LED taillight bulbs

V

Vince

Hero member
I have one dead tail light on another bike and a mate was telling me my Laverda brake light isn't that bright.So I was thinking about trying LED bulbs,the car accessory shop has them at $30 for a pair of bulbs with 13 LEDs and $35 for a pair of bulbs with 18 LEDs,anyone tried them,how bright are they compared to normal filament bulbs.Be good to have a real bright brake light,anything that stops being run over is a good thing,not so keen on wasting cash though.
 
I've had one at the back of my SF2 for maybe 3 years or 15 000 km now. Not very bright but filament bulbs would keep blowing.
Mine was maybe ? 10.
Paul
 
I don't think there as bright as regular new bulbs, but they sure last longer

try these guys - those prices you got are $$$!

http://www.superbrightleds.com
 
Vince, I have had LED bulbs on all my bikes for about 4 years now. Whenever a bulb blows I replace it with LEDs, mostly from superbrightleds.com but sometimes I just buy cheap ones from China on eBay. They do continue to evolve, 4 years ago they weren't all that that bright but now they are, and they seem to be holding up extremely well. They just don't stop working. I've replaced my instrument bulbs and now I can see my Laverda neutral light in full Florida sunshine, plus getting better nighttime illumination of the instruments. I've actually used several different taillight bulbs but the bike and scooter ones I'm using now (I put them in my cars as well) are great, very bright and bombproof.
The only down side is you can't use LED bulbs in Laverda indicators, they won't work because they are diodes. Drikko says he knows a circuit you can install that will make them work but I still haven't seen it  :(

Ken
 
You mean this one?

E4p7gwh.jpg

 
be careful when you buy on ebay. normal globe replacements are usually not very bright, but there are all sorts of things you can get which do the job nicely - i was quite surprised at how good these are, they are tail and brake and as they are white they do the no. plate, too:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/2x-Ruckleuchte-Rund-Rucklicht-Bremsleuchte-Bremslicht-LED-KFZ-Auto-Weis-/171072481767?pt=DE_Autoteile&hash=item27d4b6e9e7

what i did for my triumph, which blew it's tailights every week, was fit an led light from i don't know what (cos the seller didn't either) which cost me a whole 6? something inc. post. i just gutted the original light an fitted the new one with silicone - perfect!
 
It was fitting a bridge rectifier to my LED flasher install that sorted all the probs that I incurred. Thanks to Bevelman for that very useful piece of information regarding the use of a bridge rectifier. :D
 
OK I'll bite, if you want to use a bridge rectifier, get any one, they will be either round, square or inline......they are simply 4 diodes in a package. If you are using a filament bulb in the dash then get one capable of 1 amp or more, if it's LED then a tiny one say less than 200mA is fine.

Here's a typical inline one:-

ts


A square one which is FAR bigger than you need but will work just fine:-

main_2005.jpg


You will see in the top one 2 pins labelled AC, connect each one of these to the left and right indicator circuits, doesn't matter which way around, the dash indicator then goes from the + (plus) terminal then to ground as per the picture above. The - (-ve) terminal doesn't need to be connected to anything and if it's in the way cut it off flush.

The AC symbol on some of them may be two ~ symbols, same thing connect these two ~ terminals to the left and right indicators, doesn't matter which way around.

There you go, you've all just passed Bridge Rectifers 101......smart people now y'all are....



 
I ordered a couple of LED stop/tail bulbs off EBay..........Chinese tack........shite............dimmer than a lit fag end........failed the MOT............cost me quid for a proper bulb.  :(
 
I took the plunge,stupid me.Before looking I bought 2 off set pin LEDs,the bloke in the shop said he had never seen parallel pin ones.I head home and attempt to fit them.So I find the off set pin fits the Laverda fine and works well.The Pantah does not,I find a smoky big parallel pin bulb.Back I head to the shop.The bloke looks at the parallel pin and says its not a dual brake and tail light bulb and there must be another bulb in the case.I disagree but head home to look,yep,under the big smoked and still working brake light there is a smaller blown tail light bulb.So back to the shop I go.Thats 3 trips in all.Better get some new glasses I think.So used to expecting dual filaments,dont think I have seen 2 bulbs in a taillight before on a bike
 
I remember reading on another forum somewhere that tail/brake LEDs should be red and not white lights. Supposed to be brighter like that, something about absorption.
 
then you'll have to build in a light for the number plate. the round lights i bought very cheaply off e-bay are quite bright and replace a dual-filament globe - 'brighter' (brighter than what) isn't necessary, 'bright enough' is
 
So here it is 6 weeks later,yesterday I noticed that when I applied the brake my left instrument light came on.Kinda weird,so after a fiddle I discovered that with the taillight lit I could barely see any difference when I applied the brake,both seemed to be lit at the same time.Mmm,seems I have either a back feed or earth issue.But before digging into the wiring I bought a std dual filament brake and tail light bulb to try.That fixed it,my $35 a pair,you cannot buy them separately ultra modern supposedly much brighter LED tail and brake light  has an internal FAIL after 6 weeks.So much for that experiment.
 
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