Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Mintbread wrote:

ofblong wrote:
well if they are visable at night and are bright why not turn them on during the day?

For many, many years now new bikes sold in Australia are required to have their headlights hardwired ON when the bike is running. You cannot turn the headlight off even if you wanted to. I can't even remember the last time I rode a bike without a headlight on constantly.

aahh ok my van is wired that way and to me it makes perfect sense. I have always drove my normal cars with the lights on because people will see you more so (not saying they wont pull out in front of you cause of it) than if they were off.

even my 1979 kawasaki's lights are always on. You have to go back REAL far to find a bike where you can turn them off.

I always ride with my brights on during the day, I try to pay attention as much as possible, and I am horn-happy. I honk at people all the time if they look like they are going to pull out. I had some crazy dogs pull out in front of me across 3 lanes...all empty but mine!! luckily I had my clutch and and brakes covered just in case. So I held my horn for about a minute just to let her know she was stupid... it at least made her hang up her cell phone because I doubt she could enjoy her conversation anymore. The family in the car behind me was cracking up, and found it so amusing that they pulled beside her and also honked their horn... I admit, that was unexpected, but amusing all the same.

I hate people on cell phones. I wish some of these Orlando drivers would go visit a rural state and try to drive like this around "country folk". When I visited my buddy in Colorado (town of like 2,000 people), some crackhead from New York did the same thing... pulled out in front of us while talking on a cell phone. The difference was we were in his redneck friend's bigass tank of a truck. He pit maneuvered the guy and just kept driving At first I was all freaked out that we were going to get in trouble, but the kid driving the truck was like "From who? My uncle, the Sheriff?" It isn't like he would be able to pick the vehicle out anyway, everyone in the town owned a truck that probably looked just like that. Small towns crack me up...

Not that I condone that kind of behavior, but I really feel like pit maneuvering people sometimes. Just to get them off of the road and into the ditch where they belong.

Not that I condone that kind of behavior, but I really feel like pit maneuvering people sometimes. Just to get them off of the road and into the ditch where they belong.

amen brother. i wonder if they make a push bar for my bike. it's almost big enough to pull that off

I've never seen a bike on the road without its headlight on. I remember a few years ago there was some talk of making daytime running lights(DRL's)
mandatory in the USA for cagers. GM actually made them standard equipment on most of their cages starting in 2000. I had even owned one of these cages. I think DRL's are mandatory in Canada ?

Anyways the point of this is some motorcycle advocates started showing up on the news & newspapers fighting this thing. They said it takes away from the exclusitivity of bikes with headlights on during the day & I agree.

I know ever since I was a kid if I saw a headlight on during the day I knew it was a bike. I haven't heard anything recently about the DRL's and GM stopped making them standard equipment on their cages. Hopefully, that plan has stopped for good.

Despite the headlight being on I've learned that the cagers don't see you or just don't plain care. I also don't think hi vis gear works unless your riding at nite.
I ran into a dangerous situation a few days ago while driving on a two lane divided road. (has a median in the middle)
Two cagers lined up on the right waiting to turn out onto the road. The first cage is blocking the view of the second cage. Altho if the second cage was paying attention he should have seen me. Of course I know better than to trust them, so I move over to the 1 lane position. (I'm still in the right lane) I was going to change to the left lane completely, but didn't have enough time for a head check.
Lo & behold the second cager pulls out as I predicted. Now it gets even better. Me & the cager are occupying the same lane now. I can actually smell the cigarette the guys smoking. I was so close I could've b1tch slapped him. (btw I layed on the horn the entire time)
I decide to speed up and get the hell outta there & the cager speeds up too. He's trying to pass me. Not a problem tho since my bike blew him away.
You would think in that situation the cager would slow down instead and let me pass, but oh no. He was prolly racing home to watch the latest reality TV show.

At the next traffic lite I was thinking of handing out some road justice, but decided against it. Too many witnesses around.

MrGompers wrote:At the next traffic lite I was thinking of handing out some road justice, but decided against it. Too many witnesses around.

like that would have stopped most rednecks lol sorry only joking .

Mintbread wrote:How can you possibly argue your point when you have already agreed with mine?

...but as I said I don't see a downside, the reduction vs elimination dimension that was raised...err, yep we've been at this point before and I guess we won't & don't need to agree. That's OK ...time to move on. Pleased to learn that you emerged from your cager confrontations with your passion for riding still strong.

WRT headlights...are they making bikes with xenon's as original equipment yet? I haven't looked but don't recall seeing any bikes on the road with this equipment. But if not why not? Is there a technical reason or simply the cost of them? IMO they would deliver a benefit on the visibility front.

MrGompers wrote:I've never seen a bike on the road without its headlight on. I remember a few years ago there was some talk of making daytime running lights(DRL's)
mandatory in the USA for cagers. GM actually made them standard equipment on most of their cages starting in 2000. I had even owned one of these cages. I think DRL's are mandatory in Canada ?

Anyways the point of this is some motorcycle advocates started showing up on the news & newspapers fighting this thing. They said it takes away from the exclusitivity of bikes with headlights on during the day & I agree.

I know ever since I was a kid if I saw a headlight on during the day I knew it was a bike. I haven't heard anything recently about the DRL's and GM stopped making them standard equipment on their cages. Hopefully, that plan has stopped for good.

Despite the headlight being on I've learned that the cagers don't see you or just don't plain care. I also don't think hi vis gear works unless your riding at nite.
I ran into a dangerous situation a few days ago while driving on a two lane divided road. (has a median in the middle)
Two cagers lined up on the right waiting to turn out onto the road. The first cage is blocking the view of the second cage. Altho if the second cage was paying attention he should have seen me. Of course I know better than to trust them, so I move over to the 1 lane position. (I'm still in the right lane) I was going to change to the left lane completely, but didn't have enough time for a head check.
Lo & behold the second cager pulls out as I predicted. Now it gets even better. Me & the cager are occupying the same lane now. I can actually smell the cigarette the guys smoking. I was so close I could've b1tch slapped him. (btw I layed on the horn the entire time)
I decide to speed up and get the hell outta there & the cager speeds up too. He's trying to pass me. Not a problem tho since my bike blew him away.
You would think in that situation the cager would slow down instead and let me pass, but oh no. He was prolly racing home to watch the latest reality TV show.

At the next traffic lite I was thinking of handing out some road justice, but decided against it. Too many witnesses around.

DRL's are manditory on all new vehicles in canada now, cant even shut them off by putting on the park brake anymore, which would make for "pee" poor drive in movies now I would think.. Draining my battery on AUX isnt my idea of fun.

I should say my mini vans DRL are actually just the side lamps (you know the amber lights on the side of the normal lights). Although my vehicle has a night/day sensor that auto turns on my lights at night .

DivideOverflow wrote:even my 1979 kawasaki's lights are always on. You have to go back REAL far to find a bike where you can turn them off.

Not much farther back than that. I think "lights on" became mandatory for U.S. motorcycles in '77 or '78. Your '79 KZ650 might even have a cutout for the light switch on the left control pod. My '79 KZ750 had the blank cutout and my '76 had an actual light switch in that position (on/off, not high/low).

DivideOverflow wrote:The difference was we were in his redneck friend's bigass tank of a truck. He pit maneuvered the guy and just kept driving At first I was all freaked out that we were going to get in trouble, but the kid driving the truck was like "From who? My uncle, the Sheriff?" It isn't like he would be able to pick the vehicle out anyway, everyone in the town owned a truck that probably looked just like that. Small towns crack me up...

dude. WHOA. that is sooo redneck. i love it.