Many have seen the sleek CORSE DYNAMICS LED headlamp. It costs a bit too much for me. So I figured out a way to get the same quality lighting for cheap.
First, a photo of the final product. The LED light stick out a bit, but it doesn't bother me.
For the light source, I'm using a TruckLite 27270C 7" round LED. It is sold under a few different brands. I got mine on ebay for $160. I believe this is the same lighting element used in the CORSE DYNAMICS headlamp. The 7" LED is a direct replacement to sealed beam (found on vintage british bikes, and jeep wranglers).
Our stock light is a bit too big for this, so the first step is to source an appropriate bucket. The LED light is pretty heavy, so I chose a metal one. There are a lot of them on Ebay. They cost just a bit over $50. Make sure you pick one that uses side-mount, and try to find one where the distance between two mounting hole is 7" or more. Mine was 7.5".
In order to fit this light to stock mounting brackets, I need two spacers to fill the half-inch gap. For now I'm repurposing the stock spacer, which were used on the outside of the bracket. They are the perfect length. I plan to source some better looking spacers and refit with locking washers. This picture shows the spacer:
It took me a while to figure out how to assemble the whole thing, since I have never worked on sealed beams before. But all the bolts/tabs/notches line up. It is asymmetric so there is no way to fit it wrong.
The 7" LED uses standard H-4 plug, so our stock harness plugs right in. There is no place for the city light, so I unplugged that tiny bulb and taped the socket.
Only additional thing is the big hole in the bottom of the bucket for wiring. The one I bought didn't come with rubber grommet, so I need to source a 40mm grommet. Amazon has them for cheap ($3 for a 10 pack), but they are coming from another country so it won't be here until mid Jan. You might be able to find them in your local hardware store.
I haven't got a chance to ride it yet. But based on what I can see in the garage, the new light is much brighter than stock. In the end, the total cost is just over $200.
