LED replacement bulbs

I've been disappointed in those I've tried on *motorcycles. The ones that I notice being bright on cars seem to be the large-area custom made type rather than just an LED bulb.

miker

*Altho safety is of course always important, many guys with older machines would really like to reduce electrical load due to weak alternators/generators and LEDs pull a lot less current. I would have been happy with even equal brightness and reduced load, but I didn't see it.

thanks miker. i have been looking since i posted and found a faq at a place called

that is brief but straightforward... it talks about bulb count, reflective lens covers, and bulb color as related to brightness and that, as you experianced, they do not usually appear to be brighter than regular bulbs. interestingly it says that you should get the same color led bulb as the lens for best brightness and color(red leds for red brake light - as opposed to white one). also says that most are not appear brighter because they mostly send light point directly out and so do not fill the reflectors in most lens... but the light is more concentrated in the spot that faces out. also notes and issue with fast flashing for turn signals in some cars as well as false indication of burnt out lights due to the lower resistance of these led bulbs. they do have a solution for that, a resistor to connect in line. so it seems these are not really what i thought they were. seems mostly for people with clear lens that want to look good with clear bulbs by day that light up red or yellow at night... i do like the instant on/off of these bulbs produce. it really catches your eye when someone is breaking or turning with them.

miker wrote on 09/27/06 06:09:

Yup. Brainstorm used to have an LED 3rd-brake light module, and that works fine and is as bright as the normal 3rd brake light. In particular since I got this to flash, people notice it:

I'm stopped at a red light, some in the next lane over tell me that mybrake light flashes...

-Joe

And on a bike, doesn't light up your license plate! :)

The flashing rate can also sometimes be fixed with an electronic or "wide-load-range" flasher unit. The resistors are in parallel to make the LED draw the same current as a regular bulb would, so that was no help to me.

Good luck!

miker