Cyclops bulbs

Okay, I'm not trying to start a riot. Let me first begin with that.

I'm an honest guy. I fix peoples bikes for free. Sometimes if I'm doing an engine rebuild I'll charge, but when/if I ever do, its litterally a FRACTION of what it would cost at a dealership. Point is, I truly love this sport, and I love bikes. I certainly don't like seeing folks getting bent over.

I was perusing ktmtalk and came across a guy that was really ticked off with the quality of his cyclops bulb.

I helped Philip instal his and was NOT impressed with the quality, nor the fit and finish of a $60 bulb.

Fast forward a few weeks later, I'd purchased a similar unit off eBay for like $15.

I remember opening it, and noticing LED molded into the back of the fan housing. I also noticed it basically resembled the exact same bulb we had installed in Philips bike, and didn't work.

((((At the time we thoguht it was because his headlight was AC fed, BUT the cyclops bulb advertises it has a rectifier built in, and will work with AC power. )))

Fast forward to yesterday, me reading this dudes rant about what a *** the bulb is.

Anyways, it brought back those memories of holding both bulbs, though not at the same time, and feeling like they were the same junk.

Well here's a picture from cyclops website, and also a picture of the eBay bulb.

I'll go ahead and say it.... Cyclops is selling re-branded bulbs, and marking them up at least 500%. AT LEAST

Just buy the EBAY one and save yourself some money. It comes with the same spring, and 4 adapters. Even comes in the same white box.

Which is which???? Hmm

Oh and as far as customer service.... According to the eBay seller, he will replace any DOA bulbs.

Either way, you could go through 7 of these before you touch what you'd have in the "cyclops" bulb.

I'm not necessarily saying the quality is terrible. The bulb I got is on par for what you'd expect a $15 bulb to be, and worked just fine..... Now if I'd paid 5x that price and got the same exact thing... Well, quality sucks.

Thats good info. I wonder how many other led lights and stuff or like this. JT gave me some 37.00 led lights for my strom and I really like them .

Yeah, I like my Chinese led lights too. I'm certainly not saying they're poor quality. I just want folks to understand that those cyclops bulbs are nothing special, and can be had for a much better price.

Interesting because I was reading that thread over on Adventure Rider forum this evening. Seemed like a lot of folks were dissing the guy for his negative comments about the (overpriced) Cyclops bulb.

Yeah, that's me. I'm sorry but charging people a 500% markup on something to make a few bucks, and claiming it as your own is low.

I dont like the LED bulbs that replace the halogen because the halogen headlight housing was never designed for it and its hit or miss whether the bulb will be half decent or not based off how well the bikes housing is with the LED. I just changed out my entire headlight assemblies for LED pod lights... Trust me, they work like nobodies business!! Each light is 4500 lumens btw...

thrill-billy85 said:

Yeah, that's me. I'm sorry but charging people a 500% markup on something to make a few bucks, and claiming it as your own is low.

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How do you know that a company in china didnt rip off their light and are now selling it for cheap!? Happens ALL THE TIME with really hot selling items. ****, ive come across fake stuff i couldnt tell the difference!! One example is chinese knockoff NGK plugs!! You dont hear me complaining that NGK buys chinese made plugs and marks them up 500% cause i found fake NGKs before...

Heck, its probably all made in the same factory in China.

I agree, those pod lights are bad to the bone. I've got one in my KTM. 3700lm @18w

Electronic tolerances is what makes up the Cyclops $$. As with most mass produced components, the LEDs are tested and graded coming off the line. Cyclops claims to use only the A units which have passed the most stringent QC.

In the world of LEDs this can mean a huge difference in both the quantity and quality of the light and the longevity of the element. In the entertainment world this is the reason you can buy a "pro" LED PAR fixture from Monoprice for $59 and a "pro" LED PAR fixture from ETC for $710! Guess which one we use?

thrill-billy85 said:

Heck, its probably all made in the same factory in China.

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Bingo! There are only a few companies in the world that are actually "making" LED products, while everyone else is just having them repackage and re-brand them. In our industry, there is a huge push for LED displays, and lots of companies offering their products to us. What we found out is about 90% of them come from these guys.
https://www.google.com/finance?cid=455892735660889

While we had people over there touring the place, we found out they also make LED household fixtures, automotive fixtures, warehouse highbay fixtures, and also they have a huge demand for raw LED components.

Long story short, if you have something that has LED's in there somewhere, there is very large chance that these guys were the one's that made it.

philipbarrett said:

In the world of LEDs this can mean a huge difference in both the quantity and quality of the light and the longevity of the element. In the entertainment world this is the reason you can buy a "pro" LED PAR fixture from Monoprice for $59 and a "pro" LED PAR fixture from ETC for $710! Guess which one we use?

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Are you guys buying those LED PAR's? We still haven't been able to justify getting rid of our conventional fixtures to go with those. Any new fixtures we are certainly going LED, but we haven't been replacing our conventionals just yet.

I can tell you that we are loving these little guys! Sure they are pricey, but what you get for your money, these are some of the best bang for your buck wash lights out there.
http://www.martin.com/en-us/product-details/mac-aura-xb

DFW_Warrior said:

In our industry, there is a huge push for LED displays, and lots of companies offering their products to us. What we found out is about 90% of them come from these guys.
https://www.google.com/finance?cid=455892735660889

.....

Are you guys buying those LED PAR's? We still haven't been able to justify getting rid of our conventional fixtures to go with those. Any new fixtures we are certainly going LED, but we haven't been replacing our conventionals just yet.

I can tell you that we are loving these little guys! Sure they are pricey, but what you get for your money, these are some of the best bang for your buck wash lights out there.
http://www.martin.com/en-us/product-details/mac-aura-xb

Click to expand...

I've used the Absen direct branded 3.4mm walls now a couple of times, doesn't rig like a Roe but the image was certainly impressive.



One of our reasons for the LED instruments is the lower power costs, when a property wants $4,000 a day for a 400A feed going from 2 to 1 buys a lot of fixtures. Add in the cost of replacement PAR lamps and no labor to gel & the LEDs make some sense.

We love the Mac Auras, just spec'd 120 of them for a show this week! I'm completely bored with Sharpys though.

Some guys on StromTrooper turned me on to Evitek G6 bulbs. Pretty nifty and seem well built. I believe these are actually in fact made by Evitek as there was talk on an ST forum about one individual being on the testers.
The unique thing about the G6 (generation 6) bulbs is that they incorporate a beam shaper much like the one found on the halogen bulb. I got mine in last night and am pretty impressed. These are almost as bright as the HID's I ran with for 4 years.
Much less scatter you can see the beam cutoff. They also engineered a nice feature - the bulb separates from the flange so you can mount the flange and then the rubber weather cover and poke the bulb through and twist lock it right in. This is a great feature since it has the brushless fans on the rear.
Time will tell on how long the fan lasts but it's rated at 30,000 hrs. We'll see how the real world treats it. I consider them affordable at $52 a pair.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Headlight-Evitek-Easy-Installed-Headlights-4500LM/dp/B017M566T4]Evitek H4 G6 bulb set on Amazon[/ame]