LED bulbs

[Ewen]

Hi guys. Is it possible to get LED replacements for the old 6 volt bulbs?

[mikeb]

you can Ewen. when you shop around take note of the reflector fitting - yours will likely be BPF, many bulbs are H4 so you may need to change the reflector too.

when i looked at this some years back I found the best 6V ones at:http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/
Paul Goff also has good options: http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com/
Note LEDs do remain a 'thinner' light and not great in the rain. but brighter, easier to be seen and much less demanding on our old electrics.

EDIT: also take note of positive vs negative earth. if need, changing the bike's polarity is easy.
and here's an old thread about LEDs: https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=11047

[Black Sheep]

A note of caution. I did invest in headlight bulbs from dynamoregulatorconversions a few years ago. They illuminated everything except the patch of road I was riding into. They were removed pronto. Hopefully they have better ones now.

[Sav]

I use Goffy's bulbs and they make one hell of a difference in brightness and reduction in ampage. It's lovely to see the ammeter +ive with the headlights on.

They don't dip very well in my experience, but the increase in light is well worth it.

All my bikes are six volt and all have led front and back

See and be seen!

[Colsbeeza]

Ditto Sav,
The high beam is a little too high however, but I only want to be seen. Won't be riding at night hardly at all.
Col

[WozzA]

Ditto with me as well...  LED's all round on both bikes, ( my speedo light's are the only non LED left.. )
I had to change over headlight reflector to H4     ( I went to 12Volt for ease of replacement..)

[orabanda]

I have found LEDS to be expensive, and occasionally unreliable - sudden failure and needing replacement. they also need to be correct polarity for the bike, which would mean keeping spare globes in positive AND negative earth.
My 6V systems are on a par with 12V for brightness, and the globes seldom fail.
I fit a relay in the headlight shell, for the headlight globe, and run a separate earth for the headlight and tail light back to the battery earth (at the frame).
I also use a Quartz Halogen headlight bulb.

Richard
 

[Black Sheep]

All for LED stop/tail bulbs. No headlight dimming as you brake for a bend... However, I stick to incandescents for speedo and rev counter. The 2.2 watts of heat helps keep the mechanisms dry in this soggy northern climate. I'm still with incandescents for headlights too until such time as I find a LED replacement which has a decent beam and a colour spread which isn't hard on the eyes.   

[BSA_54A10]

For 6 V I have a double dipper that came from dynamo conversions
Totally useless for riding so it goes in there for rego inspections then gets replaced with an acorn globe for riding with.
The acorn which is a blinker globe has 27 low power LEDs so is only good for about 50 mph at night because it uses all of the reflector not just 1/3 oof the top & 1/3 of the bottom . It is good light almost equivalent to the original 25/25 fitted to the pre war bikes and puts the light where you need it.
Every 6 V LED headlights I have tried has the same problem
The heat sink blocks of a lot of the light and because the diodes are mounted to a flat plate they only use 1/3 of the reflector
Thus when both beams are on you get a figure of 8 type of beam spread with intense light down on the front wheel ( too close to be of any use  ) the a second beam up into the trees.
But almost no light to the left & right where you need it for cornering.
When I was using the double dipper I rotated the reflector nearly 90 degrees so that the high beam pointed up to the left and the V shaped shadow was over the front wheel and the eyes of oncoming trafic.
I am about to try a 6V acorn stop tail in Ba9y to see if it works better
The stop tails are fantastic but the 6 v headlamps leave a lot to be desired.

OTOH the 12 V globe is great as it has 2 x Cree LEDs each for high & low and they are at a slight angle so they use nearly 180 degrees of the reflector
Still a bit thin on the sides and a dead flat cut off line which take a bit of getting used to .

[Butch (cb)]

I suffer the same kind of results using a 6V halogen bulb up front. It seems to be a poor match to the Wipac lens. I either have dip shining up my front mudguard, or high beam confusing the incoming traffic to Stansted airport.

[Ewen]

Thanks guys. A lot to think about there.

[philwhitelaw]

Has anyone else had problems with the Daylighter BPF leds?  My old bulb had the dip beam offset filament uppermost and the main beam was the lower of the two with the correct beam pattern.  Fitted the led unit and the lower main beam stayed on at both light switch settings.  The result is that I am dazzling the driver of the vehicle in front and oncoming traffic.  Tried swapping the wiring cables over, same thing happened.  Any thoughts?