For you own safety drive with the light on...

People have tendency to overlook you on your bike when you drive with out light on.

I drive in Europe with light on but I wanted to know if instead of using my headlight I could use a LED strip light wired into my ignition so it would be on all the time, and use less battery power.

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I guess the plod would want a headlight source. You cant run a pilot light even if its in the headlamp.

And, the battery is continually topped up as you run and there is no loss of battery power. Headlights on keeps your rectifier a bit cooler too, I believe.

If I am right in thinking you have an Enfield with permanent magnet rotor alternator, whatever electricity you generate and don't use has to be dissipated by the voltage regulator. Using more power to drive stuff actually is easier for the regulator.

For bikes with type approved lighting (not sure of the date, outside my area of imeadiate knowledge), ie those without a switch, whatever comes on with the ignition would have to work. Strictly speaking, if approved with filament lamps LED's probably do not meet the requirement.

Bikes before the lighting approval are covered by national legislation. Typically this will state something like "Dipped headlight on at all times" which will be further defined in national construction and use type regs as having a certain beam pattern. An LED inside the headlight shell might meet this but the strips won't. You could make a fair claim that the strips are a marker or sidelight, so if thats what the other countries law translates as you have half a case.

The Plod is never going to be able to test any of this. The likes of MIRA and the TUV's have tilt ramps and back lighting and screens and meters and lasers and goodness knows what else. The Plod will do it by eye. If they can see your light and it's white and looks like any other bike they'll assume it's close enough. If you dazzle or can't be seen or the pattern of lights may confuse an hungover 12 year old with a license to shoot people, they'll write you a ticket. There is the additional factor that ticketing foreign bikes in places without on the spot fines is often pointless, plus what's legal on a UK bike in the UK is legal for transit through any UN country even if local law enforcement disagrees. Law enforcement have the additional fall back that modified lights also equals no insurance and you were probably speeding and had bald tyres as well.

It's a can of worms. If the LED's will save your battery (check, on the Enfield it certainly used to be use it or loose it), I'd look for something that looks closer to standard bike lighting (spots with LED H3's?). If you don't wake the Plod up you avoid all the issues above.

Andy

You can also probably get away with using a 20w bulb in the pilot light as a day time running light. This was (and possibly still is) common with older BMWs. Worth considering if you want to use the spare power for something like heated grips so long as you make sure the alternator is wired to give enough power out when needed.

I live and ride mostly in France. I have been stopped a couple of times for just using the daytime headlamp strip on My BMW R80RT. It has been converted to LED but the French flik dont like it.

Not actually been nicked for it. Generally if you are pleasant and talk nicely to them they just tell you to use your normal light and let you go.

Good news is that the law regarding reflective clothing for bikers has been abandonned