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headlight question

3K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  1 MEAN66 
#1 ·
I looked at the XCT headlight bulbs, they are H11. There is no H11 high beam and H11 low beam. Is the difference in the reflector surface within the headlight housing? Would it hurt to put Silverstars in both high and low beam housings? Looking for a brighter headlight. I've had HID on a prior bike, it's super bright but the light is scattered badly. Individual LED bulbs are fine but some lack brightness. The headlight clusters are expensive and some are good and some are not. I don't want to roll the dice.
 
#2 ·
Yes, the H11 high and low beam use the same bulbs with different reflectors in the housing. Yes, you can use Silverstars. They are known to burn out faster than run-of-the-mill H11's.

I watched this video:



and then I bought a Victory OEM LED headlight. It is definitely brighter than run-of-the-mill H11's and it has a decent dispersion pattern. I also run a pair of always-on driving lights to brighten up the sides of the road and to give me the three-light pattern to make me more visible during the day.
 
#4 ·
I lost the low beam bulb in CA on a crappy road. I just replaced both (high and low) with a set of H11 sylvania's for $23 from Wally-world. Since I have done it once, I now know what's needed tool-wise and can buy these just about anywhere when traveling.
 
#6 ·
Well I was going to start a thread but this is a good spot. First some back ground: there are a bunch of articles on the VOG net site about aux. lighting. These all have to do with add on lighting not up grade bulb replacements. My choice for that on my bike ( 14 Cross Country 8 ball) was made and sold by Clearwater Lights ( I got the Darla's). If you do a bit or research you will find people comparing lights by color, watts, and lumens. Color is color, watts describes power consumption ( or how hard your charging system will work), but what most of us call "brightness" is Lumens. My Darla's are 2000 plus Lumens each, they are down low at calipers ( not in anyone's eyes and only a 8 degree beam).
What I have tried in place of stock headlamp bulbs is just about every H11 replacement halogen. They all draw to much current for what they produce and most have a yellowish color. The best all around I found are sold at NAPA, Hella Optilux Extreme White XB. Plug and play. they are a bit "brighter" but VERY WHITE in color so the reflective power is great, but they actually only light up a bit more road maybe 100-150 yards or so total. So today I just added another of the LED style, LED's are even now replacing HID's! Take a look at Cyclops Adventure Sports, I just installed their H11 LED conversion bulb , it's 4800 lumens( $65) pretty simple to install also. 4800 lumens by the way is up in the Wholly chit area of "brightness". I put it in the high beam location NOT the low. With the Darla driving lights I can actually light up 1/8 mile of road and the reflective power is good to 1/2 mile plus. We irritate the cage people enough. So because they are 18.5 inches off the ground and parallel to it, it's not in on coming operators eyes. With the new cyclops light I can use that when I want to light up almost as far as I can see. I do not think you could "out run" the lights. Truly AMAZING. The nice thing about the add on Darla's is the triangle pattern they make, which gets you noticed. And because all are LED"S the total current draw with all the lights on is less than the stock base lighting. They also have a dimmer switch in the harness so you can adjust as you want. I wired mine so that they were on if I wanted them on but not always on. That is described somewhere else on the VOG site.
 
#7 ·
I agree with the triangle pattern and keeping them low. But there are two points I'd like to make. First, lower current draw means the R/R has excess current which converts to heat because it's not needed anywhere and could actually make the R/R get pretty toasty. Not sure if that would reduce the lifespan of the R/R and it won't affect the bike negatively generally speaking but it could fail sooner than it would have under stock load conditions. Just saying it's not always the better to have less current draw than the stock system is designed for. 2nd, LED "replacement" lamps are bright, yes... but most LED lights spread differently and more often than not they don't provide light in the right way. So, while the light is bright, the reflector assembly wasn't designed for LEDs and therefore is less efficient at beam spread and focus than if it was designed for LEDs. Even when the lamp is designed well, is bright and light is emitted a proper angles, not all reflectors are created equal. I see LEDs in car and motorcycle headlights all the time that weren't designed for them and it just becomes glaringly obnoxious and can even blind oncoming vehicles. This can become a distraction and a danger as well. I'd be curious to see the light pattern at 25' or so with your setup and even better to see a side-by-side comparison with HID and/or standard. It would be nice to know that there are other good options if your setup works. Also, just to clarify, you only changed the high-beam to this 4800L LED? Did you also change out your low-beam to LED or leave that stock?
My main goal when riding is to be seen and to be able to see. Everything else comes after.

Definitely put up some photos.
 
#9 ·
I agree with the triangle pattern and keeping them low. But there are two points I'd like to make. First, lower current draw means the R/R has excess current which converts to heat because it's not needed anywhere and could actually make the R/R get pretty toasty. Not sure if that would reduce the lifespan of the R/R and it won't affect the bike negatively generally speaking but it could fail sooner than it would have under stock load conditions. Just saying it's not always the better to have less current draw than the stock system is designed for. 2nd, LED "replacement" lamps are bright, yes... but most LED lights spread differently and more often than not they don't provide light in the right way. So, while the light is bright, the reflector assembly wasn't designed for LEDs and therefore is less efficient at beam spread and focus than if it was designed for LEDs. Even when the lamp is designed well, is bright and light is emitted a proper angles, not all reflectors are created equal. I see LEDs in car and motorcycle headlights all the time that weren't designed for them and it just becomes glaringly obnoxious and can even blind oncoming vehicles. This can become a distraction and a danger as well. I'd be curious to see the light pattern at 25' or so with your setup and even better to see a side-by-side comparison with HID and/or standard. It would be nice to know that there are other good options if your setup works. Also, just to clarify, you only changed the high-beam to this 4800L LED? Did you also change out your low-beam to LED or leave that stock?
My main goal when riding is to be seen and to be able to see. Everything else comes after.

Definitely put up some photos.
Have pictures ( video ) in my GoPro but have to figure out hot to get them out of it so that then can be posted. Plus being an "old fart" I talk in words not letters. Have no idea what R/R stands for?
 
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