- HID headlights, while extremely bright, spray light in every direction, blinding oncoming drivers
- You can't use a headlight modulator with HID headlights
I had two choices to go with: SoCalMotoGear Pathfinders, or Electrical Connection's LED headlights. I actually mounted several different lights in a brand-new 2000-model GL1500 headlight housing and took photographs of the Pathfinders, halogen, and HID headlights, which you can see here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=32942
What I didn't post was a comparison of the SoCalMotoGear (SCMG) LEDs and the Electrical Connection (EC) LEDs. I did actually test the two against one another at the time. They were fairly close in terms of light output, but the pattern of the SCMG units seemed tighter, while the EC units put more light up high where it wasn't needed. I picked the SCMG units, and posted a review of them (see link above).
It's now two years later, and many things have changed. What was state-of-the-art in LED technology back then is archaic and underperforming. Prices have also plummeted - two years ago, a pair of LED headlights was $150, they are now hovering just under $100. I decided it was time to try a newer set of LED headlights and compare them to the older ones. This time around, I selected the current EC units, for a couple of reasons:
- SCMG had advertised that they were using Cree LEDs, and were exposed for actually using cheaper (not as good performing) LEDs and claiming that they were Cree.
- The current EC units use Philips Lumiled ZES LED chips, which are currently the state of the art when it comes to LEDs.
I have written a full review of the new EC LED headlights including a video review with live nighttime riding footage. Here I will post some pictures illustrating the differences between the old SCMG units using two-year-old technology, and the brand new EC units.
To do so, I used the highly scientific method of shining them onto a white beach towel.
I set up my DSLR on a tripod, set it to manual mode, and manually set the ISO, aperture and shutter speed, to make sure the camera was not automatically adjusting and altering the images due to the brightness. I left the old SCMG LED in the left side of the headlight, and put the new EC LED in the right side. The first thing I noticed, to my dismay, was that the new EC headlight appeared, to the naked eye, quite a bit less bright than the two-year-old SCMG headlight. It is also a slightly different color - a bit less of a blue tinge to it, closer to a true white color. However, my dismay quickly evaporated when I realized that the reason the EC headlight appeared less bright is because it was much better at focusing the light out the front of the headlight enclosure (like it's supposed to) instead of spraying outward in every direction. The light output is supposedly about the same, but it is concentrated.
Here are the unaltered photographic results - you'll notice that all of the images appear as if the light is higher on the left hand side. This was actually due to my camera tripod being not quite set level, sorry about that. The upper cutoff line was in fact level for each bulb.
This is the SCMG low beam, shining from the left side of the headlight. Notice that it does have a very bright center section, a fairly clear and defined upper cutoff, and not much off to the side. I've learned that in order to light up the road, the headlight has to be lifted so that the bright center section shines down the road - which means the upper, dimmer section is blinding oncoming drivers.
Next we have the EC low beam, in the right side of the headlight. Notice that the bright area is much more concentrated, and bright right up to the cutoff, unlike the SCMG unit. This is exactly what you're looking for. There is an interesting triangular dark section in the bottom of the image, I suspect this is from the shape of the LED itself.
And here is the main reason I ended up disliking the SCMG LEDs: the high beam. The high beam on these LEDs is utterly useless. It is concentrated like a spotlight far too high up, and does nothing except illuminate the treetops half a mile ahead of you. If you adjust the headlight downward so that the high beam actually illuminates the road, it means that when you switch to low beam, it is now shining on the road about 10 feet in front of you, again useless. I ended up almost never using the high beams on my SCMG LEDs because of this.
Here's the high beam of the new EC unit. Exactly what you want - still illuminating the road, but the cutoff is gone, so it raises the light output to shine well down the road (and not the treetops).
I then removed the SCMG LED from the headlight and installed the new EC units in both headlights. This is almost exactly the same as we saw with the single low beam light, but just much brighter.
Here are both EC LEDs in high beam - just a massive, searing amount of light. This is going to make a huge difference over my old SCMG lights. Once I get on the road and get some sample video, I'll write up a full review.
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I almost can't wait to get them installed and show them to my somewhat snobbish SoCal light owner buddies..lol