My factory ones are getting faded and I noticed the aftermarket Harley/Lightning lights have much clearer lenses. I'm wondering if the light output, pattern and cutoff are improved over stock headlights.

Like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

Folks that have had these aftermarket lights for awhile, how're they holding up to yellowing and such?

 

I noticed a more narrow band of light, not too much. Could be misaligned a bit too. I switched to Silverstar Ultra's too, that in itself was noticeable.

 

I have been wondering about those headlights too. I'm still on the fence about them.. I can't seem to find much input about them on this board yet. People say they change to the Lightning style clear lense headlights, but they don't say if they are OEM or aftermarket. The aftermarket ones are very cheap which makes me wonder if they are of any quality. Does anyone have any opinions about these aftermarket headlights? Would love to hear from some people that have installed them. Thanks.

 

If you can, find OEM. If not, the aftermarkets work wonferfully

 

Jesse, did you know that if you run a power polisher with some cut polish on your existing headlights, you can do ablsolute miracles to them? You don't need to replace them for fading. If you are a lille bit unsure of doing it, run it into a local body shop, and have them polish them for ya..... it really only takes 5 minutes per light and the difference is amazing. For added insurance, if you popped them out and had someone else hold them it makes it easier to polish, and no chance of damaging anything around the light. Hood, fender, and grill edges are really suspect to burning if your speed is too high, and you are not carefull. If ya don't want to pop them out, 2" masking tape, or even duct tape along the edges of the ajoining panels help to avoid accidents. Polishing is cheaper than replacing......

 

i would not recommend NOT putting duct tape on your paint finish, i dont see how anything good can from that. masking tape would work, but it would probably burn right through that too. just take the extra time and take your headlight out..

 

I've done the headlight polishing route but they all seem to fade after some time.

I went ahead and ordered a set of lightning knock offs on eBay. For 55 bucks it's not too much to just try. I'll remember to use some silicone sealant to prevent any fogging up. I'll try to do a before and after picture on the beam pattern as well.

I'm confident these lights will be brighter, even compared to new OEM lights, just because the lenses are more clear. We'll see if he pattern is improved.

 

I purchased and installed the ones I linked to in my original post.

They fit almost like stock, otherwise the quality is pretty decent. The lights are brighter and there is somewhat of a cutoff where the stock lights were just blobs. Unfortunately the light pattern is more narrow and there are shadows or dark spots so that the beam isn't consistent.

Overall the stock lamps put out a more useful pattern even though the new ones are brighter. I'll have to drive it some more to see which ones I like. Obviously the new ones look nicer but I'm a function over form type of person.