I needed to use my new 6v positive earth LED headlight for the first time at the weekend on roads that were completely dark i.e. no house lights or street lights.

What a massive disappointment.

Dip and full beam were as bad as each other

I spent hours getting one to fit, had the reflector re-silvered; all in vain.

It is absolutely useless. Lots and lots of light, but none where you want it to be.

My advice would be that if you are considering a change over don't bother until better products come on the market.

This is only my personal experience, others may have had a better experience.

Regards

Pat

email (option): sacombsashtrees@hotmail.com

I came to the same conclusion a few years back, nice bright light but no focus. I would have thought the bulb would have been improved by now. Only any good for daytime light if that is what you need to do.

Tim W

email (option): t.j.walker@btinternet.com

I have just started to use a LED bulb from Paul Goff on my Shooting Star with good results. Unfortunately its only any good as a replacement for an H4 bulb. The LEDs need to be in exactly the same position as the filaments of a normal tungsten bulb, most of them aren't. You get lots of light but not focused.

I use LED's from Dynamo regulator conversions Ltd in Lincolnshire, Pete is very good with these things, I have great lights on my bikes, I would not use Goffs products I have not had much luck with his stuff. My bikes are mainly all 6v poss earth and he was the only bloke doing these at the time I bought them, a little pricey but as I say, you only get what you pay for, I think they were in the region of £60 for two, if I remember correctly. .

TTJohn

email (option): Jomichael@aol.com

+1 for TTJohn

Dynamo Regulator conversions sell good bulbs that are designed specifically for older British bikes and cars. They seem to work very well with good focused light.
http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com/online-shop-for-led-bulbs-and-light-boards-etc.php

email (option): cas.vanderwoude@gmail.com

They are the ones I used.

email (option): sacombsashtrees@hotmail.com

I also used Dynamoregulater bulbs on my Indian special to save the battery as it's coil ignition. But so far only used them at dusk and gloomy weather....I really must try it in the dark sometime. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I tried an LED in this headlight, but it made no difference! Anyhow, its a Matchless......lights are for wimps!

email (option): fergusanckorn@icloud.com

I forked out for a pair of the Double Dipper and I was bitterly dissapointed with the light or rather lack of light.
A nice bright white beam to read a newspaper or map held 1' away from the lamp with but as much use as tits on a bull when trying to ride.
My reflector had new silver plate some time ago but gives of a light good for 60 mph at night with the original 25 25 standard tungsten globe.
The double dipper was focused very carefully, out of the shell using a 12 V battery and it looked quite good , but in the bike puts out no useful light what so ever to the point of being dangerious.
A car 100' behind me creates a shadow that the pathetic feeble beam of non-light from 1/5 th of the reflector can not overcome, even on high beam with both of the chips glowing and using about 3/5th of the reflector it would still not illuminate my own shadow from other cars or even street lights..

Since the first time I fitted it I have also bought a high pressure halogen parking lamp and the 3W parking lamp provides a better light than the LED and it only cost $ 8.00 Aus not £ 40.
The parking light alone can overcome the street light shadows and shadows from cars with std headlamps on low beam till they are about 20' behind me.
So with some rewiring I now run with the parking lamp & the headlamp on together and have almost enough light to do just under 30 mph with relative safety on dark roads with very little traffic.

CREE LED's run at 3.1V so I first thought there must be voltage drop at the headlamp but when I checked there was 6.5 off the battery and 7.2 with the dynamo running so it was not my bike but to be doubly sure I also tried the light running off a 12 V cyclon battery with the dynamo disconnected.
The light was marginally better.
Now if I was in a car and there were 2 of them focused properly on the road they might just be acceptiable but on a bike with 1 globe they are lethal.

When I went into it it appears that the LED used only have a beam angle of 120 deg so looking at it directly from the front than means only 1/3 of the circumference of the reflector is reflecting light.
However the beam angle is a cone shape so when you plot the 120 deg front back you end up with 1/5 th of the surface area of the reflector reflecting light.
No wonder a chip that burns your eyes out if you look directly at it puts out so little useable light.
The LED sits on a fairly thick heat sink which itself cast a shadow on the opposite side of the reflector.
The same applies for the high beam.
To check this I aimed the beam on a wall and slowly moved backwards.
At 5 - 10 feet you got a good light but as you went further back, the light seperated into 2 distinct sort of drip & upside down drip shapes making up a figure of 8 with the most intense light being directly on the front wheel or 10' in the air.
At 20' from the wall the 2 beams diverged and the light became totally hollow with no light what so ever at the sides ( which is why I could not see the sides of the road ).
I gave it my best shot, no one likes pissing £ 40 up against the wall but there is no way to get useful light out of this globe.
Finally I strapped my dolphin torch to the bike that uses multiple plain LEDs in a dimpled reflector.
And yes , it gave out a much more useful beam of light.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Am I wrong in saying they still do not use LEDs for car headlights? Just running lights and indicators, etc. Presumably because they don't work! Which makes it a bit of a scandal that these things are sold as headlight bulbs.....grounds for claiming full refund as unfit for use?

Yes, I AM wrong, newer cars DO have LED headlights! But I posed this query on another website and found that a lot of people had fitted them to older bikes with mixed.....but a acceptable results, eg..

"I have a LED bulb from Paul Goff on my Shooting Star. It is an H4 style bulb fitted in a Wipac Quadoptic unit the beam pattern is very good on dip not quite as good on main beam as a Halogen bulb but with only 20 watts used it's easier on the dynamo."

Suggestion was that there is a reflector depth/bulb design issue here.

email (option): fergusanckorn@icloud.com