- MikeO wrote:
- What exactly will be the benefit of either installing brighter ordinary bulbs or HIDs if one is riding with eyes glued on the patch of light 35 yards in front of the bike?
One of the benefits of the HIDs was that provided better light in the "box" upfront which help to identify hazards you would have missed before.
The SWing is my primary vehicle and I do not have luxury of when or where I drive especially with my children.
Another benefit of the HIDs was that it provided a magnitude better
peripheral lighting. With the OEM light the peripheral lighting was terrible, I did not see a majority of the wildlife on the sides of the road till I just about passed them on the side ... which is very dangerous. With the HIDs (even just the low beam), I have been able to spot
all of the wildlife before I passed them and take appropriate actions.
- MikeO wrote:
To raise the dipped beam to increase the distance raises the problem of dazzling on-coming traffic so one might as well ride on main-beams all the time.
From the manufacturer, the US SWings are (must be intentional or legal prevention) aimed very low ... the UK SWing may not have the same aiming from the manufacturer. Which is why we could run with the high beams ... with the high beams on the focus beam was
not anywhere near the horizon, but on the ground still close the SWing.
If the headlight is aimed low (motorcycle or car) raising the headlight does not mean dazzling on-coming traffic ... a correctly aimed headlight does not mean dazzling on-coming traffic.
- MikeO wrote:
I suspect the problem for many riders and drivers is that of Fixation. So many accidents are caused by riders not looking far enough ahead - on bends, for example, when the rider is looking at the bend rather than the exit point.
The US SWing may not have the same low beam reflecting lens that the UK SWing has. The US SWing low beam is the worst low beam of
any vehicle I have driven which is a lot of vehicles. The US SWing has a pattern that puts all of the lighting in a visible box. The top of the low beam cuts off all light (no secondary peripheral light past the top of the visible light box. The sides of the low beam cuts off the majority of light providing only a small amount of peripheral lighting causing problems that I mentioned above.
Based on the low-beam design and low aiming from the manufacturer looking past the top of the low beam was just
dark ... so it is not a problem with fixation. The moment I switched high-beams (still aimed low) I was able to use all the available light so I was not fixating ... just lacking light. With the low/high beams on, but still aimed from the manufacturer riding in the outside lane from oncoming traffic ... I had very very few people flash their lights.
I have never read from any UK or Europe SWing of the misaligned high/low beam or visibility pattern of the low beam ... so the problem could be unique to just the US SWings.