Riding at night

**mangell6** · 31st May 2004, 19:27

The FZ1 lights are excellent, whether I am upright (a good citizen) or leaned over. Night riding is great as you can see so much more of what is on the road. Dislike Tuakau at night due to wandering fresians, went around it and it just stood there and watched me.

**claire** · 31st May 2004, 19:27

Night riding is great in summer, and as long as you have good lights. My 600 lights were crap but my R1 has great lights. Chris 04 R1 lights are good in a straight line but when you tip into a corner the light directly where you're wanting to go disappears, Yamaha are apparently trying to sort this and we have been trialling different light settings but I'll wait till it warms up a bit before I do another night ride

**Blackbird** · 31st May 2004, 19:47

The limitations of the 'bird light were most apparent on the 1000 miler when we left Turangi and went over to Taumaranui. It was in one of those tight corners that I saw a possum out of the corner of my eye which wasn't far off my line. Shudder to think what would have happened if it had gone under my front wheel whilst banked over! I presume that section was as clear as daylight to you! Incidentally, next years' Southern Cross seems to be gaining favour with the Tokoroa lads, plus Richard on the R1100RS from Rotorua whom Matt met on the last SC.

Geoff

**mangell6** · 31st May 2004, 20:17

Matts MV Agusta F4 has excellent headlights, for show, well lit Italian motorways and STYLE.

I thought I was a better knightrider than he until he explained about the lack of illumination on NZ roads.

Mike

**maybe** · 31st May 2004, 20:37

Like any self respecting rider, ride all lights all weathers.

**RiderInBlack** · 31st May 2004, 21:02

Originally Posted by Andrew

Then when I broke the visor on my helmet I decided to replace it with a tinted visor. I didn't find out how stupid I was until I rode home from a night lecture!

Na, stupid is riding 40K home in the dark after a movie on you 250 with two yellow 35/35Watt bulbs and a tinted visor

(because you forgot to bring you clear one into town withyou)

Everything looked like when Frodo puts on the ring in LOR's

The CBR has the best lights I have very had on any vechicle, which is good as I ride day or night.

**wkid_one** · 31st May 2004, 21:35

Day, night, wet or dry it doesn't bother me as I ride with my eyes shut anyway.

**scumdog** · 31st May 2004, 21:37

Originally Posted by Blackbird

How many riders with modern bikes have sharp cut-off problems? When I started doing decent rides through the unlit countryside on the 'bird, I found that the lights were more than adequate as long as there weren't any really tight bends. In the real twisties when the bike is leaned over, the sharp cut-off becomes a real problem and I get very little forward visibility. Main beam is a bit better, but still nothing to shout about. I now run a 100W main (illegal I'm told!) and an Artic Blue Narva dip. The extra grunt is impressive on straightish roads bur hasn't done a lot in the twisties? My riding partner has similar problems with his 'busa. Does anyone else with a rectangular reflector have problems like this?

Geoff

I had that problem on my old H-D but to my benefit - it still had the US headlight which dipped to the right, this meant (a) oncoming traffic realy had to notice me and dip, (b) it lit up the right side of the road better than the NZ lights..

**Motu** · 31st May 2004, 22:26

Originally Posted by Blackbird

Motu - not the bulb, the shape of the reflector! Non-circular ones give a fairly narrow beam, so that when you're well leaned over, it tends to be more up and down than sideways and it's a bit of a job to see the edge of the road.

Geoff

Uh,yes - so....why do modern bikes have a cut off? Mine don't,well,the XS1 does,but that's because I fitted a car headlamp in it.Have you fitted car units,or did the manufacturer fit one? Are you talking about a cutoff as per a car headlamp or just the characteristics of the genuine unit - if so,don't call it a cut off - cause there really is such a thing.

**Coldkiwi** · 1st June 2004, 12:06

I ride in all weather/wind/road muck. Haven't had to do any open road riding since i've had the GSXR but the headlights seem to be fairly good and certainly crap all over the old zxr's two little rounds.

I had a xenon bulb in the zx6 and when I replaced it with a standard halogen, it definitely wasn't as good. Brighter bulbs rock

**vifferman** · 1st June 2004, 12:22

I rode at night once. It were dark and scary.

The FahrtingSturmer has a 130/90W bulb innit. Not quite as good as when I had the same setup in the VF500, with a relay wired direct to the battery, but not bad. The VFR with two 100W halogen bulbs was nearly as good. (And much better than when it had dual 35W bulbs!)

BTW - those blue-tinted bulbs aren't as good as a standard bulb - they just *look* brighter, but actually give you less usable light. Don't take my word for it - go search a (non squid) site and see what you turn up. There were a couple of professional lighting guys on the VFR list at one stage, and they'd tested various bulbs with a rig, and said the 'arctic blue' ones were some of the worst. Apparently standard wattage Sylvania halogens are pretty good, as are Phillips (Vision Plus??).

**Zed** · 1st June 2004, 12:29

Originally Posted by wkid_one

Fuck man - don't tell Zed your headlight is gay - it will be damned to eternal hell!

Lol, if your headlight is gay- is that a positive or negative statement? Negative I think you meant Devil. I didn't say it, and Cincinnati's laughing about it, so does that mean you're against gays wkid_one??

Now that's an oxymoron! (emphasis on the moron)

Btw, I ride at night 5 days a week now that daylight savings has finished!!

Zed