LED headlamp

[lavrentyuk]

Does anybody have any experience with swapping the standard H4 headlamp bulb for an LED alternative on the ETZ bikes? 12v.

Whilst I run a VAPE alternator I run a lot off it - and this seems an easy way to decrease the load.

With thanks,

Richard.
PS In the UK.

[Puffs]

Hi Richard,

I have no experience with swapping the ETZ's 12V H4 for a LED. My ETZ still has the completely standard electrics, and the H4 in it works fine.

But I do have a 6V Vape in my Jawa, where I had problems possibly similar to yours: on a long downhill section run in neutral/idle, the voltage dropped to a low the level, causing the ignition relay to trip & the bike to stall. I tried a few LED headlight bulbs, but I didn't like them; didn't like the colour for a bike like that. And the one with a lower colour temperature did not give enough light. And then there also was the 'dipping': some of these bulbs do not really dip (i.e. shine upwards into the top part of the reflector to get a dipped beam), but instead just dim (fewer active LEDs). So in 6V I could not find anything to my liking, and kept the standard 45/40W incandescent; instead I swapped the tail & instrument light for LED.

My YZ has a home made (well, adapted from a moped) light coil, which is very feeble. There I get by with all LED, 12V. But that's just enough to be barely street legal, no night time riding. That actually does have a sort of dipping bulb.

Anyway, try & you'll know. For the same light output, a LED bulb uses typically about 1/6th of the power used by an incandescent bulb (either standard or halogen, little difference).

[lavrentyuk]

I tried an LED 'bulb' with my Enfield, and it had a well defined pattern on dip/main bearm. Apart from the lower power draw they are also supposed to last well.

Richard

[Puffs]

True, quoted MTBF is very high. But still, in my experience they do fail sometimes.

Here's an example of a non-dipping headlight bulb:

For focussing the beam, the (parabolic) shape of a conventional headlight reflector presumes a point light source, as is quite reasonably the case with a filament (particularly halogen). But you can see that too is not the case in a bulb like this, so you get a less focussed & more dispersed beam.

On the dipping, while I have dipping ones with the same socket, it may depend on the socket.

Please keep us posted how you fare.