LED Headlight

Piranha Brother 2 said:
Aren't the Marchals pretty close to the fairing? I suppose if yours is too difficult you can always revert to the quartz globe.

I've made the adapter for one side. Hole saw, metal sheers, die grinder, angle grinder, files ... took me probably an hour and a half to make ONE!! I probably should have checked if the headlight in that small size was available for a std H4. Oh well, only have to make them once!
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I have the lamps attached to a bracket and then the bracket to the fairing, it gives me a bit of space to play with, I can make the bracket sit out a few more mm, or I can set the marchals off the bracket a few more mm, 6mm give or take wont make too much difference .I definitely dont want to run standard bulbs and kill the lithium battery.
 

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Why would running std globes compromise the battery? If you're running an alternator and a regulated current, it shouldn't make any diff? The lithium sellers don't specify anything about expected loads from what i can glean. Have I missed something important??!!
 
And it's only a little one too, 290cca. 5 years old, always starts the motor, sat on a shelf for 18 months while having some frame repairs and started the motor without having to recharge it.
The Motodd has 2x HID lights fitted but as I don't ride at night and don't use daytime lights I doubt they have had more than 10 hours of use since they were fitted. Think they are rated about 35watts each. Has 2 tail lights running standard twin filament bulbs and LED idiot lights and Red's 250watt alt upgrade.
Also have a Lithium in the BM using standard lighting H4 bulb. Brought both batteries at the same time. Same deal, rarely night time riding and no day time lights.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Why would running std globes compromise the battery?
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I suppose if the charging system goes tits up while riding at night, incandescent globes will drain the battery quicker than LED. Lithium batteries have high cranking amps but low storage capacity. They'll go flat a lot quicker than an AGM battery of similar size. They don't recover well from being flattened either.
 
So will a decent ND alternator produce enough power at idle (mine spins at 1.75 x crank RPM) to cover LED headlights drawing 1.6A each? That doesn't sound like a whole lotta load to me.

Anyways, today I finished the second adapter and fitted the globes and did a quick test on a battery. They look very bright! And low beam seems to have pretty good cutoff control - hard to tell, as I just had an off-white foamy plasticky sheet about 1m away. Couldn't take a pic as I was using two hands to hold the wires on the + and - of the battery!! Until I can wheel the bike out ands shine the lights at a wall 10m away, cutoff is hard to define.

Not a good pic, as it's black on black and a bit dark, but the std H4 measurement on my little lights front-of-glass to back-of-connector plug is 100mm and with the LEDs it's about 110mm. So adding 10mm of depth, but you have to take into account that the lead for the LED comes straight out and so a bit of leeway will needed to allow for a 90 deg bend. It's not a thick, stiff lead though.
 

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Took a while to work out what the hell I was looking at. Eventually figured it out.
It's always a bit of a pain in the arse trying to squeeze all that stuff in the fairing. Headlights, instruments, hydraulic brake lines, wiring, speedo and tacho cables, etc. It all has to fit in and allow room for the steering to swing each way. If you can get all that stuff to look neat, you've done well.

Looking forward to seeing it all together.
 
Hmmm, those pics are shitful - apart from being black on black the distortion does my head in - anyone know why they import like that?

The whole assembly is actually pretty tidy in real life, but I'm a bit peeved that the LEDs come with long leads to the black box and then more long leads to the three-prong connector - could have been about 5cm long and been adequate!

It only needs to go from the globe to the original wiring harness connector. Now i'll have to wrap it all up and tuck it in there somehow. I'd already fitted relays, even though it probably doesn't need them - at least they'll be there if the LEDs shit themselves in woop-woop and I have to fit spare H4Rs!
 
LJ-2 said:
Might help peeps, , note that red Led bulbs are needed for tail lights to show up.


http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/
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I ordered one of these from Paul a week or two ago, great service, it just arrived today, tidy looking unit
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
I'm a bit peeved that the LEDs come with long leads to the black box and then more long leads to the three-prong connector - could have been about 5cm long and been adequate!
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Better to be too long than too short. I presume you can cut them to the length you want.
 
Rather leave 'em. Moulded wires and core. I played around with fitment today and I can wrap then up around the top fairing section and cable tie the little black boxes to the fairing bracket. Pretty tidy and out of sight.

Started building the mini loom for the lights/relay. Pain in the arse not being able to go to my nearby auto elec man and buy some good crimpable connectors of varying shape and size. In lockdown you have to order online and wait for the text to say you can go a collect. I'm a man who doesn't like to wait!! Instant gratification when it comes to buying the little things i need.
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Rather leave 'em. Moulded wires and core. I played around with fitment today and I can wrap then up around the top fairing section and cable tie the little black boxes to the fairing bracket. Pretty tidy and out of sight.

Started building the mini loom for the lights/relay. Pain in the arse not being able to go to my nearby auto elec man and buy some good crimpable connectors of varying shape and size. In lockdown you have to order online and wait for the text to say you can go a collect. I'm a man who doesn't like to wait!! Instant gratification when it comes to buying the little things i need.
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Gotta love amazon !
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Is the implication that a white LED behind a red lens isn't red enough? And does the red LED actually make it brighter or just redder?
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You don"t see it ,dull light soaked up by the lens,, red one is certainly brighter!
 
Got much provision for aiming the headlights, not easy without the full load on the suspention and on its wheels. They can look close but be miles out and you then have issues with a tidy arrangement, just like I have and need to fix with some fairing mount cut and shut stuff.
 
So having started this thread, here's how it ended.  I bought LED side/pilot light and headlight bulbs/globes from Paul Goff in the UK.  They arrived pretty promptly and both are just plug and play.  The only issue is the heat sink which sits out the back of the headlamp protrudes into the nest of wiring that lives in the Jota 180mm shell.  So its quite a muck about to get it to fit, but it can be done.  The results are good.  I've attempted some photos which probably don't do justice but you get the idea - the first is the sidelight, the second full beam and the third full beam on the garage door.  The left is the LED fitted to the Jota, the right is the standard on a 1200TS. The iPhone attempts to compensate for light conditions so you are not seeing a true like for like - the LED is bright.  It is also very white, so if you kinda like that classic yellow-white glow of traditional lights it may injure your sensitivities.  For me the ease of acquisition, fitting and immediate improvement made it worthwhile. 

The website is http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/ - and Paul is pretty responsive and knowledgeable as far as I could tell.


 

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ngiles said:
I bought LED side/pilot light and headlight bulbs/globes from Paul Goff in the UK. The only issue is the heat sink which sits out [size=1em]the back of the headlamp protrudes into the nest of wiring that lives in the Jota 180mm shell.  So its quite a muck about to get it to fit, but it can be done.  The results are good.
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Which of the LEDs did you buy?
H4LED5K or H4LED4K?
 
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