SpeedMetal LED Headlight Conversion

My stock halogen low beam pulls 55 watts ... this replacement LED assembly pulls 24 watts and is allegedly brighter, assuming the reflector gathers and aims the light properly.
Pic from Cycle Gear (since it was on sale AND I had a coupon):


It was easy enough to remove my headlight’s rear cover without taking off any of the Tupperware®, as it jiggles out the lower right side, but there was No Way to get my fingers in there to actually accomplish the R&R. Got a couple of bloody scrapes trying.
Off came the bodywork, making lots more room to see and work, and more angles of attack.

Very careful back-and-forth wiggling gets the plug off the rear of the stock halogen bulb, and then unclip the wire bale (dual-finger spring clip) holding it in place. Note the orientation of the tabs around the ring; the “major” tab is at top center. The plug itself was in good condition; I have read a few times that the stock plug can melt or just crumble over time - NAPA sells a direct ceramic replacement that can be spliced into place.

Slipped the old bulb out and compared it to the new LED/heatsink assembly.
The Speedmetal part comes with its own mounting ring; this is pulled off the bulb’s collar and mounted first.
This ring also has several holes that match up with a little spring-loaded ball in the lamp base to create detents – this actually permits you to rotate the lamp in place, to align the LEDs to the headlight reflector assembly to get the best beam pattern.

On this new ring, I had to very slightly file down the top-center alignment tab (shown toward the left in the above pic) with a jeweler’s file – it was a little too big for the slot in my headlight’s mounting assembly. I had to reduce its width AND thickness just a hair, and I rounded off the sharp square corners of the tab.

Getting the new ring into place would be easier if I had made use of young elfin hands; it has to slip in “under” the stock plug and the bale, while maintaining proper alignment to seat into the socket holder. Once in place, it’s not a big deal to reattach the bale clips – this would be near impossible without taking off the bodywork, although some have done it by “feel” alone, from underneath. Not me...

The LED/etc. is then pushed into place, held by a tight O-ring and the detents in the base ring. I started with the LEDs pointing directly horizontal/sideways, since that is how the halogen bulb was aligned, and that “should” send the light toward the reflectors in the headlight assembly.

The heatsink is, of course, longer than the base of the stock bulb, and it requires airflow for cooling, so it’s necessary - I believe - to relieve (remove) some of the rear cover. The instructions do specifically say to provide airflow at the rear of the heatsink.
I had previously communicated with my local distributor for Cyclops (Brown’s in Pomona) about this, and there was definitely some uncertainty about whether a Cyclops LED would fit inside an RT’s rear cover plate. (I doubt it, but since I've not measured one, I don't "know".)
I figured I’d probably need two holes - one for the heatsink protrusion, and one for the driver (12-volt adapter) harness, which simply plugs in to the line between the “old” bulb socket and the LED; the driver will not fit inside the cover. I tried.

Using “step” drills, I made the first hole directly behind where the heatsink is: measuring straight down from the center of the tab that the holding clip latches on to, I made my first centerpunch at 1 inch. I then made a second centerpunch 1 inch directly below that. A step at a time, I enlarged both holes to ¾ of an inch and lightly sanded the edges to smooth them out.

Then I put the cover back into place to see what aligned, or didn’t.
The upper hole was very close to being centered behind the heatsink – woo-hoo! The heatsink itself measures about 1.20 inch diameter, so I enlarged that hole to 1.25 inch (after a quick trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a bigger step drill). This took the upper edge of the hole right up to the edge of the cover, and also “broke through” to the smaller ¾ inch hole below it (for the driver harness), but this is not a problem.

Reinstalling the cover (loosely) again, I saw that the top rear edge of the heatsink was quite close to the edge of the plastic. I didn’t want to see it melt over time, so I also filed off some plastic at the inside top of the cover to clear the heatsink’s fins.
(Ignore the other notch at the right side of the picture [left side on the bike]; that’s for my high-beam modulator wiring.)

Now the frustrating part – trying to get all the wiring done neatly and not look like a P.O.S. or be unserviceable in the future, especially if it dies, as I want to be able to revert back to the halogen bulb (added to my kit with padding) with a minimum of fuss.

I didn’t want to mount the driver directly to the frame – vibration is a big electronics killer – so I created a “pad” of black silicone on the top side of the frame, forward of the neck.


Before tie-wrapping the driver to the pad, I attached both ends of the harness. The round connector is keyed for mating orientation, and is long enough to not present any issue. The 2-prong connector was a bit of a challenge: the stock bulb socket has very short leads, and must point “down” to clear the heatsink. This meant that when the driver’s line is routed thru the new hole in the rear cover, it takes very careful and patient fingers to get it seated properly into that connector. After some fumbling, I finally got them mated together, and reinstalled the rear cover completely.

The driver has slots to allow mounting with straps or Tie-Wraps, so I used three Tie-Wraps and snugged them down; two would probably have been sufficient, but I believe in overkill. In this picture, the rear of the heatsink is visible though the double hole, and it is clear that it comes quite close to the inside of the cover. I had also previously made a small pencil mark on the heatsink (at the 6:00 position) as a reference, to show me the orientation of the LEDs. Since the round connector from the driver is keyed, it was easy to align this to the LED harness by feel, and then tighten its captive plastic retaining nut.




I did not want to leave a big hole there, which could permit bugs, dirt, and water into the headlight, even behind the fairing, so I got a little packet of black aluminum screen-repair patches from Home Depot (1.75” square, p/n 3025123), cut out a clearance for the wiring on one side, placed it over the hole, and used three strips of black Gorilla Tape (on the top and both sides) to attach it. I also Tie-Wrapped the remaining harness section into place.


Here's what the stock low beam looked like inside my garage; I took this pic before starting (which is why the mirrors are still on it) but did not move the bike over the course of the work.


And here's the first test of the SpeedMetal LED ... Definitely much brighter, and the upper cutoff seems to be in the same place:


So... it seems to work. I haven't had the bike out at night, to judge the "real world" results, thanks to a worsening issue with my left eye. In the daytime, though, it did seem to light up the car ahead of me with a similar pattern and height as the stock bulb, and nobody oncoming flashed their high beams at me. I'll call it a success; if it dies I'll let y'all know how old or how many miles it survived.

Paul S

Thanks for the good write up. Hope it works out well.

I'm curious to know if anybody has actually installed the Cyclops setup into an Oilhead RT;
and if you have, what is the length of the Cyclops base (does all fit inside the rear light cover plate) and what did you do about getting air to the heatsink (which has a fan, but that heat has to GO somewhere)?

And just 'cuz I referenced Home Depot earlier...

Speedmetal LED Conversion. Nice write up and pics.

Great write up and pics of the LED installation. My 2018 RT eats a low beam H7 bulb every 10,000 km or so. I'm on my 8th or 9th bulb. Because I don't ride at night (anymore) I'm not too worried about beam pattern or being too bright for the oncoming traffic, and having a brighter light in daytime is desireable so I'm going to give the Speedmetal LED Conversion Kit a try. I've done all the replacements of the H7 bulb on my RT so I'm well schooled at the procedure. It ain't easy but I know how to manage it.

Thanks for showing me/us that the Speedmetal LED is a good alternative to Halogen H7 bulbs.

Gordon Henderson
Kelowna, British Columbia.