I know LED replacements have been covered frequently here, but what I can't find is the tail light bulb. (Single filament bayonet base) My auto parts store has plenty of 1156 LED's which are great for the brake and turn signals. Alternately, what lumen range should I be looking for for this position?
I will get you some part numbers on Monday. I'm currently away from my bikes and books.
You want the brightest lamps you can obtain for the rear. I highly recommend that you not only specify the Lumen rating of the bulb, but also the Color. Tail lamp bulbs, being filtered by a red lens, are much more effective (brighter) when you specify Red LED bulbs.
Obviously, you do not have that option when you specify incandescent bulbs.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
I buy all my LED bulbs from SuperBrightLeds.Com because they have a huge selection. You're correct, it's a 12V single function bulb with a 1/2" base (what SBL calls a BA15S base). Here's the page with their 1156 selection. Click Here. Both bulbs should also have LED devices on the rear AND side so that the entire lens lights up when the brake is applied.
• I like the brightest thing they have for the brake lamp. SBL has several of these above 400 Lumens. Here's a good one.
• You want a bright tail lamp, but not so bright that the brake lamp can't be seen when it comes on. Something, again in Red, in the 125 to 150 Lumen area should work well. Here's a nice one.
Remember in a "white" incandescent bulb, only a small portion of the light passes through the red tail lamp lens. When you install a Red colored LED, then ALL the light produced passes through the lens, so this is going to be one brilliant tail lamp !!
Option
There is also the "Beacon" option from Motrrad Elicktrk. These units replace the entire bulb holder inside the tail lamp with an array of individual LED bulbs mounted on a special plate. They are very nice and made specifically to fit BMW motorcycle tail lamp housings. They are quite bright. Check out the Beacon Series of bulb replacement systems which are shown about half way down the page. Three different models, depending upon your year.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Thanks Wobbly. Both of those are great resources. I've ordered just the bulb for now but I probably will upgrade to the Beacon 2 and the turn signal and flasher kit in the future. Another advantage is that I will be able to use my parking lights without having to worry about running the battery down, not that I go out at night on the Beemer much.
I have both the "Beacon" and the stock tail lamp with the super bright LED bulbs, and I think the discrete bulbs is the better way to go, but not by much. I'd award the Beacon 8 of 10, and the LED replacement bulbs 9 of 10.
► The Beacon unit I have is bright, but that's because it has 40-50 LEDs (the kind you find in conventional electronic products) soldered into in a large circuit board. This circuit board completely replaces the OEM bulb holders behind the tail lamp lens, and completely fills that space. The light units are therefore spread over the full width of the TL lens. So with the Beacon unit the lens is VERY evenly illuminated. But I don't think the LEDs in the Beacon units are "over driven" as they are in the replacement bulbs.
► The replacement bulbs in the OEM tail lamp sockets simply do everything by shear light output. They achieve this by 1) over-driving the LED chips that make up the "bulb", and 2) aiming the flat LED chips in specific directions. One of the things I like about the product from SuperBrightLeds is that they tell you the light dispersion angles. In a tail lamp, you might want most the light focused to the rear in a narrow angle, like 100°. In a speedometer illumination bulb, you might want a very broad lighting angle, like 180°. While in a blue high beam indicator LED you might want a VERY narrow light angle, like 30°.
Hope this helps.
PS. You mentioned Parking Lamp lighting. SuperBrightLeds has a 1/4 inch, single function, white light LED with a really wide light angle that works great in the front parking lamp position. It's as bright as an OEM headlamp, and can be used successfully for daytime running if the battery is in a weakened condition.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Is the Beacon a plug and play setup. On mine the blinkers are tied into the unit inside the tail light unit, do they have provisions for the blinkers to plug into? Thanks for any info.
Sorry my bike is a 76 R90/6 Thanks
Is the Beacon a plug and play setup. On mine the blinkers are tied into the unit inside the tail light unit, do they have provisions for the blinkers to plug into? Thanks for any info.
On the Beacon unit I have (the /7 dual bulb tail lamp) it has the flat circuit board and three 6" leads. It is mounted using only the 2 tail lamp lens screws. The circuit board is physically captured (sandwiched) between the TL body and the red lens when you secure the lens to the motorcycle.
On my unit, I had to add connectors to the 3 leads. These are common 1/4" "spade terminals, both male and female. In that way I can simply plug them into the stock BMW tail lamp harness without any changes. Better still, if I ever upgrade my 1979 /7 to (say for instance) a 1983 model, then I can take the lamp with me by simply plugging the OEM lamp unit back in. No changes are made to the bike or harness.
On my 1979 /7, the connections for turn signals are inside the same TL housing, but the wiring for the turn signals is not involved in the Beacon installation, or changed in any way. Any flasher modules you might have added that interconnect the turn signals to the brake lamp are electrically connected the exact same way. With the Beacon units, you're simply swapping the stock replaceable bulb base(s) for an LED circuit board.
Hope that's clear.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Thanks Wobbly, that Beacon unit is on my radar.
rick jones tail lamp / brake lamp all LED
side blinkers are all LED. amber turn signal, red tail lamps too. done 5-6yrs ago
license plate brake lamp. ALL Above lamps are LED. the electropods are from ebay. rick jones / motoelektric sells the tail lamp LED array. i made a new blinker plate to glue the electropods to and 1 is RED . . . . . the other is AMBER
Neat job, Harry !!
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
I've installed the bulbs, the tail and brake light work great, however with 4 led bulbs in the turn signals all 4 flash when either left or right is selected. I'm using an electronic flasher from Super Bright LED's. The problem goes away if I use one led and one incandescent per side. Do I need a ballast resistor?
In my limited understanding, the ballast resistor is used when the flasher unit is the older bi-metal type that is dependent upon the internal resistance of the incandescent bulbs. When you add LED bulbs, they have a much lower resistance and the flasher rate is radically changed without adding resistance.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
just my 2cents. i bought a ted porter Ei LED taillight unit for my r100gs and its great. the running light position is a little bright but the brake light is still MUCH brighter. people stay back more now.
also i heard the guy weisertechnik who makes LED blinkers for newer bikes started making them for the older airheads. bolt in units.
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