Searching for an H3 led for R1150RT

[BDW20]

I was able to easily put an H7 LED car bulb in the low beam hole but the H3 LED high beam light bulb won't fit as the old bulb is held in place by the bike bulb holder.  Is there a kit out there to get the high beam turned into a LED as well? I've looked and come up short.

[RogerC60]

I couldn't find anything suitable, either. All of the H3 bulbs small enough to fit that high beam holder are too dim to use for a headlight (they work for fog lights okay). I bought this and installed it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P9Y6JP6

 

I had to heavily modify the bulb holder, but I first looked on the parts fiche and saw I could buy a replacement holder for less than $20, so I didn't worry too much about screwing things up.

 

It's nice and bright, but I'm not terribly pleased with the beam pattern; it's a very narrow circular beam, works great for illuminating the road directly in front of the bike but does little for the periphery. But then again, I don't know what the beam looks like with a halogen bulb because it was so stinking dim I couldn't see its pattern.

[BDW20]

2 hours ago, RogerC60 said:

I couldn't find anything suitable, either. All of the H3 bulbs small enough to fit that high beam holder are too dim to use for a headlight (they work for fog lights okay). I bought this and installed it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P9Y6JP6

 

I had to heavily modify the bulb holder, but I first looked on the parts fiche and saw I could buy a replacement holder for less than $20, so I didn't worry too much about screwing things up.

 

It's nice and bright, but I'm not terribly pleased with the beam pattern; it's a very narrow circular beam, works great for illuminating the road directly in front of the bike but does little for the periphery. But then again, I don't know what the beam looks like with a halogen bulb because it was so stinking dim I couldn't see its pattern.

When I initially pulled mine out to replace I noticed that the bulbs filament is facing verticle

(pointing up and down inside the high beam reflector). You did face the led the same way? Have any pics of the mod you did?

[RogerC60]

I did not take any pics of the process. Here is what the bulb looks like mounted in the housing:

 

I used a Dremel tool to remove a fair bit of the plastic part (63 12 2 305 854) to allow room for the large back end of the bulb. When I was done the plastic part was entirely hollowed out except for one finger of plastic extending into the interior to press against the back side of the bulb and push it up into place in the metal ring. I reshaped the spring metal ground contact so that it gets sandwiched between that protruding plastic finger and the back side of the bulb. I didn't make any mods to the metal ring part of the bulb holder.

 

The square and round notches in the bulb's flange were 90 degrees away from where they needed to be so I machined new notches in the correct place.

 

Oddly enough, that 2-part bulb holder doesn't appear in the online parts fiche for the R1150RT, but it's the same part that's used in the 2004 K1200LT, listed as "bulb socket".

[BDW20]

Sounds like you did a really good job. I wonder why the beam is round out in front of you? I have no idea what my high beam looks like too as it's so much more dim than the low beam. I have also been perusing the idea of mounting crash bars and putting led headlights on them for the high beams.