12v Lucas 564 LED light board kit

Description

This fantastic new LED light board has been specially designed to fit perfectly inside the red outer lens of a Lucas 564 rear motorcycle lamp (as fitted to countless classic motorcycles from the 1950’s onwards). It replaces the standard filament bulb giving a huge reduction in power consumption, increased reliability and improved visibility.

The latest version of the 12v LED light boards has been completely redesigned to make them even better. The first thing you will notice is that the LED board has been reshaped to match the outline and contours of the Lucas 564 rear lights. As well as ensuring that the LEDs are seen at their full brightness, the mirror finish of the LED board also improves the performance of the reflector elements built into the red lens of the lamp.

The LEDs are still powered by our unique current controlled circuitry to ensure they operate at maximum brightness regardless of battery voltage or engine speed. However we’ve managed to squeeze in an extra two red LEDs to give an even wider and brighter illuminated area. The original LED board easily matched the brightness of a standard 21/5W filament bulb, so the new design is even more visible. Additional circuit protection, polarity correction and current limiting devices have been included to ensure that the sensitive LEDs are safe even if you connect them wrongly or your bike’s electrical system goes wrong.

These LED boards are ideal for bikes with low power dynamo charging systems, but will work equally well on alternator equipped machines and are also perfect for total-loss systems thanks to their ultra-low power consumption. Note that this LED unit is not suitable for motorcycles running with 6 volts electrics, but an alternative 6v version is available.

The LED light board is designed to operate with both positive and negative earth motorcycles overcoming the polarity issues common to many other such lights. Inbuilt circuitry automatically ‘corrects’ the polarity and safeguards against any possible wrong connections by the user. The redesigned LED board comes with a custom designed plugin adapter that makes installation (almost) as easy as changing a bulb. You just remove the filament lamp, plug in the adapter in its place and screw the LED board into that. No drilling, cutting or rewiring of the lamp unit is available and you can easily swap back to a conventional bulb at any time if needed.

The light unit consists of a hexagonal array of twelve red LEDs which all illuminate for the brake light function. The central four LEDs illuminate for the tail light function giving a clear difference in both brightness and illumination pattern between the tail and brake light functions. Linked to the tail lights are three white LEDs which are angled downwards to illuminate the numberplate area. All of the LEDs are super-bright and wide-angled for enhanced visibility from all viewing angles.

Light emitting diodes offer many benefits for classic motorcycles as is discussed in detail on the advantages of LED lighting page. The main advantage is that power consumption is a fraction of that of a conventional bulb. Our rear light boards draw less than 140mA of maximum current – that’s only about 6% of the current needed by a normal 21+5 Watt bulb. The LEDs are brighter too!

These LED light units have been designed to the highest ‘Matchless Clueless’ standards and specifications. Other LED units use resistors to control the voltage to the diodes as this is cheap and simple. However it does not properly control the current flowing through the LEDs over the surprisingly wide range of voltages which can be expected from a 12v nominal charging system. This can lead to dim LEDs and low visibility if the battery needs charging, or the diodes burning out if the voltage rises too high when the battery is being charged.

Instead our light boards use sophisticated microchips to precisely control the current supplied to the LEDs irrespective of supply voltage fluctuations. They therefore operate at peak performance and brightness over all battery charge states. In fact they will get you home safely even in the event of a complete charging system failure as the LEDs will continue to glow brightly even when the battery is too discharged to light up the other bulbs on your bike.

Full fitting and installation instructions are available to view online in the Lucas 564 light installation guide. Please take note of my comments regarding LED lighting and the law.

The only tools required to install the LED board are a 2.5mm Allen key and a 7mm spanner. These are available as optional extras for only £2.20 by ticking the option box at the top of the page before clicking the ‘Buy it Now’ button, just in case you don’t already have them in your tool box.

Additional information