Osram silverstar 2.0 review

[DavidP]

Howdy folks,

I just did the H4 bulb upgrade to my st13 using Osram silverstar 2's ($25ish from ebay via the uk - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OSRAM-H4-SILVERSTAR-2-0-TWIN-PACK-CHEVROLET-CRUZE-J300-2-0-CDI-05-09-/171454387381? ), and thought I'd upload a few piccies.

I didn't use shims, (just trimmed the 2 tangs) and the focus and cutoff was exactly the same as stock.  The camera was tripod mounted, and fixed exposure time.

First I changed the right bulb and took some photos to compare the two (each photo was takes with a piece of ply over the opposite headlight).

45W low beam



55W low beam



45W high beam


60W high beam



After all of that the standard position lights looks a bit yellow, so white leds to the rescue :-)  The ones I bought from ebay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/High-Quality-T10-2835-24SMD-LED-Car-Canbus-Error-Free-Wedge-White-Light-Bulb-New-/251703083213? ) overheated something horrible so I modified them to draw less power.  At 14v they drew 4w and started smelling like overloaded electronics.  After the modification (replacing the 120ohm resistors with 680ohm ones-good thing I used to do a lot of surface mount electronics) they drew 1w and stayed cool.
I managed to fit them with the fairing on (what a pain to fit, and now I have a T10 bulb somewhere in the fairing  )




The H4 upgrade is definitely worth it, quite a bit more light (and whiter at that) for less than 1/2 an hour of work   

Bulb life will be slightly shorter then stock H4s, but if you want really good bulb life use something like osram ultralifes - I run the H7 version in with wife's diesel car and they have done 45,000km so far (vs 15,000k for stock bulbs) - update, just blew @ 60,000km

[Brock]

I hate to be pedantic, ( its a hazard of the trade ) but I think you mean drew 4 amps pre mod and 1 amp after. 

P.S.  reports from the US site seem to indicate that LED position lights fail rapidly due to the heat from the headlights

[DavidP]

nope, 1w (70ma @ 14v) vs 4W (300ma so actually 4.2w@14v)

Plenty bright enough at 1w though as you can see by the piccies

If the fail I can always replace them with standard bulbs.  I did notice that the 2 shades of white makes the cagers notice you a lot more (and sometimes think you are a unmarked police bike  )
 

[Brock]

In that case they consume / use 1 Watt, a unit of power.

( I am an Aviation eleco/ tech of 40 years so a bit of a stickler for correct terminology)

[ST2UP]

Great picture comparo Dave    Any German bulb seams to be well recieved, I personally like to get bulbs up closer to 4200k 


Is this the end of your lighting upgrade or is aus HID/LED on your to-do list ??


Cheers

[DavidP]

prob under mirror led spots sometime in the future.  Shorter days over winter will give me a better idea, I have only ridden the bike once at night (only picked it up just before the ozstoc rally), and that was with a fault in the height adjuster so low beam was facing about 10m in front of me!  Can't go wrong for $25 (h4) for that much of a lighting improvement though!

[alans1100]

I have these H4 OSRAM night breakers lined up. Recommended by a few UK owners.  http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191426124831?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT