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Mounting running lights

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:57 pm
by MartDude
I've been pondering where & how to fit running/spot lights to the Futura for some time. One of the US guys on AF1 has come up with this.

Image

Would mounting them like this contravene any UK regulations?

BTW, if anyone's interested, here's the link to the thread. Please note this chap's mounts aren't finished yet - I'm sure they could be made a bit prettier.

http://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/show ... ter-lights

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:19 pm
by D-Rider
Just looked at the thread .... those mounts are UGLY !

..... and daytime lights should be banned (just my 2d-worth you'll understand)

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:34 pm
by MartDude
Oh, I agree, Andy, they aren't the best looking accessories - but, as I said, GoneTurin's brackets aren't finished, & I'm sure they could be prettified. If I were to go down this route, I'd probably ask a good friend here in Cleobury, who's an excellent fabricator, to make me some out of stainless.

I'm aware of the arguments against DLRs (Yehudi light - active camouflage/counter-illumination), but I'd be thinking of using them mainly in conditions of reduced visibility, and the rare occasions I ride in the dark (problems with deteriorating night vision, too slow recovery from being dazzled, early stages of cataracts).

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:48 am
by wayno
He should use standard indicators, then wire the DLR's into the mirror indicator hole. No butt ugly brackets required :)

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 7:02 am
by mangocrazy
Why do Yanks have to make everything they touch look like a fucking Christmas tree?

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:28 pm
by fatboy
mangocrazy wrote:Why do Yanks have to make everything they touch look like a fucking Christmas tree?
:smt005

Cos they're Yanks, and, qouteing a well known statistic that I just made up it is unversaly known that 103% of the population of God Bless America have no taste whatsoever

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:47 pm
by blinkey501
Don't do it mart....... It looks pants!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:02 pm
by Willopotomas
One question. Why?

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:04 pm
by randomsquid
You could park on Clee Hill and pretend to be space aliens.

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:27 pm
by MartDude
wayno wrote:He should use standard indicators, then wire the DLR's into the mirror indicator hole. No butt ugly brackets required :)
They are standard indicators, for a Futura.

Edit : Or rather, after-market indicator/mirror units, with the same layout as standard.

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:29 pm
by MartDude
Willopotomas wrote:One question. Why?
For the reasons stated in my reply to Andy's first comment.
but I'd be thinking of using them mainly in conditions of reduced visibility, and the rare occasions I ride in the dark (problems with deteriorating night vision, too slow recovery from being dazzled, early stages of cataracts).

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:34 pm
by MartDude
blinkey501 wrote:Don't do it mart....... It looks pants!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't care :smt019

The inspiration for my interest in this was seeing, one evening a few years ago, a GS-ish bike with LED strips on its handguards. It made the bike far more noticeable, and it was far easier to determine where it was and how quickly it was moving towards me, than is usually the case with single, or closely-spaced twin, headlights.

The attraction of mounting them this way is that it doesn't involve drilling the fairing, and they'd be easily removable.

Perhaps I'm trying to re-live my past - had a pair of 7" Cibie spots mounted on the crashbars of my CB750, about 35 years ago. And there's another wonderful thing - crashbars. In my only collision with another vehicle, the Triumph Dolomite came off worse - the crashbars ripped it's back door & wing open like a tin-opener. I had a bent foot-rest & a bruised foot.

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:42 pm
by MartDude
randomsquid wrote:You could park on Clee Hill and pretend to be space aliens.
Or go lamping

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:59 pm
by flatlander
or dogging :smt003

Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 7:53 am
by wayno
I heard that an American with a futura was travelling through Kent yesterday. When it got a bit foggy he switched them on and look at the consequences, 108 people crashed because they couldn't stop looking at his ugly lights.