LED main, pilot & stop/tail light upgrade.

2) unplug the pilot and warning bulbs

Disconnecting the warning bulb has been tried. The pilot bulb has no earth/ground wire connected so would perhaps have to rely on the rim to shell and shell earth/ground harness red connection with no ground wire attached to the pilot bub holder.

3) reverse the blue/white blue/green connections in the headlight shell to the LED

Yes, easily done ("blue/green" is blue/red).

4) install the headlight ring on the shell

There should be no need to do so in order to test the headlamp bulb (or check the dip beam pattern) because it has an earth/ground connection to harness red (solderless bullet connection on the BPF bulb holder).
 
Hope I haven't missed it. Take the beam unit with bulb and connector to the workbench and test. That completely eliminates everything but the beam unit, bulb and socket. If it fails there, remove the socket and check resistance between the beam unit and bulb - must be zero - the beam unit can look clean but still not conduct.

Those bulbs do not work right if there is any leakage current to the lead not powered - that's why the warning light causes problems. I realize it's been tried but capacitive coupling has not been eliminated which will be by getting it away from the bike.
 
Disconnecting the warning bulb has been tried. The pilot bulb has no earth/ground wire connected so would perhaps have to rely on the rim to shell and shell earth/ground harness red connection with no ground wire attached to the pilot bub holder.



Yes, easily done ("blue/green" is blue/red).



There should be no need to do so in order to test the headlamp bulb (or check the dip beam pattern) because it has an earth/ground connection to harness red (solderless bullet connection on the BPF bulb holder).

Les,
Guess 2 out of 4 ain't bad. So is that 50% wrong or 50% right? LOL
 
Going back to post #13...
OK, so I have swapped the original headlight bulb to Paul Goffs Daylighter BPF LED bulb, however, when on dip beam, both the upper & lower side are lit (i.e. high beam). Flicking the r/h handlebar switch up, or pressing the 'flasher' button (green light on the outer shell illuminated) knocks out the upper side of the LED's (i.e. low beam).

...However, according to the Paul Goff website information:

"When lit the dip is the lower set of LEDs (the same side as the cutout), & on main both sides are alight."
 
Tried that Nigel.

Shut the garage door and used that for an impression of the beam.

Definitely the reverse of what it should be.

I've sent an email to Goffy and I'll post any notes that come up. In the meantime I'll try Les's jumper suggestion.
I had the same issue, I contacted Paul and he said he had not heard of this problem before !!
 
I had the same issue, I contacted Paul and he said he had not heard of this problem before !!
How did you resolve the issue Colin?

PG has asked me to return the bulb and he'll send out another 'tested' one.
 
To be honest i have lived with it , but i do know LED lamps can cause weird issues
not unusual China quality control is poor bought 2 led bulbs for my car one was correct the other was backwards therefor switching the beam one light was on high and the other on low and vice versa I cut and switched the wires on one side the light output is great but China's quality control is bad
 
not unusual China quality control is poor bought 2 led bulbs for my car one was correct the other was backwards therefor switching the beam one light was on high and the other on low and vice versa I cut and switched the wires on one side the light output is great but China's quality control is bad
No sure you can generalise about a country of 1,412,000,000 people and say everything they do has poor quality control.

The LED rear lights on my car were made in Canada and they leak and have been replaced three times, but it doesn't make me think that everything Canada produces is poor quality.
 
No sure you can generalise about a country of 1,412,000,000 people and say everything they do has poor quality control.

The LED rear lights on my car were made in Canada and they leak and have been replaced three times, but it doesn't make me think that everything Canada produces is poor quality.
Absolutely.

The Chinese are perfectly capable of excellent QC.

Its just that they often choose not to be with the products they flood the market with !
 
For those with an H4 shell and an incandescent high beam indicator bulb this one works fine in my positive ground Commando...got it at Amazon

LED main, pilot & stop/tail light upgrade.

Glad to hear it - Amazon delivered mine yesterday - will try it as soon as I finish the wiring.
Did quite a bit of testing today - here's the good:
1) The bulb works correctly both high an low beam with positive ground.
2) The bulb works correctly both high an low beam with negative ground.
3) It works properly with a standard incandescent warning lamp trying both polarities.
4) It works properly with a LED warning lamp trying both polarities.

Here's the only two bad things. The base is about 1/16-3/32" larger diameter which made it harder to get in one beam unit tried and no harder in another. Also, the base length it about 1/4" longer than the H4 Halogen bulbs I removed. In both cases they work fine - just a little extra fiddling.
 
Last edited:
Absolutely.

The Chinese are perfectly capable of excellent QC.

Its just that they often choose not to be with the products they flood the market with !
Or more specifically, they'll deliver the quality the customer requests - PPE, anyone?

Lucas (Wassells) have just started marketing LED bulbs. Blurb below:

LUCAS LED BPF Headlight Bulb 6-24V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulb
6-24V British Pre Focus
Sold each
Headlight Bulb - LED
Dual Polarity so can be used on 6V and 12V positive ground and negative ground systems
Dip Beam 510/520 lm output, High Beam 970/980 lm output
Power Consumption :-
6V system low beam 2.7W, high beam 5.7W
12 Volt system low beam 2.64W, high beam 5.52W

LUCAS LED BAY15D Stop/Tail Bulb 12V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulb
12V BAY15D
Sold each
Stop/Tail Bulb with projector lens - LED
Dual polarity so can be used on both positive and negative ground systems
High Output Red LED chips are used for stop light
Power consumption (Rear Lamp) :- 1.8W with brake light intensity of 620lm

LUCAS LED BA9S Pilot/Instrument Bulbs 12V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulbs
12V BA9S - Pack of 10
Pilot/Instrument Bulbs - LED
Dual polarity so can be used on both positive and negative ground systems
Power Consumption : 0.1W

No indicator bulbs listed. I'll order some in and see what they're like.
All my bikes were converted to H4 as a matter of course, but I still have some old BPF ones lying around
 
Or more specifically, they'll deliver the quality the customer requests - PPE, anyone?

Lucas (Wassells) have just started marketing LED bulbs. Blurb below:

LUCAS LED BPF Headlight Bulb 6-24V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulb
6-24V British Pre Focus
Sold each
Headlight Bulb - LED
Dual Polarity so can be used on 6V and 12V positive ground and negative ground systems
Dip Beam 510/520 lm output, High Beam 970/980 lm output
Power Consumption :-
6V system low beam 2.7W, high beam 5.7W
12 Volt system low beam 2.64W, high beam 5.52W

LUCAS LED BAY15D Stop/Tail Bulb 12V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulb
12V BAY15D
Sold each
Stop/Tail Bulb with projector lens - LED
Dual polarity so can be used on both positive and negative ground systems
High Output Red LED chips are used for stop light
Power consumption (Rear Lamp) :- 1.8W with brake light intensity of 620lm

LUCAS LED BA9S Pilot/Instrument Bulbs 12V
Genuine Lucas Classic Motorcycle LED Bulbs
12V BA9S - Pack of 10
Pilot/Instrument Bulbs - LED
Dual polarity so can be used on both positive and negative ground systems
Power Consumption : 0.1W

No indicator bulbs listed. I'll order some in and see what they're like.
All my bikes were converted to H4 as a matter of course, but I still have some old BPF ones lying around
I have been discussing these with Wassell and received comprehensive test results for the high-beam only and flashing problems.

I'll be selling these soon but with caveats. The Wassell BPF headlight bulbs require the warning indicator to use the Wassell warning light bulb or none for the high-beam warning light. They also require that the ground to the bulb is perfect. I'm not at liberty to provide the testing document but will ask for permission.

AFAIK, Wassell now carries replacements for all original bulbs in non-polarity LEDs (not H4)
 
@Bonzo how’s your bulb mystery developing ?

Hi mate,

I returned the (faulty?) led for PG to test, and he rang me back and confirmed that he could find no fault and had tested a few of his other bulbs and they're all as they should be too.

He was confused as to how it was 'reversing' on my bike, but told me to swap the wiring over. He threw in an led warning lamp to try in case that was impacting.

I have the returned led and I'll have a play over the weekend 👍
 
Back
Top