Just personal experience from a bloke who hasn't even got a licence:

 

I find starting off in secondary positon so they can see you earlier if you're in a row of traffic (so you don't look like a gap) then moving to primary to give them space works well, it also means your light goes across their field of vision so it's motion rather than just a stationary light slowly getting bigger.

 

Of course, it's no help if they're too busy on the phone to look. 

 

If you're not sure they're going to pull out, start getting on the brakes and thinking about making some noise until you are sure. 

5 minutes ago, StevesTruck said:

Just personal experience from a bloke who hasn't even got a licence:   I find starting off in secondary positon so they can see you earlier if you're in a row of traffic (so you don't look like a gap) then moving to primary to give them space works well, it also means your light goes across their field of vision so it's motion rather than just a stationary light slowly getting bigger.  Of course, it's no help if they're too busy on the phone to look.    If you're not sure they're going to pull out, start getting on the brakes and thinking about making some noise until you are sure. 

 

Assuming every car driver is a moron has kept me alive in forty years of motorcycling.  Last statistic I heard was three quarters of accidents involving motorcycles are vehicles of 4 or more wheels pulling out from a minor road on to the major road where the motorcycle is proceeding.

 

I think an upgrade to equivalent of 140w headlights would b e the way to go.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Car-Parts/Philips-12972XV-S2-tremeVision-Headlight-Halogen-Packaging/B00NMEEV9W/ref=pd_lpo_263_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AF48B8A7QXP4P0N4WS2A

 

 

 

   

Well yeah, there is also that. Just cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

 

I've got a pair of Osram's nightbreakers to go on the scooter, but it's on my "things to do" list though because of the amount of tupperware in the way of a simple bulb change. I'm just wondering how well they'll last though because the alternator output on mine isn't particularly stable with it being a 125. I might switch to LED's in the tail lights to save some milliamps. 

Edited 19 March, 20179 yr by StevesTruck

I had the Philips  X-treme in the Octavia and whilst they were lovely and bright, they didn't seem to last as long as ordinary bulbs. OK if expensive in the car where there's 2 headlights, but the reliability meant I didn't put one on the bike

16 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

Assuming every car driver is a moron has kept me alive in forty years of motorcycling.  Last statistic I heard was three quarters of accidents involving motorcycles are vehicles of 4 or more wheels pulling out from a minor road on to the major road where the motorcycle is proceeding.

 

I think an upgrade to equivalent of 140w headlights would b e the way to go.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Car-Parts/Philips-12972XV-S2-tremeVision-Headlight-Halogen-Packaging/B00NMEEV9W/ref=pd_lpo_263_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AF48B8A7QXP4P0N4WS2A

 

 

 

   

 

Just fitted those to mine and the wife's cars and huge improvement. They will have a shorter life but I can live with that for the better light output. 

1 hour ago, Gyp said:

I had the Philips  X-treme in the Octavia and whilst they were lovely and bright, they didn't seem to last as long as ordinary bulbs. OK if expensive in the car where there's 2 headlights, but the reliability meant I didn't put one on the bike

 

I think the bike only use one headlight at a time so should last 900 hours so 2p an hour cost.

3 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

I think the bike only use one headlight at a time so should last 900 hours so 2p an hour cost.

 

It wasn't the cost I was worried about, it was the not being able to see where I was going that I was worried about!

11 minutes ago, Gyp said:

 

It wasn't the cost I was worried about, it was the not being able to see where I was going that I was worried about!

Suppose you would have to flick it on the alternate low beam/ high beam setting. Assuming ones average speed is 40 mph and the bulb lasts 450 hours that is 18000 miles. Might be worth changing every 10k miles or swapping high to low beam usage then perhaps.

2 hours ago, CWARD said:

 

Just fitted those to mine and the wife's cars and huge improvement. They will have a shorter life but I can live with that for the better light output. 

 

I make you right especially if its easy to change your headlight bulbs, however with some bikes it would seem that you need to strip a lot of the bike down in order to replace headlight bulbs, makes a mockery of the continental requirement for carrying spare bulbs as you'd never be able to do it at the side of the road!

5 minutes ago, Prykey said:

 

I make you right especially if its easy to change your headlight bulbs, however with some bikes it would seem that you need to strip a lot of the bike down in order to replace headlight bulbs, makes a mockery of the continental requirement for carrying spare bulbs as you'd never be able to do it at the side of the road!

 

1 minute job on the R3.

Tail tidy apparently takes over an hour to change. Easter job I think.

4 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

1 minute job on the R3.

Tail tidy apparently takes over an hour to change. Easter job I think.

 

Just been looking at the manual for the Sprint GT SE apparently the 2 dipped beam ones (outer 2) are pretty straightforward, however the main beam (middle) requires the fairing to be removed................

1 hour ago, Prykey said:

 

Just been looking at the manual for the Sprint GT SE apparently the 2 dipped beam ones (outer 2) are pretty straightforward, however the main beam (middle) requires the fairing to be removed................

 

I guess it depends how much of the fairing. Shouldnt be too bad? Surely? 

Both the cars and the KTM are a pain in the backside to change over. The KTM like your Truimph isn't something I'd want to change by the roadside, I have spotlights though which get me to a location to be able to change the bulb. Even removing the fairings it is no more the a 20-30 minute job. 

K1600 would be a nightmare, the dip is an Adaptive HID and the Main's are H7, but you have to remove the speakers to get into them, doable by the roadside, (the mains) but no chance on the dip.

10 minutes ago, fabiamk2SE said:

 

I guess it depends how much of the fairing. Shouldnt be too bad? Surely? 

 

You'd need the workshop manual and i'm guessing more tools than the toolkit provides, also with my incredible ability to drop clips and screws coupled with my sausage like fingers doing this at the roadside would be a no no

26 minutes ago, fluffmeister said:

K1600 would be a nightmare, the dip is an Adaptive HID and the Main's are H7, but you have to remove the speakers to get into them, doable by the roadside, (the mains) but no chance on the dip.

 

Hids sometimes arent too bad. Dealers charge a fortune though. 

 

Tracers full LED  from the factory which should far out last the rest of the bike, at 50,000 hours.. but ive no idea what happens if one goes faulty  

Ive had Philips extreme vision before and they are brighter, but i wouldnt say any oncoming vehicle would notice them any different. 

 

I have been thinking of swapping the HID's in the fabia projector lights for LED's, but im not clued up enough on the retrofit options to do a buy yet  

1 minute ago, fabiamk2SE said:

 

Hids sometimes arent too bad. Dealers charge a fortune though. 

 

Tracers full LED  from the factory which should far out last the rest of the bike, at 50,000 hours.. but ive no idea what happens if one goes faulty  

New headlight job I reckon?

 

You could do the K16 Hid on the roadside easily enough, but it's an expensive bit of kit to be wandering about with "just in case"

 

Tracers are bloody lovely though, best bang for buck's out there IMHO

11 minutes ago, fluffmeister said:

New headlight job I reckon?

 

You could do the K16 Hid on the roadside easily enough, but it's an expensive bit of kit to be wandering about with "just in case"

 

Tracers are bloody lovely though, best bang for buck's out there IMHO

 

Probably, at a guess. Theres 2 cover looking things on the back which look abit like heat-sinks, but i dont know if they come off or not. I've looked in the manual and it basically just says 'all lights are LED.. not replaceable, consult your dealer'. 

 

K16 has lights look clever. Cornering n the rest of it aren't they? Epic bikes tbf, proper touring bus isnt it. Tried to talk my dad into one before he bought his GSA. 

 

I think when HID's go they usually just don't start when you turn them on, or they always have failed that way for me in the past. Once they've warmed up they're ace aren't they. 

 

Cheers. Yeah for the money there isnt much else that gets close to it imo. I looked at the Tiger Sport but it just felt top heavy and abit lazy compared. Engines good though, of course. 

Edited 19 March, 20179 yr by fabiamk2SE

 

I recall an interesting study of when headlights on permanently ie during the day became mandatory in the US.  For the first few weeks the accident stats for motorcycles dropped and then returned to a level in between before headlights on and the initial drop when they first became mandatory.

 

Conclusion was the cars drivers were seeing the motorcycle with its headlight on, subconsciously or consciously, and were pulling out anyways.   Interesting I thought.      

Pretty similar to case study in health and safety where there was a warehouse. One side was pedestrians picking orders off the racking, the other side was where the forkies worked. If you went into the side where they were, you wore a high viz.

 

Then they decided the completely segregated order pickers needed to wear high viz.

 

The result was, the forklift drivers got complacent because they saw so many high vizs that they didn't need to worry about, and accidents started happening.

 

Vulnerable Road users having their lights on in the day? What a great idea! Everyone should do it!

Edited 20 March, 20179 yr by StevesTruck

Could that be why more fellas are changing to pink hi viz?

4 hours ago, lol-lol said:

 

I recall an interesting study of when headlights on permanently ie during the day became mandatory in the US.  For the first few weeks the accident stats for motorcycles dropped and then returned to a level in between before headlights on and the initial drop when they first became mandatory.

 

Conclusion was the cars drivers were seeing the motorcycle with its headlight on, subconsciously or consciously, and were pulling out anyways.   Interesting I thought.      

 

Yep, it just becomes the 'norm'. 

 

Its why i dont agree with DRL's on cars tbh. If everything lights up then you just get used to seeing lights and bikes no longer stand out. 

 

I do like to think that xenons and LED's stand out abit more though, because of the colour

Please ......Nobody on here say they own a "Polite" vest.

 

There's a couple who ride round Warrington, an F800GS and K1600GT with "Polite" vests on, it brings my urine to boiling point

Rode it.

 

Which pleased me.

 

As 3 scrotes armed with huge bolt croppers broke into my garage in the early hours of this morning and were determined to separate me from my 2-wheeled transport.

 

Luckily their entry into the garage was heard by my vicious attack wife.