High beam or low?

Highway STar said:

As much as I like the colour bright yellow, I am not ready to paint my bike yet. But that is a nice paint job on yours.

Click to expand...

She's not mine, just for sale locally. As attention getting as it is, I'm certain the style is not for me.

More popcorn.....

The light range is important when speaking about the abilities to see. Where the "stark white" light ranges in the 5000 kelvin to 7000 kelvin range can project further, they cause more constriction in your eyes and drastically reduce your ability to "see" outside the iluminated area.

Using "normal" or lower kelvin range lighting in the 2700 kelvin to 3500 kelvin range will not project out as far, but does not constrict the eye as much and improves the ability to "see" outside the illuminated pattern.

I know it may be counter intuative, but think of a dark night with a bright moon. You can see everything until someone breaks out a flashlight. Now you only see illuminated areas.

For others dealing with our lights, even a low beam stark white light will "blind" them and reduce thier ability to "see" because of the light range, not brightness. The brightness only amplifies the blindness.

All well and good for night, but we're talking daytime. Same thing... the stark white affects your eyes causing blind spots, like when you look at a bright light and blink and see the "dead spot" until you re-adjust.

I don't mind LED, but much prefer the lower kelvin range, less stark white/more warm white, easier for you to see, and less blinding.

You will not be as noticed initially, but they will be able to see you when you get there. It is generally the whiteness that annoys people and not so much the brightness.

Dale_I said:

You will not be as noticed initially, but they will be able to see you when you get there. It is generally the whiteness that annoys people and not so much the brightness.

Click to expand...

But I want to be noticed initially, not when I get to the car that is pulling out in front of me?

st11ray said:

But I want to be noticed initially, not when I get to the car that is pulling out in front of me?

Click to expand...

Not at the expense of not being seen when you get there. They pull out because the blue dot that appeared when they blinked blotted you out completely. They blinked because they saw you a way off, looked the other way, looked back and blinked, and you weren't there anymore.

Besides, vision and driving perception is more threat based. It is why 18 wheelers are noticed more than bicycles. They are a larger threat. Also why Hi Viz works. It's perceived larger because of the light spectrum. (If you really want to see Hi Viz work, use a little phosphorus glow. You're visible even in sun glare)

A headlight modulator was previously installed on my 1991 ST1100. I have noticed how much more cars seem to notice me than when I used my high beams. I have been cut off much less and have not had to slam on the brakes as much when someone pulls onto the road oblivious to my presence. I would install modulators on my other bikes, but haven't decided which to buy, since some aren't LED compatible. I may upgrade to LED headlights in the future.

I normally use just my low beams. I have a friend who rides a harley who has the same commute as I do. We sometimes meet for lunch. He has mentioned more than once that he sees me comming up behind him with that bright headlight, at first he was worried that I was a cop sneaking up on him...

5000k and up LEDs have the most lumens per watt so that is why most manufactures use them so they can claim really high lumen numbers even though they acutualy run them at 70% power or less. It is also because Kodak published long ago that 5500k was "daylight". I too find that anyting marked daylight to be too blue and too harsh. Warm white is too orange. I really like the bulbs that are marked "bright" white at 4000k. These seem to have the best color balance. But I do seem to have a hard time finding many bright white bulb in the local stores. I have changed all my flourscent bulbs in my house to 4000k LEDs.

Our vision does have a very wide range (100 million) but we only see within a smaller range (1000)x(16). The 1000 is the contrast ratio that we can see and the x16 is what our pupils can adjust to... so yes you can get temporally blinded by a flash even in the day time.

more beer please.

I had thought that pirates wore an eyepatch because they must have lost an eye in a fight. They wear the patch to dark adapt one eye. When they raid a ship and chase their victims below deck. They can remove the patch in the dark underbelly and now they can instantly see their blind quarry. They do not have to wait for their eyes to adjust....

The answer is: "It depends"
I used to do high beams during the day, but a caged friend I was following said it was too bright and distractedly annoying.
Now will do once in a while if not many cars around.

Observation: It appears that our reflectors direct high beams further out in front and less to the sides, so technically it might be better raising low beams up during the day and lowering at night to shine on the edges more for people about to pull in front of you? Would probably forget to lower them though.

With lows on, if someone is waiting to pull out I usually do a little swerve so the light will "flash" them, or if it looks riskier I'll flash the high beams.

cjames431 said:

I run a modulating HB and 4 LED aux lights. I know it annoys some drivers because they flash their headlights when oncoming or make some gesture indicating they see me when I am behind them. Not referencing the number 1 gesture either.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure this annoys ALL drivers, but only "some" bother to let you know. Not good way to treat the people who can run you down!

HB on 2-lanes and in town.

LB on superslab.


Good Ridin'
slmjim

spiderman302 said:

I really like the bulbs that are marked "bright" white at 4000k.

Click to expand...

This has seemed to me to be a truer 'white' light than anything higher. I haven't seen anything in the 5000-5500K range to be certain but even the more (most?) popular 6500K is bluer than I like.

A few years ago 'blue' lights began appearing on a lot of cars and light trucks. I think that was the advent of HID lighting. Little of what I was seeing were factory lighting near as I could tell. Some even had purple tint (10000K). Fortunately most of that has gone the wayside around here.

It's amazing the way light eyes and brains work. With one G6 and one halogen in my bike the halogen suddenly looked amber/root beer colored and the G6 much bluer than I wanted (not that I wanted bluish light). Getting the second G6 in made me happier.

ST Gui said:

It's amazing the way light eyes and brains work. With one G6 and one halogen in my bike the halogen suddenly looked amber/root beer colored and the G6 much bluer than I wanted (not that I wanted bluish light). Getting the second G6 in made me happier.

Click to expand...

I didn't like the look of the clear lens led combo with the stock headlamp. However, someone talked me into keeping it because they said it looked "wrong". Like it was mismatched. My OCD side may not allow me to keep it that way... but I'll try... 4:

If the only way I get attention is to be mismatched... that's pretty easy.

Low beams

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk