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[porthole]

This came up again in another thread and just adding some thoughts.
Lots of thoughts on the Motolights, positive and negative from the looks like a goldwing or beemer to too much money to I wouldn't be without them.

I'm of the latter, wouldn't ride without them anymore, especially where I live and work.
We live in a county nick named the "Wall Street county" for the amount of Manhattan workers that live here. Monmouth County had the highest loss of life per capita on 9/11.

I work in a city that is loaded with fresh from over there "citizens". The city is "sister cities" with Shijiazhuang, China and Vadodara, India.

I picked up my Motolights at Americade 7 years ago after seeing that "triangle of light" on a BMW that was probably a 1/2 mile away. the lights were the first thing I noticed.

This past week at Maggie Valley you see so many bikes you lose track of what stands out.

We were blessed with bright sunny days for our routes.

What I did notice on our rides was:
Dan's 13 CVO UC - barely saw his lights most of the time. Enough so that I mentioned that he needs to turn on his passing lamps. Even with them on, it was barely noticeable. With all the light reflecting off of other surfaces, whether cars or bikes, the headlights of a bike can easily get washed out. During our entire week I was usually in front, and if he wasn't 100-200 feet behind me I always had to look for him in the mirrors.

Brian's "Crash", single standard headlight, barely noticeable, but stood out somewhat because of the warmer color. With everyone going to HID's and LED's good old halogens now show up better.

Chain's 06 CVO UC, he was usually the sweep. Don't know what headlights and passing lights he had, but no matter how far behind he was I could always see his lights over either Brian's or Dan's.
Chains, following 3 bikes behind - I always knew where he was without searching.

In talking with Dan on the way home he told me he had lowered his headlight because he was constantly getting flashed.
With the sharp cut off lines these modern headlights have I'm sure that was what was causing his bike to be far less visible then the others.

I did notice at night that he seemed to be flashing his lights at me. Turns out it was that sharp cutoff, and every time he got on the throttle the front end lifted just enough to bring the beam into my mirrors.


Might be worth having someone sit on your bike holding it upright and taking a walk 3-400 feet and looking to see how "visible" you are.

[TinSpinner]

Good points Duane. I always run my high beams and passing lamps during the day for somewhat better visibility. The Daymakers do have a sharp cut-off, I've noticed on bikes I meet on the road that use them that their lights come and go depending on the angle of view, especially in the daylight.

[DICKW]

I always run my high beams and passing lamps during the day for somewhat better visibility.

I thought if you ran the High Beam the passing lamps went out?

[smkblwr]

I thought if you ran the High Beam the passing lamps went out?

You can make them run all the time with hi or low. HD makes a plug and play kit to make them run with hi beam. but remember in good Ol Va it will not pass state inspection if they are running on hi beam. I have looked at the kit and it doesnt look that hard to put on and off. it"s just the "remember to unhook it at inspection time" hahaha. I did this on my old Dodge truck that i ran up an down the interstate traveling for work only forgot to unhook my jumper once when inspection time rolled around.

[Fired00d]

You can make them run all the time with hi or low. HD makes a plug and play kit to make them run with hi beam. but remember in good Ol Va it will not pass state inspection if they are running on hi beam. I have looked at the kit and it doesnt look that hard to put on and off. it"s just the "remember to unhook it at inspection time" hahaha. I did this on my old Dodge truck that i ran up an down the interstate traveling for work only forgot to unhook my jumper once when inspection time rolled around.

No need to worry about that you still have the toggle switch to turn them (spot/passing lamps) off/on. Don't have them on when switching from high to low beams and you don't have to worry... better yet don't have them on at all when you go in for your inspection.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[2k]

Or just move to good ole South Cackalacky, we don't have no stinking inspections!!!

[smkblwr]

No need to worry about that you still have the toggle switch to turn them (spot/passing lamps) off/on. Don't have them on when switching from high to low beams and you don't have to worry... better yet don't have them on at all when you go in for your inspection.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

True but my station checks for it hahaha. the code states that any light on the vehicle has to work. so that's where they get checked hahaha, but depends on your inspection guy as to how he checks them.

[porthole]

We live in a county nick named the "Wall Street county" for the amount of Manhattan workers that live here. Monmouth County had the highest loss of life per capita on 9/11.

Forgot to add why I even posted that.

Where we live, the blonde soccer mom driving the big SUV yakking on the cell phone is not just a cliche.

Not a day goes by I don't see at least one, usually in Escalades and Denali XL's