Light bulb replacement - recommendations

tangoalpha said:

when you say remove the windshield assembly, I assume that you're referring to the metal frame that contains the windshield motor, gear assembly, arms, etc. Is that correct? I looked at this assembly closely and I saw that there appear to be 5 screws in total, 1 on each of the 4 corners and 1 more screw mounted upside down near the motor itself. At this stage, I think it would be a shame to get this far in the game and not replace those instrument bulbs.

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Yes, that's what I meant. I figured that if you were working on the windshield you might have already removed it. If you haven't yet there's no need.. just pull the instrument panel out from the front (that is, toward the rear of the bike).

By the way, does the RID (Rider Information Display) have a bulb that can be replaced or is it not user serviceable?

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I didn't pay much attention to that one, so I don't know.

Also what about the speedo and tachometer lights? Do I have to open up the back of the gauges to access the light bulbs or are they accessible like the instrument cluster bulbs? eg...neutral light, high beam indicator, low oil light, etc.

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You need to pull the gauges out of the instrument panel back case to access their light bulbs. It's not difficult but you need to exercise care. After removing the nuts from the studs that protrude through the back case I found that the gauges were still stuck in the case. I tapped lightly on the studs with a small hammer to get the gauges loose enough to pull out. You may not need the hammer; just push on the studs an see what happens. Remember, these are relatively delicate mechanical (speedo) and electromechanical (tach) instruments.

tangoalpha said:

Roger,

I've decided to go with the Hikari H7 LED (low beam) per your recommendation. All the online reviews and Youtube videos I've seen rate these as the best and latest in latest LED chipset technology and seem to have better build quality than many of the others on the market. I also like the 2 year warranty which is always a plus. So with that sorted out, I've moved my attention to the H1 high beam and the two H3 fog light bulbs. Are you running LED's for your high beam and yellow fogs as well? Any recommendations for those? Hikari does sell an H1 (high beam) but no H3 (fog light) bulbs. Like you, I run with my fog lights on whenever I ride. I also have a set of PIAA's mounted underneath my oil cooler for added visibility.

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My high beam is still incandescent. The maintenance manual for your bike is wrong: the high beam is an H3, not an H1. I haven't yet found an LED H3 with sufficiently high light output and proper construction; they all seem to either be made for fog lights (low light output) or have enough light but have the LEDs mounted on a large round or square center post (horrible beam pattern).

I used these for the fog lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CTMT01G

On the flange are two alignment notches, one with square corners and the other rounded. These are 90 degrees away from where they need to be for the RT. The bulbs must be oriented in the fog light housing with the LEDs pointing left/right, not front/back. I used a dremel tool to cut two more notches in the flanges.

My bike had stereo speakers but no stereo (I don't know how that happened and frankly don't care). I removed the speakers and it gave me much more room to work on the fog lights.

rogerc60 said:

Yes, that's what I meant. I figured that if you were working on the windshield you might have already removed it. If you haven't yet there's no need.. just pull the instrument panel out from the front (that is, toward the rear of the bike).



I didn't pay much attention to that one, so I don't know.



You need to pull the gauges out of the instrument panel back case to access their light bulbs. It's not difficult but you need to exercise care. After removing the nuts from the studs that protrude through the back case I found that the gauges were still stuck in the case. I tapped lightly on the studs with a small hammer to get the gauges loose enough to pull out. You may not need the hammer; just push on the studs an see what happens. Remember, these are relatively delicate mechanical (speedo) and electromechanical (tach) instruments.

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Oh Boy! Sounds like fun....NOT! But, truly if there's anything that suffers from poor illumination it's my gauges (tach/speedo). I guess I'm just gonna have to suck it and Git R' Done. Thanks for all the tips by the way!

rogerc60 said:

My high beam is still incandescent. The maintenance manual for your bike is wrong: the high beam is an H3, not an H1. I haven't yet found an LED H3 with sufficiently high light output and proper construction; they all seem to either be made for fog lights (low light output) or have enough light but have the LEDs mounted on a large round or square center post (horrible beam pattern).

I used these for the fog lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CTMT01G

On the flange are two alignment notches, one with square corners and the other rounded. These are 90 degrees away from where they need to be for the RT. The bulbs must be oriented in the fog light housing with the LEDs pointing left/right, not front/back. I used a dremel tool to cut two more notches in the flanges.

My bike had stereo speakers but no stereo (I don't know how that happened and frankly don't care). I removed the speakers and it gave me much more room to work on the fog lights.

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WOW! Really glad that I took your advice on this and didn't get ahead of myself by placing an order before I read your next reply. It pays to be patient, otherwise I'd be sitting on a set of $50 LED H1 Bulbs that are totally useless to me. Thanks for that Buddy. Much appreciated! So my Owners manual is printed incorrectly as you stated and ironically there is also no mention of what size bulbs the fogs lights are either. So it appears that both the fog light bulbs and the high beam are H3's.

Parts arrived!

Well...my Amazon order arrived today....I sure do love Prime delivery 2 day (free) shipping. I installed the Hikari LED (Low beam) and the two yellow LED fog lights. Everything fit perfectly without absolutely no modifications needed. Afterwards, I tested the lights....Boy am I glad that I did this. The light output is those LED make is totally insane. That was a much needed and MAJOR upgrade in the lighting department.

On to the next project!

tangoalpha said:

Well...my Amazon order arrived today....I sure do love Prime delivery 2 day (free) shipping. I installed the Hikari LED (Low beam) and the two yellow LED fog lights. Everything fit perfectly without absolutely no modifications needed. Afterwards, I tested the lights....Boy am I glad that I did this. The light output is those LED make is totally insane. That was a much needed and MAJOR upgrade in the lighting department.

On to the next project!

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tangoalpha said:

Well...my Amazon order arrived today....I sure do love Prime delivery 2 day (free) shipping. I installed the Hikari LED (Low beam) and the two yellow LED fog lights. Everything fit perfectly without absolutely no modifications needed. Afterwards, I tested the lights....Boy am I glad that I did this. The light output is those LED make is totally insane. That was a much needed and MAJOR upgrade in the lighting department.

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Did you go with the Calais LED fog lamps?

TangoA - I'm pretty sure the RID is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), so it makes its own light - no extra bulb.

Blueman said:

Did you go with the Calais LED fog lamps?

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I sure did. I ordered the yellow bulbs. They came out great. I think it’s a big improvement over stock. So I now have LED’s for fog lights, headlamps, rear tail light/turn signals and front turn signals.

The only bulbs that are still incandescent are the instrument panel. I wanted to replace them as well, but after seeing what’s involved I honestly began to lose interest. Getting to all of those tiny wedge bulbs for the gauges and idiot lights seems like a major PITA.


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Pauls1150 said:

TangoA - I'm pretty sure the RID is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), so it makes its own light - no extra bulb.

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Hi Paul. Long time no talk... Thanks for the clarification on the RID being LCD. I wasn’t sure inherently whether LCD’s made their own light or if they relied on backlighting. So at this point, I think I’m done with the LED upgrades on the bike. I’ve opted to leave the instruments (gauges and idiot lights) as incandescent. All in all I’m very happy with the outcome.


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Might you know what the actual current draw is for the Hikari 1150 low-beam replacement? That's looking pretty attractive... Really just a plug-n-play install? And do they only sell direct (or via FleaBay) or are there any dealers? Didn't find any on their site, grrr...

Yeah, it's been kinda busy down here... too many "tangent" projects! Troubleshooting a neighbor's jet-ski, another neighbor's car, another neighbor's bike, lotsa stuff around the property... Retirement is NOT the vacation young 'uns think, the honey-do list just gets different priorities! And Valdi is on vacation (and Chris left and went to work for Ferrari - cool!) so I can't unload anything there. Ah well, life is good.

Pauls1150 said:

Might you know what the actual current draw is for the Hikari 1150 low-beam replacement? That's looking pretty attractive... Really just a plug-n-play install? And do they only sell direct (or via FleaBay) or are there any dealers? Didn't find any on their site, grrr...

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If you can wait til tomorrow I'll hook my spare Hikari bulb up to my bench power supply and measure the current draw. It really is plug-n-play. Just a wire dangling out the back with plug on the end, with the two conductor prongs; the bike's headlight connector just plugs right on. I liked that this bulb doesn't have a bulky external driver module box like some bulbs do. And I bought mine on Amazon.

I can wait! Thanks!

Note: If a standard H7 is 55 watts, that works out to 4.58 amps @ 12.0 volts.
And, according to Darryl at Cyclops, their assembly pulls 20 watts, = 1.66 amps.

Hikari H7 LED headlight bulb current draw

The Hikari H7 LED bulb draws:
2.1A @ 12.0V
1.8A @ 13.3V
1.6A @ 14.7V

So it appears the bulb consumes about 24W.

Subjective temperature measurement: I operated the bulb in open air at room temperature on my bench for about 5 minutes. The heat sink fins got too hot for me to comfortably touch, but the shroud around the fan was cool enough that I could use it to hold the bulb for a few seconds.

I've been using one of these in my R1150RT for 6 months with no problem. The hottest day so far has been about 95F, but typically I've been riding in 60F - 85F weather.

Hope this info helps somebody.

Thanks, Roger, that's good stuff to know! Much appreciated!

According to Chris, the parts guy at Brown's Motor Works, whether or not a hole needs to be cut into the "cap" depends entirely on what the factory put in there during assembly: apparently there are two different caps, and both were used in the 1150RTs during different assembly runs over the years. One requires the hole, the other does not, so the consumer needs to see and decide what is required for himself. Then if a hole is required, a grommet and maybe some silicone is added to make darn sure it's waterproof.
Darryl (at Cyclops) was not aware of this; he thought his 4.8 unit would fit all RTs.

This brings up another question... With all the weatherproofing behind the headlight assembly, how hot will it actually get inside there when all the covers are closed up, and where & how is that heat going to dissipate? I love the idea of reducing the current thru that section of the wiring (especially considering how small the overall wiring that das faktory uses is), but certainly don't want to see anything turn dark and melty a few months or years down the road.

Pauls1150 said:

This brings up another question... With all the weatherproofing behind the headlight assembly, how hot will it actually get inside there when all the covers are closed up, and where & how is that heat going to dissipate? I love the idea of reducing the current thru that section of the wiring (especially considering how small the overall wiring that das faktory uses is), but certainly don't want to see anything turn dark and melty a few months or years down the road.

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That's a good question. A standard halogen H7 dissipates 55W, primarily from the "front" of the bulb (the glass envelop and the filament it encloses) which resides inside the reflector/lens portion of the headlight assembly. The H7 LED bulbs dissipate 20 - 24W primarily from the "back" of the bulb which resides in the back portion of the headlight assembly. I think it would be tough to do an apples to apples comparison on heat buildup without actually using temperature probes.

Despite all of that, the fact remains that the total power dissipation with an LED bulb is approximately half that of the halogen bulb. Seems to me that heat buildup shouldn't be a problem.