Modern Buddy

Both of my Stellas have a weak headlight. But my 2008 Stella is about as strong as someone burning a birthday candle. I even changed my blinkers amd tail light to led thinking it would give some more juice to the headlight; didn’t work!

As far as I know, the headlight runs off of A.C. current, so you can’t just put an LEF in there. So I’ve read some different things about rectifiers and batteries and stators and.... well, I don’t understand any of it.

Has anyone successfully converted a headlight to LEF and do they have a walk through or a YouTube video to show the steps to take?

It would make a great tutorial!!

I put a 10 element TruckLite LED headlamp on my '79 Yamaha XS650 years ago. The technology is nice because it draws only a little current. It allows you to be seen because the LED light is so white and brilliant. That was all fine, the issue was seeing with the light of the darn thing after dark. The LED light is so intense and focused it is hard to have any peripheral vision. It naturally depends on the light itself and how its constructed, but the concern to me is having a beam that is too tightly focused and with not enough scattering like you have with an incandescent bulb and lens. I took pictures of the comparison of the two beams, I can't find them at the moment.

So, exploring the AC vs DC issue. The LED will only take DC or it will only shine on half the AC waveform. This will not yield the maximum luminescence, and it may even flicker. This is all great for being seen, but not so nice trying to see on a very dark night.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. However, we have the technology, so to rectify the AC at the headlamp is actually easy. All you need is a bridge rectifier. Four diodes, or just use one in a single package with four leads.
Here's a link to one that's a complete overkill, but has nice StakeOn connectors. The + and - leads to the LED headlamp, the others to the original wires. The AC voltage on the bike is already regulated so it doesn't overvoltage at high revs, so no worries there. I haven't tried this concept myself (and I probably won't) but there's no reason it wouldn't work in practice.

Some of the new scoots and the NIU electric scoots are coming with an LED headlight, so people are doing it successfully.

Hmmmm. Thanks for the amazon link.
I’m really doing some serious thinking now..

SIP sells an LED kit. I don't know exactly what the installation involves, but SIP is smart about their accessories.

Just checking: during normal riding, do you use your high beam?

https://www.eaglelights.com/collections ... headlights

I used one of these on my Indian Chieftain, when I get around to it I want to get some pictures and ask about one of these on my Stella. The reflector is made to be used with an led. When you try to retrofit and led into a incandescent bulb housing the results are usually less then desirable.