October 22, 2010

LED Gauge Lights for the Bike

My buddy decided to change his car dome lights to white LEDs. However, within the batch he ordered, there were some that were a bit too 'blue' for his liking. So I took his 'leftovers' and put them behind the gauges of my bike. So I guess this qualifies as the first mod for my bike.

These are nice T-10 wedge base bulbs with 4 SMDs on each bulb. Very wide angle and very bright. Yes these had a noticeable tinge of blue, but They're still mostly white. So the redline on the tach and temp gauge is not washed out by blue and is still clearly distinguishable. The before and after photos are taken with a point and shoot, but the ISO, exposure and shutter speed settings were set the same. You can tell by the matching ambient lighting in front of the bike as well as the glare off the warning lights in both photos. So the photos are an accurate representation of the LEDs brightness.



The results are great. Many cheaper LED bulbs are either too dim or the angle is too narrow. These SMDs doesn't have either of the problem. I followed the simple directions here for the install. And it took very little time. I don't ride at night too often, and the riding season is almost over for me. But I still enjoy the results.