OCC Electric Chopper Features LED Forward Lighting

Some three months ago we were reporting on the first custom electric chopper, built by the renown motorcycle manufacturer Orange County Choppers. The latest information on the Siemens Smart Chopper, due to go under the hammer in 2010, state that the bike will make use of LED lighting for head, tail and signal lighting.

The lighting array is supplied by OSRAM SYLVANIA, and is the first OEM installation of the company’s LEDs in a motorcycle head lighting application. Along with other arms of the OSRAM group, the company also developed a state-of-the-art headlamp cluster assembly.

"The Siemens Smart Chopper embodies the next generation of lighting design for the cars and motorcycles of tomorrow," said David Hulick, marketing director for automotive LED systems division at OSRAM SYLVANIA. "LEDs offer endless design opportunities for car and motorcycle makers while reducing energy consumption by 85 percent over conventional lighting applications."

The Smart Chopper's 4.5-inch custom headlamp design utilizes an OSRAM JFL2-based JOULE system. Along with the JFL2 JOULE system, the Siemens Smart Chopper features:

• Two Amber LED "MonoLED" one-inch dome front turn signals
• Two example lamps for use of "dome and tunnel" style design for the tail lamps (red stop and amber turn signal)
• Two boards each with six OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Advanced Power TOPLED in red and yellow for front and rear turn signals
• One LINEARlight Flex Top Colormix system for Red-Green-Blue (RGB) body lighting.

"This was the first time we used LED lighting exclusively in the design of a bike, but it won't be the last," said Paul Teutul Sr of OCC. "OSRAM LEDs opened up new avenues for us to explore reaching beyond the practical use and more towards lighting as a purely aesthetic part of the design."