Wanted to get some opinions and first hand accounts of what you do for a much brighter and longer/wider view headlight (or just new bulbs?). The stock one on my 2013 Iron is pretty weak in the luminescent department.

Any advice on how to go about an upgrade? Does anyone have better and brighter headlights, or is it efficient to simply change out the bulbs to a LED type? Any brands or links to sites that I can research would be great. Just looking for a place to start for info. Thanks everyone.

 

buy new projector headlight and put an LED in it

 

welcome to the struggle....

see here:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...79-led-h4.html

 

change bulb from 60/55 to 80/55 or 90/55. you can get them on amazon for 8 or 9 bucks each. plug right in and you'll have much better high beam and lows won't blind oncoming traffic. Been using them for years with no issues.

 

Do what u did in mine. Cheaper than buying Harley's led projectors. And a long and wide beam pattern.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sportster-models/1021797-hid-projector-retrofit-done.html

 

Look at PIAA 70456. Selling for $42

 

I'm a big fan of this guy.
http://danielsternlighting.com/
He has quite a few "lense optic" housings based on Cibie.
I run a 7" Cibie (right side of the road) with an H4 bulb , in a Drag Specialties 7" black housing.
Cibie uses the lense optic vs reflector optic like Harley has now.
The lense optic is more accurate and has a very distinctive aim as per EU spec.
The DOT spec is more politically motivated and not a very fine aim.
Lense optics use a "fluted" lense for aim , Cibie uses lead crystal glass , expensive and accurate.
I had an Osram Rallye 70/65 bulb which looked fantastic , but the lifespan is short at around 300 hours.
The stock bulb is a 55/60 rated at about 1200 hours , but is less efficient.
The Cibie housing even with a stock bulb is much better than stock.
And as usual , larger is better with forward lighting on any vehicle.
This combo with the Osram bulb was actually better than my Truck-lite LED 7" lamp on my2009 Ultra Classic.


Mick

 

^ This. I switched to 90/55 and the difference is significant. Also I haven't seen any overheating issues as well in my 8 months of using this kind of bulb now.

 

I recently purchased a PIAA bulb off of eBay and it's quite a bit brighter. Not exactly LED bright but definitely better than the stock yellow bulb.

By the way, you don't need to remove the black plastic headlight cover (held on with two hex head screws) to take the clamping ring off of the headlight. Just pop the little cap off of the cover and loosen the headlight adjustment nut so you can lower the light in order to remove the clamping ring. And when tightening the headlight adjustment nut after you're done, make sure to hold the headlight in place with one hand so it doesn't move on you while wrenching. You may even want to tighten while the headlight is slightly off-center so it'll move itself into place while tightening the nut.

 

! I Currently have a Rivera primo headlight on my bike that looks cool as hell, but is still lacking if I want to do extended night rides. But before I purchase expensive auxillary lighting, I'm trying out the 5.75 version on the Cibie light from Daniel stern to see how that works and if I can live with the power of the beam pattern. I think with an 85/80 H4 buld I should be fine I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Thanks again for the advice!

Btw - I did the same handlebar conversion on my 48 AND used them with 1 inch risers. Perfect fit and great advice on it in a previous post! Thanks for that too!