By Joe Gresh
The Carrizozo Mudchuckers and I took a spin over to Jerome, Arizona last week. The trip was around 1200 miles all in and we ran late getting home, which meant I had to ride 100 miles in the dark. Normally I avoid night riding because most of my motorcycles have terrible headlights and my night vision was dim before I had both my cataracts replaced with new lenses. Plus, at night you can’t see anything except the road ahead. It’s pretty boring.
For the Jerome trip I was riding the Kawasaki ZRX1100; that bike has the best headlight out of every motorcycle I own. To my surprise the night ride was not as bad as I thought. I could see fairly well and made it home without running into an elk. Which got me thinking about the shorter days of fall and the fact that I sort of enjoyed that 100 miles of darkness. Could I improve on the acceptable Kawasaki headlight?
Enter the Oxilam LED H4 bulbs I purchased on sale from Amazon at $39, shipping included. They are a tad pricey but you do get two of them. Oxilam’s ad copy makes wild claims about 500% brighter and 10,000-hour life span. I can’t speak to the lifespan but the bulb sure doesn’t look 500% brighter.
The Oxilam came securely packaged in a nifty carton with a fitted foam insert. Included in the box was a pair of gloves so that you don’t get your greasy fingers all over your nice, new bulbs. It’s a beautiful product presentation and gives a real sense of value to the whole operation.
Installation was easy as pie: remove your old bulb and insert the new one. The dimensions of the Oxilam are nearly the same as a standard H4 bulb so you don’t have a big heat sink or cooling fan jutting out the back of your headlight housing.
The Oxilam has a tiny cooling fan built into the front of the bulb. That worries me a bit but I’m rolling the dice here. Some reviews of the Oxilams claim the fan to be noisy. I don’t see how such a tiny fan can make much noise and I can’t hear it.
I couldn’t find a watt rating anywhere except an ad copy line stating the bulb draws a similar amount of current as a standard H4 so computers will not act up thinking a bulb is out. Lumens are a claimed 18,000 so I guess that’s good.
Maybe not 500% brighter but the Oxilam LED bulb is noticeably brighter than the original 24 year-old halogen bulb it replaced. Low beam is a lot better with a sharp cutoff so you don’t blind oncoming cars. Low beam is wide and bright. The 6500 kelvin white light makes colors pop a bit more at night. Grass looks greener and the road edge is more obvious. The light produced is evenly distributed without any hot spots. It’s really wonderful. The Oxilam is worth it to me for the improved low beam performance.
High beam was also improved but not as dramatically as low beam. High beam seemed to reach a little farther out than stock and the white color was nice. One drawback to the increased lighting power was that reflective road signs were very bright on high beam, bright enough to cause me to drop back to low beam until the sign was passed. Installed in the ZRX lens there is an overly bright spot 10 feet ahead of the front wheel, I feel those lumens could be put to better use 100 feet down the road. I suspect the Oxilam will project differently depending on which headlight housing it is installed.
The Oxilam bulbs are worth the $39 to me. With my creaky vision I need every advantage I can get at night. It was actually not bad riding in the dark with the Oxilam and the new bulb will extend my riding time by a few hours each day. That’s got to be worth something, right?
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I left out a vital bit of information. The old halogen bulb used about 4.5 amps @12-volt.
The new LED used 2 amps @ 12-volt. You get more light for less power. You know that is honey to my cheap soul.
I think I’ll put the other LED in the RD350. That will be a bit more difficult because I’ll need to rig a H4 housing to replace the RD’s sealed beam.
That would be a good blog. Hell, they’re all good!
It seems weird that it puts out more heat but has less draw? Have you attained fusion?
I think the fan is to cool the driver circuit, not so much the overall heat. For the RD I’ll record the temperature difference.
Love your tech articles Joe🏍️
Good info there Joebi-Wan-Kanobie. Triumph Tiger 1050s are known for poor night lighting – will have to try these Oxilams. Of course that will mean staying up past 7:00 pm to test ’em. I’ll rest up.
Nice upgrade,just hope it doesn’t put out too much heat and burn something up.
Kenny,
Time will tell!
On a side note, this controversial story got me banned for life on the ZRXOA forum.
Communist bastards.
Apparently, someone in charge of the site sells LED bulbs and didn’t care for the story.
Ah. Capitalist bastards.
Jerome, Arizona you went to Jerome, Arizona and you did have a single picture of Jerome, Arizona.
One of my favorite places to visit. Just a way Cool place and were else can have a house where walk in the front door at ground level and have to build a three-story basement to walk out the back door!
Teh Halogen light is a good idea, and it looks like this a good brand. Thanks for sharing!
Terry,
Jerome is infested with tourists. It’s a cool location And town but too many
people. We wanted to ride 89a in the mountains behind Jerome. It’s a great road.
I am a people watcher and people talker, so Jerome is perfect for me. People, from all over the place, motorcycles and a great view! have seat in the town square or a good restaurant and watch the world go by, and maybe talk to a person or two…
I was hoping to do the same LED conversion on my 70 Triumph TR6 but the Positive ground limited my Choices. You know, LEDs care what the polarity is and all. I thought I had found a solution at LEDLight.com because they had non polarity dual filament bulbs for brake and headlights. I was sort of happy even. Sadly, it didn’t work. I mean the lights lit up and all but the problem was the dimmer switch and brake/taillight switch didn’t let the filaments work independently. I matters which contact has the common pole. I really wanted a lower powered, brighter headlight so the weak charging capabilities of the Triumph could charge the battery with the headlight on.
Wes,
I wonder if you could Wire a completely independent circuit straight from the battery ?
Probably could if I used different switches and bulb sockets that didn’t depend on a frame ground. But I got too frustrated by the failure of my simpler plan.
Wes,
Maybe add a generic high-low-off switch on the handle bar with power directly from the battery and a relay so you don’t forget and leave the light on.
as long as they don’t blind oncoming drivers. I hate that! And I say this knowing I can’t see shit at night. Even on a bike I get these azz klownz blinding me from behind in my rear veiw mirrors. Car and bike.
I hate it when someone high beams me and erases my childhood memories. vermon
Great info here Joe and not too expensive for the scooter boys.