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My Cibie H180 arrived late last year and I fitted it straight away along with a new LED H4 "bulb".
I was prompted by Buzzbomb's post about his fitment of a Cibie in a Bosch shell onto his M1100 and also another order for an adapter (from Bitza), to actually try out my new lamp in the dark for the first time this evening. What with it being incredibly mild for February and all.
So the bulb is a relatively new type with LEDs on all four sides of the "stick", two adjacent sides for the main and two for the dip beam. It is configured so the dip beam is on with the main and the main extinguishes for dip.
The square "stick" is fitted with the corners up and down, diamond fashion. There is a cooling fan in the heatsink.
I did about twenty miles on lanes, country B-roads and a bit of dual carriageway.
The sheer amount of light coming out of the lamp is incredible, it's a nice white light, and the spread is very satisfying. There is no problem seeing the road surface immediately in front of the bike, in great clarity. No dark patches or shadows in the pattern on dip or main. The dip cut off is a little fuzzy but no light escapes above the cut off so there was no flashing from oncoming drivers. Dip and main are both very central with no evident bias to the left. This is the only area where the Autopal unit wins over all the others with it's finger of light piercing down the nearside on dip... No such finger with the Cibie.
For all it's light output there is no horrid dazzling glare from the road signs, that I have trouble with, with the other lights.
As with all headlamps there is a limit to the range dead ahead. This seems to be a product of there being nothing to reflect from in the far central distance? When I was going through a dense wood all was illuminated, as there were trees to reflect the beam even far ahead.
In an attempt to get the distance penetration a little better, I tried adjusting the lamp up a bit, Too much as it happened, but I did see a dense spot of light in the centre of the beam in the trees. A little more crude adjustment got the spot of light a bit closer to the right place , but I was very near home when this particular penny dropped, so didn't get it spot on. A few more seconds will have it sweet I'm sure.
I'm very pleased indeed with this set up, but I do want to try the new LED in the Autopal. I like the look of the Autopal clear crystal unit in the Monster, so I'm hoping that the new bulb works well in it, as the Cibie is destined for the Commando really.
To sum up, I don't think I have ever seen so much light come out of a single headlamp before. This is a phenomenal set up.
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