isnt noise levells up to the examiner?my garage jus said ''oh a Harley there noisy aint they'' passed ok! forgot to take luggage rack off and fit larger no plate! he stood back a bit an said i can fn read it no prob!! no jobsworths in my garage!!form a queue folk's!!
I do believe hes right, made a new rule that unless fitted as original, not MOT-able. Theres a unit you have to fit to drive the bulb, altogether cost was £160, but as longs as you connect the original bulb connector as well, you can swap back for MOT. As you catch the edge of the beam, in your eye, its bright blue, so as your bike bobbles up the road it looks like something with the blues on.
Cars just dive out your way, apparently. Still makes it 2X as bright as your typical pair of car headlights with only one bulb! The edge of the beam is very finite as well, so easy to get angle set right, till ya pop a pillion on the back.
From what I see prob best to go for 6000K light colour, 5% less light than the 5000K, but with a hint of blue! 8000K is all blue but 50% dimmer than 5000K. Gona get one too, decided, so ya can wait and see how mine turns out, do a lot of night riding, me!
The lights on debate seems to be something that won’t go away. I have been riding motorcycles for 34 years and spent over half of that period lobbying for motorcyclists in the BMF where I consistently called for freedom of choice on the use of daytime lights. Peter like the parochial and uninformed “safety” lobby has the naive belief that putting your lights on in all circumstances will act as a talisman against accidents. They seem to think that if you use your lights, don’t drink, don’t use your phone, use your seat belts (cars) and stick rigidly to speed limits then anything else goes including abdicating your responsibility to observe and drive appropriately. I concluded that daytime lights create as many problems as they solve i.e.
• It puts the onus on motorcyclists to light up rather than motorists to look. • A lighted motorcycle ceases to be a 3-dimensional object making speed and distance harder to estimate. • It can lead to complacency by the motorcyclist. • A light can not always be seen from more than 30 degrees from head on. • In certain circumstances like a light background, lights and high viz clothing can act as camouflage.
Did you know that dazzle paint schemes on ships in World War 1 reduced the chances of attack because they broke up their shape and that in World War 2, aircraft could make themselves invisible to surfaced submarines in daytime by the use of lights on their wings?
The hard wiring of lights on post 2003 motorcycles are through an agreement brokered by ACEM (European manufacturers umbrella group) to standardise vehicles for world markets and save manufacturers a few Euros, Dollars, Pounds rather than for safety reasons.
As some who posted have suggested, there is no substitute for defensive riding, correct positioning and expecting the worst from other road users since many will not see you regardless of how much you emulate a Christmas tree. There have been reports from the police that drivers have even collided with battenburg patterned police cars. Personally, I think the only thing that would concentrate their minds would be the muzzle flash of a 20 mm cannon and a lot of them would miss that!
So, while I wouldn’t have the temerity like Peter to tell you what to do, I do advocate that you think about what action you take and whether it will achieve what you want it to. That’s why I use my lights when I consider that the conditions warrant it although the increased indiscriminate use of them by cars if forcing me to do so more frequently. And Peter, there’s no need to shout. There are other views besides yours which are valid. This is generally a mellow forum and this is the first time that a forum post has made me get out of my pram although the comments about scooters (Peter again!) made me come close. Let’s keep it that way.
Hi Cat' glad to hear you get out of your pram occassionally, the more experienced riders amongst us realise just because you have your light on does not make us invincible....no one suggested it did....but for the many inexperienced riders it would give them a better chance of being seen if it save one life this summer surely it would be well worth it.
Your comment re hi-viz clothing can be camouflaged in certain circumstances may be true but normal biker-wear black or dark grey offers a lot larger percentage of camouflage .
I agree entirely with your comment on defensive riding and the use of anticipation skills we all strive to make biking safer, and if this bring up a lively debate so be it everyones opinions count so I would suggest if you don't like that its back to the pram young Cat'
this is all very interesting, but at the end of the day we all have to realise that most motorists have never riden a bike or scooter and so the thought of us being vunerable never occurs to them , In my mind it is far too easy to pass your driving test and there should be much more emphasis on everyone continuing their training through out life, mainly to increase awareness of the consequences of being neglegent and i feel quite strongly that this should be funded by the government, im sure that in the long run in terms of cutting accidents,medical care policing, lost working hours etc that this would be cost effective,also we would all be a lot more respectful of other roadusers right from the noisy scooterists to the old grannies enjoying a 25mile an hour sunday tootle about
if your bike resembles a face ie,twin lights and a fairing looking like the nose an mouth!!apparently you get noticed more, research has aparently shown!! .......movement is a way of gettin noticed a straight line towards someone may not register but a sudden movement get's noticed even if the person's not looking that way the corner of the eye can pick up movement, so maybe waggling the bike a bit or moving side to side now an then if youre not sure people have noticed you, of course never rely on anything like this as foolproof we need to be on our toe's all the time!!
"Assume everyone is an idiot, till proven otherwise" is my motto. Funny when your buzzing along as norm, then some little voice in your head says "Watch this driver in front!" so ya pause, watch, and sure enough, yep there an idiot, no indicator, etc, don't know how, just know. Think the RAC advanced rider course I did years ago brought out a bit of a sixth sence.
Funny story was on my car driving test. I was approaching the lights, on green, when that little voice said something my instructor told me. He once asked "What does a green light mean?" to which I replied "It means go." and he corrected me saying "It means go if its clear". At that, bearing in mind I was on my actual driving test, I slapped on the anchors and did an emergency stop. Normally I would have absolutly failed, but a Capri jumped the lights doin about 70mph, he would have piled straight into the side of us. Examiner just looked at me gob smacked and said "carry on", very shaken! Yeap, I passed! Maybe got a nice angel, hope it never leaves.
Great idea Julie, but the government makes so much tax from all the drivers, fuel, road tax, parking, fine, etc, that as far as there concerned the more the merrier. The bad ones are just justification for speed cameras, new laws, fines, restrictions plus the need to track movements. I do think new drivers should be tested again after a settling in period, especially if they have had to take their test 5 times or more, shows its not natural to them!!
I think there should be an element of 'Motorcyle/moped awareness in the Driving test.
Not just the odd question, but a full section. Maybe use the theory element of the CBT, it has certainly taught me to drive with more awareness for other road users, and I find I'm doing 'lifesavers' in the car.
spooky or what, north yorkshire county council freebie paper just came through the door with details of this yrs bike safe but also training sessions aimed at retired drivers to bring them up to date, somebodys watching us!
I'm going to be popular :-/, I knocked a motorcyclist off his bike. I was waiting at a side road in my mini for a break in the traffic to turn right, there were some traffic lights about 50 yards down on the road to my left that turned red, so the traffic came to a halt with easy visibility to my left, on my right a large van had left a gap for me to pull out and turn right, so I gingerly pulled out, but the man in the lorry was frantically urging me to hurry up and pull out, so being young and trusting that he could see if anything was coming up the middle of the road, I pulled out,and "smack" hit a young motorcyclist coming up the middle of the traffic, luckily he was not injured, but his bike was a bit damaged, and since that day, I have never trusted anyones judgement and unless I can see for myself that the road is clear I never pull out no matter how much someone is waving at me!! It sooo taught me a lesson!!
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