Just an idea...

Message

AJFalco · #1 Post by **AJFalco** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:06 am

Does anyone else think it would be a good idea to keep your lights on? Of course you do... Now, how about having yellow bulbs? They stand out 100x more and it won't make us disappear when Volvos are near

Trouble is, I can't find anywhere that do H5/H7 bulbs in yellow. Only H4s

Nooj · #2 Post by **Nooj** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:34 am

Why go yellow? HID is brighter, more attention grabbing, more efficient to run etc. Yellow looks like someone's filled your headlight with wee

Aladinsaneuk · #3 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:47 am

agreed

HID always

Aladinsaneuk · #4 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:47 am

and yellow headlights are a filthy french trick i thought?

Firestarter · #5 Post by **Firestarter** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:08 pm

Not strictly legal (I think), but if you can't find a coloured bulb what about a coloured headlight protector? Not my preference, mind, better/brighter bulbs would be the way for me, or HID if I could afford/be bothered

D-Rider · #6 Post by **D-Rider** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:41 pm

NO I am firmly, completely and utterly opposed to the use of lights unless it is dark - particularly when it is just starting to get dark.

The use of headlights makes it much more difficult for others to judge your speed and it makes it much harder to spot other vulnerable road users - bikers, cyclists and pedestrians. It can also be much harder to spot road furniture and refuges in the road. .... even cars that have not got their lights on can be hard to spot .... yet if you turn your head 90 degrees to look over the fields, the view is still excellent.

It causes laziness in that people only look for lights and also all of those unnecessary lights consume power ... added together how much fuel is being burned unnecessarily?

.... and then there's the evidence ....

Austria introduced a law requiring vehicles to run with their lights on at all times ...... until they scrapped it as it increased the accident rate.

Safety measure - not on your life!

BikerGran · #7 Post by **BikerGran** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:54 pm

Hm, I don't ride with lights on all the time but I do use them when visibility is poor - and sometimes even when I think it's ok but everyone else has decided to light up, just because if there's an accident they can't then say 'well they should have had their lights on'.

But when I do use them, which many others don't, is on a sunny day when riding country lanes - because when you go under the shadow of trees straight from the brightness of the sun, a bike or trike becomes almost invisible to other (mostly car) drivers due to the lack of reflective surfaces and the time it takes peoples sight to adjust.

#8 Post by **Kwackerz** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:57 pm

Trouble ive found is lights on,on a bike, when you hit a bump it gives the impression youve flashed the car in front/approaching, which can give the wrong impression/create annoyance

lights off, hi vis jacket on if you must.

AJFalco · #9 Post by **AJFalco** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:11 pm

Nooj wrote:Why go yellow? HID is brighter, more attention grabbing, more efficient to run etc. Yellow looks like someone's filled your headlight with wee

Er, because cars and other vehicles have white

Thought that was the point I was making...

Personally, after 25+ years of riding and 100s of "sorry mate, I didn't see you" stories from friends/papers/mags/news/riders groups/people in hospital etc, I think riding without lights on ALL the time is suicide

Hope they don't get you and say the magic phrase...

AJFalco · #10 Post by **AJFalco** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:17 pm

D-Rider wrote:NO I am firmly, completely and utterly opposed to the use of lights unless it is dark - particularly when it is just starting to get dark.

The use of headlights makes it much more difficult for others to judge your speed and it makes it much harder to spot other vulnerable road users - bikers, cyclists and pedestrians. It can also be much harder to spot road furniture and refuges in the road. .... even cars that have not got their lights on can be hard to spot .... yet if you turn your head 90 degrees to look over the fields, the view is still excellent.

It causes laziness in that people only look for lights and also all of those unnecessary lights consume power ... added together how much fuel is being burned unnecessarily?

.... and then there's the evidence ....

Austria introduced a law requiring vehicles to run with their lights on at all times ...... until they scrapped it as it increased the accident rate.

Safety measure - not on your life!

1. Fuel being burned? Vs not getting killed. Are you serious???
2. Austria had all vehicles with lights on - exactly why I suggested yellow ones

Looks like everyone has different reasons to not use lights when it is the easiest way to be seen. Strikes me a crazy to be honest

HowardQ · #11 Post by **HowardQ** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:27 pm

Would totally agree AJ.
When I went back to biking in the early 70s (yes I'm an old fart), I could not believe how many people suddenly found me totally invisible.
Being brought up in the sixties on Brit bikes there was normally no way you could rely on having the lights on at night I had notr used it much then.
In the early 70s I had bought a Suzuki T350 Rebel with reliable 12 volt electrics and a decent headlight.
I remembered once seeing a biker in London using his headlight in daylight, so I thought let's try that OOOOOP North.
Was about 1974 I think and I got plagued with people waving and hooting at me, to tell me I'd left my lights on, often bikers as well.
Pissed me off a bit but I reasoned that every one of these might otherwise not have seen me, so have kept the headlight on ever since.
Would never go out without it on now.

D-Rider · #12 Post by **D-Rider** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 1:52 pm

AJFalco wrote:
1. Fuel being burned? Vs not getting killed. Are you serious???
2. Austria had all vehicles with lights on - exactly why I suggested yellow ones

Looks like everyone has different reasons to not use lights when it is the easiest way to be seen. Strikes me a crazy to be honest

Yep - entirely serious because it's not a case of fuel being burned Vs not getting killed.

If all these people burning fuel made things safer then fine but they don't - they make it more dangerous.

It's the over simplistic view that if something's got a light on it can be spotted easier and must be safer ... a bit like the ludicrous assumption that if something is slower it must be safer .... leading to inexperienced youngsters being put on scooters that are restricted to speeds that cannot keep up with normal traffic.
The environment in which something operates and a whole host of other factors combine - not just the single factor that too many people focus on.

As Austria discovered, we'd be safer if nobody used their lights until night time.

#13 Post by **mangocrazy** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:16 pm

D-Rider wrote:also all of those unnecessary lights consume power ... added together how much fuel is being burned unnecessarily?

Sorry, but no extra fuel is burned (or even harmed) in the making of electricity for bike headlights, now is it? I accept that stuff like air-con in cars costs fuel, but on a bike the electrical system produces the same amount of output whether lights are switched on or not.

The charging system doesn't sense when you've got your lights on and crank up the power; power is produced at a consistent rate whatever the circumstances; it's just that less gets dumped to the reg/rec when you have your lights on.

But I can see the reasoning behind your other points.

Samray · #14 Post by **Samray** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:48 pm

I always have my lights on

at night.

D-Rider · #15 Post by **D-Rider** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:17 pm

mangocrazy wrote:
D-Rider wrote:also all of those unnecessary lights consume power ... added together how much fuel is being burned unnecessarily?
Sorry, but no extra fuel is burned (or even harmed) in the making of electricity for bike headlights, now is it? I accept that stuff like air-con in cars costs fuel, but on a bike the electrical system produces the same amount of output whether lights are switched on or not.

The charging system doesn't sense when you've got your lights on and crank up the power; power is produced at a consistent rate whatever the circumstances; it's just that less gets dumped to the reg/rec when you have your lights on.

But I can see the reasoning behind your other points.

The way that modern regulators work is to control the field current which allows them to adapt to varying speeds of rotation and different loads.
Therefore, vehicles equipped with modern kit will apply a different load to the engine depending on electrical load .... which will have an effect on the energy you need to supply to the engine.
On one vehicle, leaving your lights on it might not be huge - maybe 50 to 100 watts plus the inefficiencies in generating this ... but the cumulative total in energy terms, maybe the equivalent of every vehicle being represented by a 100 W light-bulb burning away.