Headlights - Bright or Dim - on road?

[leeanders]

During a breakfast run yesterday, with a group of 5, I was near the rear on the trip out to the restaurant.

The lead rider happened to mention to me later that he could see every ones headlights, in his rear view mirror, except mine. He asked if I ran with my lights on dim or bright? Never had given this much thought before and always ran them on dim (during the day).

He advised running lights on bright all the time.

Curious what others do with their lights while running in the daytime?

 

[Jennmarr]

Guess I never gave it much thought. During the day they are probably on whichever setting they were on when I parked the night before. After dark I follow the same rules that expect other drivers to observe. Two lane roads roads on bright except when approaching oncoming traffic. Multi-lane roads(highways/Interstates), I leave them on dim.

 

[Breeze3at]

Some people run brights for better visibility. I run mine on low, I just don't see the need to irritate a cage. I do run yellow driving/passing lamps on my Electra Glide. My Dyna only has one light, it stays on dim. To each his own I guess, some people get run over by trains!

 

[dbmg]

Motorcycle safety course in Pa always taught to run with high beam on to be better seen. In the 28 years of riding the last 15 years I just run with low beam on. As a matter of fact on my EG I do not even run with the spots on during the day rides. Prior bikes were sport bike and rode accordingly so I believed it was important to run with high beam on. But for the sake of conversation, if road captain wants all to run with high beam on I would concede for he is looking out for just the whole group you are riding with....

 

[Jack Klarich]

IMO it is a choice like oil

 

[r_k_dragon]

Daytime I ride with the bright and highways on better to be seen as taught! Nighttime I ride with just bright and dim depending on traffic. I have my highways aimed up a little for daytime visibility and kill them in the dark.

 

[Jeff Klarich]

2 years ago while in Sturgis I had a Liquid crystal light installed on mine and the brightness is unbelievable. It's like the white colored lite's you see in the newer cars on the road today. It's so bright I never take it off low and can see twice as far and as a stock bulb.It really lights up the side of the road as well, I'll never own a bike without one.

 

[Dr. Dolittle]

My Street Glide came stock with a single headlight so I always used high beam during the day and low at night. When I added a pair of driving lamps from Kuryakyn, my daylight strategy changed. I run with the driving lamps on and the headlight on low beam. I firmly believe that other drivers will notice a geometric pattern of lights (triangular in my case and similar bikes like Road Kings and Electraglides) much better than simply a single light being used at a higher intensity - railroads did a scientific study on this and that's why locomotives have so many different lights on the front of them.

When riding in a group, I think it helps everyone if all riders that aren't in the lead run their lights on low beam. Lead rider can choose whatever he/she likes. Other vehicles on the road will easily notice a group of bikes even if they're all running low beams because of the "geometric diversity" of all the lights in the group.

Does any of that make sense? LOL!

 

[Dan.1977P]

I choose to run lows during the day because it's illegal to run high beams within 500 feet of oncoming traffic and 200 feet if following. I run highs at night but still switch to lows when required. I see no reason to blind another driver and give them an excuse to use in court after they run me over.

 

[03HD883R]

I use my high beams and low beams like I'm driving any other piece of machinery...

In fact I had someone behind me on a bike running the high beams and the vibration of the mirrors off my bike the light drove me bonkers.

I've got Sylvania bulbs in my bike and it's plenty bright in the low beam mod. High beam is like daylight out.

I also run Sylvania bulbs in my truck's main headlamps and my fog lamp module that I "Bambi" modded. With both sets of them on with high beams, it fries peoples eyeballs out. It's like the sun is coming at them. I can spot deer and other wildlife a mile away. Last I checked my amp draw with all them lights on was about 26 amps at 14.2 volts. That's about 360 watts of light if I turned 'em all on. I normally don't run the fogs unless I need the light which is mostly during the winter months when I go into work and it's pitch black out and when I leave it's again pitch black.