How badly do LEDs degrade???

[Slideways]

Have a set of Skene P3 rear LED lights on my hard cases for a year (almost exactly a year). Recently started riding without the bags and missed the lights. Bought a set of the Boosters which are what Skene calls an extra set of lights. These were mounted on the back under the rack so the bike would be lighted up with or without the bags on board. Well of course I just had to see how incredible the bike looked with the bags on and both sets of Skene lights doing their thing. Bummer! The original set are much dimmer then the new set.

Have heard that LED lights lose some of their brightness with time but the difference is quite a lot and the time span has been a year. What say you lighting nerds and gurus out there?

[stevewfl]

http://www.ledlightingexplained.com/led-lighting-myths/

[jtk1531]

i don't see any lifespan quoted in the product specification page.

generally, LED lifespan can fall if they are over-driven (supplying more amp than its spec says it requires), or overheated.
some manufacturers deliberately overdrive LEDs to gain more light output for a given LED size.

given a typical LED lifespan of 25000 hours = 2.8 years+ of continuous light output, some might feel its worthwhile to sacrifice a bit of lifespan for greater light output.

[Caffeinated]

I'd talk to Skene and find out what he say's.

[Rhino]

I'm thinking of going with these and attaching to my canyon cages to be noticed better from the front.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pair-Black-10W-LED-Mini-Aux-Driving-Spot-Light-Triumph-Motorcycles-IP68-/190953678072?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c75b9e4f8&vxp=mtr

[Rhino]

Also though about these but at 4X the cost not sure they are worth it.

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/60469/i/vision-x-2-solstice-solo-prime-l-e-d--pod-light

[lonekazoo]

I believe they can also fail when under-driven.  I have upgraded my lighting to LEDs in my RV, and the only times I have seen  LED elements fail is when I let my batteries get severely depleted.  The bike's electrical system should eliminate that, unless you frequently leave the lights on without the engine running.   Good quality LED-based products have circuitry to prevent under-voltage.  But LED's typically work or they dont:  they shouldn't go dim in that short of a time, until just before they fail altogether.

What you're seeing is probably differences in various bin selection of the LED's.  They are constantly being improved (look up "LED binning").

[Caffeinated]

I'm thinking of going with these and attaching to my canyon cages to be noticed better from the front.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pair-Black-10W-LED-Mini-Aux-Driving-Spot-Light-Triumph-Motorcycles-IP68-/190953678072?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c75b9e4f8&vxp=mtr

Those look exactly like the MondoMoto's MM10 Led lights.....I had these on last C14.
http://mondomotos.com/lighting/led/mm10

[Rhino]

They look identical. But the ones on ebay are $54 less. How did you like them? I'm not that interested in how they light the road at night but how noticeable they are during the day in bright sunlight.

They look pretty good on a connie. This is a pic from the Mondomotors website.

[AZBob]

Have you guys tried these: http://www.clearwaterlights.com/

They are expensive, but from what I've seen, you can light the earth in the pitch black night with some of the models.

[Caffeinated]

They look identical. But the ones on ebay are $54 less. How did you like them? I'm not that interested in how they light the road at night but how noticeable they are during the day in bright sunlight.

They look pretty good on a connie. This is a pic from the Mondomotors website.

they were great, and since I mainly used them for day run lights they were very noticeable. I ended up adding a dimmer (Skene IQ-175) since the MM10's were blinding in the DC traffic I ride.

That pic is 556alpha's bike from his install.
http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=10701.0