Gathered the bird's eye view lighting charts for OE, Halogen and LEd headlights ( see attachment). Also, included cost from the HD website. Looks like for the money the Halogens are the best deal. They cover longer distances. The Leds are only wider in the first 100 to 300 feet. I thought this would be objective data and would be better than personal opinions.

 

someone did tests with hd led vs trucklite led vs halogen.

http://www.lrsanitary.com/0/leds_update.pdf

rather than ( like most) taking a picture of the front of the bike, they took photos of the light from the bike shining down a road

the hd led had the best result ( to my eye) although the tester preferred the trucklite
I liked the pattern, coverage and color temperature

The HD reflector with halogen is awesome compared to my older bikes...so I'll stay with that until the price on a quality led comes down to realistic

mike

 

Good info, thanks. Would you have the same tests on low beam rather than high beam? I think most folks ride on low beam unless out on a lonely road, and a low beam birds eye view would give more realistic results.

 

I thought the OEM bulb WAS hallogen.

 

C50plus,

The stock bulb is halogen so what other halogen bulb (brand/model and wattage) was used in the comparison?

 

The middle is the HD dual bulb halogen.

 

One advantage I see is the LED light although was shorter in length than the halogen, it was around 50' wide compared to a 30' wide beam, thats 20 more feet of friggen deer space you can see. Another thing not mentioned a led is a lifetime bulb, so although it is initially more cost, you may never have to buy another bulb again.
On a side note. Are you sure that middle bulb is not supposed to be listed as a HID not halogen? Halogen bulbs are cheap...Either way my comments still are the same.

 

Running a halogen headlamp and H.d. L.E.D. passing lamps(the ones on either side of the headlamp)might be better. You will be seen better during the day with the halogen headlamp(from the sides)and get extra bright at night with the halogen headlamp and L.E.D. passing lamps on together. Just my opinion...plus save$$$.

 

Swap out the halogen for HID. No ones done a side by side comparison yet. Cost wise and performance, LED's aren't there yet.

 

Here is the BE for the dual bulb. Price and chart say Dual Bulb no mention of HID.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US..._High_Beam.pdf

Here is description of Dual Bulb.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US