THE RIDE VERDICT
WE WERE SURPRISED by how close the majority of the bulbs were, when it came to performance and hence, the overall scores. However, what wasn’t so close were the prices, with a huge variety, ranging from £6 per bulb to an eye-watering £33 per bulb.
For the first time we can remember, we have given a product a resounding zero in all respects. The onlinesourced LED H4 was a disaster. The seller’s ad said it would work with H4 reflectors but clearly it doesn’t and if you were stuck with one, you’d be better off setting light to a £5 note and waving it in front of the bike.
In the end, there were three bulbs that achieved the same scores for performance, with similar prices. The two Osram motorbike-specific bulbs did very well and priced at £12 and £10 per bulb, are awarded a welldeserved Recommended triangle. Though why a dualfilament motorcycle bulb is sold in pairs is beyond us…
But it’s the Philips X-tremevision +130 that gets the Best Buy triangle. A good performance, gaining the highest points and costing just £8.50 per bulb, even though you have to buy two at a time.
Finally, the performance of the OE bulb was a real surprise, until we realised that it was manufactured by Philips and, as a result, was a proper bit of kit. This is worth bearing in mind if you choose to replace your bulb with an Oe-spec version, to make sure that the new bulb is made by a decent name.