How to modify H4 led to reduce glare ST1300

[ST Gui]

Here is the DRZ low beam pattern G3 on top and G6 on the bottom showing the cut off.

Wow those photons look like they were cut with a sharp knife!

It looks like the Evitek G6s are the hot setup! $44 + tax from Amazon and ?? if we contact the girl directly? It's probably close enough I'll just go with Amazon.

Thanks for the link chaz and thanks for all your hard work and time Spidey!

 

[chazglenn3]

I finally got the bike out last night. Wow! I love these lights! As you can see in my photo, I need to adjust the headlights down a bit, but otherwise I am extremely pleased! I added a picture from my Cadillac with HID lights for comparison purposes.

 

[chazglenn3]

The bulbs were $39.52 shipped from Cindy direct from China, so the Amazon deal is close enough, methinks.

 

[ST Gui]

The bulbs were $39.52 shipped from Cindy direct from China, so the Amazon deal is close enough, methinks.

+1 I was going to order from Cindy but the Amazon deal is close enough and easy to do so I'll grab a pair there. Cindy will be relieved.

 

[chazglenn3]

I have been looking at lighting upgrades and was looking at projector HID lights. Up until this thread I was pretty much ignoring LED bulbs designed to retrofit in to a halogen bulb reflector. This is because most of what I read stated that while these retrofit LED bulbs were very bright and very noticeable they scattered the light a lot. Reviews also stated that they did not project the light down the road a satisfactory distance- less than the halogen do. Reading this thread the scatter issue seems to have been taken care of thanks to the good work of Spiderman. For those of you who have had a chance to try these bulbs in real world riding conditions- do they project the light down the road a satisfactory distance?

The down road projection is great. My pics came out too small. I'm at work and our firewall blocks free photo hosting sites. I'll link larger photos when I get home.

 

[ST Gui]

I'll link larger photos when I get home.

Great. I look forward to those. Are the HIDs on the left? And while you're at it could we get a shot of the headlights themselves low-beams and slightly off-axis? I'd like to get an idea of the color of the light. 6500?K is usually a little too blue for my taste but looking at the teeny pics that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[chazglenn3]

I haven't had a chance to take any additional pictures just yet but I'll try to get the bigger ones here. This is the car with HID's.

 

[chazglenn3]

This is the bike.

 

[spiderman302]

Great photos. I can see the cut off lines high on the fence. Can you adjust the lights down so they match what the car hids were doing and take another photo?

 

[chazglenn3]

That is my plan. We got snowed on all day yesterday and the rains have returned today, but as soon as I get time I'll adjust the lights and take more pictures.

 

[970mike]

Just for your information I got a set of LED lights for my 2006 Chevrolet and my ST. I got all of the lights in and installed the ones in my truck, wow I love them. I also just ordered more for my Lincoln and my sons Civic. Thank you for all of your work in finding what LED lights work. I just emailed Cindy again as the last lights were shipped from China fast.

 

[chazglenn3]

Got them adjusted tonight. Sadly the truck was gone, but there was a Jeep in about the same spot.

 

[RaYzerman]

http://www.hdbright.com/hi-power-h4-24w-cob-led-headlight-bulb-kit-p-603.html
I am hoping Spiderman can comment on a new find at our local motorcycle show. This is a triangular shaped LED offering where the two low beam LED's point upward angles at the reflector, and the high beam points down. The rep told me that on high beam all three LED's were lit. I was just curious how these would work in a reflector without any shielding.

 

[RockyHayes]

A few notes & photos from H6 install on ST1300…

1. At least with my big hands, I am tremendously fortunate that I had the front fairing completely disassembled, for other projects – it made careful installation of the H6 bulbs much easier with unfettered access.
2. I chose to use the headlight adapter rings, because the H6 mounting plates (with two lower tabs cut off) all by themselves makes for a fairly sloppy/wobbly fit.
3. I chose to re-drill the mounting plates, to address the twist issue. The plastic pins seem too fragile to trim.
4. I found I had to bend the spring latch away from center, to allow ample room for the install. Before bending them out of the way the heat sink/fan assembly made strong contact and caused the bulb to tilt off axis – especially after re-installing the boots.
5. Generally, the build quality of these bulbs feels sub-par. Certainly they are nothing like the bulbs from Honda, or nationally known brands. I am hopeful they have a reasonably long lifespan.

I will post some photos of the low and high beams once I complete reassembly of my bike.

 

[spiderman302]

Rayzerman:

Go back and read post 22 on page 3. It is the same bulb. The large COB emitters do not focus well and puts light where you do not want it. No shield will make lots of glare. The down high beam will hit the flat spot on the bottom of the reflector and waste light. That bulb had to be pushed in to bring the high beam back down on the road. it is an OK bulb for low speed off road only but not so good for street use.

Small side facing emitters like on the 3800 G3 and the new G6 focus better and create a better beam pattern.

 

[RockyHayes]

I have now tested the beam pattern against my garage door, from about 50 feet out. Bike was not level, but close enough for this test. High beams are acceptable. But the low beam right side has a huge flare, putting the light way too high. I tried to fine tune but slightly twisting the bulbs – but as I continued the twist on the right side, it reduced the flair on right by creating a new flair on the left. I presume I need to bend one of the small cutoffs on this bulb. Spiderman, can you please advise?

 

[RaYzerman]

Rayzerman:
Go back and read post 22 on page 3. It is the same bulb.

Thanks, I should have remembered........ duh!

 

[chazglenn3]

I have now tested the beam pattern against my garage door, from about 50 feet out. Bike was not level, but close enough for this test. High beams are acceptable. But the low beam right side has a huge flare, putting the light way too high. I tried to fine tune but slightly twisting the bulbs – but as I continued the twist on the right side, it reduced the flair on right by creating a new flair on the left. I presume I need to bend one of the small cutoffs on this bulb. Spiderman, can you please advise?

That is strange. As seen in my photos, the bulbs in my FJR project a level beam from both bulbs.

 

[spiderman302]

Rocky:

Go back to post 67 on page 7. Look at the photo and my explanation on the tilt. If you adjust up the left (driver) side shield it will bring down the right side flare. You only need to nudge the shield a little. Make sure it did not get bumped when you installed it. I made that mistake. You can tune it to be flat.

US DOT photo metrics allows a 15 degree up tilt on the right side of the road to illuminate road signs. But motorcycles have the bulb set "level" so there should be a 7 degree up tilt on both sides. I nudged up my shields to make the beam very flat.

 

[RockyHayes]

Thanks Spiderman.

I did a bit of experimentation last night, and the results are moving significantly in the right direction. First, as Spiderman suggested, I double checked the shields - sure enough they have been nudged during the installation. So I got them back to perfectly level.

Bu that still did not fix the problem. So I began to experiment with the mechanical adjustments of the headlight mechanism. Eureka - that is my my problem! I used the right/left white adjusting knobs, which were evidently WAY off, and brought the beams back toward center. I still have some more adjusting to do, and will post another set of low & high beam shots once I'm done.

I've only owned my ST since September, and just had no idea the beams were that far out of alignment mechanically. Maybe the halogen bulbs were so forgiving it didn't matter. Anyway, I'm confident now I can resolve this performance issue.