Leaderboard

So, after seeing a few recommendations for superbrightleds.com, I decided to give them a shot at replacing my sucky 7443 dual-intensity incandescent taillight bulbs. The OEM replacements aren't hard to find, but lately the Sylvania version has been burning out on me nearly weekly. I find that more annoying than expensive, but still, I have better things to do than pop my seat off and change bulbs. After the last bulb burned out, I decided to nip this crap in the bud and look at LED options. Superbrightleds.com has several that will fit our 7443 wedge-base socket, but I decided to go with the biggest and baddest, at about $25 each: These are red 45-LED SMT devices that put light out in pretty much all directions. Remember to use the same color as your lens (trying to be clever and shine a white LED through a red LED means you get washed-out, pink brake lights.) Superbrightleds shipped fast and I have no complaints whatsoever. I tried installing the bulbs yesterday, but found that the fact that the LED unit is about 1/4" longer and not rounded like the glass bulb creates problems with the bottom socket. I futzed with it for about 10 minutes and just could not get it in, so I figured I would have to at least loosen the rear cowl to make some room. I ended up doing the cowlectomy this evening and it takes all of 10 minutes in itself. It's really 8 bolts in two hex sizes. No big deal. I got both LEDs installed and to my eye, they are every bit as bright as the OEM bulbs. More importantly, they are dramatically faster in their illumination; so much so that it is undoubtedly safer to some degree. Overall, I'm happy with the setup and the service I got. If I don't have to jack with these for a few years, I'll be real, real pleased. Here's a quick vid; LED on top, half-spent incandescent on bottom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCEh24EGdo

There is noway in hell that shock bent like that in shipping, at a guess it has been mistreated or off a crashed bike.