HID revisited

[dobias]

I have my low beam HID lights adjusted correctly (2 inches down at 25 ft. with my weight on the bike) & rechecked them recently.

Whenever following a car on country roads I stay back far enough to have at least 20 ft. of blackness between my light on the road & the car in front.

In spite of that, they often put their brights on as I pass & speed up to try to keep up with me.

WTF?

Are my lights that aggravating to them? If I lower the beam much more I may as well go back to halogens.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

dobias :glare:

 

[FJRocket]

I have HIDs burning, and I occasionally get flashed. No complaints from fellow riders and MOST oncoming cages. What I think might be happening is that the oncommers see TWO headlights very close together that are VERY bright and figure that you are a cage without headlights on one side and running brights. That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it.

I'm not removing my HIDS... well... until I get my AE, then I have to see if I can shoehorn them in there. The light from those babies on low beam is terrific!

If you are behind an average car (whatever that means) and the upper edge of your headlight pattern doesn't go above their trunk lid (as in not directly into the rearview), I wouldn't change anything.

Oh, and sorry, no I have never had anyone lay on their mega beams after I pass them. Not until I get far enough ahead that I would expect them to, anyway. Keep in mind, the grayer the hair, the thicker the glasses, the sooner I see the brights behind me...

 

[Warchild]

Nope, I haven't experienced this myself.

You might try this different aiming method: find a parked car somewhere and set back about 30-40 feet (thereabouts) and aim the lights such that they hit no higher than the top of the trunk lid. What you're basically trying to achieve here is preventing the very top of your cut-off beam from reaching the drivers eyes.

 

[dobias]

FJRocket,

I don't have any problems with oncoming traffic, just the cars ahead of me. What perplexes me most is the fact that all cars have either manual or automatic rear view mirror dimmers. I wonder if it's the jiggling up & down that pisses them off.

dobias :glare:

Warchild,

I don't have my lights set that they would be over the trunks of sedans, even up close. As I mentioned, this happens even when I stay back far enough to have a 20 ft. black area between my beam on the road & the car in front. I never had this frequent problem with the old wimpy halogens.

dobias :glare:

 

[Ignacio]

I don't have any problems with oncoming traffic, just the cars ahead of me. What perplexes me most is the fact that all cars have either manual or automatic rear view mirror dimmers. I wonder if it's the jiggling up & down that pisses them off.

I think that's one of the things.

The other thing is if the road is wet. The reflected light is WAY brigther than the direct light of a correctly aimed set of lights.

 

[FJRocket]

Are you talking about your headlights bobbing up and down or the rearview autodim jiggling up and down? :huh:

Boy, my headlights sure bob up and down, and I do get concerned about that. And my HID's are so bright that I can see roadsigns at the side WAY out in front. Even cast bobbing shadows of cars ahead on the signs sometime. And I've still never had anyone lambast me with high beams. Not on my FJR, anyway.

Either way, I haven't had any problem with it. Heck, the auto dimmers I've had in my cars aren't flakey. They seem to know that it's 0-Dark-Thirty and stay "dark" for the duration.

I don't have any problems with oncoming traffic, just the cars ahead of me. What perplexes me most is the fact that all cars have either manual or automatic rear view mirror dimmers. I wonder if it's the jiggling up & down that pisses them off.

I think that's one of the things.

The other thing is if the road is wet. The reflected light is WAY brigther than the direct light of a correctly aimed set of lights.

People ride motorcycles in the rain? What will they think of next!

 

[SkooterG]

Sure sounds like an aiming issue to me Frank.

Vectervp1 rides behind me with his low-beam HIDs and though they are bright, they don't bother me. Compared to when he just had his stock halogens and they were aimed to high, it used to drive me nuts having him behind me for any length of time.

 

[Toecutter]

Perhaps they feel you're following too closely. Just a thought that hasn't been thrown out there yet. I haven't had any issues with my HID's.

In fact, Bluestreek, who accompanied Skyway and I on our SS1K commented that he thought my lights were aimed too low, which may have been the case, as they were aimed to accomodate the weight of a passenger and full load of gear. When riding light and solo, I still light up enough road to see better than with the stock halogens. Then there's always the high beams as well!

Soon, PHID's will compliment the array :clapping: :yahoo:

 

[bramfrank]

There are two possibilities;

One is a question on your installation: Do your bulbs have caps that prevent people from having to look directly at the plasma arc?

The other is likely because of the 'Dazzle effect' that HIDs suffer. These lights are so bright that there is a lot of light scatter (even from imperfections in the glass of the reflector itself) and people you follow or who come up on you from the other direction are simply blinded to some degree - yes, MOST of the light is focused, but some is not.

 

[dobias]

Bramfrank,

I have the (unaltered) low beam elements with caps that shield them from view.

However, you may have given me the reason for my problem... I have plastic headlight protectors that I always use. It's quite possible there is additional scatter because of inherent opaqueness of the plastic.

I'm going to recheck my headlight aim the next time I have someone here to help. Even if there's no corrections, I'll remove the protectors to see if that matters.

I'm glad FJRocket confirmed his headlights bob up & down a lot, too. I was beginning to think that my headlight assembly may be loose.

dobias :glare:

 

[FJRocket]

How do you have your front end set up? Don't think it matters THAT much, but depending on how you have it rigged and the type/quality of road surface, it's going to bounce or not. Perfectly set up, the headlights would stay absolutely still and the wheel and forks would do all the work. But if the setup isn't right, well, then you get all the sproingyness bobbing those lights.

Maybe time to not only check the aim of the lights, but work on the front fork setup?

Let us know how it comes out.

Time to go out and ride my fresh DIABLO!

 

[dobias]

Gentlemen;

My problem appears to have been solved, or at least identified & reduced to a minimum.

1:

The headlight shield was polished to a fair-thee-well even though it hadn't appeared to be dirty. The results were startling even to my poor old jaded eyes. The light pattern on the road was much "crisper" without the scatter I now know existed before.

2:

I revisited my fork rebound setting & went from 7 clicks out from firm to 14 clicks. The low frequency "bouncing" of the headlights was reduced dramatically. Apparently I had set it up too close to firm & had encountered "packing down", or whatever it's called. It went from doing a tap dance to doing the old soft shoe.

3:

I still had a high frequency jitter to the lights. I reduced the front tire pressure from 42 lbs. down to 36 lbs. & the jittering stopped.

I may have overcompensated with my initial readjustments but I'm very happy with the ballparked results.

Thanks to all that offered suggestions.

dobias :glare:

 

[skyway]

In fact, Bluestreek, who accompanied Skyway and I on our SS1K commented that he thought my lights were aimed too low.

He would think that since his lights are aimed too high and leave dots in my vision at night.

Aim your lights dammit!

 

[dobias]

Skyway,

I should have added:

The headlight aim, with my spouse sitting behind me, was 2 1/2 inches below the headlight elevation at 25 ft.

I'd say that was near perfect with a 10% safety factor thrown in for good measure. When I had the problems with the local olde phartes, I was alone on the bike so the aim was even lower.

I live in a county heavily populated with retirees. The two lanes are mostly double yellow. Combine that with slow pokes that wouldn't think of pulling over & you can see why I often find myself following a Lexus, BMW or Mercedes SUV for awhile.

Since (75 now) I can cast the first stone, these codgers also have an age induced severe problem with glare, besides attitude.

dobias :glare: