5.75 inch LED motorcycle headlight options?

Hello, I recently bought a 2009 Triumph Street Triple with dual 5.75 inch headlights. Of course, after being spoiled by LED and HID headlights, the H4 halogens aren't really cutting it and I would like to upgrade them to something a little safer.
I live in Switzerland and I really don't want to retrofit HID or buy some cheap LED headlight from eBay that I'm sure will blind everyone on the road.
I have seen the JW Speaker headlight units (8690 and 8690 Adaptive I think are the only motorcycle-specific headlights they sell) and they look really phenomenal, the only issue being their high price.
Are there other 5.75 LED headlights available other than the JW Speaker ones or do you know if any manufacturer is currently developing or testing such a product that would be shortly available?

Regards,
Nicolas

niciuffo said:

Hello, I recently bought a 2009 Triumph Street Triple with dual 5.75 inch headlights. Of course, after being spoiled by LED and HID headlights, the H4 halogens aren't really cutting it and I would like to upgrade them to something a little safer.

Click to expand...

:welcome:
You'll definitely want/need excellent lighting.

I live in Switzerland and I really don't want to retrofit HID or buy some cheap LED headlight from eBay that I'm sure will blind everyone on the road.

Click to expand...

Everyone on the road thanks you! ECE compliance will be necessary, and you're in a right hand traffic jurisdiction (you might have seen less-than-legitimate sellers refer to their lamps being for "left hand drive").

I have seen the JW Speaker headlight units (8690 and 8690 Adaptive I think are the only motorcycle-specific headlights they sell) and they look really phenomenal, the only issue being their high price.
Are there other 5.75 LED headlights available other than the JW Speaker ones or do you know if any manufacturer is currently developing or testing such a product that would be shortly available?

Click to expand...

In the 5.75" form factor, I can't recommend the 8690 any more highly, unless compared to the 8690A. ECE type-approval and everything!

The main reason the price on these is so high is because you should expect to pay good money for a well-engineered and well-constructed product. There's a lot of junk out there but this product family simply works and works incredibly well.

You and that bike are worth it-- you and other people sharing the road are worth it.

Definitely get the JW Speaker adaptive lamp if you can possibly afford it; it is by far the best you can possibly get, and well worth the money.

You could get one now and then replace the other factory lamp in about 6-9 months. Or get one adaptive and one non-adaptive, to get a still-massive upgrade at a slightly better price.

So, I found a good deal on a 8690M (non adaptive) for $300 + shipping and jumped at the opportunity. I installed it today and even in daylight it completely destroys the halogen bulb in both beam width and lumen output.
Strangely enough when I swapped the old headlight for the LED one, both position lights stopped working. Any idea if this could be caused by the lower power of the LED headlight? I thought that maybe one of the position light bulbs was toast, but it doesn't look like it is and I doubt they would be wired in series...
EDIT: It was just a blown fuse causing the issue...

Anyways, unfortunately the JW Speaker has a lower cutoff than the halogen reflector and the headlights aren't individually adjustable vertically, which means that I'm going to have to order another unit soon at least I have a valid reason to do so :laughing:.

Some pics of the half-cyborg:






I also noticed a high-pitched whine with the headlight on the low beam mode. It disappears when I turn the high beam on. Is this something I should be concerned about or is it to be expected? It's not loud at all and can be barely heard when there's no background noise.

If your headlamps aren't adjustable for vertical aim, your headlamp setup is not legal. That aiming ability is mandatory.

Just a thought, but I noticed a high whine coming from a 4 Sevens Preon 2 flashlight on lower setting (and my ears are fried). I wonder if you're hearing Pulse Width Modulation on low beam. Good question for J W Speaker.

-Virgil- said:

If your headlamps aren't adjustable for vertical aim, your headlamp setup is not legal. That aiming ability is mandatory.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, are you talking about LED headlights or headlights in general? Because the housings are OEM, so they must be legal with halogen reflectors. They are vertically adjustable, just not individually. I'm sure with two LED units the cutoff would be at the same exact height.

Hamilton Felix said:

Just a thought, but I noticed a high whine coming from a 4 Sevens Preon 2 flashlight on lower setting (and my ears are fried). I wonder if you're hearing Pulse Width Modulation on low beam. Good question for J W Speaker.

Click to expand...

It might be. I can still hear it on high beam but it sounds lower frequency/intensity. I'll shoot JW Speaker an e-mail asking about it.

niciuffo said:

I'm sorry, are you talking about LED headlights or headlights in general? Because the housings are OEM, so they must be legal with halogen reflectors. They are vertically adjustable, just not individually. I'm sure with two LED units the cutoff would be at the same exact height.

Click to expand...

The headlamps in general, whether halogen or LED, must have a provision for vertical aim.

It appears that on at least the 2016 Street Triple, the headlamps do not have a provision for *separate* vertical aim:

1. Vertical beam adjuster bolts
The vertical beams of the left and right hand
headlights can only be adjusted together.
Independent adjustment is not possible.

Click to expand...

It is probably the same for the 2009. Some reading seems to indicate that the same-side headlamp as the traffic directionality has a slightly higher aim than the other side, enforced by a fixed offset. I'm not sure how they get away with having one monolithic height adjustment, because it's possible that two lamps can have enough variance in them that there is too much vertical spread between them, making aiming properly rather difficult.

niciuffo said:

I'm sorry, are you talking about LED headlights or headlights in general?

Click to expand...

Headlamps in general.

They are vertically adjustable, just not individually.

Click to expand...

Oh, that's common.

-Virgil- said:

If your headlamps aren't adjustable for vertical aim, your headlamp setup is not legal. That aiming ability is mandatory.

Click to expand...

I'm somewhat surprised he is allowed to install (a pair of) symmetrical passing beams. Compared to H4, won't legal aim limits yield a lower seeing distance (theoretically, right side of the road)?

Marcturus said:

I'm somewhat surprised he is allowed to install (a pair of) symmetrical passing beams. Compared to H4, won't legal aim limits yield a lower seeing distance (theoretically, right side of the road)?

Click to expand...

That's something that I actually wanted to ask myself after installing the headlight. I was surprised that there was no "step" to the right to light up the road ahead. But then again this is supposed to be one of the few legal LED retrofit headlamps and I'm not sure on the laws regarding the beam pattern. I don't think I'm supposed to aim the right headlight higher than the left one as the beam is so wide it surely would blind oncoming traffic.

There is no requirement for an asymmetrical up-step or up-sweep/ramp/kickup on motorcycle headlamps anywhere in the world; a symmetrical beam is permitted (and is actually preferable except possibly when riding straight ahead on a straight and level road). Seeing distance is going to be much longer with a properly-aimed JW Speaker LED than with a properly-aimed H4. Both headlamps on a 2-lamp system are supposed to be aimed alike: straight ahead in the horizontal direction, and to the vertical setting prescribed by the regulations in place where the motorcycle is registered).

-Virgil- said:

There is no requirement for an asymmetrical up-step or up-sweep/ramp/kickup on motorcycle headlamps anywhere in the world; a symmetrical beam is permitted (and is actually preferable except possibly when riding straight ahead on a straight and level road). Seeing distance is going to be much longer with a properly-aimed JW Speaker LED than with a properly-aimed H4. Both headlamps on a 2-lamp system are supposed to be aimed alike: straight ahead in the horizontal direction, and to the vertical setting prescribed by the regulations in place where the motorcycle is registered).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification.

hello gents....my first post.

J.W. Speaker adaptive LED.....it's ugly as hell in my opinion, but there's no better PERFORMING head lamp for bike out there.

i've been on Harley's since '86, working for various stealrships for 5 and these are what i sell my people......i got to talk to the JW engineer at the Drag Specialties dealer only show as was very impressed with this AMERICAN company. they employ 500 folks too. if you're a RIDER and not a washer this lamp is for you.

let me dig up a PDF of the their lighting.....it's also very good information for the masses.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8SutdS06bsLeWtJOUxIYTZVUzNaWE44YVFqMUlka0FycThz/view

Today the second headlight arrived, but of course something had to go wrong: looking at both of them installed, the right one has a black bezel and the left one has a chrome one, even though both are supposed to be chrome...
Anyways, one noticeable difference between the two is the color temperature: the black one looks whiter than the chrome one, but both should be 5000K (nominal). I get that it's hard to judge by a photo, but do you think the tolerances in color temperature are so loose to allow for such a difference in CCT? I'm going to contact JW Speaker to hear more about this but I honestly didn't expect to see such a big difference...

niciuffo said:

Anyways, one noticeable difference between the two is the color temperature: the black one looks whiter than the chrome one, but both should be 5000K (nominal).

Click to expand...

From the photo it does look as though the CCT's are slightly different when looking directly at the headlamps, but are the colors actually different on the wall/road?

As I understand it, it's not unusual for LED's from different production batches to vary slightly in color (I ran into this when I installed OEM LED turn signals from another bike onto mine - the second pair I purchased months later were slightly yellower than the first pair even though they were the exact same parts).

However, with these JW Speaker headlights the black one is blacked out on the inside as well, so the apparent difference in CCT may simply be the difference in internal reflection within the headlamp unit compared to the chrome one. The CCT of the light on the road may very well be identical between the two lamps.

I'm trying to sell the black headlight on eBay and buy a chrome one (by the way, if anyone is interested in buying it I can send you the ad - if it's allowed by the forum rules). In the meantime, I'd like to properly adjust them to have them light the road at night.
I searched online and found various conflicting information regarding headlight aiming. Most of the time it's recommended to have the vehicle at a distance of 7.5m from a wall, but while some people say to have around a 1% drop in height, some aim their headlight completely straight (with no drop in height, so if the headlight is at 80cm, the cutoff at 7.5m is at the same 80cm). Even the JW Speaker guide says to aim them straight on (source)
Is there an official guideline (which is what I'm assuming professional mechanics use), or is it a matter of personal preference, as long as the headlights are not aimed upwards?

niciuffo said:

I'm trying to sell the black headlight on eBay and buy a chrome one (by the way, if anyone is interested in buying it I can send you the ad - if it's allowed by the forum rules). In the meantime, I'd like to properly adjust them to have them light the road at night.

Click to expand...

People now know one is for sale so they can probably use eBay's search function to find a black JW Speaker 5.75" headlamp model 8690M. We don't need to point them directly to YOUR ad.

I searched online and found various conflicting information regarding headlight aiming. Most of the time it's recommended to have the vehicle at a distance of 7.5m from a wall... some aim their headlight completely straight (with no drop in height, so if the headlight is at 80cm, the cutoff at 7.5m is at the same 80cm).

Click to expand...

7.62M (25'). Some people aim their headlamps completely wrong if they don't account for the headlamp type (mechanical aim, VO, VOL, VOR) and/or the lamp's center height.

Even the JW Speaker guide says to aim them straight on (source)

Click to expand...

Those instructions are for aiming high-ONLY beams. That's a high/low headlamp; aim it like you'd aim a high/low beam headlamp-- which means having it on the low beam setting. Use these instructions.

The reason we aim high/low beams on the low beam is that's the beam that we use when meeting other cars, or when following them. Aiming them flat or without enough declination means blinding those other drivers. Aiming them with too much declination means having too short a seeing distance.

Is there an official guideline (which is what I'm assuming professional mechanics use), or is it a matter of personal preference, as long as the headlights are not aimed upwards?

Click to expand...

"Guideline"? No, there's an official *way*, not a "guideline". Guidelines are wishy-washy, inexact, and open to all kinds of interpretation. Also, headlamp aim is not a matter of "personal preference".

Alaric Darconville said:

Those instructions are for aiming high-ONLY beams. That's a high/low headlamp; aim it like you'd aim a high/low beam headlamp-- which means having it on the low beam setting. Use these instructions.

The reason we aim high/low beams on the low beam is that's the beam that we use when meeting other cars, or when following them. Aiming them flat or without enough declination means blinding those other drivers. Aiming them with too much declination means having too short a seeing distance.

Click to expand...

That is the page I wanted to link, my bad. I meant "personal preference" within certain limits, say 0.5% to 2% maybe? Is there an official percentage or tolerance or is it just more or less 1%? Even looking the JW Speaker PDF, I can see that they align the low part of the beam straight, so if the car has headlights at 80cm, it will always be 80cm. Am I reading the PDF wrong?