I want LED headlight too. Promises of 1/3 power consumption, near-infinite 'bulb'-life and loads of light sounds almost too good to be true.
And it is. Too good to be true.
I know. Simply because I've tried one of these 'miraculous' light-machines.
Bottom line: Useless.
Read on for more gritty details, but don't under any circumstance go and buy one of these things (calendar says spring 2015 - maybe things will improve as time passes).
Here's what I've learned.
eBay offers several different motorcycle headlight kits, all containing a device designed to more or less closely mimic the function of a standard H4 bulb. So, I went over the various ads and finally ordered one that looked 'right' (more on this in a later post). This set me back some 18£, and delivery - from China - took the usual month or so. Having picked up the parcel at the post office, this was what I got:
The bulb comes with different adaptor brackets, so I chose the H4 variant
and put it in my utterly standard OE headlight housing. I'm aware there are different housings in use, so here's a picture for reference:
Despite the protruding cooling-fin/fan (yes - there's a small fan inside the radiator!) assembly everything came together fine without anything pinching.
This is what the back plate has to say about light output:
Next was actually testing this for truth value.
And sure there was light. Oodles of it. Loads and loads of the whitest light I've seen in a long time. Absolutely, positively, blinding amounts of whiter-than-halogen light!
So I went for a test ride.
It very quickly became apparent that something was not right. Yes, there was light allright, but it was everywhere - not just a dipped beam as is required not to blind oncoming traffic. The headlight now poured oodles of light everywhere, effectively lighting up the entire scenery in front of the bike. Road signs lit up like christmas trees as far as I could see, which would be a nice thing if only it didn't light up the inside of cars in front of me too.
To record the LED lighting pattern, I found a brick wall and made these two photos:
Dipped beam:
High beam:
Next, I went straight home and replaced the LED assembly with the original Osram Nightbreaker bulb. And returned to the brick wall to do this reference:
Dipped beam:
High beam:
The difference in light distribution pattern is clearly visible, showing the LED device to be incapable of directing light output to go only where desired.
Test failed. Simple as that.
The mechanics of light bulbs and reflectors is key to understanding why this device fails to perform. Current LED light devices simply cannot provide a light source small enough to replace traditional filament based bulbs. I'll try to explain a bit further in another post for those interested, but for now, you can walk away with the knowledge that LED 'upgrade'-bulbs in traditional reflector lamps, designed for Halogen H4 simply doesn't work!