Headlight upgrade ?

Can’t you just install an h4 bulb?

Just because it looks bright against a garage door doesn't always mean it will work well in real life.

I've been pondering upon this for some time and believe Lucas came about this choice in lighting after much research, and settled upon the stock lamp realizing Norton riders would not appreciate what they were seeing any more or any less with higher lumens bulbs. Also due to vibration the brighter headlamps strobe effect could be hypnotic to oncoming traffic possibly causing increased accidents.....So see poor lighting could actually be considered a safety feature far ahead of its time....Anyone buying BS today?

batrider said:

Just because it looks bright against a garage door doesn't always mean it will work well in real life.

Click to expand...

That is correct. Reason is the replacement bulb may not have the light emitter at the precisely correct location within the reflector shell. An incandescent bulb has a relatively large filament compared to an led. A filament also emits light in all directions around the wire while an led is much more limited directionally. Ideally the reflector and light source should be designed as a complete system rather than using modern leds in forty plus year old reflector designs. But improvements over stock setup are still easy to achieve as noted by previous posts.

The drop in BPF from the Bonneville Shop is said to have been very recently redesigned for better focus at distance.
I have yet to ride at night with it, may give it a try this weekend. It illuminates my shop gate clearly from the shop. The shop is 200' from the gate.
I compared it to a 60watt halogen H4 for this and the LED appeared to throw a bit more light on the gate.
The 60watt H4 is excellent for night riding, so this bodes well for the LED.

Glen