I think you are right that LED's have a little way to go before they compete with a halogens brightness. I heard the military are starting to use them on their vehicles so perhaps the technology and brighness will trickle down to us someday. Yes, your bike needs the brightest bulbs possible as people just do not look for motorcycles at all.
Seems like a cool idea. I bought a flasher module at last years Turkey Run for the T Bucket that has an adjustable flash of the lights when you hit the brakes. It flashes them about 5 times real quick to get someones attention before coming on solid as normal. I need to get that installed soon.
Thank you very much. The only rust is in the trunk pan area and in the rocker boxes so with Dan and Dads help that should be no problem at all.