Hitchcocks Forum

As threatened at the end of Scalyback's post on Christmas Night Riding, I finally let my curiosity get the better of me and ordered a 12V 60/55W rated LED H4 replacement unit for a try out. Not available from our hosts yet but you can get them here:



http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.c ... s-shop.php



First reaction on opening the box was "That's never going to fit!", as the actress said to the episcopal gentleman. There's quite a chunky deflector on what would be the filament side on a normal bulb, I was concerned this would foul the Neolite's own deflector, but it doesn't. But if you have a Neolite where the deflector has come adrift, this might be a solution.



I say MIGHT, as the unit also has a finned heatsink mounted where the normal H4 bulb's terminals would go. Instead three wires pass through a small black box and on to a terminal block with the standard H4 bulb terminals protruding from it. This is connected to the bulbes female terminals as per normal. Again I was concerned as to whether there was enough room in the headlamp shell, but there was. However, there is a warning on the suppliers web site that these units are not suitable for headlamps shell which contain a speedometer, so I'm afraid that's no go most Bullets running with the standard Casquette headlamp casting. If your bike has the standard Lucas 7" headlamp shell, it will fit.



Does it work? Yes very well, lovely bright light on main and dip, though the bluish white LED colour takes a little getting used to. The Pilot bulb only manages a dirty yellow glimmer by comparison. The good news is that on main beam the unit only draws 1.66 amps, so @ 12v that's a rating of less than 20W for a claimed equivalent to 60W ouput. It works on + or - earth systems, though I don't know if it would work with direct A/C lighting on the '99-on classic models.



PROS: Very bright light, lower power consumption. CONS: expensive (at the moment) compared to traditional H4 bulbs, and too bulky for Casquette headlamp castings. I'll see how this performs over the longer term and how long it lasts, if it fails too soon it will be better to go back to conventional H4 bulbs, though hopefully it will survive for a good while. We shall see (or not).



A.

Excellent intelligence report. Please let us know of any developments.

Adrian, you don't mention what sort of beam you get on main, ie does it have a "down the road beam" or is it a "spread evey which way" dazzle to everything around you light? I ask because every boy racer Corsa I see coming towards me with blue headlights, the beam seems scattered everywhere, even though they hopefully are using dip beam. Of course, they may not be using LED's, but these "1000 times brighter, blue light, death rays" that are available!

They are designed to fit existing bulb holders and use the existing headlamp reflector in the same way that a filament bulb does. They don't give a precise beam in the way that filament bulbs do but instead they emit a flood of pure white light in front of the vehicle. The above statement is on their website and seems to confirm what I was saying about dazzle. However, in another part of their description of the bulbs performance, they speak of a "defined beam". So which is it? Over to you Adrian!

There *is* a defined beam to main beam! A.

Regarding the statement that they are not suitable for bikes with speedo on headlight casing, is that because of the extra length of the unit, or something to do with heat output of the connections? I thought that LED's ran very cool, mine in our house certainly are.

I happen to know Pete who runs Dynamo Regulator Conversions and he has been working on these LED headlamp bulbs for some time, this version is at least the Mk4, not that the previous ones have been necessarily been on sale to the public. It is often not realised that although the front of an LED fitting produces no real heat the back end (and electronics in some applications,) get very hot indeed; I've seen large white LED clusters used in high bay fittings in warehouses which get so hot they'd burn you instantly if you were to touch them. Many entertainment lighting LED units are heavily fan cooled but obviously this won't work in automotive applications so Pete has used a substantial heat sink on these bulbs. As that heat has to go somewhere I'm guessing the speedo might suffer! Having said all that, the Enfield Casquette is actually much more open round the sides and back than a normal closed headlamp shell thereby allowing a lot of airflow so it might just be the perfect fit!
REgards, Mark

It's a physical thing Mark, the unit needs more space than is available within the casquette

Bryan, I was trying to visualise it but I think you may be right, which is a shame as otherwise the Casquette might solve the overheating problem!
REgards, Mark

The reason the won't fit in the casquete is it hits the speedo cable and there is nothing you can do about that