Hello Forum dwellers,
  I am wondering about lighting/bulb upgrades to LED for a '85 K100 RS. I am about to pull the fairings for a vinyl wrap and am curious if there are upgrades available for primarily the front headlight and possibly the tail light and indicators. Either a bulb or an entirely new light assembly that fits, I am intent on keeping the original fairing.
  I won't be riding a lot at night but will be doing some predawn commuting on narrow country roads. 

Thanks, Larpenhund

An Eastern Beaver kit will increase headlight output considerably whilst retaining the original components, and also relieving electronic "stress" on the various components. 
Do a search in the forum's engine for multiple threads on the subject.

Thanks Two Wheels Better, and for the tip on 'stress relief'.

I have been using these lights on my bikes for the past 10 years.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/161668112090?_skw=12v+led+spot+light&epid

Headlight:
http://www.kbikeparts.com/classickbikes.com/ckb.tech/0.ckb.tech.files/hltest/hltest.htm

Brake/tail and turn signal:
http://www.kbikeparts.com/classickbikes.com/ckb.tech/0.ckb.tech.files/ledbraketail/ledbraketail.htm

Instrument cluster:
https://www.kbikeparts.com/ledupgrade.htm

Just buy the Osram Night Breaker LED H4 bulb part no 64193DWNBSM-2HB

It has official German seal of approval for the RS/RT headlight since it has been lab testet specifically in that lamp and is street legal in many EU countries.

It only uses 20/19 watts, so you don't need any relays.

The most important dipped beam has an excellent pattern.

I have one in my K75RT and bought a set for my wife's car as well, and she's relly pleased with the upgrade.


https://www.osram.com/ecat/NIGHT%20BREAKER%20LED%20SMART%20H4-LED%20high%20and%20low%20beam%20lamps%20(street%20legal)-Car%20lighting-Automotive/com/en/GPS01_31368997/ZMP_4068661/

Tranberg
mange tak for this very helpful information

The alternative is the Phillips Ultinon; again, street-legal (CE certified) right across Europe. 

Buuuut! I have Ultinons in my (also CE approved) headlights and they fail the MOT test. It's not that they are out of alignment - it's quite obvious that when compared to a 'standard' halogen bulb I have them set to the lower end of the allowable dip beam pattern. The bloody headlight testing computers in Northern Ireland don't like them - the testers can see that the beam is set low but: Computer Says No and they can't override our digital overlords. Evidently something is producing sufficient side scatter to piss the computer off but not affect the tester's vision.

So: come MOT time I have to swap out the top fairing for one with the OEM headlight. I don't bother refitting the screen or the inner fairing panels because they're not part of the MOT test.

Dai wrote:So: come MOT time I have to.....the MOT test.

I bloody well love   that I'm not subjected to this level of scrutiny in most of the States. 
I bloody well hate   that others are not subjected to this level of scrutiny in most of the States.

Fully understood.

@Dai Can't you find a different garage for the MOT?

Are the Ultinon's tested in the RS/RT headlamp like my Osram's?

On Flyingbrick, there's only ever been talk about the Osram, probably because someone there appearantly pulled some strings and encouraged Osram to get them tested with the RT/RS headlamp

You have to have a specific bulb approved for a specific headlight? Sheesh!

Here in the US legal parts are referred to as "DOT Approved." Which is funny because the DOT doesn't actually approve of anything. That expression only means that the manufacturer warrants that the part complies with DOT standards. It really should be "DOT Compliant" but manufacturers think Approved sounds better so that's how they market their products and how people refer to them.

DOT = US Dept. of Transportation.

You can absolutely guarantee that the Osram Nightbreakers and the Phillips Ultinons are the same in beam intensity and spread, otherwise they would not have European CE approval. However, if Denmark requires that every manufacturer's bulb is tested and approved with every single possible headlight that it can fit, Phillips may not have bothered because the size of the market is unlikely to be profitable.

If I'm reading your post right, that's a damn stupid rule made up to put profit in somebody's (the government's?) pocket. If you take a headlight that is CE-approved for a halogen bulb and replace that halogen bulb with an LED bulb that is a CE-approved replacement for the halogen bulb (follow me? ), then it's going to produce the correct beam spread in every headlight that has a European CE-approval.

As for the MOT over here: because of the Troubles all MOT's are done in government-controlled testing stations. The nearest one to me is seven miles away; the next nearest one is 18 miles away; the one after that is 23 miles away and so on through four more steps to 117 miles away. In Great Britain individual garages are approved to do the test.

It's NOT a Denmark thing.

All over the EU you can't just fit LED bulbs in any random  lamp E-marked for halogen bulbs.

Germany was actually the first country which allowed LED-bulbs to be retrofitted, provided that the bulb was tested in the specific lamp type with an E approval.
In recent years, other EU-countries have followed suit.

The RT/RS lamp is a good old fashioned reflector with a glass lens with various patterns to distribute the light.

Discount cars with clear plastic non-functional lenses most often have a terrible light pattern with LED bulbs.

Your statement that an approved LED bulb will make the correct pattern in any lamp approved with a halogen bulb is simply not true, because however much they try, an array of LED's simply cannot replicate the filament in a halogen bulb, and the primitive cheap headlamps on many cars and motorcycles cannot compensate for that.

Tesla's have horrible glaring LED-lights with lots of stray light going everywhere, dazzling oncomers and airplanes passing over them, but they paid the approving lab to let it slide.

Finally, don't mock us here on the continent, when we can legally fit the approved LED bulb and just present the copy of the approval document at the MOT (which is only required for motorcycles when changing owner here in Denmark), while you can't even get the bloody MOT

Tranberg wrote:Finally, don't mock us here on the continent, when we can legally fit the approved LED bulb and just present the copy of the approval document at the MOT (which is only required for motorcycles when changing owner here in Denmark), while you can't even get the bloody MOT

I wasn't mocking you in any way whatsoever and I'm really sorry if it came across that way.

As retrofitting E-approved LED bulbs generally was made legal in the UK while we were still part of the European Union, I assumed (incorrectly as I now know) that the rule applied right across Europe too.

You also made me (in a good way) go and find my last MOT rejection notice. It says the headlights (plural - I have a twin setup) were set too high, so you may have something when you say that an approved swapout isn't always a perfect change as it passed its MOT in the previous year when it had filament-based Osram Nightbreakers fitted.

I was very thrilled when new Danish MOT guidelines came out in December last year, with this new rule for accepting LED lights.
It goes against their prior policies. 
Twenty years ago, it was possible in Denmark to install a tow hitch on a car, even if the manufacturer had specified a maximum towing capacity of zero kilograms, following German practice, which allowed it, providing that the tow hitch manufacturer had conducted calculations, measurements, and a torture test in a laboratory where a machine pulled on the tow hitch in all directions for hours without the car being damaged. 
This is still allowed in Germany and especially in the Netherlands, where everyone seems to be towing something. Denmark, however, broke away from this practice about ten years ago and no longer recognizes these test certificates.
 
A towbar is so immensely practical, even on the smallest of cars, like SmartforTwo, for taking trash to the dump or picking up appliances.