Drunken ramblings about LEDs & HID's

It's funny. With all the advancements in LED technology, an LED flashlight with a couple AAA batteries will stomp a big-ass incandescent flashlight every time. But throw some LED bulbs in a reflective housing on a car or bike and...meh. I figured I'd try to upgrade the lighting on the VFR a bit with HID's and LED's. That stuff is just so cheap these days. So I spent $90 bucks including shipping with DDM tuning for an HID for the headlight, and LED's for all the others. I'm too damn tired to dick with the HID kit tonight, but figured the LED's would be easy peazy. Yes, yes, I know about how the reflectors in the housings were designed with a true 360* bulb in mind, but they do have LED's now with a pretty wide illumination range. But it seems that the lumens still just ain't there yet. The small top taillight bulb (#194) was pretty much a draw in my opinion as compared to the tiny incandescent. The large lower stop/tail bulb (#7443) was a LOSER compared to the incandescent! The tail portion was probably a draw, but the incandescent was the clear winner once you hit the brakes, so I pulled it back out. It was the only one of the bunch that wasn't a 360* LED, so I might have to shop around a bit more to see if I can find a better choice. The turn sigs were maybe *not quite* as bright as the originals (close) and yes, they do flash fast now, but I might give points to the attention getting qualities of the more rapid on/off cycling LED's. I'm too drunk right now to decide if the fast flash annoys me or not. They're easy enough to swap back if I decide so. I'll probably mess with the HID this weekend. Not sure yet how that's gonna go since I'm concerned about clearance inside the housing. I was definitely hoping for better results, but at least it wasn't a huge investment.

 

French to me my friend.......got a pic to bring me up to speed?

 

Have..,.....hope you have a small hands

 

Seriously? You need to get out more Bro. :biggrin: Alright, here ya go.

Regular incandescent bulb. This is the top taillight bulb for the VFR12. Shines light in all directions.



This is an LED replacement for the same. They call this one a "360 degree LED" because it has LEDs around the sides too, but LEDs are VERY directional, so you don't get a great spread of light, and definitely not even all around like a cheapo glass bulb.




This is a more typical LED. It only has a viewing angle of ~120 degrees, so you don't get to take advantage of the reflector behind the bulb, because the light isn't aimed at it. This one replaces the lower oem stop/taillight bulb on the 12er.



For the stoplight portion of it, it isn't nearly as bright as the plain old glass bulb (kinda important). I need to look for a 360* replacement to try out and see if it's an improvement. I didn't take out the turn sig bulbs for this photo op, cuz it's just too much work, and once again, I'm buzzed and tired. I'll get to the HID bit this weekend.

D Dave

 

Found this one on Fleabay; Car Xenon White 68 SMD SMT LED T20 992 7440 7443 Light | eBay Less than 4 bucks shipped (How the hell do they do that??) from Honk Kong. Probably take a few weeks to get, but I really liked this one because it has more LEDs around the sides than most of the others, which should help...theoretically. If not, it's 4 bucks.

 

Ho...lee...shit. It took more than small hands...it took the patience of a saint! Lord, that was a bitch! But now that it's in there, the light output is incredible. The high beam should be a piece of cake now, and I'm sure I'll go that route soon.

Here's the stock halogen bulb;



Here's the HID bulb. It's actually not really longer from the mounting flange to the tip than the stock bulb...it just looks it;



Of course, here's all the other crap it takes to make the HID work;



Fortunately, there are a couple of openings in the interior panels and some space behind the side fairing and above the ABS actuator;



Now that it's in there, all you can see of the installation is a couple connectors, and just barely. I could probably conceal them better with a little more time spent;



But like I said, the light output is amazing!



Now if it doesn't melt the housing, I'm all set! :wink:

 

Wacky Hondas. If you unplug the headlight with the key on, it will turn on the check engine light and store a code 34. That's a new one on me. At least the code clearing process is easy enough. I think I'm going to go ahead and order another HID for the high beam. I've got a different LED taillight bulb on the way, as well as a different flasher so the turn sigs will stop flashing fast. The LEDs are mediocre, but the HIDs rock! I love 'em!

 

where did you get your LED's from? I go to LED Lights, Bulbs & Accessories - SUPER BRIGHT LEDS and they have different sizes with more LED's... that brake light LED looked like it had maybe 5 freakin LED's on it... seriously? its that freakin small??? how much room you got for that bulb?

Miniature Wedge Base Bulbs - Super Bright LEDs

 

She looooooooook nice. The visibility is important
Glad you got hem install...hehehehe they are a bitch to work with. But it's so rewarding.

 

These will fix your blinker speed - 2 Motorcycle LED Turn Signal Resistors Flash Controller | eBay

I had the same thing happen when I installed LED's on the ducati I own.

I also went a more expensive LED option for the rear and they are definately brighter than stock..

Clear LED-Tail light with signals Honda VFR 800/RC46 | eBay

Obviously more expensive but they do look sweet. Very eye catching. I just have onrange globes in my front blinkers..

 

I think I'd rather go with the different flasher relay that I already have ordered, rather than cut and splice all four T/S wires.

Cool...but not available for the 1200.

A buddy of mine gets all his there too and swears by them. I may look at what they have before all is said and done, but first I'll see what I get with what I've already ordered. I'll tell you one thing though, after this latest venture with DDM Tuning, I don't think I'll be ordering from them again. It seems they've completely changed the way they do business...I liked it better the old way. Unimpressed this last time around with both products and service. Thanks for the tip though.