen which emits a consistent amount of light all around the filament, may help serve to limit the overall intensity of the light emitted side to side. When looking at the design of the reflector inside the 5th gen housing I have noticed that the actual reflector disappears behind a black plastic trim piece on both top and bottom of the reflector and I think this is part helps contribute to the cutoff of the beam. Is it as sharp as the standard halogen bulb, perhaps not, but it is fairly close. I have looked at the beam spread of an aftermarket HID conversion and the excess bleed off the reflector to all sides is far greater than that of the LED. I have stood in front of the bike and placed myself at the height I would normally sit at in my car and the headlights are brighter but not glaringly so. In truth I needed to sit down to the point where my eye was nearly level with the bulb before it became to bright if you will.

All in all, I think the mod will prove useful and helpful. If there is an issue and I receive a great deal of negative feed back then I will re-evaluate it at that time. For now though I believe it to be a good addition and since the majority of my riding will be during the daytime, a little extra light to help people notice I am there, can not really be a bad thing. In my opinion of course.

[Skids]

May I suggest that you get a friend to ride the bike towards you, at night, whilst you sit in your car. As long as your mate is of a similar weight to you, there should be little/ no difference. That way, you can make a personal judgement on the amount of overspill. Whilst yr at it, you could ask them to accelerate from standstill towards you to see if that's worse than standard.

Of course, you would need a similar, stock bike to compare against.

Just a thought.

HNY everyone.

[KevCarver]

Yesterday I contacted the ebay seller that zoomzoom and vfrcapn bought from and asked why the price went up so dramatically. I also mentioned that they likely lost several sales on the forum due to the increase. I got a reply that basically said that they were low on stock and would go back to the original price when they had bought more stock.

So there ya go, if you're interested in buying from that seller just wait a bit and keep your eyes on them. If not, there are a couple other options. One already posted here, and some others on ebay with (claimed) USA mailing addresses.

[V4 Rosso]

The LED light emitter is much large than the precise filament of an H4

Say what?

This is what I once found when replacing halogen bulbs.The one on the left exceeds H4 dimension tolerances by quite a margin.

[Veefer800Canuck]

Whoah, the QC guy was asleep at the switch.

[apexandy]

May I suggest that you get a friend to ride the bike towards you, at night, whilst you sit in your car. As long as your mate is of a similar weight to you, there should be little/ no difference. That way, you can make a personal judgement on the amount of overspill. Whilst yr at it, you could ask them to accelerate from standstill towards you to see if that's worse than standard.

Okay… I'll do it. Not my fault if the front wheel happens to leave the pavement

[Switchblade]

And it also angled ... The one on the left .

[Skids]

That would definitely be blinding!

[zoomzoom]

Yesterday I contacted the ebay seller that zoomzoom and vfrcapn bought from and asked why the price went up so dramatically. I also mentioned that they likely lost several sales on the forum due to the increase. I got a reply that basically said that they were low on stock and would go back to the original price when they had bought more stock.

So there ya go, if you're interested in buying from that seller just wait a bit and keep your eyes on them. If not, there are a couple other options. One already posted here, and some others on ebay with (claimed) USA mailing addresses.

I contacted the eBay seller yesterday as well and basically got the same reply. He mentioned that in order to keep the listing spot they increased the price until the inventory issue was solved. I also tried to get them to give VFRD and VFRW forum members a discount on the old purchase price. I have yet to receive a reply to that particular email and I will post up with a response should I receive one.

May I suggest that you get a friend to ride the bike towards you, at night, whilst you sit in your car. As long as your mate is of a similar weight to you, there should be little/ no difference. That way, you can make a personal judgement on the amount of overspill. Whilst yr at it, you could ask them to accelerate from standstill towards you to see if that's worse than standard.

Okay… I'll do it. Not my fault if the front wheel happens to leave the pavement

Okay, okay, if you really wanna ride my bike that bad Apex you are certainly welcome. Of course does this mean I get to try yours????? OOOOOOOOOOOhhhhhh, pretty please, with sugar on it and everything. LOL

[BonusVFR]

Great thread as I have looked at light mods for my VFR as well. Thanks ZZ!

A couple of years ago I was climbing in the dark the incredible grade going west out of Borrego Springs on a Winter Ride (San Diego Winter haha). After we stopped at the top a couple of other riders were talking about the dead deer in the road. What ..............I never saw it. I immediately bought some higher wattage H4 bulbs but never installed them as I was waiting for one of my OEMs to fail and frankly was a touch worried about overloading my electrical system.

Thereafter I took my Wing (4 H7s with huge reflectors plus driving lights) when riding at night to include some winter commuting. This lighting proved invaluable on several long winter tours, especially when pushing late in the day for big miles in the saddle.

ZZ's thread started me seriously thinking again about upgrading my 5th gen lighting.

I went to an old favorite electrics/lighting website.............and lo and behold they have LED upgrade kits for both the VFR (generic) and Wing plus their LED setups for add-on driving lights. I have had very good luck with these folks before and run several different lighting products and gage kits from them.

http://www.electricalconnection.com/category_breakdown_led_hl.htm

Thanks again .....these guys along with several other vendors already listed gives us more options to upgrade.

[zoomzoom]

Thanks for the reply BonusVFR. Sweet looking Wing by the way. I think if I had the choice to ride in cooler weather I would always take the wing, if for any other reason than it has more wind protection so at least you would stay warmer. Thanks for posting up the link to yet another supplier. The more the merrier. I have noticed that the supplier on eBay that I used has recently increased his price by a huge margin. After sending him an email asking about the huge increase he replied saying that the price will go back down again once he sorts out an inventory issue.

I have received a private message from another site member here that did an install on a 4th gen and his comments were very positive. If he doesn't wish to post his comments I have asked his permission to post up his findings but I will have to wait before doing so.

One thing to mention would be that another member doing an install on his 5th gen noticed that when he went to install one of the bulbs he noticed that the retainer ring on the bulb that positions the bulb in the housing was mounted incorrectly. The bulb was thus turned 180 degrees and this would cause the incorrect LED to light up when the low beams are engaged once installed. The diode on the LED bulbs that is closest to the end of the bulb (furthest from the cooling fan) should be facing up once installed (and should be centered on the large positioning tab) so that when you have the low beams engaged the bulb should reflect off the upper part of the reflector. The retainer ring is attached to the bulb with small screws and can be turned around apparently but you may need to drill a couple small holes as the screw holes are offset from the center line of bulb.

[wera803]

I have noticed that the supplier on eBay that I used has recently increased his price by a huge margin. After sending him an email asking about the huge increase he replied saying that the price will go back down again once he sorts out an inventory issue.

They are back down to $79.95 today. Just FYI. :-)

[Switchblade]

[vfrcapn]

Well, got out for a short ride in town and I'm happy with the performance of these. Instant on, high beams too. The low beams are a noticeable improvement over stock but the high beams seem to be an enormous increase, pleasantly surprised at how much light they put out. The rear on my bike is raised and the front lowered pretty significantly, I've been putting off adjusting the headlight aim for a long time, that would definitely help the low beams throw a little more light out away from the bike.

The issue with the incorrect bulb only took a few minutes to fix with a drill bit, the correct LED lit up, it was just point down instead of up.

Overall a very good deal for the price at $80, thanks ZZ!

[zoomzoom]

The other member that I had mentioned performed the install on his 4th gen has given me permission to post his findings and comments. Here are the results from his installation and what his opinions of the LED headlights. Below is his first set of comments.

Hi, I had purchased that same light system about the time you first posted your write-up, which was very informative.
I finally got around to installing it and have commuted a few days to work.
So far I'm impressed by the amount of light and the added brightness. I'm sure it is more "annoying" or brighter to oncoming cars, but not blindingly like most aftermarket HID kits.
With there being almost no moon now I'm hoping to get a few darker rides up into the hill areas around my home to really see the difference the LEDs make. I usually try not to ride at night if at all possible, but as it's dark when I leave for work and then dark by 6pm it's not really possible.
Thanks for your timely writeup and I'll keep you informed on how I like the system on my 4th gen vfr.
I do need to adjust the lights, as I really haven't messed with the headlight alignment much. Also as I had the entire from cowling/fairing off it seems to be sitting slightly lower than before.

After reading the above message I had a couple of questions regarding the comment on brightness and glare and this was his response.

I might not have stated what I meant correctly. I don't think the added brightness is annoying to oncoming traffic at all. NO one has flashed me and when I was behind cars I never saw anyone flip their rear view mirrors. So I doubt it's "too bright" or there is a lot of stray light blinding others.

My headlight and top fairing seems to be slightly downward from where it was. I did see the alignment posts and got them lined up. I'll have a look to see if the grommets are still in there though. Thanks for the tips.

As for where I placed the ballasts, I just stuck them onto the sides of the light housing, much like you did. I looked at the areas available and I liked it. But I should have trial fit them again after I had decided I wanted them there because I put them too far back and they almost interfere with other things on the bike in that area. I may move them onto the "back" of the fairing, near the lights. The wires will still reach the stock connector and the fan and led.

I'm not one to take step by step pictures and properly document my progress. But I will take some pictures of the on the road light. But as you probably know pictures really don't show the difference in light output.

I really like how the reflective distance is considerably longer and I can see much further ahead and things show up much quicker. The light pattern is definitely different, I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but it definitely casts more light in front of you.

It would appear that this member was also happy with the results from installing the LED kit on his 4th gen so it is good to know that the mod can also be helpful on the 4th gen bikes as well. If anyone else has any comments after doing an install, please post them up. The more information and opinions we can gather the better we can gauge the benefits of the upgrade.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and comments and let's keep the information coming.

[wagzhp]

Well, got out for a short ride in town and I'm happy with the performance of these. Instant on, high beams too. The low beams are a noticeable improvement over stock but the high beams seem to be an enormous increase, pleasantly surprised at how much light they put out. The rear on my bike is raised and the front lowered pretty significantly, I've been putting off adjusting the headlight aim for a long time, that would definitely help the low beams throw a little more light out away from the bike.

 

The issue with the incorrect bulb only took a few minutes to fix with a drill bit, the correct LED lit up, it was just point down instead of up.

Overall a very good deal for the price at $80, thanks ZZ! 

Does this mean your lights are brighter than mine now? We need to get together for another ride soon.

[vfrcapn]

Well, got out for a short ride in town and I'm happy with the performance of these. Instant on, high beams too. The low beams are a noticeable improvement over stock but the high beams seem to be an enormous increase, pleasantly surprised at how much light they put out. The rear on my bike is raised and the front lowered pretty significantly, I've been putting off adjusting the headlight aim for a long time, that would definitely help the low beams throw a little more light out away from the bike.

The issue with the incorrect bulb only took a few minutes to fix with a drill bit, the correct LED lit up, it was just point down instead of up.

Overall a very good deal for the price at $80, thanks ZZ!

Does this mean your lights are brighter than mine now? We need to get together for another ride soon.

Based on our last ride, I hope so. I thought I was using candle power compared to yours.

Record warm temps, let's go ride!

[Skids]

As I do most of my winter commute in the dark, I am very interested in this thread for my 5th Gen (H4 bulbs).

I'd rather not have to pay international shipping to the UK from the linked US suppliers, nor run the risk of additional customs import charges but how do I tell if the ones on sale over here are direct replacements for halogen, with the LED emitters in the correct places?

[AndyB]

I am curious why you folks have decided to go with LED lights to increase output instead of adding additional lights? Are you looking to lower electrical load? Keep stock look? Bling factor?