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:Me]

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.

[FROSTY:Me]

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.

[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 . 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

[FROSTY:Me]

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.