After an unpleasant exchange of emails with plasmaled.com, I was looking for new lights. It turns out these "cheap" lights can not be repaired. Cheap was the guy from plasmaled.com's word, not mine. I actually think these are quality lights because they never showed any sign of my install failure. They always came on and stayed on. If I hadn't been so put off my the email exchange, I would've simply ordered a replacement. But when the guy called his own product cheap, I decided I'd look for quality low cost replacements.
I really liked the size of the 008 LED modules and since I had brackets I knew worked with them, initially I wanted to stick with that style. After scouring my usual sources, I had to look in other places. When I did, I discovered the products have improved and the selection is much bigger now. It took me back to my category management days when we would be looking for suppliers. I had to be disciplined just to make sure I got exactly what I wanted and not just the newest greatest thing.
After a couple days of searching, I narrowed it down to a few.
Some of them draw significantly more power than the 3w leds they're replacing. I really want to have high output low wattage lights that didn't tax my system too much and weren't much bigger than the lights I had. Since I knew they worked, they remained an option. However I didn't want to give up on the chance to get something that could put a little more light on the road that easily. I changed my search parameters and found a bunch of LEDs under 10w that were what I wanted before I settled on these:
Compared to the 008 LED modules, these have about 40% more light output. I did some converting and figured out they were around the same size as the 008's so I placed an order for a set. The best part is the price of these is less than one 008 LED! I guess plasmaled.com can keep their "cheap" lights. Yep, I'm like a dawg with a bone.
While I was waiting for the lights to show up, I took the old brackets and lights down to the bike to find a place to attach them. I no longer have front reflectors but I discovered I could use the front brake caliper as a mounting location.
After a little wait, they arrived at the house via the US Postal Service a little sooner than I thought they would.
When I chose these, I was hoping I'd be able to re-use my brackets. After a few adjustments, they fit but:
They look really bad on the bike.
So it was to the drawing board to find some better looking brackets. Initially I thought I'd just ride with 'em like that until I was inspired but they looked so bad inspiration came quickly.
I chose to use smaller corner braces.
A coat of rust proof valspar paint later and I had the finished product.
Since these come with longer wires pre-installed, I needed to shorten the old wires. It wasn't too difficult of an install because I re-used the old wiring. After changing a fuse, I had light!
It's been raining since I completed the install and really cold nights haven't made me want to make the video. I won't bother unless someone asks for it. From the pictures, you can see there's a big difference between these and the 008 LED modules
 |
| 008 LED on the left, Eagle Eye on the right |
If interested, click below to buy these lights.
Thanks for reading,
patrice, theWolfTamer
 |
| Caliper mounted light before I painted the braces black. |
As a result, people have begun to prefer the led lighting on other types of lamps for a variety of applications.
ReplyDelete