2015 Ultra Classic. It came with LEDs on the rear except for the 3157 incandescent bulb in the tail light on the fender. When I bought the bike I immediately replaced the incandescent with a Pilot brand LED tower bulb. Worked pretty good and cost a mere $15.00 for a pair of them.
One day recently I was sucked into the O'Reilly auto parts store like a fat lady getting drawn into a candy shop. While I was in there I saw a "brandy-gnu" LED bulb by Sylvania/Osram. A pair of 'em were $26.00. It had a unique design (see photo) and it said "Super Bright." It had only 2 LED elements on it, but I assumed they were the very bright ones like those on the light bar of a police vehicle. Those things are like laser beams! The 19 year old kid working there told me they were brighter than "snot." He didn't actually say "snot," but it was a 4 letter word that starts with "s" and ends with "t."
Below is the Sylvania:
Next is the Pilot:
With a brand name like Sylvania/Osram ya can't go wrong, can ya? Well...can ya?
Yes...you can. That's what I get for listening to a 19 year old kid.
I was very disappointed. The Sylvania/Osram bulbs LED elements project towards the front of the bike and relies on the bucket to reflect all of the light to the rear. (I knew that going into this deal, but since they were brighter than "snot,' I figured they would really shine.) In my own side-by-side test, the individual Sylvania LED elements were actually less bright than the ones on the Pilot bulb. You can see the difference between the two bulbs on the bike in the photos. The Pilot bulb is on the left, the Sylvania on the right.
The less expensive Pilot bulb has about 15 LED units that are brighter, as well as projecting in a 270 degree pattern. It really fills up the tail light fixture.
My recommendation is to avoid the new Sylvania/Osram Zevo line of bulbs. I thought about trying our their tower style bulb that is similar to the Pilot, but I'm a bit gun-shy about Sylvania now.
11-26-2015, 11:33 AM
Sylvania/Osram new "Super Bright" LED 3157r
