12 volt LED

[sean]

looking for recommendations on LED bulbs installing a dvr2 with the 6v generator I have seen the Paul Goff ones ...seem pretty expensive with shipping to Canada anyone tried with success a different type  of bulb front and rear ?

thanks

[muskrat]

Ditto

[Bsareg]

Never dealt with Goff but I've heard his leds are pretty good. I've never found a p36d headlamp led that was any good except for letting others know you're there. I change the reflectors to accept an h4 led and found decent ones at around £20 from china. Check if they dip to the left or right and are suitable for motorcycles, some have heat sinks hanging out the rear and won't fit into the lucas shells.

[Rex]

Most/all of Goff's stuff is available on Ebay, and that saves dealing with his errrr... somewhat lacking customer care skills.

[groily]

I'd love to see real life experiences too. Seem to be so many choices  . . .

Have run with the discontinued older-style LEDs from Goff, which 'worked' but quite terrible beam patterns in the 2 cases I had (using a different reflector and glass on each to see if one was better than another. Wasn't.) And one 'filament' failed on both quite early.

Currently running 2 of the 12v latest version dual polarity ones from him, BPF fitment, and one older-style 6v BAP fitment. But it's very early days and it's not proper winter yet, so can't say anything yet about pitch dark riding. Meantime, I am running all lights on, all bikes, by day to see if they hang together before finding out the hard way at night if they don't. OK so far.  If not happy, will revert to well-proven 45/40W tungsten/ halogen in Cibié unit on my most-used daily rider. A mate runs a Commando with an H4 LED - but he's not big on riding at night so is unable to say anything useful - except that it hasn't failed in daytime use either, which is a good start.

The www is full of all sorts, BPF, H4, sealed beam units, LEDs with fans on the back, LEDs without, diodes set all round the probe thing, diodes on 2 sides only, polarity sensitive and not. Really easy to get tied in knots. None are exactly cheap either. Plenty of You Tubes out there too, some by folk selling their idea of what's best.

Don't know if the ones Dynamo Regulator Conversions sell are the same as Paul G's or not. Not sure what the various things on e-bay are - same, better, worse or what? Nor whether it's a classic Q of getting what you pay for.
Not sure how long any of them last.

So, if anyone has done a couple of winters or more of regular riding, been able to see by night at semi-reasonable road speeds in unlit areas  (and not had to replace them at the side of the road after a trouser-threatening blackout) be very interested to hear.

[fffcycles]

I have bought and used some from eBay and a lot of them were from China. The quality has, as to be expected, varied greatly with one set working out really well, and some others lasting a week or so then falling apart.  The price was worth the experiment but even when I went back to what I thought was the “good” supplier the second delivery from them was the worse of the lot. As they say buy from a trusted source!
Frank

[rocker21]

I have used the LED light from Dynamo Regulator Conversions , really good stuff, expensive, got one in my newish guzzi and it has been there 4 years, the 500 guzzi has also got one and that has been there for years as well, got one in my A7ss with a cibie H4 fitting and that is very good, all 12v systems. i do a fair bit of night riding and i need good light as i live in a small village with no street lights and narrow twisty roads to get there and being able to spot the deer before hitting them is a must!!!!

[Angus]

Stop and tails, I purchased a pack of 10 over 6 years ago from China 6v both pos and neg earth. They were cheap and I thought worth a punt. Still going strong as are the pilot lights.
Head lights. I have no personnel experience but one of out VMCC regulars has a Paul Goff one on his 3TA. He has had it for at least 2 years and many of our runs end up with a dark ride home. When he has followed me they are some of the brightest lights I have seen and he says that the beam is good too. I have seen similar looking on ebay but not taken the plunge yet.

[sean]

I have bought and used some from eBay and a lot of them were from China. The quality has, as to be expected, varied greatly with one set working out really well, and some others lasting a week or so then falling apart.  The price was worth the experiment but even when I went back to what I thought was the “good” supplier the second delivery from them was the worse of the lot. As they say buy from a trusted source!
Frank

In Canada we have to have lights on all the time...  so longevity is important, if a bulb blows and have to wait a few weeks for a spare from UK .
when I bought my truck I didnt want the ones with LEDs as they are around $1500.00 to replace.
 several people on line are using Cree bulbs off e bay with success ......but a truck and motorcycle beam pattern are different we need to be able to see where we are going .                                                                      on my Harley I found a triangulated light patter was the most visible safety wise ....I had the headlight on and two led spotlights on the crash bars  could see a long way at night , we have a lot of critters running across the roads at night and good lighting is a must for night time .....thanks for the replies

[jhg1958]

I bought my LED headlight from classic car LEDs. I fitted a 12V LED in my Triumph T100 headlamp shell with a squeeze, brilliant light great pattern I am very pleased. However, there is not enough room in the Golden Flash nacelle for one. I got a shallow H4 reflector and put a halogen bulb in. I am running an alternator rather than a dynamo.

John

[mikeb]

when i went thru this some years back i found leds differ immensely. in short, ebay ones were cr*p. those with fans on the back noisy and died when heat tested in a box (as per a headlamp shell). some obviously dip the wrong way (unless you are in a RHD country). there were even fewer 6v options. at that time i bought a few and settled on the latest gen (at the time) from Dynamo Regulator Conversions. I posted a thread comparing photos of the different bulbs but can't find it atm, and i'm sure newer bulbs are much better. Even then BPF fittings were a problem (so either change to H4 or tie-wire the bulb in at the right focal point).
My first port of call would be Dynamo Regulator Conversions as i believe they make / source the units for our peculiar requirements. Goffy may be the same but back then his weren't so good - at least he understands our bikes. but not cheap for a decent light and even then probably no match for a 60w halogen in terms of one's ability to see in the rain. having said that, still a worthy upgrade if running an E3L and a 35w incandescent.

[BSA_54A10]

I fitted the original Double Dipper with 2 x 3V Cree chips
Good for reading the newspaper at 12" from the lamp
Great for announing your presence on the road but useless at speeds over 20 mph
The original 24/24 gave a much stronger fuller light
Next was the 4 x 3V Cree globes 'Illuminates the very centre line of the road for miles but againnot strong enough beam spread to see things like pot hole 6' in front of me
Yet to be tried because I am still on bed rest is the 2 x 6V Cree forward facing LCDs behind a lense with a ring of low power LED's around the side for reflected light
I use the same style in my stop lamp and it works brilliantly as you can see the stop light from 800 metres behind with almost no blind spots to either side
The double dippers have a big heat sink that throws a lot of shadows on the reflector and they use the up facing LED's for the low beam and the lower facing LED's for High beam but that leaves a dark line across the beam left to right because of the heat sink.

We will see in the new year .     

[Bsareg]

These are the ones I've been using for the last 3 yrs, fitted about 10 to the bikes, not had one fail. Fair beam pattern and dip to the left. They are only for 12 volt H4 fitting. These are getting hard to get hold of as there are later models, I've only tried one of the later one but so far it seems fine.

[sean]

These are the ones I've been using for the last 3 yrs, fitted about 10 to the bikes, not had one fail. Fair beam pattern and dip to the left. They are only for 12 volt H4 fitting. These are getting hard to get hold of as there are later models, I've only tried one of the later one but so far it seems fine.

I am across the pond we drive on the other side of the road our lights dip up and down not left and right  looks good  though .

[Slymo]

I've found that whilst quite nice and bright LED bulbs don't work with regard to dipped beam and so are a Warrant of Fitness Failure (New Zealand). The reflector and lens need to be designed for the source that the light is emitted from. I've gone back to the dazzling 6V 30/25W bulb I've had all along and I just make sure I always have a spare in the tool kit.