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LED H7 bulbs?? Has anyone tried this?


RedMac

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Since this topic could cross multiple platforms (hexhead, camhead, etc), I'm posting it here. Not long after I got my '06 RT I replaced all the headlight bulbs with HID's (If I recall, I used 5K temperature for the low beams and 6K for the high). I removed the speakers to have room to mount the ballasts since I always wear a earplugs, helmetset and have the output of the radio hardwired out to I could tap into it.

 

I'be been very happy with these and even at night no one "flashes" me when I have just the low beams on.

 

Never had an issue with the HID's until this summer. The left bulb will intermittently fail to fire up. (about 1 out of 4 times it will fail) and if I restart the bike, it will always fire up. Thinking about replacing at least the low beams with LED's since the technology has come a *very* long way since 2007 when I installed the HID lights.

 

Has anyone done this yet? How is the light output? Beam pattern? I have holes in the back of my light plates that the wires run out to the ballasts, but I bought a spare set of plates in case I wanted to go back to stock. I've been looking at the H7 LED lights and have seen both lights with external controllers??? and not. Not sure the integrated ones would fit due to the size of the heat sink behind the bulb.

 

These however looked interesting...

 

H7 Bulb 1

 

Looks to have multiple emitters maybe better beam pattern

 

H7 Bulb 2

 

Single emitter.. hmm..

 

The other plus is the HID's are 35 watts each, so the LED's should be even less power consumption.

 

I don't trust any of the Amazon reviews for these, since it seems almost every reviewer has received them for "free or a discounted price for my fair and unbiased review" :rofl:

 

Anyone? :)

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So you had use of your HID's for 8 or 9 years. I think that is great! Even regular filament bulbs don't last that long. I would suggest you get a new set,

or even two, from the same manufacturer, and replace both Lo beams. Is not necessarily that the bulb is going out, most likely is the ballast. Try

them out, and you will have one or two ballasts and/or bulbs as spares. As for Hi beam, HID are not suitable, since you are not able to use the flasher,

for when whatever reason you need to. There a LED is great. Just my opinion.

I didn't try any of the ones you mention, but am using a WeissLicht Illustro Max for Hi.

 

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Danny caddyshack Noonan

You might want to keep what you have since:

You don't seem to have any issues with high Freq noise injection and,

You don't know that you won't have any issues with high Freq noise injection with LEDs.

 

Having fought, unsuccessfully, that battle on aux lights and HID I just thought I'd share that thought. I hope that isn't bad sentence structure....or do I?

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Actually about 1/2 the time I get the bulb warning when the bulb fails to start. It *always* comes up the second time I start, to it's not really an issue yet. Just thought I examine the current state of tech (LED vs HID).

 

For 38 bucks I may just try the LED's.. Not much more expensive then a set of decent bulbs.

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The problem with LED's in a bike is cooling. That isn't a problem with the HID's. I would LOVE to have an LED light that worked as good as the one I tried recently.....for the first few minutes. Then it got hot and kept rolling back output to save itself. By the time I was back to the garage it was very low output.

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Agreed, which was why this one ( H7 LED Bulb ) looked interesting. It uses a mesh wick for a heatsink and if you look at the 6th picture down you'll see how it would fit.

 

That being said, I wonder how it would handle 100 degree heat out in Utah during the day...Since the headlight is in an enclosure. I"ll have to pull mine apart and have a look and see how much room is back there...

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I looked at that type LED also. The one I tried had the heat sink built into the bulb base. Many circular fins. Probably nearly as much area as the ones with the braided heat sinks. Got too hot to touch quickly, so without air movement I don't know how you could get either to work. But, there is room for the braided heat sink to be put in behind the headlight housing. I do wonder if one of the bulbs with the built in fan might work, but you would have even more clearance issues with those I suspect.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi RedMac,

 

I just ordered H3 and H7 LED conversion kits from XenonHIDs.com. I went with the heatsink + fan version, relying on the website telling me this will fit my 2004 R1150RT. Once I got them and took the halogen bulbs out, I could not figure out any way the LED high beam bulb would fit into the housing. After doing more research and reading a bunch of threads, I have decided to return these. I am leaning towards changing the low beam to HID, but am still on the fence. The bulbs with the braided copper heat sink do seem promising; one version I saw is "clockable" to adjust the light distribution to the best match for your headlight housing:

http://www.xenondepot.com/H7-Xtreme-LED-Motorcycle-kit-p/xt-led-h7-mc.htm

They also claim that their braided copper heat sink runs half as hot as a solid heat sink. Currently, they are pre-order and they are pricey. If they work and last for tens of thousands of hours, they might be worth it.

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