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Hi all - anyone tried swapping to LED headlamp bulbs? I want to keep the original Aprilia lamp as it looks right, but reduced power consumption seems like a good idea. The bulb in there now is a 6V 25/25 with BA20d base. There seems to be lots of options for LED replacements (for example http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEDPremium-1x ... SwZ~lZszsw), but a recommendation based on experience would be nice.

Ian

Do it to be seen, but not to ride at night with. LEDs are more noticeable due to the very white light, but I would not want to try and see anything with it. He is claiming 500 Lm which is not very light, and I would like to know where he gets that figure from in the first place.
if you search ebay you will find that they all come from China and start at 99p each. It is worth experimenting at that price.

The only BA20d LED I could find are cheap Chinese types.
Other LED headlights don't seem to have that base style.
That likely means a change of headlamp lens too, not ideal.

I bought the Chinese BA20d LED bulb.
Curiously, it would work in a range of supply voltages, about 6 to 30 volts I think.
At 6V, it gave an impressive beam, noticeably brighter than a standard incandescent bulb.
There was no dip going from high to low beam. It just became not as bright, so could have been a problem with dazzling oncoming traffic.
It had a single LED cluster. Some have two.
After little use, it would no longer work on one of the beams - forget which one.
Some of the small LEDs in the array could be seen to be discoloured, probably burnt out.

Interesting to try, but not successful.
As it is with Chinese stuff, I might have better luck next time.

The trouble is that they are all made in China. There is no car or bike manufacturer in the world who uses an LED bulb in a reflector headlight and so no big car electrical manufacturers make them. Even if you buy from an EU country, I'll bet they came from ebay China.
An LED will never be placed in exactly the correct place in the reflector as a standard filament bulb will, so the light could go anywhere.

Thanks for the replies. It's true that OEM LED headlamps typically use lenses in front of the LED's but we use LED worklamps at work, and they often have small reflectors surrounding each LED like this - http://www.grote.com/products/63981-tri ... k-lighting

I also put the same query up on the VMCC forum and 2 people have come back with recommendations for http://www.dynamoregulatorconversions.com so I'll email them for a bit of advice. They have a BA20d fitting for classic cars/bikes with 2 LED's for dip and main beam. A bit more expensive than the ebay Chinese options. I guess the key thing is to get the light source at the focal point of the reflector, whether it is LED or filament.

Check out this one. Seems pretty powerful for LED and not too expensive - http://formulaj87.com/LED-Light-Bulb-80 ... p_920.html

From my limited knowledge, I'm not sure that would work well. The key thing is get the LED's in the same place as the filaments would be in a bulb. I am going to order from "dynamoregulatorconversions" and will let you know I get on.

Ian

I just received and installed the bulb I linked to above and it does look like it mimics the position of the filament in a halogen. This will be fine for daytime running. Have not been able to run the bike with the new bulb installled as I have the bike winterized already, but the quality of the product looks very good.

I found that with the standard 6v system the led bulb I fitted pulsed at low revs and was not particularly any brighter than the original bulb. The led stated that it was 6-24v.
I purchased a 12v alternator system from ElectrexWorld and it transformed the light output and stopped the pulsing.