LED Headlight?

[Gavin]

i ride all my scooters with the high beams on in the day...in fact i have my larger scooter (5 front lights...2 low, 2 high and one smaller ?? light) set so all 5 lights are on with the high beam setting...

any extra visibility is a good thing on a scooter, motorcycle...

that said, i still drive like i'm invisible...cages will always try and kill you when you are on 2 wheels (or three )

g

[HighlanderMWC]

The primary danger of using your high beam as your daytime running light is that if it goes out you're much less likely to notice, which means you no longer have any backup should your low beam goes out at night. Sounds like a reasonable argument to me but easily low enough probability that it probably doesn't matter. I'm trying to remember how often I've ever had a headlight go on a motorcycle...I'm sure I must have had one or two in the past 17 years.

[Brammowannabe]

i dont see the benefit in bright sunlight.  I really don't think it increases visibility when it is bright out.

Ever drive through a shadow of a building or a tree?  You're free to do your own research, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that it's likely there are many studies proving that the added visibility of DRLs or headlights make them worth having on all the time.
[/quote]

I see the benefit of tail lights, but not sold on headlights...maybe for motorcycles its a bigger deal because of the left turn thing.

[Brammowannabe]

that said, i still drive like i'm invisible...cages will always try and kill you when you are on 2 wheels (or three )

g

What do you mean by cages

[Brammofan]

Cages = cars/trucks
Cagers - drivers of cars/trucks.

[Gavin]

I see the benefit of tail lights, but not sold on headlights...maybe for motorcycles its a bigger deal because of the left turn thing.

yep...major cause of death of motorcyclist is cars turning left in front of motorcycle...headlights help that...at least somewhat...

but a car turning left is just a nightmare situation...always means at least a major hospitalization...if not a funeral.

g


my big ride with every front light on in the daytime...



didn't know I was having a photo taken or i would have leaned harder

[Gavin]

same ride (just last weekend....mmmmm, fun except when we had down-pouring rain the second day with road flooding and lightning and I had a passenger too)

i need to think I'm being photographed on every corner so i lean more...this bike makes the twisties so easy that i really don't have to throw out a leg unless i want to show off...



g

[Brammowannabe]

Is it still a bike if it has 3 wheels lol?

In response to original poster, I now see the relevance of having the headlight on all the time.  I'll design my own LED light  weather it "road legal" or not.  Unfortunelty I'm not moving until December and wont be buying until spring.

[Brammofan]

Speaking of headlights in general, I did some poking around (Brammo Owners Manual, google etc) and found out that the Enertia uses a H83140101 H4 12V 60/55W Halogen Bulb manufactured by Hella.
The specs of the bulb are:

part number   H83140101   
Materialtext   BULB H4 12V 60/55W P43T   
Catalogue Section   Bulbs   
Bulb Average Life [h]   175   
Bulb Base   P43t   
Bulb Category   Halogen   
Bulb CP   130   
Bulb Filament   C-8   
BulbLCL   1.12   
Bulb Lumens   1650   
Bulb MOL   3.62   
Bulb Type   T-4 3/4   
Nominal Voltage [V]   12V   
Wattage [W]   60/55W   
Amperage [A]   5.3   
Beam Pattern   High/Low Beam   
Technology   Halogen   
Bulb Industry Code   H4   
Bulb Type   T-4 3/4   
Brand Name   Hella   
Product Title   H4 12V 60/55W Halogen Bulb

Replacement bulbs can be found at amazon.com for (as of 9/22/11) $3.31. 

[Consultec]

Here's a simple and cool LED plug-n-play Mod.  I should fit.  I will try to do it.

http://www.kuryakyn.com/products/3964/phase-6-led-headlamp-passing-lamps

[Mithion]

Harley sells an LED headlight in their parts catalog and on their site. How can they sell these if they are not legal?

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/led-lighting/led-lighting.html

[Mr.Rodgers]

There are plenty of products for sale by legitimate vendors out there that are not legal to use on the street.  They usually get away with it by insisting that you only use the item for "off road" or "track" use.  I have high-powered fog lights on my car that are OEM products for my cars European brethren that had "off road use only" stickers all over the boxes.  I also think that there is some equipment that cannot come as original equipment but could very well be legal when installed by the owner (think about the low speed impact laws that came into effect in the 70s.  Those rubber bumprettes were mandatory equipment from the factory, but I highly doubt you'd be ticketed if you removed those hideous things in favor of a "euro" bumper or just removed those ugly rubber pads).

[Kelly Olsen]

I've got 32 led lights on my bicycle so obviously I feel the the more, the better.

It's just that sometimes it takes me longer to turn them all on and then all off than it does to get to where I'm going to on the bike. Each one has an individual on/off switch and no way to rig a master switch.

But I do get noticed, especially at night, when I actually feel safer because of the lights.

[Shinysideup]

In my quest to get more light onto my Empulse, I've found the VisionX Solstice Solo LED lamps that look really nice. They draw 0.75 amps and throw out 900 lumens, for about $100 on Amazon. Anybody have any experience with them?

[Brammofan]

Were you going to use this as a headlight or as a running light?  I'm wondering if you might be at risk for a ticket if you try to replace your headlight with something like this.