Additional lights - necessary or just sexy?
 

I'm hitting the road next year (2015) for a 6 month Switzerland to SE Asia trip. I'm still in the dilemma if having additional headlights on my f650 are really worth the price or really useful where I plan to go. I see so many full equiped big enduro bikes having such additional lights, but are mostly riden by week-end "adventure" riders. I still can't figure out the real added-value of those...

Can anyone bring some light in here?

Very few long term world travelers I've met will willingly ride after dark except in countries around western Europe or the USA. Most countries are just too dangerous after dark. Potholes, rocks, animals, and cars/trucks/tractors driving with no lights at all. Even with good lights those can surprise you easily. I remember only two who deliberately rode at night, one was trying to set a record for how fast he traveled south america, the other rode only the best pristine highways.

I improved the lights on my KLR650 by converting them to HID. I didn't use them for months at a time. I even rode with no headlights at all for a month or two. Worst case? Ride slowly and/or stay just in front of a car with very good headlights.

Forget them. Same with LED bulbs ... you won't find them on the road in rural asia if you need to replace them. Better off spending the money on the trip itself. Or barkbusters, engine guards etc.

Totally agree on the spot lights, just bling for the Charlie's, but an Led bulb in the rear is tougher, longer lasting, uses less power and if it does go can just have a filament lamp popped in in its place.

Andy

I wish I did have extras !
 

I totally agree that most extra lights are bling really but...........

On a recent trip on my vstrom my lights failed completely and I was unable to find the fault at the time. I don't travel at night very much as mentioned above. Day time riding was noticeably different though, I reckon simply due to not having lights on.? I seemed invisible in several countries, particularly Albania! If I had extra bling lights it would have made a difference I'm sure.

I have since my return rewired and re configured my lighting and added some small discreet LED lights ( very cheap) as backup-backup. I added some wire and a small volt meter for fault finding to my tool kit.

So I guess as long as you don't have common, known faults with lights, there is no need. If you have a vstrom then ..........yeah I would !

On my V-strom (which runs twin headlights with no relay because Suzuki are either cheapskates or idiots), I fitted a switch on the bars to kill one light. using an H4 plug and socket to break into the loom at the lamp connector the switch in the off position killed one low beam filament for daylight running. You could turn it on for more light or just switch/unplug in the event of a failure in the one in use.

Plan B on any Wee would be to fit a relay.

Andy

I've been blowing hot and cold on additional lights on bikes since the mid 70's - used them for a few years then not bothered , gone back again for a bit ... and round and round.

I agree with not riding at night in remote areas but there are times when it's just the way things go, and if you have to ride at night at least (decent) additional lights enable you to see the hazards a bit earlier. On some nights (and even on decent roads in Europe) when it's wet you don't get any reflection back and normal bike lights are useless. There have been a couple of occasions with just a stock 35w headlamp where I've been reduced to using the sat-nav to tell me where the bends are rather than seeing them with the lights.

Most of the extra lights I've seen working on bikes tend to be wired to come on with main beam - when you dip they go off. If they have any range (not all small LED ones do) I'm not a great fan of that arrangement. It's great when you light everything up and can see 1/2 mile down the road but as soon as something comes and you have to dip it's becomes hard to see just at the time you're being blinded.

I'm running a couple of small LED lights on my 125 at the moment because the stock lights are genuinely dreadful but the add on lights don't have any defined beam pattern and can't be left on where there's traffic (unlike you like getting flashed) so they're only of any use on back roads. They may not be of much use but at least they're cheap (not something you can say about the car rally lights I used decades ago), so on balance they're worth having. If nothing else they stand in when the main bulbs fail. It beats tying a torch to the handlebars or using my tent light. I ended up camping in someone's front garden once when the tent light was all I had to ride with. I thought I was in the open desert at the time.

Since all the GS/KTM Charlies use them on their trek to ASDA (beware riding on pegs into carpark with height restriction bar... especially with the Tellytubby GoPro on top of the helmet) I don't bother with spots any more :(

I've done the relay thing, 1 for each light, each switch-able. Also left the stock wiring and H4 socket untouched. For the un-likley event both individually fed relays or something fail?? And there is a piece of twin cable threaded through from battery area and coiled up under dash area ready to connect in a hurry if required. Over kill.............I'm scared of the dark :eek3:

Vaguely "humorous" replies were moved to http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...wont-you-79628 in order to keep this thread on topic :scooter:

Well covered. For a f650 l would go with hid main
Light and two small spots no more than 20w ea.

Hid use less watts than stock and 3 times brighter light. You never know when you may end up
Riding at night. Your spots should all be switched so you can shut them off as needed.
Good battery a must, ensure charging system is working properly as F650's tend to over charge.

[QUOTE=backofbeyond;488842]

Most of the extra lights I've seen working on bikes tend to be wired to come on with main beam - when you dip they go off. If they have any range (not all small LED ones do) I'm not a great fan of that arrangement. It's great when you light everything up and can see 1/2 mile down the road but as soon as something comes and you have to dip it's becomes hard to see just at the time you're being blinded.
QUOTE]



That brought back memory's of the sixty's. Had a 250 Super Dream. With a large set of crash bar's fitted. You know the one's. A double loop type. Fitted a couple of all car spot light's on the top bar. Most probley brought at some car boot sale. They all so worked on the main beam. All I had to do with the main wiring was up grade the fuse. The light where not that great to start with. But the extra two spot's transformed my night riding.
John933

Always amusing to read that old adage "never ride at night", especially when it is currently semi-permanently dark north of the arctic circle and we are very close to the shortest day of the year in the whole of the northern hemisphere.

So, "never ride at night" equates to "fair weather rider only" me thinks.

Apart from that, lights enable you to be seen as well as to see: not too shabby a concept given the average car driver in the UK.

In Australia a politician by the name of Brown brought in legislation requiring bikes to have their headlights on all day every day. After quite a few years of this the sats came in .. no improvement. The legislation got repealed. Here on a bright sunny day .. headlights don't help .. in fact I think a black thing is better .. but then that is simply so much hotter than a white thing I don't go there. :thumbdown:

Some people cannot see big red/yellow/white trucks with flashing lights .. nor hear the sirens and horns doh .. most people call them fire engines. The use of a motorcycle headlight might help some of the time, but not all the time.

This is so true. I was just in Mexico ... and the riding days were very short. Some days I'd panic when I looked up and realized the Sun was quickly getting very low in the sky. But after several night stints all was well. I did fine, good HID light really makes a difference on a dark rural road populated with Burros and Horses.

I'd set off at 7am ... but still got caught out nearly everyday. Mountains are especially deceptive. You "think" you can make your destination ... but you've got 100 miles of twisty mountain road to get through. Takes for Bloody EVER.
:rofl: