H7 Bulb Recommendations - K5 GSXR
Discussion
Hi All,
I am looking to replace the original halogen bulb on my K5 GSXR 1000 which gives off a yellow light and is fairly dim at night.
Any opinions on a bright (at night) H7 bulb that lasts? I have read that Osram nightbreakers give good output but do not last long. I have also read that motorcycle specific bulbs which claim to be 'vibration resistant' is just a marketing gimmick as equivalent car bulb will be fine on a modern bike.
PS: I am not interested in HID or LED's, as they are not designed for the reflector pattern of a headlight designed for halogen bulbs, so please no suggestions about these types of bulbs.
I am looking to replace the original halogen bulb on my K5 GSXR 1000 which gives off a yellow light and is fairly dim at night.
Any opinions on a bright (at night) H7 bulb that lasts? I have read that Osram nightbreakers give good output but do not last long. I have also read that motorcycle specific bulbs which claim to be 'vibration resistant' is just a marketing gimmick as equivalent car bulb will be fine on a modern bike.
PS: I am not interested in HID or LED's, as they are not designed for the reflector pattern of a headlight designed for halogen bulbs, so please no suggestions about these types of bulbs.
I put nightbreakers in a car. They made a worthwhile difference. I had them in for 12k miles and I’d guess a bit more than average night driving. Didn’t fail.
One thing which I found useful in putting a new bulb in a k4 gsxr 750 was to practice the fitting with the old bulb first.
Yours may well be a straightforward fit but if not it’s well worth getting muscle memory for the right routing and angles to minimise getting dirt, grease, even oils from clean hands on the bulb. I’ve found keeping the bulb spotless key to maximising its life.
One thing which I found useful in putting a new bulb in a k4 gsxr 750 was to practice the fitting with the old bulb first.
Yours may well be a straightforward fit but if not it’s well worth getting muscle memory for the right routing and angles to minimise getting dirt, grease, even oils from clean hands on the bulb. I’ve found keeping the bulb spotless key to maximising its life.
Beware that ultra bright halogen bulbs have significantly shorter lifespans than standard bulbs. Most manufacturers publish lifetimes of the bulbs and checking Osram just now, the life of their ultra bright is less than half that of the standard bulb. The ultra bright bulb has a shows a life where 63% of bulbs have failed as being 250 hours. So if you use your bike 2-3 hours a day, you will be replacing the bulb on average every 3 months. Personally that would be unacceptable for me for PITA factor and also because the bulb may fail when I really need it.
I know you asked for no LED bulb recommendations, but LED bulbs are no all equal. Generally, the more money you throw at a LED bulb (and a £80 bulb is easily possible), the better they get. I recommend going on an owners forum for your specific bike model and checking in what other owners are using. Even with expensive LED bulbs, on some specific headlight housing shapes they work well, in others less so. It is bike specific.
I know you asked for no LED bulb recommendations, but LED bulbs are no all equal. Generally, the more money you throw at a LED bulb (and a £80 bulb is easily possible), the better they get. I recommend going on an owners forum for your specific bike model and checking in what other owners are using. Even with expensive LED bulbs, on some specific headlight housing shapes they work well, in others less so. It is bike specific.
Iminquarantine said:
The ultra bright bulb has a shows a life where 63% of bulbs have failed as being 250 hours. So if you use your bike 2-3 hours a day, you will be replacing the bulb on average every 3 months.
Looked at another way at an average speed of 40mph that’s 10k miles. A lot more palatable, and dare I say it realistic than your example perhaps.Iminquarantine said:
I know you asked for no LED bulb recommendations, but LED bulbs are no all equal. Generally, the more money you throw at a LED bulb (and a £80 bulb is easily possible), the better they get. I recommend going on an owners forum for your specific bike model and checking in what other owners are using. Even with expensive LED bulbs, on some specific headlight housing shapes they work well, in others less so. It is bike specific.
All true, but retrofitting LED bulbs where there were halogens is now an MOT fail.trickywoo said:
Looked at another way at an average speed of 40mph that’s 10k miles. A lot more palatable, and dare I say it realistic than your example perhaps.
I think you will be going exceptionally well if you can average 40mph every moment your ignition is switched on, once you actually measure your average speed, unless you do almost exclusively motorway or dual carriageway miles. Any time you ride in town, even ignoring time spent parking and starting up, your average speed will be under 20mph. Also -most- of the bulbs have failed after 250 hours (that lifetime spec is the time at which 63% of bulbs have failed). The testing replicates car conditions, not vibrating around in a motorcycle. The average time to failure will much less than 250 hours. Or put it another way, if you read Amazon reviews for ultra bright bulbs, they get a large percentage of poor reviews saying they don't make much difference or they burn out often. Krikkit said:
All true, but retrofitting LED bulbs where there were halogens is now an MOT fail.
Yes, if they look at your bulb. If you buy one of the LED bulbs which is not an eBay super special -and- works ok on your specific model of bike, then the MOT tester/test machine will not notice. There are people who pass MOT with a good quality LED bulb which in a halogen housing. There are also a lot of people with the more common crap LED bulbs which spray light everywhere including blinding other drivers, who swap it for a halogen prior to the MOT. Iminquarantine said:
I think you will be going exceptionally well if you can average 40mph every moment your ignition is switched on, once you actually measure your average speed, unless you do almost exclusively motorway or dual carriageway miles. Any time you ride in town, even ignoring time spent parking and starting up, your average speed will be under 20mph. Also -most- of the bulbs have failed after 250 hours (that lifetime spec is the time at which 63% of bulbs have failed). The testing replicates car conditions, not vibrating around in a motorcycle. The average time to failure will much less than 250 hours. Or put it another way, if you read Amazon reviews for ultra bright bulbs, they get a large percentage of poor reviews saying they don't make much difference or they burn out often.
I put a slightly boastful post on here about managing 50 mph average over a 20 mile each way commute with no m-way. Most people called me a pussy. 40 mph average on a bike is nothing.^ Without getting into a debate about riding ability and making progress, it is easy to pick a particular route or trip when you can maintain a high average speed. I think I've done a 72mph, 295 mile average, including the end bit in suburban London on a few times on a regular route I used to do. Once you put in your entire riding regime every day all year, including parking, riding around town, getting off the bike with the engine running to scratch your b
ks etc etc, then the average drops way down. A lot of GPS units will track total average speed when they are powered (i.e. at the same time your headlights are on) and this average is nowhere near as high.
Anyway, I think you will be replacing an ultra bright bulb a lot.
ks etc etc, then the average drops way down. A lot of GPS units will track total average speed when they are powered (i.e. at the same time your headlights are on) and this average is nowhere near as high.Anyway, I think you will be replacing an ultra bright bulb a lot.
Krikkit said:
Iminquarantine said:
I know you asked for no LED bulb recommendations, but LED bulbs are no all equal. Generally, the more money you throw at a LED bulb (and a £80 bulb is easily possible), the better they get. I recommend going on an owners forum for your specific bike model and checking in what other owners are using. Even with expensive LED bulbs, on some specific headlight housing shapes they work well, in others less so. It is bike specific.
All true, but retrofitting LED bulbs where there were halogens is now an MOT fail.
Not an MoT fail if LED or HID fitted to motorcycle reflector lights as long as alignment and cut off are OK.
The MOT fail changed very recently, so indeed, not a fail anymore. Still not legal as the halogen enclosure was not designed (and so approved) for anything other than a halogen filament bulb.Therefore, a LED in H7 fitment cannot have an E approval as putting LED in a halogen place has no standard and so no approval. If you go for an LED, they can work as long as the emitters sit in *exactly* the same place as a filament would be. Pretty rare to find unless you stick to Phillips or similar. Amazon £20 jobs aren’t going to cut it and will scatter light, meaning dazzle to others and less light where you need it. You’ve also got to look at heat dissipation - Cyclops (USA) do conversions that have fans to deal with the small areas behind bike’s light units. The other hurdle (bar police interest), is your insurance...
In other words, I have been looking!
And I gave up.
I have used Osram NightBreakers and they’re good out of the box, but you need to accept reduced life. My bike has day running lights, so little hit to them in the summer. I replace them as a matter of course at the end of the summer as the days shorten. Never had a fail and the only time I noticed reduced performance was a set I left in the car for over 2 years and they were getting faint by the 3rd winter. When I did swap them, you could see the darkening of the glass when held up to the light and the new ones were much better in use. They didn’t let me down, but were clearly overdue for a swap and the annual interval seems to work for me.
In other words, I have been looking!
And I gave up.
I have used Osram NightBreakers and they’re good out of the box, but you need to accept reduced life. My bike has day running lights, so little hit to them in the summer. I replace them as a matter of course at the end of the summer as the days shorten. Never had a fail and the only time I noticed reduced performance was a set I left in the car for over 2 years and they were getting faint by the 3rd winter. When I did swap them, you could see the darkening of the glass when held up to the light and the new ones were much better in use. They didn’t let me down, but were clearly overdue for a swap and the annual interval seems to work for me.
I've had a peculiar interest in light bulbs for a long time.
Osram used to make a 65W H7 bulb. That would have been the best choice as it was actually designed as a 65W bulb (actually it was a H9 bulb fitted to a H7 base) so would have had the lifetime of any standard bulb. Unfortunately discontinued.
Just been having a look at the Philips website and there are two bulbs I'd consider if you wanted a brighter bulb.
https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/00569428/x-tremevisi...
Seems to be more vibration resistant than others, but as you say OP, maybe this does not mean anything. Maybe it means it is better to use this in a twin or a single cylinder bike, but less important in a smoother inline-4 bike, who knows. Shown as 450 hours life, but it doesn't say what spec that 450 hours is, so difficult to compare to an Osram bulb who do say what spec (e.g. B3, the time to failure if 3% of bulbs; Tc, the time at which 63% have failed).
Or https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/00569428/x-tremevisi...
Also 450 hours life, but again they don't say what spec that life is measured to.
The ECE standard says a H7 bulb must have an output of 1500 +/-10% (1350 to 1650) lumens. I don't know if this is determined by measuring the light output directly, or by calculating it by voltage and current input to the bulb. If the former, I don't see how a bulb an be much brighter anyway and still conform to the standard. It also means that when bulbs claim they are "130%" of the standard, they are talking 130% of the bottom of the standard, i.e. 1350 lumens.
To use biker logic though, maybe you should trade in your current bike to a new one which has factory twin LED headlights
Osram used to make a 65W H7 bulb. That would have been the best choice as it was actually designed as a 65W bulb (actually it was a H9 bulb fitted to a H7 base) so would have had the lifetime of any standard bulb. Unfortunately discontinued.
Just been having a look at the Philips website and there are two bulbs I'd consider if you wanted a brighter bulb.
https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/00569428/x-tremevisi...
Seems to be more vibration resistant than others, but as you say OP, maybe this does not mean anything. Maybe it means it is better to use this in a twin or a single cylinder bike, but less important in a smoother inline-4 bike, who knows. Shown as 450 hours life, but it doesn't say what spec that 450 hours is, so difficult to compare to an Osram bulb who do say what spec (e.g. B3, the time to failure if 3% of bulbs; Tc, the time at which 63% have failed).
Or https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/00569428/x-tremevisi...
Also 450 hours life, but again they don't say what spec that life is measured to.
The ECE standard says a H7 bulb must have an output of 1500 +/-10% (1350 to 1650) lumens. I don't know if this is determined by measuring the light output directly, or by calculating it by voltage and current input to the bulb. If the former, I don't see how a bulb an be much brighter anyway and still conform to the standard. It also means that when bulbs claim they are "130%" of the standard, they are talking 130% of the bottom of the standard, i.e. 1350 lumens.
To use biker logic though, maybe you should trade in your current bike to a new one which has factory twin LED headlights
black-k1 said:
Not an MoT fail if LED or HID fitted to motorcycle reflector lights as long as alignment and cut off are OK.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-...
Don't agree with it mind - if an LED bulb can be made to sufficiently replace a Halogen with better light output then I don't see a problem if the beam is good. Problem is that's way too complicated for most folks, and too much for the MOT, so it's easier just to ban them.
We've all seen the terrible halogen replaced for HID in some chav wagon and how bad it can be.
Edited by Krikkit on Tuesday 6th April 10:29
Krikkit said:
black-k1 said:
Not an MoT fail if LED or HID fitted to motorcycle reflector lights as long as alignment and cut off are OK.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-...
Don't agree with it mind - if an LED bulb can be made to sufficiently replace a Halogen with better light output then I don't see a problem if the beam is good. Problem is that's way too complicated for most folks, and too much for the MOT, so it's easier just to ban them.
We've all seen the terrible halogen replaced for HID in some chav wagon and how bad it can be.
Edited by Krikkit on Tuesday 6th April 10:29
black-k1 said:
Have you missed the key word "removed"? It used to be an MoT fail but the requirement to fail a bike using an HID or LED bulb in a halogen reflector lens has been removed. That means the test son the headlight are simply around alignment and cut off.
Yes - apologies, they've taken it off bikes but added it in for car tests which is where I was cross-thinking about. Krikkit said:
black-k1 said:
Have you missed the key word "removed"? It used to be an MoT fail but the requirement to fail a bike using an HID or LED bulb in a halogen reflector lens has been removed. That means the test son the headlight are simply around alignment and cut off.
Yes - apologies, they've taken it off bikes but added it in for car tests which is where I was cross-thinking about. 
Osram do (or used to do, they're harder to find now) a 'Night Racer' version of the Night Breaker, allegedly bike specific and more tolerant of vibration. I've been used them for about 5 years in 3 front lamps on the bike and while they're bright with a nice blue-white light they don't last long, I doubt I've had more than a year out of any of them; I think on every euro-trip I've done one or more of them has blown so I always ride with spares (which is a requirement in some countries anyway). But they're not cheap and the short lifespan makes it an expensive proposition, to the extent I'm plotting a switch to LEDs or similar if the CanBus is happy with them.
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