TaoTao TBR7 Motorcycle LED Headlight Bulb Upgrade.

Anyone looking for a replacement TaoTao TBR7 motorcycle LED Headlight bulb will tell you it can be a challenge(Read My LED Headlight Backstory If Bored). I found the real challenged was to getting a drop-in TBR7 LED Headlight Bulb that worked every time. It took three tries, but I found a drop-in LED motorcycle headlight bulb upgrade that worked as expected, switches between low beam and high beams.

This LED headlight bulb was the final solution for me:

Author’s Notice: This page contains affiliate links, for which I may earn a commission by their use. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.

FYI, this worked on my TBR7 Bike for two reasons:

• It matched the base of my original headlight and was a high-enough quality to work as designed.
• It Was Cheap. Check For Current Prices.

Helpful Tip: while you are upgrading your TBR7 motorcycle headlight to an LED bulb, consider upgrading the daytime running light to an LED bulb as well. Best Motorcycle LED Bulb For Daytime Running Light.

Motorcycle LED Headlight Bulb Installation:

Note: These are the steps I took with the replacement and should only be read for entertainment purposes. Only professionals should do motorcycle maintenance, and I am a novice.   

FAQ: Motorcycle Garage Safety Rules

1. Motorcycle Safety first.

Ensure the bike is stationary; I work on a level surface, with the bike in gear to prevent the rolling of the motorcycle. Also, make sure the TaoTao TBR7 Motorcycle is sitting correctly on its kickstand, or securely on a jack stand, or lift jack (My Motorcycle Lift Jack). I just used the motorcycle kickstand.

2. Electrical Safety.

It is recommended that you completely disconnect the battery before doing any motorcycle electrical maintenance. What I did, was turn off the motorcycle by the key and removed the key. I also ensure the headlight switch was off and the motorcycle cycle kill switch was on stop. I felt this was safe enough for me to change a headlight bulb.

FYI: Building My List of Must-Have Tools For Motorcycle Owners

3. Remove The Headlight Assembly.

The assembly is held in place by two hex head bolts on the sides. Do not lose these bolts.

I like to use a magnetic tool pan like this product to keep my loose motorcycle parts safe.

4. Remove The Rubber Boot.

Looking at the back of the headlight housing, remove the rubber boot. This boot helps keep dirt and moisture out of the headlight, so treat gently.

5. Remove The Headlight Bulb.

Remove the socket/electrical connector by pushing in and twisting. Once the connector is removed, you will see the base of the headlight bulb. Pull it out. I used a wad of duct tape to stick to the back of the bulb and remove it. Feeling if I inverted the headlight, I would have dropped the bulb and broke it. Now place this bulb in a safe place. If the LED headlight bulb doesn’t work, you need to replace this bulb. If the LED headlight bulb works, this is a spare should something go wrong.

6. Inspect And Orient The New LED Headlight Bulb.

Look at the new LED headlight bulb base, and you will see a ‘point.’ This point needs to line up with the ‘cutout’ in the headlight socket. Avoid touching sensitive electronic components and insert the bulb gently. The bulb flange should sit flush as forward as possible without forcing it.

7. Reinstall The Headlight Wires.

Reconnect the electrical connector, push firmly, and twist to lock. At this point, I undid all my electrical safety steps and turned on the motorcycle(WITHOUT running the engine). I tested the new led headlight bulb by turning it on and seeing if it changed angle and brightness when operating the high beam switch. This version of the led bulb worked!!!! Yay!!!

8. Reinstall The Rubber Boot.

Slide boot back up, ensuring it makes as much contact with the sides of the headlight bulb assembly, better to keep out dirt and moisture.

9. Remount The Motorcycle Headlight.

Then reinstalled the headlight to the motorcycle. The plastic parts of the headlight are soft. You will be tempted to crank down on the side mounting bolts, I did, and you will damage the plastic. I use a blue thread-locker to hold the bolts in place; it has worked great for me without over-torquing these bolts.

10. Test Your Work And Enjoy Your Work!

Go for a ride!!!!! Nothing is rewarding as going out and testing your new motorcycle modifications. Face it; the TBR7 Motorcycle is a ‘cheap’ motorcycle. Adding a new upgrade, like a new brighter, energy-efficient LED headlight bulb, is a great feeling. Safety is crucial for me, and I enjoyed going out, knowing I would see the road better at night and be better seen by others, day or night.

LED Headlight Bulb Upgrade Video I Made:

Can I Use This For A Hawk 250 Headlight?

This question is a good question. I do not have a Hawk 250, so I cannot share with you my experience. If your Hawk 250, or any motorcycle, uses an H5M style headlight bulb, I cannot see why this drop-in LED upgrade won’t work for your motorcycle. Including the Hawk 250.

Found my Headlight LED Upgrade Bulb is still available, and it still has free returns. So if the bulb doesn’t work out, you can send it back. Sorry to break the news to you, but as most of us TBR7 and Hawk 250 owners know, the aftermarket parts and suppliers often come and go. So this link may not always work.

My TaoTao TBR7 Motorcycle LED Headlight Bulb Upgrade Backstory:

Why did I want to take the time to upgrade my TBR7 headlight?

FAQ: Can I Upgrade MY Motorcycle Headlight To LED Without Any Modifications?

Motorcycle Rider Safety

As a new motorcycle rider, I try to be very attentive but haven’t learned muscle memory for the basic motorcycle operations. I think about shifting up or down. I think about turning off my turn signal.

I think about foot position. I overthink.

This over-thinking takes away from focusing on just driving. Well, it happened to me. I rode past an intersection sign like this:

I was in position 1 of the lane, behind another car driving ahead of me. Not tailgating, too cautious for that. There was a car traveling in the opposite direction, trying to turn left(their left, right from my viewpoint).

As the vehicle in front passed, and I was following, I looked right at the turning driver, saw him looking at me, and then he turned his head to the left. Soon his car turned right in front of me, into my path of travel. I couldn’t swerve right; that was where he was turning; I couldn’t swear left since cars were coming up the opposite side, so I slowly applied brakes and braced for impact.

My back wheel locked up and fishtailed, but I slowly applied front brakes as the weight shift forward and stopped in time. I check shorts for extra content, and the driver sped off. He looked right at me??!!

I was later advised, sometimes drivers don’t see you. They see the single dim(yes, my headlight was turned on) motorcycle headlight as a set of car headlights very far away. The time was daytime, and I still have a hard time believing it. So I decided I wanted to be better seen, and the quick fix was a drop-in led headlight for my TBR7.

Motorcycle Headlight Upgrade Reason 1:   

Have others see me.

One day, still pre-Spring time, and the sun was setting early still, and I lost track of time. It was getting darker, and I still had some riding home to do. The TBR7’s stock headlight is an incandescent bulb that others can see at night, but not so bright to see the road at night for me.

The headlight makes up for lack of distance by angling the headlight down further in front of the motorcycle and making it easy to overdrive your headlight. I was doing, cine I was in a rush to get home before it got darker and colder. I did not see a pothole(yes, potholes are common here in Pa), and I swerved too hard. I almost lost my balance. So another reason I want a brighter led headlight is to see better.

Motorcycle Headlight Upgrade Reason 2: 

To see the road better.

A clean, white light projected from the motorcycle headlight lends to safer night and low light riding conditions.

We are told as motorcycle riders to ‘never overdrive your headlights. So we have to slow down if our headlights are poor. If you are on the road and driving below the posted speed limit due to poor headlights, you will feel encouraged to speed up to match the road speed.

If your headlights don’t extend far enough to warn you of road hazards adequately, you are riding unsafely. Without enough time, you will be faced with hitting hazards or making rapid, jerky maneuvers that might avoid the danger, but the maneuvering causes you to fall.

The plan is to get a motorcycle headlight bulb that extends light far enough to allow time to avoid road dangers while riding.

TBR7 LED Headlight Bulb Information and Choices

After some quick research I answered my new motorcycle headlight questions:

Can you put LED bulbs in motorcycle halogen headlights?

Yes, the limiting factor is the dimensions and hardware set up in your motorcycle’s headlight. Why so many regular bulbs have different specific design styles. My TaoTao TBR7 motorcycle has an H6M style bulb. If I could find a drop-in LED bulb, I could have a longer life, brighter headlight bulb. But finding one was a problem.

TaoTao Makes My TBR7 Motorcycle, Do I Have To Buy A TaoTao made LED Bulb?

No, Aftermarket H6M light bulbs do exist, which can be purchased and used to replace the stock TBR7 headlight bulb TaoTao put stock in the motorcycle. Finding the right aftermarket LED headlight bulb that works the first time was the real challenge.

What should I know about the TBR7 Headlight Bulb?

My quick research into the TaoTao TBR7 Motorcycle headlight bulb resulted in me finding out that I have an H6M style bulb. Of course, an incandescent bulb. Like an incandescent bulb, it’s not a very efficient and long life, per Wikipedia: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb), compared to LED headlight bulbs. When I looked at other motorcycle H6M bulb choices on Amazon, I wasn’t given many choices. I found the only one supplier of incandescent TBR7 motorcycle headlight bulbs, many drop-ins led upgrade choices, and a few higher-priced full led headlight modifying kits.

So What Headlight Bulb Do I Need For My Motorcycle?

My goals are to get a brighter headlight bulb so that I can better see the road conditions and other drivers can see me coming. All this is within reason and requirements of the laws.

Also, my goal for this headlight upgrade is to use the existing headlight setup TaoTao put in my TBR7 motorcycle. So…

Based on these goals, I have to find a bright white legal LED motorcycle headlight bulb that fits into an H6M socket. Sounds easy, right?

Why I Didn’t Want Another Regular TBR7 Headlight Bulb?

As stated, incandescent bulbs have a short life span. My luck will burn out at night and far away from home. Also, they use a lot of energy compared to LED’s, which means I can install additional lights. Oh Yeah, I feel more mods coming on.

Why I Didn’t Want To Go With A LED Mod Kit For My TBR7 Headlight.

Expense and time. The mod kits changed the connections, removed parts of the original headlight socket, and ate up space. Being more complex, they are higher priced than led drop-in solutions, and of course, take up more time. I admit, if drop-in solutions weren’t available, I might have gone with a mod kit. They look durable and feel with me doing the work; I’m sure it would be a good setup.

Why I Went With TBR7 LED Headlight Drop-In Bulb Solution.

Cost, lower cost than a full headlight led mod kit. Ease, more effortless to install than a full headlight led mod kit. As it states, ‘drop-in’ and ‘go.’ 😀

BTW: I purchased these items myself and wanted to say this contains affiliate links. I get commissions for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I am only linking to the headlight type that I still use. Save you the headache I went through trying to find the right led headlight for my TBR7.

Finding Best Replacement LED Headlight Bulb -Trial and Error.

First Replacement Attempt: On the 4th of Feb 2021, I ordered an LED I thought was low priced and had good reviews(4.5 stars). Removed the old bulb, tried the new bulb and didn’t have a ‘high beam.’ It was brighter on a low beam, but again, no high beam, so I couldn’t see further at night.

Good thing it was ‘free returns.’ Amazon accepted the return with no problem, and I was refunded my money. So returned the led bulb with nothing lost other than hopes and time.

Second Replacement Attempt:  On the 19th of Feb 2021, I ordered my second TBR7 LED replacement bulb. The bulb had decent reviews(4 Stars) on Amazon. The negative reviews were very detailed about how the bulb was of poor quality, which was confirmed by how it looked in the picture.

Had such a good experience with Amazon’s return policy, I figured I would take a chance.

Again, this bulb failed, didn’t operate on low beams, and the flange that held its place felt flimsy. I again was turning a bulb. This time I failed to notice something on the product page—no “Free Returns” statement. When I tried to return it, I was supposed to print a label and mail the item back and partially refund the price.

The amount I was being refunded wasn’t worth the trouble, and this was a valuable lesson. Order items from Amazon that have a “Free Return” policy. I later went back to the original product page and found it was no longer available. Go figure.

Third Replacement Attempt:  On the 16th of Apr 2021, see the delay in reordering? I now read through forums for failed replacement attempts, found many people had stories like mine. Their TBR7 LED bulbs fell apart, didn’t operate both in low beam and high beam mode, etc. After some research, I found this bulb: 

This LED headlight bulb worked!!!!! Plus had some cool feature, not sure if street-legal(I will cover this later), I like.

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Extra Motorcycle LED Headlight Upgrade Tid-Bit

As promised, I would tell you a feature I liked about this bulb that might not be street-legal. It has a tiny blue LED in the tip. The LED isn’t bright, but the intensiveness of the “blue-ness” is enough to be very noticeable. It doesn’t look ‘natural’ and catches your attention when you look at it. I hope this feature makes me more apparent, and I get fewer people turning left into my path of direction. Thank you for reading along, and I hope you found this information worth it; if you feel like supporting this blog, please use the affiliate links.

Extra TBR7 ( also for Hawk 250, Raven 250, etc.) Headlight Tid-Bits

With the upgraded led headlight bulb, it became easier to notice my TBR7’s headlight was pointed too low. I had to adjust my motorcycles headlight to make it work better for seeing and being seen by others. My later post: My Motorcycle Headlight Beam Adjustment Steps.

Ride Safe!

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Click To See My Recommended
TBR7 Upgrades

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TaoTao TBR7 Headlight Upgrade FAQs:

What Headlight Bulb Do I Need For My Motorcycle?

The TaoTao TBR7 motorcycle I have uses an H6M headlight bulb.

Am I Stuck With My Motorcycle’s Stock Headlight Bulb Type?

No.

Finding a good H6M motorcycle headlight bulb was challenging, but it was doable. However, I’ve seen posts online where people gave up on the stock TBR7 motorcycle headlight bulb socket and upgraded to a different style of the bulb holder.

Some people used the headlight socket upgrade to wire in a better, brighter LED headlight. I don’t have experience with this, so I can’t tell you if upgrading the headlight bulb socket works well or not. However, I might try it in the future.

Thank you!