{"id":73,"date":"2009-07-14T22:35:22","date_gmt":"2009-07-15T02:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kz750twins.com\/?p=73"},"modified":"2012-03-31T20:29:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T00:29:26","slug":"led-tail-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kz750twins.com\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"LED Tail\/Brake\/Turn Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I’ve owned these KZ’s, I’ve tried a bunch of 1157 and 1156 style LED replacement lights.\u00a0 Honestly, most of them suck.<\/p>\n

Why try LED lights?\u00a0 Some people say they are brighter.\u00a0 I assure you most are not.\u00a0 Maybe because they draw less power from your old motorcycle wiring harness?\u00a0 This is likely true.\u00a0 On the other hand, you might have an analog brake light failure indicator that will now think the light has failed, since it can no longer sense the current draw back there…<\/p>\n

Many LED light vendors go on and on about their lights being bright.\u00a0 Okay, they might *seem* brighter in the dark or at dusk (when all those photos seem to be taken), but in direct sunlight, LED’s are just plain harder to be seen, especially when used as a replacement in a stock lense cover.\u00a0 The light actually needs to be *brighter* than standard to overcome this challenge.<\/p>\n

I can’t remember where I got my first set of standard 24-LED bulbs for turnsignals for my first 750.\u00a0 Some place off eBay, I think.\u00a0 They are kinda crappy, but they are ok as long as you look at them straight-on (though not as bright as non-LED), since all 24 of the LED’s point straight away from the socket.<\/p>\n

Then, I bought some “wide-angle” 24-LED turnsignal bulbs from superbrightleds.com for my second 750 (to try and solve the straight-on-only problem), and they are worse than the others I have.\u00a0 In hindight I know why:\u00a0 these are slightly rounded and spread out the light to fill a reflective lense (with 18 LED’s facing straight back, and 6 LED’s radially mounted); but the early KZ turnsignal sockets have no reflective backing.\u00a0 Here’s what you need to know – these type of LED replacement 1157s are basically crap.<\/p>\n

Anyway, to cut to the chase…. in all of my testing with different lights, I actually have come across a couple LED’s that actually are bright… *really* bright… In my opinion, they are as bright or brighter than regular 1157’s.<\/p>\n

So as a result, here are the only L.E.D. tail\/brake\/turn lights I’ll use and swear by:<\/p>\n