Anyone seen a LED headlamp bulb in action?

[tigersaw]

I am thinking of heated grips, but with just a little trail bike I'll need to save a few amps somewhere for them.
Since I only use my headlamp really as a position / warning lamp, not to see by, I was wondering about changing the hungry H4 headlamp bulb for a LED one.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-Car-68-LED...item2a08d743b7
I know it wont be MOT legal, I know I wont be able to see in the dark with it, but if its a nice bright light it'll do the job for me.
Anyone seen one in use?

[DarrenSV650S]

I haven't seen a headlight one, but the indoor GU10 LED spotlights don't really compare to the halogen ones, if that's anything to go by.

If you're only using the bike in daylight, I'd just turn the lights off

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by DarrenSV650S

If you're only using the bike in daylight, I'd just turn the lights off

I've always liked to have the lights on, even before the EU nannys took the light switches away to make us keep them on.

[the_lone_wolf]

LED's could be fantastic, I have a torch that you could slide into a smarties tube that throws more light than my car headlamps. But it's all about the reflector too, a good bulb in a poor reflector will be cack

If it were me and for dyalight use with visibility a priority, I'd ditch the headlamp bulb and wire up a pair of something like these - bung the bulb back in for the MOT and you're done...

I've put a 12V LED parking light in the lens wired always on and a light switch on the bars for the halogen. It is an easy mod to get the bulb holder for the parking light into a polycarbonate reflector if the bike doesn't have one. An LED in the main lens is far more effective than those tiny add-ons.
If it is for daylight safety purposes then it is hard to get past a modulated headlight, or in the case of an LED put it on a circuit that flashes it at 3-6Hz (like a bicycle light). There are a few circuit diagrams floating around on the net if you want to give it a go.

Strictly speaking, these mods are probably not legal, but with the right attitude and an explanation that you are attempting to increase your presence on the road it would be a mongrel cop that wrote you up for it.

What makes them an MOT fail? If the beam pattern is ok then surely they are a pass. If the beam pattern is wrong then I wouldn't want to use it.

[Bluepete]

Originally Posted by MattCollins

If it is for daylight safety purposes then it is hard to get past a modulated headlight, or in the case of an LED put it on a circuit that flashes it at 3-6Hz (like a bicycle light)

Like this lot;

http://www.bikevis.com/motorcycle-le...odulators.html

Pete

Like that except illuminating the main lens... Far more effective than a couple of small point sources and more likely to get away with turning the main light off if the always on rule applies.