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Cyclops LED


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It's your bike and your money.

 

Keep in mind that you are fitting a light that is not designed for the housing and not DOT approved.  In the event that you are in an accident, your insurance company has the right to deny coverage and leave you liable for all the damages.  If another driver is involved, you are also leaving yourself wide open to a lawsuit whether the lights are directly responsible for the accident or not.

 

There are other technical reasons not to do this, but I won't bother explaining as most people will ignore them and believe the placebo effect anyway.

 

Plus, you will be one of those assholes that blinds everyone else at night.

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I've used the Cyclops.  Didn't like it.

 

Problem is that LED "bulbs" are flat.  The LED is mounted on two sides of a flat panel (imagine a ruler with two LED's on both sides).  So the light comes out ONLY on two sides.  The traditional halogen light bulbs emit light in all directions.  The reflector on all halogen lights are designed to reflect a 360 degree direction just like the halogen light bulbs it was designed for.

 

If you retrofit an LED that uses a flat panel onto a reflector designed to reflect light in a 360 degree direction,  you will only get 50% of available light.  The result is that you will have large shadows on the sides that the LED flat panel does not illuminate.  Take a look at a factory LED headlight and you will notice the LED faces forward.  Now look at the Cyclops light and you will see it faces left and right (or up and down).  

 

In a nutshell, you will get better results using an HID bulb at a much lower Kelvin brightness (around 4,000 Kelvin or less) than you would an LED panel replacement "bulb".  Or you could just replace your H4 bulbs with brighter H4 bulbs.  It will work better than the LED.

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2 hours ago, Rogue_Biker said:

I've used the Cyclops.  Didn't like it.

 

Problem is that LED "bulbs" are flat.  The LED is mounted on two sides of a flat panel (imagine a ruler with two LED's on both sides).  So the light comes out ONLY on two sides.  The traditional halogen light bulbs emit light in all directions.  The reflector on all halogen lights are designed to reflect a 360 degree direction just like the halogen light bulbs it was designed for.

 

If you retrofit an LED that uses a flat panel onto a reflector designed to reflect light in a 360 degree direction,  you will only get 50% of available light.  The result is that you will have large shadows on the sides that the LED flat panel does not illuminate.  Take a look at a factory LED headlight and you will notice the LED faces forward.  Now look at the Cyclops light and you will see it faces left and right (or up and down).  

 

In a nutshell, you will get better results using an HID bulb at a much lower Kelvin brightness (around 4,000 Kelvin or less) than you would an LED panel replacement "bulb".  Or you could just replace your H4 bulbs with brighter H4 bulbs.  It will work better than the LED.

Thanks.  While I understand the other comment. For those of us who have reached an age where our night vision is not as good as it was, additional light is useful. I will probably look at supplemental lights such as those made by Denali.  I was thinking that they could mount in the widest part of the front fairing opening to keep them low, but adding to available light.

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Thanks.  While I understand the other comment. For those of us who have reached an age where our night vision is not as good as it was, additional light is useful. I will probably look at supplemental lights such as those made by Denali.  I was thinking that they could mount in the widest part of the front fairing opening to keep them low, but adding to available light.

I use Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs for both low and high beam as well as Denali auxiliary spotlights attached to the mirror mounts to supplement. It works very well.

 

I have considered the Cyclops bulbs but I am not convinced that LED drop-ins will match the beam pattern of normal halogens in the stock housing. They may be brighter but I really care more about the 'quality' of the light.

 

Also, I don't really want the big, bulky fans and coolers as well as the extra electronics taking up space.

 

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I'm an LED convert, and have swapped out the H4 halogens for LED's on all my bikes (VFR800, VTR1000, ST1100 and a Vespa). Safe to say I have no issue with the pattern on any of those, and really like the extra light created. 

 

I don't quite understand the comments about the effect of the emitters being positioned either side of a central plane; they are, but that means they throw light out practically in a 360 degree sphere, with just a darker spot directly ahead. Directly ahead is also where you will find the low beam cut-off shroud so that makes no difference, as most of the light thrown by the reflector comes off the sides anyway.

 

Out of interest this is the LED beam pattern on my Vespa which comes standard with a 55/60 H4 halogen, showing low beam and high beam. Works the same in my bikes. 

IMG_4889.thumb.jpg.a9ec96cb28ca91f79546724652faf509.jpg

 

IMG_4890.jpg.e13a5654fd3b28bd2f8249d15fb71ea5.jpg

The bulbs I am using are cheapies off eBay, usually $30 or less for a pair, like this:

 

s-l1600.jpg

 

These are fanless and have given me no grief in more than 2 years of use. They use much less power than a halogen (25W vs 55 or 60) so generate less heat. The only disadvantage with these is that you can install them upside down (DAMHIK) so do make sure to orient them as shown with the low beam shield down.

 

 

 

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Terry, roughly how much many miles would you guess you've put on those LED bulbs? You mentioned 2 years but that could mean 5000 miles or 50,000

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9 hours ago, Terry said:

Over 30000km on the ST1100, and about 15000km on the VFR and VTR combined.

 

Speaks well for the longevity! I'm very curious about them now!

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On 11/20/2018 at 8:38 PM, Terry said:

I'm an LED convert, and have swapped out the H4 halogens for LED's on all my bikes (VFR800, VTR1000, ST1100 and a Vespa). Safe to say I have no issue with the pattern on any of those, and really like the extra light created. 

 

I don't quite understand the comments about the effect of the emitters being positioned either side of a central plane; they are, but that means they throw light out practically in a 360 degree sphere, with just a darker spot directly ahead. Directly ahead is also where you will find the low beam cut-off shroud so that makes no difference, as most of the light thrown by the reflector comes off the sides anyway.

 

Out of interest this is the LED beam pattern on my Vespa which comes standard with a 55/60 H4 halogen, showing low beam and high beam. Works the same in my bikes. 

IMG_4889.thumb.jpg.a9ec96cb28ca91f79546724652faf509.jpg

 

IMG_4890.jpg.e13a5654fd3b28bd2f8249d15fb71ea5.jpg

The bulbs I am using are cheapies off eBay, usually $30 or less for a pair, like this:

 

s-l1600.jpg

 

These are fanless and have given me no grief in more than 2 years of use. They use much less power than a halogen (25W vs 55 or 60) so generate less heat. The only disadvantage with these is that you can install them upside down (DAMHIK) so do make sure to orient them as shown with the low beam shield down.

 

Terry, where are these from?

 

3

 

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On 11/21/2018 at 1:38 AM, Terry said:

Out of interest this is the LED beam pattern on my Vespa which comes standard with a 55/60 H4 halogen, showing low beam and high beam. Works the same in my bikes. 

IMG_4889.thumb.jpg.a9ec96cb28ca91f79546724652faf509.jpg

 

IMG_4890.jpg.e13a5654fd3b28bd2f8249d15fb71ea5.jpg

The bulbs I am using are cheapies off eBay, usually $30 or less for a pair, like this:

 

s-l1600.jpg

 

 

On 11/26/2018 at 2:34 AM, thtanner said:

FQjhwwL.jpg

 

Looking at both light patterns they seem quite concentrated to me, more like a laser than the “glow” effect of incandescent bulbs. Outside of the main light there is very little glow. 

 

As a biker visibility is important to me and a glow can be seen from all angles whereas laser can only really be seen if you’re lined up correctly - straight ahead.   

 

Have you ever had a bike with LEDS in your rear view mirror? Sometimes it feels like they’re flashing the high beams on-and-off blinding you repeatedly. That’s the effect of coming in-and-our of their laser beam. Blinding, distracting and infuriating. This doesn’t happen with more diffused incandescent light. 

 

It’s even worse with oncoming traffic coming over the brow of a hill. Looks like you’re being flashed with high beams for a moment, blasting your retina with a blindingly bright light just as you need to pass inches from each other at high speed on a dark country lane. 

 

If you’re both doing 70, that’s a combined speed of 140mph. It is NOT safe to do this, day-after-day, year-after-year, with one (or both) roaduser blind! 

 

Even OEM fitted LEDs are awful: think modern Range Rover on a dark country lane. Retrofitted are even worse when coupled with the wrong diffuser. 

 

It’s just another example of the human urge for “more” in the arms race for vision. You don’t need a sledgehammer to crack a walnut - that is too much and just crushes the walnut. Equally, you don’t need a searchlight to see at night - that is too much and causes blindness. 

 

Gentle diffused light is where we should all be. When it’s dark just slow down a bit, give yourself more room and remember there are other people on the road who are also struggling to see. 

 

Rant over...

 

Stray

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1 hour ago, Stray said:

Have you ever had a bike with LEDS in your rear view mirror?


Yes, for over 2 hours in the dark. This bike followed me to a car/bike show with the LED lights I posted. Rider reports best visibility ever, and I had no issues with them being too high, bouncing, that sort of stuff.

I feel the OEM LEDs on the 2014 are amazing.

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25 minutes ago, thtanner said:


Yes, for over 2 hours in the dark. This bike followed me to a car/bike show with the LED lights I posted. Rider reports best visibility ever, and I had no issues with them being too high, bouncing, that sort of stuff.

I feel the OEM LEDs on the 2014 are amazing.

Fair enough. Perhaps the Cyclops is better and worth looking into. What’s it like when coming towards you over the brow of a hill? 

 

If you compare your photo with those posted by Terry you can see a stark difference in side/diffused light. In yours I can clearly see garage walls, whereas Terry’s garage walls are pitch black! 

 

The concentration in Terry’s light creates a strong laser effect. My night-driving eye adjusts to the dark by opening the pupil really wide and then a white-hot beam sears it so the pupil shrinks instantly. 

 

A split-second later the laser beam has passed but I’m now blind because the pupil is so small. 

 

Diffused light allows the pupil to exand-and-contract gradually as it gets brighter-and-dimmer. In comparison LED lights are like on/off switches and the eye has no time to adjust. 

 

So blinded by the bright light: then subsequently blinded by the dark. 

 

There is a limit to the amount of light a human retina can handle. I struggle to “see” why we need lights that violate those limits. 

 

Stray

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Looking for words of wisdom what works. Want upgrade to LED 6000 k headlights an not loose headlight modulation on my gen4 1997 Honda vfr that I've upgraded to use h4 bulbs many years ago.  I don't ride at night anymore so night vision is not a issue.  I know space will be a issue behind headlight mounts an in fairing.

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