Motorcycle 7" led question

Virgil what option would you consider the better all around led, on a motorcycle with a single 7" headlight, the Peterson or the Truck-lite?
I have a lot of time behind the H-D marketed JW Speaker and won't consider it, and won't be getting the new adaptive JW Speaker any time soon.
I have ridden alongside a Peterson and consider it pretty decent. Never seen a Truck-Lite.

Question #2, I've only found 5.75" hi/low beam led's from JW Speaker. Are any other decent choices out there? For use (as a pair) with the aforementioned 7" main light.

JTMcC said:

Virgil what option would you consider the better all around led, on a motorcycle with a single 7" headlight, the Peterson or the Truck-lite?

Click to expand...

I'd say probably the Peterson 701C, though the Truck-Lite is good in motorcycle applications, too.

I've only found 5.75" hi/low beam led's from JW Speaker. Are any other decent choices out there?

Click to expand...

Not so far, no.

Ok, thanks, I was inclined thata way.

Would you rate the Peterson led, better than a 7" Cibie with relays/heavy wiring? I don't have a ton of alternator output of course but plenty to run one of those.
But the Peterson led would allow me capacity to add a couple 5.57 hi/low leds later. I ride a lot of night miles.

Are the Cibie 5.57 hi/lows worth considering as "additional" lighting w/a Peterson 7" main headlight? Just wanting to add more legal light, and hopefully width considering the critters always come out at night. And I want to add low beam and hi, as opposed to just aux. hi's. Lot's of low beam riding in my world.

JTMcC said:

Would you rate the Peterson led, better than a 7" Cibie with relays/heavy wiring?

Click to expand...

Yes, though there are intermediate steps in between those two. You might check with Dan Stern about it.

But the Peterson led would allow me capacity to add a couple 5.57 hi/low leds later

Click to expand...

That's a good reason to get the LED unit.

Are the Cibie 5.57 hi/lows worth considering as "additional" lighting w/a Peterson 7" main headlight?

Click to expand...

Not really, no. Nobody's 5.75" H4 lamp is worth a tinker's damn in terms of actual, useful light. "You cannae violate the laws of physics!" as Scotty used to say on Star Trek; that's a small reflector, and then you only get to use half of it on the low beam setting because of the H4's internal shield.

Just wanting to add more legal light, and hopefully width

Click to expand...

I'd put in a pair of Hella Bifocal H1 low beams. I get mine from Stern. Low beam with a VERY wide sweep of light, completely compatible with use in traffic. (Of course, there are JW Speaker LEDs in the 5.75" size, and they're very good, they even have an adaptive one now that shape-shifts the beam to throw light in your path even when you're banking in a curve or turn, but your wallet may not stand for it.)

-Virgil- said:

(Of course, there are JW Speaker LEDs in the 5.75" size, and they're very good, they even have an adaptive one now that shape-shifts the beam to throw light in your path even when you're banking in a curve or turn, but your wallet may not stand for it.)

Click to expand...

But then again, if you're going for an LED 7" lamp in the first place, the 8790 adaptive headlamp would be perfect (and better than the original "H-D"-branded Speaker you have experience with). (Oh, and then imagine that and the two 5.75" Speakers flanking it, but you might want to wait for your lottery winnings to go THAT big.)

-Virgil- said:

I'd put in a pair of Hella Bifocal H1 low beams. I get mine from Stern. Low beam with a VERY wide sweep of light, completely compatible with use in traffic. (Of course, there are JW Speaker LEDs in the 5.75" size, and they're very good, they even have an adaptive one now that shape-shifts the beam to throw light in your path even when you're banking in a curve or turn, but your wallet may not stand for it.)

Click to expand...

The Hella Bifocal low beam certainly seems cost effective....but, I was hoping to find a smaller than 7" option that would give up both low AND high beam goodness. I may be reaching for a bridge too far. If that is available I'd like to find it. If not, OK.

Might be the best option available today is the Peterson 7" main light flanked by a pair of JW Peterson 5.75 led Hi/lows.

Or, 3 Peterson 7", tho that's a whole lotta lights hanging off the front.
Thanks for the input.

-Virgil- said:

Yes, though there are intermediate steps in between those two. You might check with Dan Stern about it.



I'm curious now, what intermediate steps? I'm fairly sold on the Peterson led and it's price but would consider other options.








Not really, no. Nobody's 5.75" H4 lamp is worth a tinker's damn in terms of actual, useful light.

Click to expand...

That's what I needed to know.

Alaric Darconville said:

But then again, if you're going for an LED 7" lamp in the first place, the 8790 adaptive headlamp would be perfect (and better than the original "H-D"-branded Speaker you have experience with). (Oh, and then imagine that and the two 5.75" Speakers flanking it, but you might want to wait for your lottery winnings to go THAT big.)

Click to expand...

Peterson led at $180 ea. vs. JW Speaker 8790 at $800 is a no brainer too me. 3 of the Peterson's for about $600 installed.

And until I've actually ridden some mileage in dark/wet places with it, I wouldn't say "it would be perfect". At least for me.

Plus I don't suffer from the "full lock turn blackness" with a JW Speaker non adaptive light as much as a moto with the headlight mounted to the forks (fixed fairing mount), it's still too much for me to want to bear every day (night).

There are several posts on the forum recomending the non adaptive JW Peterson light for motos, I was about to order one when my job situation required me to put several thousand miles on H-D daylighter equipped bikes after sundown and I was very happy I didn't order one.
Real 2 wheel experience can sometimes trump opinions based on what one has read concerning how great a lamp functions on 4 wheel vehicles.

JTMcC said:

There are several posts on the forum recomending the non adaptive JW Peterson light for motos, I was about to order one when my job situation required me to put several thousand miles on H-D daylighter equipped bikes after sundown and I was very happy I didn't order one.
Real 2 wheel experience can sometimes trump opinions based on what one has read concerning how great a lamp functions on 4 wheel vehicles.

Click to expand...

Well, they may have recommended the non-adaptive JW Speakers based on their own "real-world experience" (whatever that is). They're still based on *opinions* but the facts are the adaptive lamps are better than the non-adaptive lamps on a motorcycle, because fixed-fairing headlamp mounting or not, a motorcycle leans much more in turns than a car does and the adaptive function will compensate.

I expect your main issue with the Daylighters is that their cutoff is too sharp for motorcycle usage (the sharper the cutoff, the worse the 'black curtain' effect). If you're going to stay with the non-adaptive type, certainly get the Petersons-- they're fine lamps and will perform quite well. But the performance of Speaker's *adaptive* headlamps will be objectively better and much more comfortable to drive behind (if not as comfortable on your wallet).

JTMcC said:

The Hella Bifocal low beam certainly seems cost effective....but, I was hoping to find a smaller than 7" option that would give up both low AND high beam goodness.

Click to expand...

One Bifocal and one Cibie H1 high beam.

Alaric Darconville said:

Well, they may have recommended the non-adaptive JW Speakers based on their own "real-world experience" (whatever that is). They're still based on *opinions* but the facts are the adaptive lamps are better than the non-adaptive lamps on a motorcycle, because fixed-fairing headlamp mounting or not, a motorcycle leans much more in turns than a car does and the adaptive function will compensate.

Click to expand...

The point is, extrapolating the JW Speaker, acknowledged as the best 7" led light on the market for 4 wheel vehicles, as the best 7" led for motorcycle use is an iffy game. I'm sure those who recommended it were well intentioned and considered it the best available.
But in real world use, actually riding a motorcycle many miles in the dark, shows that it's a very, very good headlight (compared to most moto lights) and actually fun to ride behind until you are in full lock or close to full lock turns in a dark place. Then you're just hopin' against hope, that nothing looms more than 6' in front of you.

It's (really) nice that JW Speaker saw the limitation and made a fix for it, good on them.

And as far as the fixed fairing vs fork mounted, fork mounted lights go straight into the ground in a full lock turn where the fixed fairing does not. It's a large difference, and a H-D branded JW (non adaptive) light works considerable better in a fixed fairing vs a fork mounted.. But frame mounted has it's own limitations in that scenario.

How many miles have you ridden behind a JWS adaptive light?

-Virgil- said:

One Bifocal and one Cibie H1 high beam.

Click to expand...

I've thought about that but, the 2 aux lights would likely be mounted farther back from the front than the main headlight. And I'm concerned about losing light to the opposite side, that is the light that should be hitting the road is actually wasted hitting the side of the fairing/bike.

But mounted up front, that seems to be a good solution. The quest goes on, thanks for the input.

JTMcC said:

The point is, extrapolating the JW Speaker, acknowledged as the best 7" led light on the market for 4 wheel vehicles, as the best 7" led for motorcycle use is an iffy game.

Click to expand...

The actual point is, extrapolating from one JWS headlamp to another is an iffy game.

But in real world use

Click to expand...

This argument fails just about every single time it's made, because what most people mean when they talk about the "real world" is along the lines of "Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, candela, lux, isoplots, photogoniometers, whatever. I don't drive in a lab and measure whether I can see with a machine, I drive on roads and I know what I can see with my eyes!". The problem is, it's mostly a testimony to the gap between actual performance of a headlamp and the subjective perception it creates. Our (human) visual system is not an accurate self-assessor of how well it's working, particularly under mesopic conditions (mix of dark and light, as in night driving). One can very easily create the subjective impression of seeing ability much better or much worse than actual. Foreground light, above a certain rather low level, does not materially contribute to actual seeing/safety performance; see the big fog lamp thread), and carefully read some of these. In fact, high levels of foreground light reduce seeing/safety performance by causing the driver's pupils to constrict, sharply reducing distance vision. But the #1 correlate with subjective impression of excellent headlighting is...foreground light! Keep on increasing and increasing and increasing the foreground light levels and the subjective ratings of headlamp performance keep on going up and up and up. Meanwhile, the actual safety performance keeps on going down and down and down.

-Virgil- said:

This argument fails just about every single time it's made, because what most people mean when they talk about the "real world" is along the lines of "Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah blah blah,

Keep on increasing and increasing and increasing the foreground light levels and the subjective ratings of headlamp performance keep on going up and up and up. Meanwhile, the actual safety performance keeps on going down and down and down.

Click to expand...

Right, I have read quite a lot on this site and I'm aware of what you point out.
I don't pretend to rate various lamps, that's why I tend to ask about them here. So my comment is only about where there is light, and where there is none (but I'd really like to have some).

The phase 7 TruckLite along with H-D Daymaker/Speaker passing lamps on my Road King work well together. My bike is my daily driver so I drive in the dark a lot. I've found it helps to run the high beams in a tight turn with LED head lamps. I haven't seen the adaptive lamps yet and doubt if I need one. The roads I travel at night are mostly straight and I like the way the TruckLite lights up the road.
Billy

Coming in a bit late on this one, but having the JWS 8700 Evo 2 on my bike I figured I could comment somewhat intelligently. It's a great headlight when going straight down the road, assuming you've painstakingly aimed it perfectly. Just a tiny bit off up or down and you're either shooting the light into the road in front of you or at the treetops. They put light only where it's supposed to go, and very little spill light, so when you turn the light 30-40 degrees (as in, leaning hard into a corner on a bike) the fact that they fire so much light sideways mean they now fire lot of it into the pavement next to the bike and nothing into the corner. Thus, the adaptives from JWS, that have extra lights that shine up/to the side, to give you better visibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BBxWfhGmzY - video shows the difference pretty well.

I think most non-adaptive LED headlights really need to be complemented with some floodlight style auxiliaries that only come on when you hit the high beams (ie, nothing is in front of you to be blinded) if you spend a lot of time in pitch darkness and cornering. Halogens really do the same thing, ie fire light into the pavement - they just have so much spill light that it's enough to kinda-sorta light up the side of the road. Not so LED's that have razor-sharp cutoffs.