Lumens Madness

[Shrubbo]

There is only one thing I like more then riding my bike and that is riding it in the dark.

The problem with that is bike lights are crap in general. The Valk's lights are pretty good as far as bike lights go but woeful is and understatement when banked over. I couldn't see into the tighter turns! I fixed that a while ago by adding 2 x 6000 lumen 60W 5 inch LED driving lights.

Not what most people would choose because of aesthetic reasons but I was more interested in what lurks in the shadows on country and mountain roads in the dead of night. These things have a 30 degree spread and I have a filter on them that gives me 60 degrees on the bottom LED's. This allows me to see drop bears raging out of the bush as well as 10 seconds plus down the road at the state speed limit. Perfect and drastically cheaper and in most cases more powerful then the bike specific brands.

I remember the first ride when I fitted the original 2. I was a little shocked at the wildlife I was blissfully unaware of. There is a lot of the buggers that could seriously put a crimp in a night ride.

Anyway why have 12000 lumens when you can have 24000 lumens? If I worked everything out there is power to spare. If not I am sure I will figure it out sooner or later but for the time being it is LOL.

Seriously I have laughed every time I have walked out and looked at it. I am laughing now and I don't care. I love this bike and it is a bonus when it puts a smile on my face, a bigger one if it makes me laugh.

Behold the madness!

WTF


White spots in the eyes for a while!


On the left is standard high beam. Notice you can't even see the trees, no issues with the auxiliary lights on.


It is also amazing how fast oncoming traffic dip their lights. They think it is a bloody road train until I go by. Beep beep its a bike suckers

[Moofner]

With the amount of critters that live in your neck of the woods? You don't have enough light. 

I'm planning on upgrading my current foglights for the same reason you have, not enough light for my tastes.

[hubcapsc]

Keep adding lights until you can tell that you're riding on
the wrong side of the road...

-Mike "I like them..."

[Kidd]

Well , good job , I like the way it looks .  I am doing something  similar  by mounting 2 lights bars , one on each side  , just hope it does not stick out too far  .

As far as brightness goes , can you use them in day light for more visibility  , getting you noticed by other drivers , may be too bright .  I'm using  a controller  by Skene lights that will dim the light bars  when the head light is on low beam , when you turn on the high beam  the light bars come on to full brightness
Here is  the product http://www.skenedesign.com/lights/IQ_275.shtml
You can also make them blink a couple of times  to alert  drivers .

I have already installed rear lights that work as turn , running and brake lights  using a controller from Skene and the turn signals actually work in unison  with the bikes OEM  turn signals
http://www.skenedesign.com/lights/P3_Features.shtml

You modified your bike to notice more varmints  and I modified my bike to get noticed more !!

Anyway , good job on the  massive  lights  , I think there's  room for more , double up on them  

[ledany]

Keep adding lights until you can tell that you're riding on
the wrong side of the road...

-Mike "I like them..."

 

[Shrubbo]

That is excellent info thanks Kidd. I would need 2 of those suckers for the amp load I am running but that sounds like a plan and it would look awesome I think. No way could they be run in the day as they are as they are still blinding but with a dimmer that is now possible so thanks!

Unfortunately due to road laws here I am at the limit of how many I can put on. Pity... Plenty more room haha.

For the back I am wanting more light as well. This time for the animals that are wrapped in metal. These ones are far more dangerous then the four legged kind. I am seriously considering mounting 4 bobber type LED brake/tail lights to the inside of the stock OEM saddle bags. There is a nice recess in there where I think they can fit and also be a little interesting in the visual appearance department.

See Honda! This is what happens when you make a bike that is difficult to customize. Weird crap

[bscrive]

Keep adding lights until you can tell that you're riding on
the wrong side of the road...

-Mike "I like them..."

That's freakin funny...I don't care whom you are...


I love how they light up the road.  I would get pulled over in a heartbeat with that much light on my bike.  Although, we don't have as much wildlife as you do at night and our roads have a lot of traffic on them as well.

[Shrubbo]

Hehe yeah I chuckled a bit at that one as well bscrive but I am curious. Why would you get pulled up?

[Jess from VA]

Holly crap mom, I think a plane is landing on our road up there.  Pull clear off the road, quick!  

I don't see that great at night anymore, and where I live your chances of getting killed by a drunk at night go up about 1000 percent. 

And come summertime, night rides result in 20 pounds of buggies to clean off.  They loves them some big lights to smash into.   

Watching them zoom into your bike in a cone like formation is actually distracting from watching the road.

[Kidd]

What brand of lights are you using , clearwater lights ?

[Shrubbo]

No mate not Clearwater... I did not win lotto.

The Clearwater Erica's are the same lumins output as mine but 3.73 inch in size. They are $1113au + shipping to me... snort!

These things I am running are 5 inch BUT $115.59au delivered. I have been running the previous set since March 2016 and have found them to be good quality, tough and very reliable. Now that I have had time to think about it I am pretty sure I have checked that dimmer circuit out before and I don't think these are dimmable.

But for 1/10th the price... so no brainer.

Also another factor that I had to account for was spread.  Far reaching vision is important at night but what is of equal importance to me is what is on the side of the road, actually that is more important than what is 10 seconds down the road. These things I am using have a 30 degree spread and with the lens covers give a 60 degree spread. I had a hard time finding that with bike specific lights. Actually at the time I couldn't find any. Most had 10 which is basically useless for me.

Even with the 60 degree spread I have opted for a second set and have angled them out slightly for more spread and also to help when banked over. I can see into corners in pitch black which could be considered a bonus


This are the actual ones I am using...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2X-5-INCH-60W-CREE-LED-Light-Spot-Combo-Beam-Offroad-ATV-SUV-FORD-RPLACE-HID-9-/111929311179?hash=item1a0f81bfcb:g:CpcAAOSw44BYW4PT

They were initially a function over style addition but to be honest I really like the look of it now. I am all set for the zombie apocalypse!

[Shrubbo]

Check this video of mine out at 6:54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpepuYz3FVg

That was filmed on the 3rd of October 2015 and that is also the exact time I decided to go nuts with lights. You can see when the bike is banked over I am riding basically blind. That problem is now completely solved.

[Kidd]

 If you find that they are too bright you can dim them down a bit by putting a resistor in series with the positive lead. A 4 ohm 50 watt resistor will lower their electrical power draw from 18 to 12 watts and make them somewhat dimmer. You can use two 8 ohm load resistors in parallel to accomplish this. This is a commonly available size
But I am guessing you do NOT wnat to dim the lights , but if you wanted , you could

[Shrubbo]

Definitely not but thank you for the info

[Kidd]

You may be right about the dimmer controller  being to light duty for your massive mounted lights

[Kidd]

http://www.webbikeworld.com/
Have you seen this site , they review a lot of motorcycle stuff ??

[Shrubbo]

Thanks for the link!

With those dimmers 2 of them would carry the load (1 for each bank) but I am unsure if these lights I am using are actually dimmable. I don't really understand the tech and all I know is that some LEDs are marked "dimmable" and others say nothing. I once bought some cheaper but very bright DRL's and when I put a dimming circuit on them it did nothing but turn them off. Could be the lights, could be the circuit, I don't know.

It would be good if they were however it could be a costly experiment (well wasted more in the past... lol windshield) but also very time consuming. I would have to re-wire to accommodate but food for thought as it would be very cool having those buggers as DRL's.

Actually it may be worthwhile buying a single (about 55au) and that dimmer setup and seeing if it works. I could call it a spare but it sure would save an awful lot of work for a trial.

[Kidd]

On second thought , I mean , after reading about the dimmer , the dimmer  is good for 144 watts and your lights are 120 watts , that's per side.
I did email Skene  with a question  on this subject  , question was , the wiring on the lights seem massive and the controller wires seem light duty and if that is a problem .
You can email they from their web site

I should ask how to tell is the leds are able to be dimmed , maybe I will

[Kidd]

Also , Skene has a return policy that means you'd have to pay shipping only  if they do not work .

[bscrive]

Hehe yeah I chuckled a bit at that one as well bscrive but I am curious. Why would you get pulled up?

We are only allowed a certain amount of forward light.  This is so that oncoming cars don't get blinded.  If a cop saw them on then they would probably give you a warning or a ticket depending on the cop.

[Shrubbo]

Wow that's interesting. We are limited to 4 and they must be dipped with oncoming traffic but are you saying you can't add any light to a vehicle at all where you live?

[bscrive]

We can add lights, but they are supposed to be used 'off road'.  We are only allowed a max of 4 lights facing forward with a max output of 65W and 55W when there is an oncoming car.  If a cop catches you with extra 'off road' lights on, they can fine you and make you remove them.

I was once flashed by a Jeep Wrangler with a 4' light bar and I couldn't see a thing.  I would have kicked the guy in the head if I could have caught him.  Dumb ass.  Hopefully, he did it to the wrong person and got what was coming to him.

[Kidd]

This is what I have been looking for and found it , by chance
I could mount these  in place of the light bar I have or give them both a try
Some of these  actually have a combo  amber turn lights  and  DRL

https://www.carid.com/lumen/led-daytime-running-lights-10791029.html

[Shrubbo]

We can add lights, but they are supposed to be used 'off road'.  We are only allowed a max of 4 lights facing forward with a max output of 65W and 55W when there is an oncoming car.  If a cop catches you with extra 'off road' lights on, they can fine you and make you remove them.

I was once flashed by a Jeep Wrangler with a 4' light bar and I couldn't see a thing.  I would have kicked the guy in the head if I could have caught him.  Dumb ass.  Hopefully, he did it to the wrong person and got what was coming to him.

Ahh ok, there doesn't seem to be a power limit here. You can have 4 max but that means you could have 4x 6 foot light bars if you want but blinding people will get you in trouble, that is also illegal here. Before I got auxiliary lights on my bike my main problem was that people in cars regularly never bothered to dip their lights because they didn't care as I was only on a bike. Now they dip them real quick

This is what I have been looking for and found it , by chance
I could mount these  in place of the light bar I have or give them both a try
Some of these  actually have a combo  amber turn lights  and  DRL

https://www.carid.com/lumen/led-daytime-running-lights-10791029.html

I want to do DRL's. It is important to get them as far away from the headlight as possible imo. My mate with his Fury has put lights down near his feet and it has made a huge difference in my (and everyone else's) ability to judge his distance at a glance, overall visibility and looks way cool to boot.

The problem I had with the ones I had was dimming them as they are great in the day time but at night they were way to bright. DRL's are generally designed to dim when the headlights were switched on. Bike headlights are on all the time... so that's a problem. That device you linked may be an answer.

My mate with his Fury got around it by basically buying a crappy cheap set of driving LED's that are so crap they are not blinding at night and I have to say is very effective and looks good on his bike. I have some coming but I am not sure about mounting/looks on the Valk. We will see.

[Shrubbo]

Kidd, I haven't been here for a bit and just noticed your crazy lights and mountings. Outstanding  

I mate of mine fabricated me some custom mounts. They are made out of solid stainless steel rods and brackets and they are now the strongest part of the bike. I am very happy with the look of them as well. Can't wait for the zombie apocalypse.

[Kidd]

I am thinking of doubling up on mine  lol
I do not know what I like better , yours or mine .

With mine  ,  when I approach a car from the rear  , sometimes the occupants  will turn and look  back as if they are thinking , " what the F%*$k  is that  coming up behind us " maybe they think I am the police .

The lights will blink twice when I tap on the brake 2 times in one second
http://www.skenelights.com/online-store/IQ-250-A-TS-Front-Lighting-Controller-with-Alert-%26-Turn-Signals-p80222667

[Jess from VA]

sometimes the occupants  will turn and look  back as if they are thinking , " what the F%*$k  is that  coming up behind us " maybe they think I am the police .
 
Everyone knows what cop lights look like.

They probably think you're a plane, on final approach.   Or ET.   

[Valker]

I am also afflicted.
(And yes, I replaced the burned out MotoLight bulb)

[Kidd]

The wind shield and  brackets , where'd  they come from ??

I like 'em

I am also afflicted.
(And yes, I replaced the burned out MotoLight bulb)

[Valker]

The wind shield and  brackets , where'd  they come from ??

I like 'em

I am also afflicted.
(And yes, I replaced the burned out MotoLight bulb)

The windshield is the stock Tourer one. I have added a Laminar lip, Saeng Quick Scan mirrors, and the holes are for Vetter vents. It has 154,000 miles on it, so it is NOT clear anymore.