Bike driving lights

[Les]

I've seen bikes in mags fitted with little detachable driving lights for night riding but can't find out much about them. Has anybody got any fitted to their bike or know a bit about them? I like the idea for better iluumination at night.

[Motu]

2 things - they will need to have met a standard to pass a WoF,look for E4 for example,they will also need to be wired correctly,which means only on high beam.

2nd - you need enough grunt in your alt to handle the extra load.Not many motorcycles have an excess of charging power - cept BMWs of course.

[FROSTY]

First of all I'd try fitting a high wattage bulb and see if that helps.
If that isn't enough for you then there are a couple of ways to fit spot /driving lights.
If your SV is a naked its easy -You can hang a spotlight off the top of of your headlight using a U shaped bracket.
The other way to fit spotties is to run a bar off of the front of your frame
usually using u clamps so its easily removeable
Hey I had a heap of ex cop bikes once--I might have the spotlight clamps.
Wiring wise -you will need to run the spotlights through a relay or they will fry your wiring.
Suzis have a reputation for crap charging systems so ya need to be a bit carefull of running the spotties for too long.
Im told ya can get the alternator rewound to put out more oomf
about the legal stuff--easy--talke em off for ya warrent.

[Les]

Yep I would run them via a relay for sure and wire them to run only with the high-beam. The idea that these would only be fitted while on a trip and not when going for a WOF...

The ones that I've seen in pics fitted to bikes look like they clamp around the top part of the fork and they are quite small. I have a small screen fitted to my SV otherwise a bracket would be a simple way of achieving this.

I'll keep looking. I can easily make something to fit the lights if I can find some small enough.

[Fryin Finn]

Yamaha has a new bike on the market soon the MT-03 it runs LED headlights and I imagine they don't use much power. If you could get hold of something like that - well the skys the limit.

:beer:

[FROSTY]

Yep I would run them via a relay for sure and wire them to run only with the high-beam. The idea that these would only be fitted while on a trip and not when going for a WOF...

The ones that I've seen in pics fitted to bikes look like they clamp around the top part of the fork and they are quite small. I have a small screen fitted to my SV otherwise a bracket would be a simple way of achieving this.

I'll keep looking. I can easily make something to fit the lights if I can find some small enough.
I think You'll find that those tiny little fork mounted spotties are a waste of time. Depending on what sort of light effect you are looking to acheive of course. Personally Id look at fitting like a crash bar and hang a pair of 100mm round spotties off of that.

[Les]

That would be the go! I use a small LED light for my work sometimes and it's awesome compared to a bulb and the power consumption is so low as you say. I'm after something quite small in size and LED lights would probably fit the bill.

[F5 Dave]

Yeah I think that technology is still emerging guys. Every year LEDs get better & LED tail lights are all the rage, but don’t start expecting them to rival Halogens for output this decade.

First off you could try a larger wattage bulb, your newer bike should handle it better than the old GS models. As an experiment put the light on & a voltmeter ($14 from DickySmit) on the battery. Then put both leads on either side of the going bulb. If there is any significant volt drop you are losing power in the dip switch, ignition switch & the headlight switch if fitted, possibly the connectors & wiring as well. My RF for example loses 1.9 volts. I have yet to try cleaning all the contacts but significant gains are to be made by reducing this loss.

Bigger the wattage bulb more evident this will be. A headlight relay & a positive ground for the bulb will help here. Sadly automotive relays are for cars & big & heavy. Needs to be a headlight relay to handle the switching & continuous light swap.

[aff-man]

There are some super bright LED's out there but the problem is yes they are bright and yes they do take a big chunk out of your wallet. What about some of those small halogens you can get. One of my mates who is a sparky put them in his car just for shits and giggles. It was light day time in the middle of the night

[vifferman]

There are some super bright LED's out there but the problem is yes they are bright and yes they do take a big chunk out of your wallet.The problem with the LEDs is while they're more efficient than halogen or tungsten filament bulbs, most of them also don't have as good a spread of light. Fine for tail-lights and indicators, not so good for headlights.
Now twin flamethrowers mounted on the front forks or crash bars - that'd be the ticket.:niceone:

[aff-man]

what would be the propellant i am partial to an oxygen/accelatine mix myself. Also usefull in those pesky car cutting you off situations :killingme :killingme . As for the LED's the reason they have a spread like they do is due to the lens on the inside i am sure if you altered the lens they would work great, Alternativley you could make a compound light with surface mount Led's and possition like 50 of them at different angles :killingme :eek:

[FROSTY]

Im thinking given the leaps in laser technology what is needed is a pair of side mounted lasers. A cage gets too close-no worries turn laser on and carve the side off the cage

[F5 Dave]

Im thinking given the leaps in laser technology what is needed is a pair of side mounted lasers. A cage gets too close-no worries turn laser on and carve the side off the cage

Talking of narrow aperture. . .
I don’t know much about lasers, except to be doing panel surgery from a distance you may need to uprate your alternator to perhaps nuclear.


As I said, don’t expect 50+ watts in a useful form, to be delivered commercially available from LEDs this decade.

[aff-man]

True true but then again with the brightness/funny lenses available you don't need 50W do you?????????? i dunno?

[Les]

What about some of those small halogens you can get. One of my mates who is a sparky put them in his car just for shits and giggles.

Yeah some small halogen lights made to fit at the top of the fork legs. Where did your mate get them? I'll keep my eyes peeled in some autoparts places. I guess they should have stuff like that..?

As far as the LEDs go, I reckon that if you could get a decent enough output from them (don't see any reason why not) and possibly also utilize a lens, they'd be awesome as headlights. Nice white light and easy on the eye. Yes.

[Les]

Well I found a pair of small round lights at Repco yesterday called Night-Eyes and they should be good. Just a simple matter of a couple of brackets to hang them either side of the main headlight and then wire them up :2thumbsup.

[Les]

If anybody is interested I've got the lights mounted. Here's some pics if you wanna see:

http://geocities.com/nedu537/bike_stuff/

Decided to fasten them simply to the existing headlight bracket at this stage and see how they go there. Will sort out the wiring over the coming days...

[scumdog]

You'll find they make you a whole lot more visible, noticeably so!! :yeah:

Just make sure you run them through a relay and have an on/off switch for them as they will annoy the pus out of everybody coming towards you at night!! (and they don't actually light the road very far ahead anyway.

[wkid_one]

As far as the LEDs go, I reckon that if you could get a decent enough output from them (don't see any reason why not) and possibly also utilize a lens, they'd be awesome as headlights. Nice white light and easy on the eye. Yes.
Yes - except they don't throw a beam so would be FUCKEN USELESS as headlights!

[pete376403]

Recall back in the 70's & 80's (when bike electrics weren't so good - such as certain Suzuki GS models) running with the headlight on all the time was not advisable, so daytime running lights (DRL) were promoted as the latest Good Thing. These were a couple of 50mm square white lights mounted either side of the headlight. Useless for illuminating the road, but helped to make bikes more visible to car drivers. The Yamaha cop bikes were all fitted with them - although if a BDC car driver couldn't see the huge white fairing, then there wasn't much point in pinning your hopes to a couple of little lights. You still see some of the old bikes (eg the Gumby bikes if you refer to that thread) with them.

[scumdog]

Sadly automotive relays are for cars & big & heavy. Needs to be a headlight relay to handle the switching & continuous light swap.

I have used those wee plastic relays on my bike for years, they seem to handle the mini-spot type lights that I have mounted each side of my headlight o.k. :niceone:

These light utilise the same type of bulb as used by jewelrs stores etc to light up displays (about 50mm dai.) and I've seen similar ones at Repco for $70 or so as a kit.
Never had a problem at WOF time but I have run them through a separate switch to the headlight, mainly 'cos you don't want them on at night - too dazzling for everybody.

[pete376403]

The relay I use for the Fiamm horns is a standard auto relay, would be a bit smaller than a 35mm film carton, ie about 25mm square and 30mm long. That was a Repco purchase, nothing fancy.

[Les]

Well the idea is really to increase the spread of light not so much to add distance as the headlight is ok in that regard. It's all a bit of an experiment anyway, might turn out to be not that good at all. I'm gonna run them via a relay triggered by the high beam and with their own separate on/off switch. That way I can choose whether or not to run them and they will only run along with high-beam.

[FROSTY]

In that case try a FOG light under the headlight.
a foggie gives a diffuse spread of light instead of a tighter forward beam

[scumdog]

Well the idea is really to increase the spread of light not so much to add distance as the headlight is ok in that regard. It's all a bit of an experiment anyway, might turn out to be not that good at all. I'm gonna run them via a relay triggered by the high beam and with their own separate on/off switch. That way I can choose whether or not to run them and they will only run along with high-beam.

If they are like most of that type of light they will provide a big flood of light going out about 10-15 metres and out to the sides a bit, will not help for seeing any better than your factory headlight, i.e. they have no range.

You WILL be seen by those coming towards you so best not used at night or you will get constantly flashed by oncoming vehicles!!

Of course maybe the items you got ARE some type of long-range light and the above doesn't apply.

[Groins_NZ]

Hey Les, any updates on your auxiliary driving lights?

Cheers,
G.

[Zapf]

Les,
Go to BNT or AutoStop and ask for Philips H4 Preimum, or have a look as Philips has a range of 55W bulbs that puts out more light than the standard osram that comes with the SV's. I had a SV650S and changing to bulbs to the Philips ones made a good bit of difference.