LED`s

Fitted 2 of these leds with heat sinks and managed to fit on the BMW light covers (just) first time out the dipped beam failed within 10 mins, turned the bike off and whipped the cover off, started bike and all ok for 50 miles ride, my question is .... do these leds just cut out when too hot? I need to make up or find some rubber covers after looking at a past thread.

When you say 'these' do you mean the leds i have i link for earlier in this post? - post #15

If that's a yes, then I'm unsure how you'd ever got the oem covers back on?!

But to answer you other question, yes, the heat sinks very definitely need to be exposed to the air. It's the gap between the led and the lamp casing you need to seal, which can prove a tad tricky. Tricky to find a suitable grommet.





Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
 
They look good! At that price you can't go wrong.

You'll definitely need to have those cooling fins exposed. So yes, that grommet is now the thing to sort out.

I did search an while back for these and I did find some good contenders. But because I didn't need them so I didn't go any further. I'm sure if you search you'll find something, even it if need a minor mod.



Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
 
There is no way my LEDs will accept the headlamp bulb access covers - they stick out too far at the back. But with the mildly trimmed heat sinks there has never been a problem. In use, both feel stone cold even the dipped beam.

To keep the headlamp clean, I cut the back off a pair of bulb covers and used the bayonet rim to trap a thin rubber gasket** around the bulb stem. I've not found a rubber cover that will fit as there is no rim around the access hole to attach it to.

Rubber from marigold gloves worked but soon split. Acrylic gloves were fine.
 
They look better than anything I could find. But the access hole has a bayonet fitting with lumps and hollows so don't expect a tight seal. There's also the issue that the reflector has to move without tilting the bulb. If the LED bulb stem is held in place by the grommet, the light focus will change when the reflector is adjusted. And there's a risk of breaking the beam adjustment mechanism.

Going by the lack of heat on my dipped beam heat sink I suspect that a fan cooled bulb even under a domed cover would be ok. With circulating air the headlamp case becomes the heat sink. Just be sure to not block the fan vents.
 
I tried the rubber grommets on the back of my LED'S,

Absoloutly useless, they disintigrated within seconds -

the heatsinks on the back of my units near on fill the appature in any case so i left them as is.

Corrosion only occurs if you get water in there -

given that there at the back of a relativly dry area and have adequate ventilation, the reflectors and lenses still look clear.

Be aware the crap asymetric beam pattern from halogens is just as bad with LED's and the plastic adjuster nuts,

Will! strip at the first oppertunity ... there is a fix i devised on here if you do manage to do that.

Likewise if you pop the vertical adjuster off its gymbal, it can be popped back on ;)

I set my beam initially with halogen, and then checked it with the LED fitted - not a million miles off .... but

your so high in the air, you have to take the vertical throw almost to the bottom of its travel ,

and even then you may have to mask the beam, which somewhat limits the purpose in the firstplace

Of giving a good throw up the road .


Why they didnt fit a projector lamp to start with !
 
I tried the rubber grommets on the back of my LED'S,

Absoloutly useless, they disintigrated within seconds -

the heatsinks on the back of my units near on fill the appature in any case so i left them as is.

Corrosion only occurs if you get water in there -

given that there at the back of a relativly dry area and have adequate ventilation, the reflectors and lenses still look clear.

Be aware the crap asymetric beam pattern from halogens is just as bad with LED's and the plastic adjuster nuts,

Will! strip at the first oppertunity ... there is a fix i devised on here if you do manage to do that.

Likewise if you pop the vertical adjuster off its gymbal, it can be popped back on ;)

I set my beam initially with halogen, and then checked it with the LED fitted - not a million miles off .... but

your so high in the air, you have to take the vertical throw almost to the bottom of its travel ,

and even then you may have to mask the beam, which somewhat limits the purpose in the firstplace

Of giving a good throw up the road .


Why they didnt fit a projector lamp to start with !

Like this?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-R120...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
 
I've been looking at these for a while (but from AliExpress) umming and aahing... I'm very tempted, but I feel I need to see one fitted. It's a lot of money to discover is no good!

Anyone got one on their bike? Some real life feedback would be invaluable.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
 
Mine is set on absolute lowest setting. I had to be careful which way I turned the adjuster as any more will pop the ball off its socket and then it's lighting the treetops. Wedging the headlamp bottom mount grommet to tilt the lamp down slightly sorted it. 2mm at the front of the peg (held by a bit of heat shrink sleeve) gave enough tilt to move the adjuster off it's bottom stop.

My passive heat sink bulbs cost under £20 the pair so I thought worth the risk. They do a good job and comparing the emitters against the halogens they are identical height to the halogen filaments. It's important the bulb heat sinks are not pushed by the cover aperture. This will affect the beam angle and any excess vibrations wont be helpful.

In terms of light performance, I would not want to go back to halogens. They are barely adequate in good weather and positively dangerous when it's raining.
 
Mine is set on absolute lowest setting. I had to be careful which way I turned the adjuster as any more will pop the ball off its socket and then it's lighting the treetops. Wedging the headlamp bottom mount grommet to tilt the lamp down slightly sorted it. 2mm at the front of the peg (held by a bit of heat shrink sleeve) gave enough tilt to move the adjuster off it's bottom stop.

My passive heat sink bulbs cost under £20 the pair so I thought worth the risk. They do a good job and comparing the emitters against the halogens they are identical height to the halogen filaments. It's important the bulb heat sinks are not pushed by the cover aperture. This will affect the beam angle and any excess vibrations wont be helpful.

In terms of light performance, I would not want to go back to halogens. They are barely adequate in good weather and positively dangerous when it's raining.

I found the best way to get a good beam setup was - t

RH adjuster - - Beam travel L/R - Turned to set the reflector all the way to the left (it had popped off its ball mount, but can be popped back in realtivly easily)
Centre adjuster --Beam travel U/D make sure the passenger lever is set in the horizontal position - turn the adjustor to take the reflector assy all the way to the down position

Once at the max down position DO NOT flip the passenger lever into the vertical position !!!!!!

If you do you will pop the reflector off of the mounting ball - and its a pita to get back on

With this set up i found the beam a tad low (lol) so i moved it up fractionally -
to make sure i didnt go over the upper beam set position i applied 2 strips of tape to the very top of the lamp unit

The kick up is way past the 2% mark and iluminates the nearside brilliantly , and the vertical height is good - i dont dazzle anyone in front

(but they dont move out of the way for me any more ;) )

High beam is useless - adds very little to the party so to speak

If you have a disaster and overtighten the vertical adjuster you will strip the plastic thread -

It can be fixed with a modified wing nut and some dexterity - it will never fail again ;)
 
I found the best way to get a good beam setup was - t

RH adjuster - - Beam travel L/R - Turned to set the reflector all the way to the left (it had popped off its ball mount, but can be popped back in realtivly easily)
Centre adjuster --Beam travel U/D make sure the passenger lever is set in the horizontal position - turn the adjustor to take the reflector assy all the way to the down position

Once at the max down position DO NOT flip the passenger lever into the vertical position !!!!!!

If you do you will pop the reflector off of the mounting ball - and its a pita to get back on

With this set up i found the beam a tad low (lol) so i moved it up fractionally -
to make sure i didnt go over the upper beam set position i applied 2 strips of tape to the very top of the lamp unit

The kick up is way past the 2% mark and iluminates the nearside brilliantly , and the vertical height is good - i dont dazzle anyone in front

(but they dont move out of the way for me any more ;) )

High beam is useless - adds very little to the party so to speak

If you have a disaster and overtighten the vertical adjuster you will strip the plastic thread -

It can be fixed with a modified wing nut and some dexterity - it will never fail again ;)

That's the ticket. :)

Mine has already had the vertical adjuster repaired (before I got the bike). It works fine but could be why I have limited range on downward adjustment. It does beg the question why BMW thought a huge amount of up angle for the beams was a good idea.

My main beam with the LED is really quite good, but it's fixed up angle is too low for full effect. I've not used the OEM spot lamps with LED headlamp bulbs as too much foreground light makes the area beyond look inky black, especially in rain.

I put the OEM spots in storage and fitted a pair of LED narrow beam spot lamps (silly low cost). The long range focus is so good you "could" use them on a straight motorway and not dazzle oncoming drivers. I'm not suggesting anyone should do that BTW!
Mine are set to work only when main beam is on.

To work 100% with LED bulbs, the headlight needs a deeper rear cover cap. Maybe someone could 3D print something suitable that could be screwed to the back of the light casing.
 
That's the ticket. :)

Mine has already had the vertical adjuster repaired (before I got the bike). It works fine but could be why I have limited range on downward adjustment. It does beg the question why BMW thought a huge amount of up angle for the beams was a good idea.

My main beam with the LED is really quite good, but it's fixed up angle is too low for full effect. I've not used the OEM spot lamps with LED headlamp bulbs as too much foreground light makes the area beyond look inky black, especially in rain.

I put the OEM spots in storage and fitted a pair of LED narrow beam spot lamps (silly low cost). The long range focus is so good you "could" use them on a straight motorway and not dazzle oncoming drivers. I'm not suggesting anyone should do that BTW!
Mine are set to work only when main beam is on.

To work 100% with LED bulbs, the headlight needs a deeper rear cover cap. Maybe someone could 3D print something suitable that could be screwed to the back of the light casing.

If your feeling brave, i could send you details of my mod which may give you some additional room should you want to try and get the beam lower.

The heatsinks on the back of my bulbs are like mushrooms they have a narrow stem round the bulb unit itself and widen out to a mushroom shape outside of the lamp unit , so full adjustment is possible
 
Mine have a mushroom shape heat sink like this advert https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-H7-LE...=item2aa08c6f0d:g:YAUAAOSw9z1b9aEd:rk:45:pf:0 The bulb advertised is different but has the same heat sink.

The heat sink fouled the case when set at the beam angle needed to correct the dip beam. I turned off a little metal allowing the reflector to tilt without the heat sink fouling the lamp casing. The air (and dirt) gap around the heat sink is unavoidable. I managed to seal the bulb to the lamp body using some bicycle inner tube rubber to make a washer. It's trapped under the bayonet ring of a cut-off bulb cover.

The later style LEDs with fan cooling are smaller diameter. But even that's history as some have now appeared which have no heat sink at all. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H7-LED-C...=item2ab9688ac5:g:bnEAAOSwVx5bzvbW:rk:56:pf:0
 
...my experience says keep the dip beam halogen and put and LED in the main beam.

If you have anything to bright or non standard in the dip you find yourself having to wind it down so you don’t dazzle, if you do this two things happen.

1. Your mainbeam which is linked also has to point down, we’ll come back to this point
2. A brighter light in your dip pointed down means you’ve got a bright pool of light under your nose and drawing your eyes in - That’s not where you want to be looking

Keep a halogen in the dip and don’t wind it down, wind it up as high as you think you can go without dazzerling others, then put a good LED in the main. This way you don’t have a bright pool of light drawing your eyes in and when you hit main beam you get a beam pointing into the distance and with some punch over the dip so it makes a difference and having some punch over the dip means it draws your eyes to the distance which is where you want them to be.

The other plus of LED only in the main is it’s not on all the time and heat is less of an issue.

If you also have the standard halogen spots adjust these to the same level as the dip cut off and you'll be suprised at the nice even and wide spread of foreground light you get that enables you to see but does not draw your eyes in.

Also when you look at the bike approaching you have a matching triangle of colour temperature which is easier for SMIDSY to comprehend and judge correctly. When you use main beam to alert others it has more impact as it’s bright and different colour temperature.

The final benefit is you only have to buy 1 LED :D
 
I take the point about keeping a halogen in the dipped beam, but on mine the dipped beam angle was always borderline too high with halogen. The LED aggravated the issue but the cutoff was actually better than the halogen. Some faffing about with some packing and heat shrink sleeve on the middle mounting peg solved the beam angle for pennies.

When the HID-50 burner failed, I put the halogen back until it was sorted. I had removed the OEM "spots" at the time and struggled badly on the wet dark roads to see the kerb/verge. The Les Wassal HID-50 never had the beam angle issues though dipped cutoff (while ok) was not as sharp. Not all HIDs are the same of course.

IMO the standard GSA headlight with halogen bulb is borderline unsafe without the auxiliary headlights that BMW fit. An LED bulb solves the problem for minimal cost.

The cheap U5/U7 spots are still going strong with the spare pair still boxed.
 
Bendy toy;5229927 IMO the standard GSA headlight with halogen bulb is borderline unsafe without the auxiliary headlights that BMW fit. An LED bulb solves the problem for minimal cost.[/QUOTE said:
Couldn't agree more! Was a bit surprised on my first nighttime outing on the 1200. Hence it was the first thing I did. Well, it's about the only thing I have done. So happy with it as it is :)



Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk
 
I take the point about keeping a halogen in the dipped beam, but on mine the dipped beam angle was always borderline too high with halogen. The LED aggravated the issue but the cutoff was actually better than the halogen. Some faffing about with some packing and heat shrink sleeve on the middle mounting peg solved the beam angle for pennies.

When the HID-50 burner failed, I put the halogen back until it was sorted. I had removed the OEM "spots" at the time and struggled badly on the wet dark roads to see the kerb/verge. The Les Wassal HID-50 never had the beam angle issues though dipped cutoff (while ok) was not as sharp. Not all HIDs are the same of course.

IMO the standard GSA headlight with halogen bulb is borderline unsafe without the auxiliary headlights that BMW fit. An LED bulb solves the problem for minimal cost.

The cheap U5/U7 spots are still going strong with the spare pair still boxed.

Bendy, I've sent you a PM ref your BMW Aux Lamps
 


Back
Top Bottom