Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

[arya809]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Auxbeam LED
Cyclops LED
Night eye LED

If you can buy the genuine brands straight from their website or chinese sellers, then all these are good but quite expensive. Don't even think about buying these from Indian online sellers like Amazon and flipkart, all of those sellers are selling FAKE products under those brand names.

[yashasvi]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

A very informative thread indeed...I need feedback from xBhpians on the performance of the following brands of LEDs preferably in use on Royal Enfield bikes.

1. Would request you to rate them as per experience

Auxbeam LED
Cyclops LED
Night eye LED

2. How is the performance of Maddog Aux lights. Would like to know the best mounting position based on experience..Is the fork mounting option really good or is it better to mount the aux lights near the headlamp. Also are the Maddog LED Aux lights really capable of withstanding a Ladakh ride without causing catastrophic damage to the bikes wiring etc...

Looking forward to receiving your valuable feedback...

We have to install the auxiliary lights well below the headlight as per the law, the maddog aux looks pretty good in the youtube videos and people recommend them as well. Maddog even has wiring kits for the aux lights which you purchase, looks pretty robust and secure and will result in no open end wires, which is the main cause of faults.

[arya809]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

We have to install the auxiliary lights well below the headlight as per the law, the maddog aux looks pretty good in the youtube videos and people recommend them as well. Maddog even has wiring kits for the aux lights which you purchase, looks pretty robust and secure and will result in no open end wires, which is the main cause of faults.

Hey, I have recently installed aux fog LED lights on my Dominar's crash guard. I could have easily installed it near the headlight, but I wanted it to be as discreet as possible.

BTW which "law" are you talking about, care to explain? AFAIK, all after market lights are disallowed by Motor vehicle Act, especially bright headlights. And I couldn't find anything about aux light & its height with respect to the stock headlight.

Some youtubers (from Delhi) have claimed that we can avoid getting a challan by putting a COVER on aux led lamps.

[MENTION=106745]Chakrapani[/MENTION]
Maddog is not an exclusive manufacturer like auxbeam. They are an Indian third party seller, importing from China. They are hugely overpriced, 4 times the price on chinese websites. I would suggest you to wait a couple of months then buy aux led lights straight from Aliexpress. Right now, Indian customs is overloaded due to backlog of imported goods, resulting in huge delays in deliveries to end customer. I myself will start buying from Aliexpress from December.

Presently, Indian customs have become strict about "gift" items. They straight away slap 40% GST on all imports, no matter the price. On rare occasions, some products escape such duty due to negligence or owning to tiny package size. But you should be prepared to pay 40% duty on top of the price of the item while buying on Aliexpress. BUT it will be still MUCH CHEAPER than the price asked by Maddog for its plain old led aux lights.

[Chakrapani]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Hey, I have recently installed aux fog LED lights on my Dominar's crash guard. I could have easily installed it near the headlight, but I wanted it to be as discreet as possible.

BTW which "law" are you talking about, care to explain? AFAIK, all after market lights are disallowed by Motor vehicle Act, especially bright headlights. And I couldn't find anything about aux light & its height with respect to the stock headlight.

Some youtubers (from Delhi) have claimed that we can avoid getting a challan by putting a COVER on aux led lamps.

[MENTION=106745]Chakrapani[/MENTION]
Maddog is not an exclusive manufacturer like auxbeam. They are an Indian third party seller, importing from China. They are hugely overpriced, 4 times the price on chinese websites. I would suggest you to wait a couple of months then buy aux led lights straight from Aliexpress. Right now, Indian customs is overloaded due to backlog of imported goods, resulting in huge delays in deliveries to end customer. I myself will start buying from Aliexpress from December.

Presently, Indian customs have become strict about "gift" items. They straight away slap 40% GST on all imports, no matter the price. On rare occasions, some products escape such duty due to negligence or owning to tiny package size. But you should be prepared to pay 40% duty on top of the price of the item while buying on Aliexpress. BUT it will be still MUCH CHEAPER than the price asked by Maddog for its plain old led aux lights.

Thanks for your valuable inputs. I always had this doubt about Maddog being a third party reseller for Chinese goods, but could never get a confirmation of the same.

I shall keep in mind your suggestions. Possibly have someone coming from abroad bring aux lights along. Are there any Indian brands of repute who manufacture aux lights...

[rsk_kelkar]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Hi Guys, I've ordered NightEye LED bulb from different sellers on Amazon and have compared them all for physical appearances to spot the fake ones. The light output of the genuine one is just a bit better than the fake but the difference is noticeable.
I'd like to point out though that even using the genuine product doesn't ensure best light throw. Will post pictures and some ideas to improve the light output from the reflector type setup of your bikes soon. Meanwhile here's a document to help you confirm authenticity of the product received.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15JnMS55IUhTUXDvfTJ6s6CITp_J4FMnM/view?usp=sharing

Sorry for heavily watermarking the pages.

[arya809]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Thanks for your valuable inputs. I always had this doubt about Maddog being a third party reseller for Chinese goods, but could never get a confirmation of the same.

I shall keep in mind your suggestions. Possibly have someone coming from abroad bring aux lights along. Are there any Indian brands of repute who manufacture aux lights...

I was searching for the perfect aux spot light for a year. All the current available options have shallow reflector bowls which can never focus the light beyond 50 meters, however powerful the led drivers. I came to that conclusion after carefully studying the led lights, their reflector design and youtube reviewers. In short, they all claim to throw light till 100 kms but in reality act like a FLOOD light only.

I finally bought this one and am more than satisfied:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CClXJlFg0jo/

I liked the zoom in/out feature the most. If I want a wider pattern, I can easily adjust the zoom level, else keep it fully zoomed in to get an intense narrow beam which illuminates 300 meters easily! Search "kz30" on youtube for reviews and related videos. Please note, I am not advertising, just sharing my personal experience. Also, I couldn't find these "kz30" aux lights anywhere else for cheaper than that, if you do then tell me too, planning to buy it again for my Unicorn 160.

[acs1207]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Can the new-gen led h/l units be fitted onto older bikes? What is the power consumption of those lights?

[bf1983]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Can the new-gen led h/l units be fitted onto older bikes? What is the power consumption of those lights?

Depends on the bike. I have a Kawasaki Z650 which is a newish bike but it has an old school Halogen reflector set up.

I changed the stock halogen to a Auxbeam 8000 lumens LED bulb. The bulb came with a fan and driver which required me to cut up the dust cover in order to install it. However thats all the modification that was required. Halogen bulbs consume a good 55W of power and most LED bulbs consume around 30-40 watts which means no issues. Plus LEDs come with a built in fan to ensure they don't overheat. Halogen bulbs also heat up a lot so there is generally very little drawbacks to installing an LED bulb in a halogen bulb holder.

The main negatives is that the halogen housing reflector isn't designed for LED bulbs so the beam pattern is scattered and not well defined. LED bulbs give much brighter output and more defined less scattered light. However the brightness is still at least 3 times brighter than my stock Halogen bulb and since LEDs last a lot longer than halogen bulbs I shouldn't face much issues. Also LED bulbs come in the normal H7 or H4 connector and so are a direct fit with no cutting/splicing of wires required.

[princesirohi]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Depends on the bike. I have a Kawasaki Z650 which is a newish bike but it has an old school Halogen reflector set up.

I changed the stock halogen to a Auxbeam 8000 lumens LED bulb. The bulb came with a fan and driver which required me to cut up the dust cover in order to install it. However thats all the modification that was required. Halogen bulbs consume a good 55W of power and most LED bulbs consume around 30-40 watts which means no issues. Plus LEDs come with a built in fan to ensure they don't overheat. Halogen bulbs also heat up a lot so there is generally very little drawbacks to installing an LED bulb in a halogen bulb holder.

The main negatives is that the halogen housing reflector isn't designed for LED bulbs so the beam pattern is scattered and not well defined. LED bulbs give much brighter output and more defined less scattered light. However the brightness is still at least 3 times brighter than my stock Halogen bulb and since LEDs last a lot longer than halogen bulbs I shouldn't face much issues. Also LED bulbs come in the normal H7 or H4 connector and so are a direct fit with no cutting/splicing of wires required.

Where did u purchased it from?
For how much?
Fan and driver is waterproof?
What is d longest duration u hv ridden with headlight on?

[acs1207]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Depends on the bike. I have a Kawasaki Z650 which is a newish bike but it has an old school Halogen reflector set up.

I changed the stock halogen to a Auxbeam 8000 lumens LED bulb. The bulb came with a fan and driver which required me to cut up the dust cover in order to install it. However thats all the modification that was required. Halogen bulbs consume a good 55W of power and most LED bulbs consume around 30-40 watts which means no issues. Plus LEDs come with a built in fan to ensure they don't overheat. Halogen bulbs also heat up a lot so there is generally very little drawbacks to installing an LED bulb in a halogen bulb holder.

The main negatives is that the halogen housing reflector isn't designed for LED bulbs so the beam pattern is scattered and not well defined. LED bulbs give much brighter output and more defined less scattered light. However the brightness is still at least 3 times brighter than my stock Halogen bulb and since LEDs last a lot longer than halogen bulbs I shouldn't face much issues. Also LED bulbs come in the normal H7 or H4 connector and so are a direct fit with no cutting/splicing of wires required.

LED bulb in a reflector meant for a halogen bulb is a disaster. It blinds the oncoming traffic .

[bf1983]

Re: Let there be Light : Bike Lighting, HID etc

Where did u purchased it from?
For how much?
Fan and driver is waterproof?
What is d longest duration u hv ridden with headlight on?

Sorry I made a mistake on the name. I bought a Autobahn led f5 g-xp3. Bought it from the company website as I needed only a single piece. Amazon sells it as well as a pair. I have ridden for 3 hours max at a stretch. So far no issues. Ridden in the rain as well. However I would suggest you find a driverless led bulb. I bought a cougar motor wireless h4 bulb for my car. Its a direct fit without a driver or fan. No issues with that one either. But its very expensive in India and I can't find it as a single piece only as a pair.

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LED bulb in a reflector meant for a halogen bulb is a disaster. It blinds the oncoming traffic .

Not really. I don't use high beam that much. My bike has a beam leveler so I adjusted it to illuminate the road more. I rarely use high beam unless I don't see anybody on the road.

[siddhant]

Any suggestions for aux lights for my 2018 CBR250R? I already have stock LED lights but they seem good enough upto 60-70 kph only & have poor spread, which is felt at corners and turns. I generally don't ride much at night but want to get backup for those times when I have to ride 1-3 hours in the dark during touring. Budget is Rs 2500-4000.

[acs1207]

Recently I upgraded the electricals of my RX100 and now the headlight seems powerful enough with 60/55W bulbs. But the aftermarket reflector is a let down. The high beam seems to have too much spread. Which round reflector is best ? Nearly 3 decades back I had converted my 1st RX100 to 12v, ditched the OE headlight for a Bullet aftermarket and felt bliss. Any recommendations for another such feeling ?? 😎

[bobisbacktorock]

Some serious lighting upgrades :