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Now that I've got my bike mostly apart I was thinking maybe I should upgrade the headlights to LED. What I have learned from the forum and seen others do seems a little pricey to me. Is this really what they cost or is there a better solution/price out there?

The F2's are what I have..... a lighting engineer who calls himself spiderman on the ST forum worked with the supplier to get them close to DOT compliant. Many of the LED's are now there also. Order direct.... current price has come down... ~U$37 and they come right to your mailbox in a coupla weeks.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305562 ... 4c4dWjTxyf

raYzerman wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 12:01 pm The F2's are what I have..... a lighting engineer who calls himself spiderman on the ST forum worked with the supplier to get them close to DOT compliant. Many of the LED's are now there also. Order direct.... current price has come down... ~U$37 and they come right to your mailbox in a coupla weeks.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305562 ... 4c4dWjTxyf

That's great, and the price is right! Thanks!

Ditto on the F2 pictured. Good lights.

Alright, since I am a child and dumb as a stone and will mess ANYTHING up.
I want to order a {6000k}-------{H4/9003/HB2 Hi/Lo}----set, right??

Yes, H4/9003.

How do you clip those bulbs into the housing with that big heatsink in the way?

RacinRay wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 10:06 am How do you clip those bulbs into the housing with that big heatsink in the way?

I can’t speak specifically to the F2s shown but on all the
ones I’ve installed the LEDs separate from the mounting
plate for installation. Neat and easy.

What Jim says... I believe all of them separate from the mounting plate, install the plate, install rubber boot and then the bulb.

raYzerman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:14 pm What Jim says...

Who's Jim?

ice_station_zebra wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:04 am Now that I've got my bike mostly apart I was thinking maybe I should upgrade the headlights to LED. What I have learned from the forum and seen others do seems a little pricey to me. Is this really what they cost or is there a better solution/price out there?

Update: Ordered these Jan 23 off Aliexpress and they still have not shipped. Best estimate was that I wouldn't receive them until the end of March, so I cancelled the order. I have to get on with it and ordered these off Amazon prime yesterday for delivery today. Much like the F2's with low beam shields and DOT....maybe 10% brighter. There are lots of comparables out there, so if I dont like these they'll go back on Monday and I'll keep looking. I paid $60 Cdn with a coupon and $4 Cdn for next day delivery.

From what I have seen of replacement LEDs, brighter is rarely better. Beam pattern is critical as is color temperature.
I get pretty pissed at cars with horribly glaring LEDs without a proper beam pattern. Even worse are the (typically) Harleys with super bright blue-tinted LEDs - poor beam pattern too. These are even distracting in full daylight on two-lane roads.

Those ones look OK. Hope they work for you.

FJRoss wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:10 pm From what I have seen of replacement LEDs, brighter is rarely better. Beam pattern is critical as is color temperature.
I get pretty pissed at cars with horribly glaring LEDs without a proper beam pattern. Even worse are the (typically) Harleys with super bright blue-tinted LEDs - poor beam pattern too. These are even distracting in full daylight on two-lane roads.

Those ones look OK. Hope they work for you.

I also get pissed with blinding led's from on coming traffic, especially vehicles like pickups which have a higher ride height than my sedan. These leds are 6500 lumens (transitional, not blue blue) and I'll be checking beam pattern to make sure the low beam sheilds are effective.

Colour temperature determines colour... 5000K range is more like halogen, 6000K is more blue. More than 6000K is not what you want. You can see stuff better if more yellow more or less like halogen, need to pump out more lumens if bluer, thus the tendency to pump out 6000+ lumens. Keep in mind the reflectors designed for halogens aren't optimal for LED's. I'd still rather have them than the 2016 up FJR OEM LED headlights, not as many lumens.....
Copy of my post on another forum........ I am way over-simplifying this......
My good friend on another forum who is a lighting engineer who worked with Evitek (G6's, F2's) to get closer to DOT..... says nothing is DOT 'certified' as that is a beaurocratic process that will take years. Simply, the newer ones are all copying each other trying to get closer to the definition of DOT compliant in the beam pattern. They in fact may be out of compliance by having too many lumens..
Those LED Eagles look exactly like the F2's except for the packaging and logos..... coincidence?

A little FYI, the LED behind the shield is the low beam, the other is the high beam. the big issue was (a) no shields on the early ones, e.g., older Cyclops, thus light just spewing out everywhere, (B) the high beam LED not properly placed. The LED's have to be placed exactly where the (already meet the standard) halogen filaments are to get the proper beam pattern. Almost there, now who is going to submit to DOT?

Just make sure you install with the shields
in the correct position.
It will seem counterintuitive.

Avoid blue. It masks debris in the road at night. Something about how the eye sees blue versus white, etc.

While the majority of this article talks about blue-tinting on bulbs (which is worth knowing) but also delves into how it can affect seeing AND being-seen.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... d/bad.html

The article explains why the pupils stay open further in the blue light than yellow. This explains why they are so obnoxious to me!

raYzerman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:14 pm What Jim says... I believe all of them separate from the mounting plate, install the plate, install rubber boot and then the bulb.

Like this