LED H11 Bulb Conversion for Base 1199/899

I've got an update on the 3-sided LED, 45W, 4500 Lumen, 5500K (each bulb claimed) LED conversion bulbs I ordered after looking around more. If you are going to attempt this, I strongly recommend looking at member Warlord's How-To Tutorial here:

http://ducati1199.com/guides/18252-how-cree-led-retrofit-without-removing-headlight-housing.html

This is the kit I went with:



4500LM 5500K 39W High Power 3 Sides Epistar LED Headlight Lamp H4 H7 H11 HB3 HB4 | eBay


I just installed them today and they just fit. The OEM magnesium fairing stay just has no room as Warlord originally reported in the OP. The back of the bulb housing is pressing up against the bottom of the fairing stay behind the bulb and was just able to be rotated to lock in place. I made the cut modification as Warlord instructed in the OP as well to get these to fit.

If you are looking at ANY of these LED conversion bulbs, you need to pay attention to these critical dimensions. If the diamter of the base of the bulb is any larger than the one shown below, it WILL NOT FIT with the OEM fairing stay. I recommend corresponding with the manufacturer and ask them to give dimensions. I did and this is what I got from this particular kit (their caliper is in centimeters):





Below is the back of the right bulb, showing it underneath the bottom of the fairing stay locked in place. Yes, that is an inelegant mounting position for the LED control module but I wasn't spending hours to tuck it away and the fork tubes clear it cleanly when going to full lock. It is held in place with 2 pieces of 3M Dual-Lock fastener for quick removal should the need arise:



Below is a picture from the front of the bike showing the LED bulb on the right vs. the Sylvania Silverstar H11 bulb I had replaced the OEM one with:



Below is a beam pattern comparison on the inside of my garage door from about 3-4 feet with the H11 Halogen Silverstar on the right and the LED conversion bulb on the left (both low-beam). As you can see, the H11 Silverstar bulb has a very sharp cut-off whereas the H11 LED conversion bulb is much wider without the sharp cut-off that minimizes glare to oncoming traffic:



Below is a beam pattern comparison on a CVS Pharmacy wall where I was returning a RedBox movie after the install. The distance is around 8-10 feet and you can see how much higher up the beam pattern of the LED conversion bulb goes than the H11 halogen low-beam, meaning that there is some glare at oncoming traffic:



This shot below shows the beam pattern of the OEM H11 Halogen bulbs in the high-beams (stock, never changed), the camera is at the same position as the previous shot:



On the way home I took some neighborhood back roads that have no street light illumination at all, and it was noticeable how much wider the LED conversion bulb pattern was with more spill light off to the sides. This clearly helped give more illumination to the roads and areas off to the shoulder. While the beam pattern of this particular LED conversion bulb is far from optimal (I would prefer the same sharp cutoff as the H11 halogen bulbs) I believe it does give better illumination performance. It certainly seems to be about 300% brighter, and I didn't think the throw was going to be as far but I think the overall brightness overcomes the deficient beam pattern to a large degree. This comes at the price of annoying oncoming drivers with the higher beam pattern on low-beam, but I don't think it's as bad as an HID conversion kit.

I may try another LED conversion kit to see if the beam pattern is improved over this style, but it may be hard finding one with superior brightness that has the same dimensions to fit with the OEM fairing stay.

Overall I like them and prefer this to the $500+ option of converting my base headlight assembly to the S/Tri/R LED assembly and installation (which also adds something like 6 pounds of weight). Total installation time, aside from the cutting useless, unseen plastic that Warlord outlines so well, was about 15 minutes start-to-finish.

Pros:
Very simple plug-and-play
Very, very bright
Will last lifetime of bike (if bulb manufacturer life expectancy is to be believed)
Improved illumination both forward and to the sides
Relatively Cheap at $90 shipped for both bulbs

Cons:
Requires some minor cutting of useless/unseen plastic parts to fit size of bulb/heat sink/fan housing
Beam pattern is not efficient, not the same cut-off to avoid glare to oncoming traffic

My bad. I apologize and withdraw my aggressive statements. Must have forgot to take my meds.

AlohaMark said:

Are LED bulbs going to evolve where the control module is not required?

Click to expand...

Mark, the first post in this thread has an H11 LED conversion bulb that doesn't require a separate control module. Unfortunately, due to the diameter of the heat sink base, it would never fit with the OEM fairing stay.