BMWBMW

New member here after Jim told me all about the site (thanks Jim!). I am looking at LED bulbs to replace the low beam bulb on my 2014 R1200RT. I ride about 15k a year, and am currently only getting about 5k miles per low beam H7 bulb purchased at Autozone. Due to my XXL hands, swapping a new bulb in is a SERIOUS problem for me and I'd like to find a longer-life bulb. The only concerns I have are a) fitting the resistor (and all of it's heat) needed to satisfy the canbus system, or b) if the LED bulb has it's own resistor being able to close the headlight cap without any major modifications. Does anyone have any experience with this? I look forward to meeting many of you in the coming months!
Rob
2014 R1200RT

Check with this guy. I am pretty sure he has a canbus friendly LED set for you!

http://www.cyclopsadventuresports.com/

Jim

relliott wrote:am currently only getting about 5k miles per low beam H7 bulb purchased at Autozone.

Welcome, Rob. I have a idea that might explain your short bulb life. Normally, the stores sell various brightness levels of H7 bulbs. For a little more money, you can get a bulb that 10% or more lumens of light. That's the big print on the front of the package.

However, if you read the fine print on the back of the package, you learn that the brighter bulbs are not rated to last as long. I do not remember the exact numbers off the top of my head but the percentage of life lost was a lot more than the percentage of extra light.

I could never notice the difference between the "performance" bulbs and the regular bulbs.

Good luck.