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H7 head light bulbs

C

charlesodle

New member
The short H7 bulb life has always been a problem for me and changing them is a real task. Anyone tried the H7 LED from Walmart?
 
charlesodle said:
The short H7 bulb life has always been a problem for me and changing them is a real task. Anyone tried the H7 LED from Walmart?
Click to expand...

I haven't, but I've yet to have a new H7 burn out now in 34,055m. I replaced one at 14K that was still working just because I had heard so much about the alleged short service life I thought I'd better replace it ad hoc in the comfort of my garage. I used an old H7 bulb taken out of another bike for that replacement and it only lasted 4K miles but also it was not an OEM long life bulb but was a higher output H7 from Phillips which I understood would not last as long. People joke about the outlandishness of this idea, but I read somewhere in a forum that if you let the bike FULLY boot up before starting this may help lengthen bulb life. I suppose the theory behind this is that if you start the bike up before the completion of boot up perhaps there is a brief interval where higher than needed voltage, or a surge as it were, might get delivered to the bulb and shorten its lifespan. Sounds dicey of course, but once again I'm not having problems w/ short service life and I've followed this practice except maybe for 5x that I forget to let the system fully boot up before starting. I've now got 16K miles on the current OEM 'long life' bulb. The 2nd replacement I did after the used bulb it took me only 10 minutes to replace now that I understand exactly how to do it.
 
My H7 went out on a rough gravel road, where an RT doesn't belong, the bike is telling me something! Anyway found the most expensive bulb as I don't want to do the change out again. I had 18,000 mi on it.
 
I do let the bike boot up before starting the engine. I find bulb life is about a year. I'm using a "SilverStar" at the moment. I bought a pair, so its twin will go in next year.
 
I'll be heading to Kent, WA in a few days to investigate Cyclops LED alternatives. My 2016 RT is on its third bulb.
 
led

slim said:
I'll be heading to Kent, WA in a few days to investigate Cyclops LED alternatives. My 2016 RT is on its third bulb.
Click to expand...

have had the cyclops LED in for almost a year with no problems and works great! I did have to add the resistor because after a day or so i got the warning on the dash but their customer service was excellent!! good luck
 
ExGMan said:
I do let the bike boot up before starting the engine. I find bulb life is about a year. I'm using a "SilverStar" at the moment. I bought a pair, so its twin will go in next year.
Click to expand...

silver star ultras are rated for 125 hrs. xtravisions are rated for 850 hrs. After reading every light bulb package in the store, I found out some of the longer lasting bulbs were less expensive. I believe I was paying about $10 apiece for the xtravision.
 
I just did an H-7 in the F800GS. There was 4 options, I couldn’t tell the real difference. I chose the one above “basic”- it was $22.00 at local auto parts store.
OM
 
Cyclops :)

Installed Cyclops on GSW two years ago. Good directions from vendor. Plug and play. Increased light down the road better visability to cagers. Some of the best add-ons I have ever done.
 
H7=3x

Every August per my records. Replace the low beam H7 bulb on 2015 R1200RT. I'm using for now Walmart standard bulbs, Sylvania 55W. Made by Osram.


The metal base has, I believe a oil on it? Clean off with alcohol. turns the cloth light gray to black. That goes for the electrical plug tips on bulb. Use a little Dielectrics grease on connections.

T-30 remove horn for my big hand. makes it a bit more room to move around.
 
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