[Dalmatian man]

I have  tried  a few different led bulbs and been disappointed with all of them, have now fitted a 7 inch  complete led light unit and I am very impressed , good spread of light and excellent beam coverage.
Have two spotlights fitted which really improve things still further.
Spotlights make very good DRL's as well.

[Bert Remington]

Dalmatian man -- nice setup.  However I wanted to go with the traditional H4 bulb look.  Yeah I know the LED "DRL" fog light below the headlight ain't traditional but I think I tucked it in fairly tightly.

Your pilot light colors are SO SO boring.  Get some better colors at SBL.

[Superchuck]

This is good stuff!  Can't wait for somebody to try that new LED H4 bulb.

Tonight I think I'm going to mess around with my bulb placement again... will try and move it back as far as I can, hopefully improving the beam. 

Will report back with photos.

That sealed LED beam is a good idea too.

[Subbu-500]

I have been running a 7" Sealed Beam LED Reflector unit on my B5 for a couple of months now and am pretty pleased by the performance. At 35w, it is not super bright but does a decent job of illuminating the road ahead with a wide spread too. The throw from High beam is not the best as it goes just a bit further but i can live with that.

I know it looks out of place on a retro looking B5, but i really needed an upgrade from the stock headlight. Let me know how you guys like/hate it ...

[Dalmatian man]

I don't believe  it's a love or hate over the looks of a led headlamp on a retro bike.
With todays traffic conditions to see and be seen must override riding around with a  headlamp  that was more suitable for 50 years ago.
A happy new year to everyone.

[Superchuck]

Howdy folks, and happy new year to you!

Last night I finally made those changes to my headlight that I previously alluded to.  I used a piece of dense closed-cell foam to bring the bulb a little further back (closer to the OEM design position).  It's squishy, so when it abuts the speedo cable it can still push forward a bit.  Good news!  This fixes my 'split headlight beam' scatter issue.  It's now very focused.  Perhaps too focused, but we'll get to that in a bit.
















That's the Hi-Beam above.  Seems like it'll work, but unfortunately I didn't get to ride with it.


And the low beam... still has some split-beam scatter.

So I did that all last night in preparation of today's morning commute.  First day back to work after the break, and I was a bit groggier than normal.  Kicked it, fired up first kick, but was a bit slogging.  Blipped the throttle, and the damn thing was in gear!  My bike and my body lurched forward, and took a spill on the concrete beside my parking pad.  Dang.  That smarts.  No worries, and the bike has kissed the ground before, so no sweat right?  Get up, dust myself off, and I notice that my glass/plastic headlight lens has shattered.  Damn.  I decide that discretion is the better part of valor, and if I'm too groggy to start my bike, I have no business riding to work today.  Go back inside, drink a cup of coffee, and take the cage to work. 

So although I think I most likely solved my LED light issue, now I'm at an impass because I need to replace my headlight lens.  The ring is a bit dinged up (third time it itself has kissed earth at slow speed), but only this last time did the lens break.  So since I have to replace it anyway, i think I'm going to try and find one of those extended headlight rings.  This was fun, trying to invent a new solution, but sometimes simpler is better. 

Cheers,
Chuck

[Dalmatian man]

Sorry to hear about your mishap  with the bike, still no to much damage done. Was going to offer you my now redundant headlamp, but on checking your in the US,while I am in the UK.
Still think you will struggle to get a good beam pattern with the led bulbs in a reflector that is designed  for incandescent bulbs. But it's fun to keep trying.Good luck and best wishes.

[Superchuck]

Thanks very much, and yeah, no sweat, just another step in the ongoing process of

'break something, fix it, figure out how to make it better, break something else and do it all again'

Thats the fun of it right?

Anyway, I am torn between going to a sealed beam LED headlight, or trying out the Wipac Quadoptic H4 (with Right-Hand-Drive).  Which sealed beam LED's do you use and/or recommend?

There's a stateside Mini distrbutor who sells the Wipac Quadoptic, but it's in a two pack (still only $55 plus shipping so I may go that route).

I like the idea of an H4 so that I can carry a spare bulb on long trips (or easily buy a replacement at any auto shop), but in theory with a sealed beam LED you'll never need to replace it (unless you smash your lens like I did).  (PS: I'm talking with a welder buddy of mine to try and make a protective 'crash rim' along the top edge of my outer headlight rim)

The quest continues.
Chuck

[Dalmatian man]

I  just picked a cheap projector led headlamp from eBay to test against the led bulbs I had been using,  it  gives a better light and beam pattern than the original  headlamp.
I also have two 10 watt spotlamps mounted on the indictator rubber mounts, wired to give me drl's and extra light on main beam if required.

[Superchuck]

Thanks very much! I'll report back with whichever route I decide to go.

Chuck

[Superchuck]

So I was all set to pick up a Wipac quadoptic h4 housing, but all the retailers are in the UK, and they had to ship through a third party to do international.  The website was fairly cumbersome so I decided to see what other options there were stateside.

Decided to go with this sealed beam led, free 2 day shipping from Amazon prime.  At high beam this puts out 3600 lumens and only takes 30 watts at that output.  It means I won't be able to bring a spare bulb on long trips, but in theory this led should last forever so shouldn't be a worry.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0788HXV8P/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I checked into the projector headlights, of which there are plenty, but they seem to draw as much power as a stock halogen (but output way way way more light).  My goal was to decrease the draw of my headlight so I could add my auxiliary flood light clusters for aimable visibility (point them at the ground to the sides of me while highway commuting, point them out ahead while on dark backroads.

Will post back with my results.

[Dalmatian man]

Looks like good choice, post some photos once fitted.
Tony

[Paris]

Hi All,

Thank you for the valuable suggestions. I learnt that all these LED Projector Headlights available in India are made in China and i am not really comfortable with that as they are most probably fake  ..So i am looking at getting them from Amazon.com. I have attached a pic of the one i liked and would greatly appreciate if i can know:
a) Is this a direct fit on the RE B5 2014 (India)?
b) It is rated at 60 w for High Beam. So can i assume it will not strain the battery?

\

I replaced the halogen bulb and reflector with a 7" sealed LED unit from Amazon, very similar to the one you posted.  It works fine, it puts out plenty of light, and the wattage is no strain on the system. The only problem is that the beam is way too high, and I cannot figure out how to lower it.  I don't see any obvious way to adjust the height of the beam on the 7" headlight replacement housing.

[Adrian II]

You should be able to adjust the inner headlamp rim.

A.

[Arizoni]

When I installed a 7" Lucas headlight on my 2011 G5 it ended up pointing too low.
I managed to fix it by elongating the lower two screw holes in the rear chrome rim that attaches directly to the main body to allow me to move the lower area of the rim forward.  That resulted in the light pointing higher.

While that worked for me, I don't know what can be easily done to raise the light beam with this headlight setup.
While the lower part of the rim is located with the two screws, the  upper part is hooked together so there's not much chance of changing it.

To move the upper area of the rings forward would require making a new "strap clamp" that was longer than the existing one.  The strap clamp (as I called it) on mine is the metal strip that the top screw, screws into.  It has a slightly hooked end on it that catches on the upper part of the rear headlight chrome ring.

I guess these problems are the reason DOT insisted that the headlight on the US models must be made with that stupid adjustable headlight the motorcycles come with.