Modern Vespa

I get your drift, but here the cops have some serious quotas they need to fill, so I try to walk the balance between making myself a little more safe and noticeable, without being too safe and noticeable lol.

We have some laws about what colors you can or can't have flashing... For example, no blue flashing lights, that reserved for snow clearing vehicles only. No red flashing, that's reserved for emergency vehicles etc. My ex once got ticketed for going 4 km/hr (2.5 miles) over the limit a few miles from my home during a police ticket blitz...

Oh Canada... Thanks for this! I'll double check all the reviews and stuff and probably add to cart tonight.

It's actually cheaper for me to buy it from Amazon US and pay international shipping + customs than it is for me to buy it directly from Amazon Canada If I wait until I buy some more stuff from the US it will come through even cheaper too.

Oh Canada x2

It is humorous, but in a kind of predictable way...

I'm active in a lot of communities. Most of them have a very "same-team" vibe, especially if they're communities for discontinued models. The V-Rod community has been super helpful to me. The BMW 650 (single) "chain gang" community is renowned for users creating all kinds of content to help each other out. People are really open to exchanging ideas and everyone has customized their bikes so differently.

Other communities you just kind of know in advance that a few people will try to knit pick stuff. Often these people haven't lifted a finger themselves to create any original content for the community, but they'll be quick to demonize anyone for doing anything different.

What should I do? Apologize for not liking vanilla? lol

your choice of words is laudable, if incorrect. but make no mistake nobody is out here trying to vilify you.

if you're bringing new "content" expect a push back when there is notable holes in the not so scientific approach you may take. but you already knew that going in. haters gonna hate, bro.

anyway, Frankie says relax.

Dead of winter up here. Nothing to do but snowblow and dick around on the internet!

Back in stock at AliExpress. Another link/seller for them:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32959660096.html

Thanks Juan! Grabbed one. Thanks! Comes in late March. cheers

I have that aliexpress bulb in my 50cc. It is on the left, stock bulb on the right.

Would this one also work with the 50ccs? https://amzn.to/3BMDodI

It says AC and DC and it's a two pack for $16. Allegedly 1600 lumens and only 7 watts per bulb... Might be a good find for someone?

I bought the flashing tail lights Goob recommended, waiting for them to make it through customs.

Hope those tail lights work for you. Let me know if 1157 fits. Peace on Ya!

A bargain, if functional.

7W of LED power doesn't seem like much oomph to me. But 16000 lumens would light up anybody's life. Not sure how accurate any of those numbers really are. Something's gotta give. Please report back!

https://www.voltlighting.com/learn/lumens-to-watts-conversion-led-bulb

There seems to be a factor of 3 introduced by the marketing department.

And your picture already shows the problem: that aliexpress thing is just fully blinding. Get it out and throw it in the bin.

Oh really. The people eager to kvetch about these are unfailingly individuals who have never seen one.

I have personally installed four of these, driven in a car ahead of them at night, passed them on the street, and followed my wife in a car while riding a scooter with one installed. They are big improvements over the stock bulb (here I'm talking about the Buddy 50) and are unremarkable to other vehicles. They also seem to be lasting a long time. And that is why I suggest them.

If the naysayers would like to take a look at mine, or order their own to test, and THEN voice a qualified opinion on their unfitness, please do so. Commenting on a static photo adds absolutely no value. It doesn't take a rogue bulb to create lens flare.

It's a typo. At the start of the ad they say 1,600 lumens, and then in the full description they say 16,000 lumens.

I would assume 1,600 like mine is, but at even less price and even greater efficiency.

Yep, welcome to the internet, where you can do more for strangers than they'll ever do for you, and they'll still treat you like you're the asshole lol

Do any of these low voltage LEDs have internal switching power supplies that could interfere with a radio or computer such as a fuel injector circuit? I have never seen a schematic for the internal workings of these LEDs but I know that a cheap 12V cell phone charger plugged into a car can interfere with the engine control module.

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Bob

I have noticed that ALL LED's I've used, probably two dozen bulbs over cars and scooters by this point, have interfered with the vehicle radio. My solution: don't listen to the radio.

That's weird. I've only ever put LED bulbs in my Toyota Highlander and Ford F150, so my sample size isn't very big, but I haven't had a problem with the radio on either.

Pretty sure you'll notice a difference with the lights on and off. Especially AM.

I don't care what lamp one has but if it is badly designed and blinds traffic you should not use it.

As I posted last week, I ordered the "Aliexpress Thing"

When it arrives in late March, I could just throw it into the bin or I'd be inclined to install and evaluate.

There lies the question. How does one evaluate such a bulb? Luckily I have my Sprint 150 for comparison. I could drive the Primavera towards my wife on the road with the Aiixpress Thing and then the Sprint with its factory LED headlight and ask if either is blinding?

Or look at the pattern of both side by side on a wall outside? What would I be looking for?

Re: seeing if it'll bother cavers just grab a friend and a car. We did a pretty basic test last year.

We have a 100 ft driveway so I just had the missus on the Vespa drive slowly from behind towards me (in the cage) first to see if it would bother me.

All good from behind a cager.

Then she went around onto the street, I reversed to the back of the property, she rode slowly towards me.

All good that way too.

I think people keep missing or ignoring that, at 1600 lumens, you'll be much brighter than stock but much weaker than the top LED options out there.

They make LEDs that are 5x brighter, but I haven't seen anyone here recommending those...

If you're going to use any plug in LED bulb, you should at the very least try to get a baseline of the light pattern produced with the traditional bulb. You can do this by simply taking a picture, while you are seated on the scoot, of a wall or garage door illuminated by the headlight at a distance of about 20-30 ft. Then repeat after the new LED install is completed.

What you should be looking for is light scatter that could potentially blind other traffic. You will also likely see a whiter light that is more intense. Hopefully the light scatter can be mitigated by adjusting the aiming of the headlight housing. I had to do this on my GTS after I swapped the halogen H4 for a LED H4 bulb - I aimed it as low as it would go.

There are a couple of main benefits of moving to LED - lower power consumption and brighter lighting. Just take a few steps to ensure you are not a hazard to other traffic.

Good Luck!

Coming late to the party (just back from a camping trip in Baja) - I've two problems with this. First, as above, the lack of proper focus. Second, it's following the very silly trend of going for the high colour temperature of 6500K - a white that's far too blue to allow proper peripheral vision outside the illuminated space, and a white that I find very objectionable when it comes unfocused and far too bright towards me. 3500K (a normal incandescent temperature) is fine.

Good night-time riding vision does NOT mean the brightest headlights possible. Our eyes are plenty sensitive enough to see well all around in lower lighting conditions.

However, I do like the fact it's far more efficient, and less likely to fail. Replacing a headlight bulb in the dark isn't a nice experience. BTDTGTTS.

Here's another Joy of MV. You start following a thread and then you order something, sometimes from far away.

Then one day a package shows up and you wonder what it is. Today it's the LED headlamp I ordered in February. Looks like it came a bit early.

Now I just need to get the energy to install it in the Primavera and test it to make sure it's not blinding to other vehicles!

Report to follow:

The pulsing rear brake light works amazing. I video'd before and after for side by side comparison, along with install instructions... I'll probably have that video out next weekend. Just saw this thread was bumped so I figured I'd let you know so far so good while I'm here.

These were the ones I went with, from USA to Canada, with thanks to Goob for pointing them out to me: https://amzn.to/37MBCP1

This is something of a non-issue for me, since I now have a bike with factory-equipped LED lighting, but it's instructional to note that even major players can get stuff like this wrong:

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/03/gm-denied-request-to-avoid-gmc-terrain-headlight-recall/

Back in Feb I read this thread and bought an LED bulb for my Primavera 50.

Back in stock at AliExpress. Another link/seller for them:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32959660096.html

The link shows the bulb which had been discussed here.

But, nobody was riding my 50, yet alone at night.

So the bulb sits on a shelf yet today.

But the Vespa 50 was sold and gone as of today and a 2016 GTV 300 has been bought and arrives next week. Guess what, the GTV has a halogen H4, but I don't think the power is AC as my 50 was. So can I upgrade the H4 on my GTV to the Aliexpress bulb? Thanks much!

Yes you can use that - if the advert is correct that the bulb is AC/DC. I'm not sure how they'd economically make it AC only anyway.

It can't hurt anything to try it, anyway.

I tried putting a LED headlamp in my PX150 a couple of years ago using an AC to DC converter.
It was a complete failure.
So when I saw the link to that headlight I wasn't very confident.
But I really wanted the advantages of an LED so I paid my money and took my chances...
It works! Like a Champ!
It flickers a little at idle but so did my halogen bulb.
It took some fiddling to get it aimed optimally, but I am more than happy with it.
I even got a 2nd one to keep on the shelf for replacement purposes.

I'm gonna try mounting this 42,000 lumen light bar to my front rack

It is pretty adjustable. Now I just need the Mr. Fusion to generate the 1.21 gigawatts to power the thing; it'll fit in the pet carrier