Question about car lights.. yep I know its not bikes.

**crashe** · 4th August 2005, 23:50

Ok I had a car behind me tonight on the motorway, when I was heading into the city.

The headlights were blue, then bright white.
Then they changed to purple/redish colour, then bright white..
then yellow then bright white.

Now sometimes one light would be a colour and the other light was white.. and they switched over at a regular basis....

I thought yikes, now I'm gonna see all the colours of the rainbow..

Now whats with these car lights doing that?

Are they legal or what?

At first I thought shit blue and white lights coming at me from behind...
It was quite disconcerning to have these lights following me at a close distance..

Any one out there that knows anything about these lights?

**What?** · 5th August 2005, 06:14

New-fangled lights do that depending on the angle you view them from. It's refraction through the lens that does it and yes, they are legal. Also becoming more and more comon.

**Firefight** · 5th August 2005, 06:34

Only ones you need to worry about are Mr

blue & reds ...

F/F

**Motu** · 5th August 2005, 07:26

You will find they are normal directly in the beam,if viewed from an angle they will change colour - of course headlamps are mainly for the use of the driver of the vehicle,from behind the drivers seat all he see's is normal lamps.LTNZ see it no different than ''cosmetic'' lighting.

**RiderInBlack** · 5th August 2005, 07:46

Could be one two things:

Refaction: "White" light is made up of different "colours" which have different "wave lengths". This causes them to bend slightly differently as they pass through refactive indexs (air to glass to air like a prism, air to rain drop to air which makes a rainbow). This gives the effect that Motu disrcibed.
There are light changing fitting available (there was a link to a site with these somewhere in one of KB's threads). Legal??? WOF states that the headlights be of a matching colour. I've got had up once for having one white and one yellow headlight on my little GSXR250 at a testing station. They passed me after I explain that the "Odd" lights did more to make my visible than matching lights, which would increase me safety not decrease it.

**ajturbo** · 5th August 2005, 09:49

WHAT WE ALL WANT TO KNOW REALLY is..

what the hell were you smoking BEFORE YOU WENT FOR A RIDE????

**onearmedbandit** · 5th August 2005, 10:11

Mushrooms and motorcycling DO NOT MIX.

**Eurygnomes** · 5th August 2005, 10:57

I hate those lights...they're really damned bright! (from an 'across the road on the other side' point of view) They're the ones that make me quickly scan the road ahead on the left and hope that the line's been painted in properly...

/me doesn't like being dazzled.

**Odin** · 5th August 2005, 11:07

Originally Posted by Eurygnomes

I hate those lights...they're really damned bright! (from an 'across the road on the other side' point of view) They're the ones that make me quickly scan the road ahead on the left and hope that the line's been painted in properly...

/me doesn't like being dazzled.

Agree totaly. they really blind you, specially when driving the cage. rearview mirror and then the sidemirror double beam .....

..... crash

**vifferman** · 5th August 2005, 11:08

Originally Posted by Eurygnomes

I hate those lights...they're really damned bright! (from an 'across the road on the other side' point of view) They're the ones that make me quickly scan the road ahead on the left and hope that the line's been painted in properly...

/me doesn't like being dazzled.

Yes, but at least they're legal, and except when the car is going up a hill or over a bump or summat, they're just bright, not annoyingly and illegally dazzling. Not like those twats that insist on driving with their driving light son all the time, around town. Why?!? Is it to say, "Look at me! I've got driving lights! My dick is very small!" I had one of these tossers following me up Onewa Rd last night, and the lights were very dazzling indeed. I had to stick me elbows out to obscure my mirrors so I could see where I was going.

**crashe** · 5th August 2005, 11:13

Originally Posted by ajturbo

WHAT WE ALL WANT TO KNOW REALLY is..

what the hell were you smoking BEFORE YOU WENT FOR A RIDE????

Mate I dont smoke...

The car lights were changing colour on me on a straight section of the road...

and yep I hate them really bright lights that are coming at ya from the other way as well. Gee those lights are sooooo bright.

**Lou Girardin** · 5th August 2005, 15:49

Originally Posted by vifferman

Yes, but at least they're legal, and except when the car is going up a hill or over a bump or summat, they're just bright, not annoyingly and illegally dazzling. Not like those twats that insist on driving with their driving light son all the time, around town. Why?!? Is it to say, "Look at me! I've got driving lights! My dick is very small!" I had one of these tossers following me up Onewa Rd last night, and the lights were very dazzling indeed. I had to stick me elbows out to obscure my mirrors so I could see where I was going.

Yeah, and rear fogs too. I hear a new rule makes it illegal to use rear fogs when vis is good.
Won't get enforced though. I guess I'll just have to keep searing their retinas with high beam.

**sAsLEX** · 5th August 2005, 18:26

Originally Posted by What?

New-fangled lights do that depending on the angle you view them from. It's refraction through the lens that does it and yes, they are legal. Also becoming more and more comon.

tends to only happen on vehicles with HID high intensity discharge lights like the European cars have BMW etc am continually slowing down mistaking them for spud and co.

**Waylander** · 5th August 2005, 18:37

Had a guy with those follow me all the way home from Auckand the other day. Kept pissing me off cause I couldn't see the road ahead of me through the glare of his lights off my mirror. Just pushed the mirror out of line with my eye.
Had enough to worry about with the cars comming at me having those things.

**HDTboy** · 5th August 2005, 19:20

SaSlex was right, The Bi-Xenon system as used in BMWs gives this sort of effect when viewed from an angle. BMWs are fitted with automatic adjustment on these headlights to avoid dazzling other people. It's the retro-fitted aftermarket lights which don't have this which give the most glare off.
PS. They're magic when you're behind the wheel at night, even better with active headlights, which turn the corners in the road before you do