LD Riding and HID/AUX lighting

[DailyCommuter]

I need to ask... I do so much night riding and admittedly have replaced the oem bulds with an upgraded bulb... I can see plenty far down the road and a very wide path side to side. What is it about the LD rides like IBA rally that begs for the aux and HID lights. Are you out there running tripple digits at night and need to see 2 miles up for safety, is it the fact that your in the middle of nowhere at times and "need" the light, or is it just the fact that they're damn cool and badass looking. I'm asking because it's something I intend to do (lights and LD rides). But feel free to dogpile on this one. I'm pretty thick skinned as most of the regulars know.

 

[Ignacio]

Critters, critters, critters, and sometimes FOD. It's that simple.

And that's a result of LD riding racking up more miles than average owners as well as riding a larger proportion at night. Also we tend to like riding in places that are least urban and devoid of natural light and extended use of lights. And with a well lit field it reduces the fatigue on our eyes as well as increases the safety factor.

Just different values.

I would note that Leg 1 of the IBR I rarely used my FF200's...just too much traffic back East in my experience. Others run PHIDS and find they can tend to run them while on divided highways.

Leg 2 as I rode a lot of two laners in middle America I'd find areas with no traffic and leave them on a lot. Leg 3 was a mixed bag with Western roads and some congested Canadian 4 laners.

And the speed thing is really a tertiary thing. Even with uberlumen flamethrowers like an FF200 Xenon you're only going to get 400-420 meters of usable light....not a mile let alone multiple miles. You can only go as fast as you can recognize a threat and shut it down in 1/4 mile or less.

 

[bramfrank]

Light. More Light. Like horsepower, you can never have enough light when riding in the rural areas in the middle of the night.

I try not to run triple digits on the bike at night in the country - too much stuff prowling around out there.

I have stock headlights and Hella Micro DE Xenon driving lights, mounted on Garaud's mirror mounts. When there's traffic around, it is stock lighting - not to mention that conversions are not legal.

They are bright, but not as bright at Hella FF1000 Xenons - Nothing practical is as bright as Hella FF1000 Xenons (but if you don't mind ten inch round reflectors, there IS the FF4000, but who wants two almost ten inch lights hanging from their mirrors?).

 

[rickcorwn]

Light. More Light. Like horsepower, you can never have enough light when riding in the rural areas in the middle of the night.

Caroll Shelby when asked if he thought the 429 Cobra had too much horsepower answered "If some is good and more is better then too much oughtabe just right" That can apply to lighting also.

They are bright, but not as bright at Hella FF1000 Xenons - Nothing practical is as bright as Hella FF1000 Xenons (but if you don't mind ten inch round reflectors, there IS the FF4000, but who wants two almost ten inch lights hanging from their mirrors?).

When it comes to light, size matters. But a pair of 10 inchers that'll really drop your gas mileage :blink:

 

[DailyCommuter]

Thanks Iggy and all others. It helps me understand better. Critters didn't occur to me (even though they are on my mind whilei ride at night) potholes and debris on the highway, like truck tire tread pieces are the two things that I have to avoid the most. My big problem is on those misty/rainy nights it seems to really cut way down on the lighted distance. I've thought about some flood type lights to cure that problem but haven't pulled the trigger on any yet. I'm going to see how the new HID conversion kit works out for the short distance lighting issue, and will probably go with the Hella micro's later on.

 

[Toecutter]

Have you checked out this post?

 

[DailyCommuter]

Oh yeah I saw the potential group buy about an hour and a half after I ordered the conversion kit oh well the two are different animals anyways, I may well still get an aux light set up like that down the road but for now I need to improve my rain and drizzle night vision/lighting problem. Hopefully these will do that for me

 

[vectervp1]

They are bright, but not as bright at Hella FF1000 Xenons - Nothing practical is as bright as Hella FF1000 Xenons (but if you don't mind ten inch round reflectors, there IS the FF4000, but who wants two almost ten inch lights hanging from their mirrors?).

FF1000's are 7" not 10" big. So ar the FF4000 compacts. Still big don't get me wrong, but I've run them. Loved the light output, and saw about a 1-2mpg loss overall. I know there are some pics of my lights on my bike on here somewhere. Either way, the FF1000's give out a great amount of light, and are rated and a VERY long range. They worked great, but really looked goofy as hell on the bike. I'm now running the Soltek El Fuego HIDlights.

After hitting a deer at 1:30am in the middle of no where, I am under the mentality that more light is always better. I had shut down my phid's because I was coming into a smaller town when the deer decided it wanted to cross the road. If I had left my phid's on, I would have probably seen it. Now I leave my lights on unless there is on coming traffic.

 

[bramfrank]

They are bright, but not as bright at Hella FF1000 Xenons - Nothing practical is as bright as Hella FF1000 Xenons (but if you don't mind ten inch round reflectors, there IS the FF4000, but who wants two almost ten inch lights hanging from their mirrors?).

FF1000's are 7" not 10" big. So ar the FF4000 compacts. Still big don't get me wrong, but I've run them. Loved the light output, and saw about a 1-2mpg loss overall. I know there are some pics of my lights on my bike on here somewhere. Either way, the FF1000's give out a great amount of light, and are rated and a VERY long range. They worked great, but really looked goofy as hell on the bike. I'm now running the Soltek El Fuego HIDlights.

After hitting a deer at 1:30am in the middle of no where, I am under the mentality that more light is always better. I had shut down my phid's because I was coming into a smaller town when the deer decided it wanted to cross the road. If I had left my phid's on, I would have probably seen it. Now I leave my lights on unless there is on coming traffic.

Indeed, the FF1000 are 7 inches - I suspect you may have misread what I wrote . . . I said that nothing is brighter than the FF1000 except perhaps the FF4000, and that THOSE are almost 10 inches. I don't know that the compacts are as effective as the 'regular' 10 inch ones, which is what I was referring to.