Headlights - LED or Halogen

[FUNTIMENOW]

Headlights - wanted to replace OEM halogens with LED headlights lights for better visibility, safety, etc. During my 2 days of googling, installing, checking, etc .... gees!! I learned that LED's are not totally cool and get hot. The back side can get up to 160 degrees and its in a small closed plastic shell (back of headlight housing). So, that area is probably going maintain a temperature equal to the heat output of the LED heatsink. The melting point of wires is around 190 degrees. Over time the plastic, wires, housing would probably get brittle and possibly fail.
I opted to remove the LED's and go with a Philips H7 Longlife Ecovision 1500 lumens, 3100k, 1500 hours expected life. There are brighter, special halogens but life cycle on some of them drops, sometimes to 200 hours. Give me longer life cycle, less hastle. Amazon hasn't delivered them yet so I can't say how the will work but reviews were good.

Why did I do that? Heat build up, I try to not ride at night getting off the road no later than 5:00 and I don't like problems. I hear of many successes but this was my choice .... Here is an interesting article I just ran across.
https://www.autolist.com/guides/halogen-vs-led-headlights

 

[Sierra1]

For me, it's not so much led v. halogen. I don't like projection. They're to finicky to aiming. They're narrow beam makes them sensitive to angles. Especially on bikes. A heavy load sags the back and send the beam into the sky.

 

[bimota]

had mine in 2 yrs now with deftoner,s caps great bit of kit and no issues led all the way

 

[Alexander]

FWIW, I'm one of the few here who's not terribly happy with Novsight LEDs. I don't have much invested, as they're super cheap and I printed my own ABS caps, but the light output is not noticeably better than the stock halogens, just a bluer color.

Being unsatisfied, I've since installed an LED light bar and two pod lights from Harbor Freight (-only $100 total for all three lights) for when I'm riding out in the country, and they are actually excellent for the price -- night visibility is now better than on any vehicle I've ever owned. Hugely better than the factory lighting. And if one of them breaks, so what, it's $27~50 to replace.

I'm considering going back to halogen headlights, or adapting the H7 socket to use a D2S HID setup I have laying around (with high-quality OEM Denso ballasts). The LEDs are more power efficient, but I love night riding and care more about visibility.

Please let us know how you like the Philips Ecovision.

 

[SHUMBA]

Hmmm...I like lots of very bright lights.
I added three powerful LEDS to my bike, one one each crash bar and one beneath the headlights.
The Tenere's OEM headlights are a disgrace and not worthy of DOT approval.
In addition to the extra lighting you also the safety of a pattern of the extra daytime lights, and thats primarily why I install extra lights to all of my bikes, not just so I can see better, but so the idiot cagers can see me.
SHUMBA

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk