LED's vs. regular bulbs I was thinking

I was thinking of switching over to LED bulbs in my running/turn signal lights & brake/plate light, because I'm going to have to get a brighter halogen headlight {as I cant see as well at night, now that I"m in my 50's}. and I know it will draw alot more juice, P,S,I also have a DYNA 2000 that draws alot of juice......so after checking a few web sights, they say that they will not be as bright as incandesant bulbs if used with the stock corregated lenses. 7 if I did switch over to the LED's, would i have to change my flasher as well ?? I know another option would be to switch over to a n HID xenon headlight. (waiting to hear back from Otocar) as he seems to have a lot of experience with that convertion...OH yea the bike I"m doig this to, is a 1980 LTD 1000.

You can get a halogen that is about 3X as bright as stock that uses the same wattage as stock:

www.summitracing.com/parts/WAG-H6024/

You can use the 3W Luxeon LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com. They are the only ones actually brighter than a standard 1156/1157 bulb. You need a solid state flasher to work the turn signals.


These are the LEds I use:

www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/in...pecs%2F115x-xLX3.htm

Solid state flashers:

www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/in...Disp=%2Fflashers.htm

The 1980 1000 came with halogen headlight. The halogen sucks up a lot more power than the earlier lights used in 78 and earlier bikes. a halogen will suck up 5A at all time that they are on. On the HID the light sucks up about 2.4A when it is first turned on and in about 30 seconds it goes down to about 2A. Brake lights are what sucks up a lot of power. I use LEDs in my tail light and you can really tell the difference. Actually I have NO regular bulbs anywhere on my GPz1150. I have HID for main light and LEDs for EVERYTHING else. This also includes instrument illumination. My lighting power consumption is less than 25% that of the OE consumption. For the turn signal flasher you MUST use a electronic NO LOAD flasher such as the CF12ANL. I have not been able to find any others that work. Otherwise you must put a resistor in the circuit and at that point you defeat the purpose of the led. I am not sure why you put a Dyna-2000 on that bike. It makes no sense. The OE ignition that was on the bike or the updated module for the newer bikes are very good ignitions. all you required was new coils. A Dyna -2000 is a waste for anything but racing. If you wanted a step up from OE IC ignition you could have built Loudvoux's ignition module from the dual GM modules. Or you could have gotten a MSD ignition that would have made a difference in fuel economy. I never got that email you PMd me that you sent. The address was right but I never got it. I responded to your PM. You can try to email me again.

Otto

.

He wants to lower his power conscription. The brighter a Halogen bulb is the more it consumes. I have some SUPER bright H4 bulbs but they suck up 6.5A there are only TWO economical ways to lower power consumption today. LED or HID. When you get into LED than economical is a relative term. There are two outputs of HID, which I would not recommend the Hi-output one. it also sucks up about 5A. But, it also puts out about three times the light of the standard HID. His problem is the Dyna-2000 ignition. I believe it sucks up about 7.5A and that is at idle. It goes up from there. He is lucky he has a 1980 bike. because they put a higher output alternator in the MKII motors from the earlier 900/1000 12A systems.

I too have used Otto's HID kit (here's the link to the thread). And, like Otto, have converted all other incandescent bulbs to LEDs. I like them.

Here are the LEDs I use (from superbrightLEDs.com):

• Turn signals- 1156-A45-T (45 LED, amber)
• Tail light- 1157-W45-T (45 LED, white)
• Gauge backlights- BA9SF-W-12V (single LED, somewhat larger, 180 degree beam pattern, white)
• Indicator lights- BA9S-W-90-12V (single LED, 90 degree beam pattern, white)
• Flasher- CF12ANL

I tried the BA9S-WHP9 for the gauge backlights and indicator lights, but they didn't fit- too long.

I like my setup. Only complaint is that the BA9 bulb bases were too long, so I filed a little but of the ground off and they fit right in. Use dialectic grease- the posts on the bases are actually pressed from the ground shell itself, the first time I removed the turn signal bulb, one of the posts was stuck and wound up breaking off leaving a nice little hole. I have it MacGuyvered in there now, but they're giving me problems.

thanks for the numbers for the LEDs for the turn, & tail lights.... I just got my gauges back from being rebuilt, bought a 160 mph gauge off e-bay to replace the 80 mph that I had,... sent them out to Bob Harrington at Z-RESTO, and asked to replace all the bulbs for the indicator & gauges to LEDs, & he said that he wont use them, because they run too hot, & after a matter of time will start to melt the plastic, & warp the faceplates....personally, I thought LEDs would run cooler, but he's the expert ,that’s what his shop does is rebuild gauges, so I wasn’t going to argue, P.S. got the gauges back, & cant tell them from new,.... great job !!!

You are right. LEDs run cooler than incandescent. I have had LEDs in mine for about 5 years now and they are much nicer. In this situation he knows not what he is talking about. Standard filament bulbs are the hottest that a bulb can get. Even an HID is MUCH cooler than a standard bulb. I think that he either did not understand what you wanted or he can rebuild gauges and knows nothing about power. Second, be aware that you now must change the drive unit on the wheel to match your scale on the gauge. The needle will point to the SAME POSITION as it did before. This means, that if the gauge read 55mph at one o'clock before than at 55mph the needle will go to one o'clock now also. So now it will read around 90-100mph at actual 55mph. I did the same to mine and had to change the wheel, axle, and drive.

Do you have the standard BA9S bulbs in your instrument cluster?

I went from this.






To This.









Notice that the center indicator lights are gone and that there is a row of corresponding color LEDs under the gauges. The end two "double" yellow LEDs being my turn indicators. All internal lighting are also LEDs.

thats what I thought, Otto, about the LEDs..since he sent them to me unasembled, so i can see the work that's been done , I'll go ahead and order the LEDs for the gauges and instrument panel, before i reassemble them P,S. I did buy another drive gear to match 160 gauge....Otto, I also noticed that you live in Ill. I'm living with my fiance, in barrington hills, I own a home in zion that I'm renting out, & my mother still lives in chicago , where I was born & raised. I'd like to get together with you sometime to discuss what I need to do, to convert my headlight.

You're 40mi north of me. I used to work in Lake Zurich until two years ago. I calibrated my spedo using a GPS. It is now right on the money. It was a combination of drive gear, tire size, and going to a 150 scale instead of the 160.

Otto....you must be up by my sis. ,that lives in the norht aurora/napperville area ???