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LED retrofit to H4?

Hark

Hark

New member
Joined
Sep 26, 2018
Location
San Jose
Moto(s)
1999 Honda Shadow Aero 1100
Hello everyone,

I would like something brighter than my current halogen H4 bulb but I don’t think my wiring will handle any extra draw (the connector is actually even a little melted).

I’ve been looking at some LED options as I figured I could get more lumens and fewer watts. But what I see makes me worried that these LEDs get really hot. Many have fans and heat sinks. I don’t really want very hot air venting into my headlight bucket.

Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of bulbs?

Thanks!
 
The heat sink/fan sits outside the headlight bucket. Look for LED's with low/high beams in the correct location as the tungsten filament so your beam pattern will be as tight to oem design as possible. The cheaper LEDs don't position the light emitters correctly and you end up with a smeared pattern.
 
I did this upgrade to all my cars/scooter/motorcycles and am pleased with the increased lumens
 
check the clearance around the back of the bucket as well. i gave cycle gear's h4 retrofit a try, but one of the crossbars under the fairing interfered with the heat sink so i could never get the light aimed right.

oh, and fair warning that some people here have pretty strong opinions about dropping LED "bulbs" into a halogen bucket (or not). i'll leave it to you to judge the basis of their position.
 
I bought these LED conversion lights for my H7 headlights. They are great. So much brighter. Plus they don't seem to run very hot at all. They're in small headlight buckets with little airflow, but the heatsink and fan seem to do a good job of dissipating the heat.
 
I put a well regarded LED conversion in my 03 WR450 because of limited power available (it would drain the battery if I ran a 55/60 H4).

The beam is horrible.
 
Obligatory post. Please don't. Get a proper halogen bulb.

"brighter light" doesn't mean better visibility. You'll have hot and cool spots, and worse overall visibility.

Worse of all, you'll be scattering light so badly you'll blind and piss off every other driver and rider on the road. I guarantee this.

PEOPLE, PLEASE STOP PUTTING HIDS AND LEDS IN HALOGEN HOUSINGS.
 
The first path to brighter output is cleaning the lenses. It's on the front of the bike, and gets sunshine, bugs, dirt, dust, and generally gets less clear over time.

Clean it. Polish it. Get rid of any clouding. It will look great.
 
Don't put an LED or HID bulb in a reflector designed for halogen. Yes, it'll produce more light but not where you need it and the extra light projected out too close in front of you will cause your pupils to contract more, effectively making it even harder to see out into the dark. Bad idea.

You mentioned some evidence of wire/connector overheating. One things motorcycle manufacturers are very poor at doing is providing wiring and connectors of sufficient capacity, especially for the headlights which draw a lot of current. It's not uncommon to see unacceptable voltage drops at the headlight.

The cure is simple. Either find an aftermarket wiring harness or make one up yourself. And you don't need to touch your existing wiring. In simplified form:

Attach an inline fuse to the positive terminal of the battery. Then run 12 gauge wire from there up to the headlight area. From there the wire connects to a relay (a horn relay works just fine). From the relay, more 12 gauge wire to a new connector that will plug onto your headlight bulb. Then a good ground (also 12 gauge) running from the connector to a good ground point on the frame. The original connector that used to connect to the bulb is now used to trigger the relay. Matching connectors are available so you don't have to cut, remove, modify any of your stock wiring.

With the above change, riders are usually amazed at the extra light created. Stunned even. This is the route you should take.

There are some companies that make the aftermarket lighting harnesses. Does anyone know of any particular ones? I forget.
 
I'm riding so bright I gotta were shades after I replaced my PIAA 60/55 watt
Xenon gas Super White bulbs that glow in the 4200 Kelin range with Speed
Metal's 25 watt Cree LED H4 with a working high and low beam...

$69 each at Cycle Gear...
http://www.cyclegear.com/SPEEDMETAL-LED-Conversion-Kit

CreeLED%203_zpsflhnbp2f.jpg

CreeLED%202_zpstxlepmgs.jpg

CreeLED%201_zpsab6tf64x.jpg


kelvinchart.gif
 
ST Guy said:
Don't put an LED or HID bulb in a reflector designed for halogen.
Click to expand...

I find reflector problems are true for HID due to the extra length of the bulb but I see no problems with the LED because the bulb is the same length as the halogen... also LED draw half of Halogens so you don't have harness overheating problems...
 
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Busy Little Shop said:
I find that is true for HID due to the extra length of bulb but not true for the same length LED... also LED draw half of Halogens so you don't have overheating problems...
Click to expand...

Sorry, you're wrong.

LED and HIDs are both built to be used ONLY in projector housings. Halogen housings are to be used with halogen bulbs ONLY. This is because Halogens put out a very different light source than LEDs and HIDS. Not all light sources are created equal! Putting an LED or HID in there creates bright spots and cool spots, as well as scattering the light like crazy, notably blinding the crap out of everyone else on the road.

Here's an image showing how halogen bulbs put out light, vs LED and HID:

filamentarc.jpg


http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

Good read, if you want to go more in depth.

Here's a good snippet, though, for those that are lazy:

The most dangerous part of the attempt to "retrofit" Xenon headlamps is that sometimes you get a deceptive and illusory "improvement" in the performance of the headlamp. The performance of the headlamp is perceived to be "better" because of the much higher level of foreground lighting (on the road immediately in front of the car). However, the beam patterns produced by this kind of "conversion" virtually always give less distance light, and often an alarming lack of light where there's meant to be a relative maximum in light intensity. The result is the illusion that you can see better than you actually can, and that's not safe.
Click to expand...


In other words, if you put HIDS or LEDs in halogen housings, not only do you have worse visibility but you're pissing off other drivers and riders, AND it's illegal!
 
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OK - thanks everyone. I have a follow-up question then. I am questioning whether I have Halogen or HID. My headlight lense is clear. You can clearly see the bulb from the outside. I am 100% sure that the bulb type is H4 though.

I don’t really have a problem with how well I can see at night since I have a light bar. I have the main headlight and an additional highway light on either side of it. I just want to draw less power while not sacrificing visibility.
 
295566 said:
Sorry, you're wrong.
Click to expand...

Out on the highway late at night...

inky blackness is stealing your sight...

you got halogen head lights and they ain't bright...

your motorcycling by pale moon light...

[youtube]Q4f0eSmOn4g[/youtube]
 
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Busy Little Shop said:
Out on the highway late at night...

inky blackness is stealing your sight...

you got halogen head lights and they ain't bright...

your motorcycling by pale moon light...

[youtube]Q4f0eSmOn4g[/youtube]
Click to expand...

the still on that youtube video shows exactly the problem. lots of light up front, not as much in the distance. note how much closer the "end" of the halogen beam gets to the sign in the distance and how crazy bright the berms on the side of the road are.

the vertical cutoff is also nonexistent on the LED conversion, the tops of the weeds don't need to be lit up and that's certainly going to throw a bunch of light into oncoming drivers eyes
 
auntiebling said:
the still on that youtube video shows exactly the problem. lots of light up front, not as much in the distance. note how much closer the "end" of the halogen beam gets to the sign in the distance and how crazy bright the berms on the side of the road are.

the vertical cutoff is also nonexistent on the LED conversion, the tops of the weeds don't need to be lit up and that's certainly going to throw a bunch of light into oncoming drivers eyes
Click to expand...

Thats funny...plowed road. LED.
Un plowed halogen...
 
auntiebling said:
the still on that youtube video shows exactly the problem.
Click to expand...

You're right about the still but if you listen to the narrative the real problem is
the way the camera portrays the light... and he tried 3 different cameras to
capture what his eyes were actually seeing...
 
Hark said:
OK - thanks everyone. I have a follow-up question then. I am questioning whether I have Halogen or HID. My headlight lense is clear. You can clearly see the bulb from the outside. I am 100% sure that the bulb type is H4 though.
Click to expand...

if it's an actual h4 bulb, it's halogen. HID is a different, more of a suspended capsule. fairly sure you should NOT be able to see the "bulb" in any legit HID setup, but there are varying levels of retrofit kits, some that will adapt a HID capsule into a halogen bucket.

HID:
880-pg13-hid-bulb-1.jpg


H4 bulb:
3100271_A.jpg
 
Ok yep it’s halogen. But my headlight lens is clear. I just have funky angles on the reflective part behind the bulb that spread the light around.

Would that work well with LED?
 
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