I'm hitting the road next year (2015) for a 6 month Switzerland to SE Asia trip. I'm still in the dilemma if having additional headlights on my f650 are really worth the price or really useful where I plan to go. I see so many full equiped big enduro bikes having such additional lights, but are mostly riden by week-end "adventure" riders. I still can't figure out the real added-value of those...

Can anyone bring some light in here?

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*** Travelling is an everyday discovery of our own ignorance ***

Very few long term world travelers I've met will willingly ride after dark except in countries around western Europe or the USA. Most countries are just too dangerous after dark. Potholes, rocks, animals, and cars/trucks/tractors driving with no lights at all. Even with good lights those can surprise you easily. I remember only two who deliberately rode at night, one was trying to set a record for how fast he traveled south america, the other rode only the best pristine highways.

I improved the lights on my KLR650 by converting them to HID. I didn't use them for months at a time. I even rode with no headlights at all for a month or two. Worst case? Ride slowly and/or stay just in front of a car with very good headlights.

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Traveling The World Since: 2011
Blog: The Seductive Life (General Travel)

Forget them. Same with LED bulbs ... you won't find them on the road in rural asia if you need to replace them. Better off spending the money on the trip itself. Or barkbusters, engine guards etc.

Totally agree on the spot lights, just bling for the Charlie's, but an Led bulb in the rear is tougher, longer lasting, uses less power and if it does go can just have a filament lamp popped in in its place.

Andy

I totally agree that most extra lights are bling really but...........

On a recent trip on my vstrom my lights failed completely and I was unable to find the fault at the time. I don't travel at night very much as mentioned above. Day time riding was noticeably different though, I reckon simply due to not having lights on.? I seemed invisible in several countries, particularly Albania! If I had extra bling lights it would have made a difference I'm sure.

I have since my return rewired and re configured my lighting and added some small discreet LED lights ( very cheap) as backup-backup. I added some wire and a small volt meter for fault finding to my tool kit.

So I guess as long as you don't have common, known faults with lights, there is no need. If you have a vstrom then ..........yeah I would !

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Regards Tim

Learning my craft for the big stuff, it won't be long now and it's not that far anyway

On my V-strom (which runs twin headlights with no relay because Suzuki are either cheapskates or idiots), I fitted a switch on the bars to kill one light. using an H4 plug and socket to break into the loom at the lamp connector the switch in the off position killed one low beam filament for daylight running. You could turn it on for more light or just switch/unplug in the event of a failure in the one in use.

Plan B on any Wee would be to fit a relay.

Andy

I rode at night a lot, for really pot holed broken roads or for off-road riding then yes they really are needed and also for when riding in long tunnels with poor or no lighting then yes again they are very much needed but they are not a must have more a nice to have


Dont look to much into the high priced "Adventure lights" as any lights can be adapted to work

I've had some huge Hella lights mounted on the nose of my vw golf mkII when crossing Morocco and I really liked having them. A beam that could sign to Saturn so strong. Useful for driving, or trying to pitch a tent in total darkness. And the headlights of a 30 year old car are not the best anyway. So afterwards ditched the car and kept the lights. If I ever get a new 'cool' car I will bolt them on. Looks nice, works well.

I'm coming to this thread from a different angle, and that's daytime riding. In France, as with a lot of other countries , it is a legal requirement on modern machines to ride with dipped headlight, indeed they are wired in to the ignition nowadays. This is supposedly a safety feature, which does work to a certain extent in dull conditions, but as soon as the sun comes out pretty useless on it's own. Think about the SMIDSY situation of an emerging vehicle not seeing a motorcycle because it's not moving against the background. The emerging vehicle driver may not even see a single headlight, or even attach much importance to it as it doesn't give the appearance of anything significant in size, but put some width into the light display and it's a different matter, you appear much bigger and more threatening, and other road users tend to notice and be more careful.

I completely agree with Walter Colebatch on beam pattern for those days when a bit of night riding is unavoidable, but equally I am a fan of some bright day time running lights placed at a good width on the front and not on the same level as the headlight. ( lower).

At the same time good reflectors placed wide or pannier lights as discussed are good at giving you width at the rear, which makes overtakers give you more room as they pass.

It works for me - been doing it for years!

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-''It is better to walk alone than with a crowd going in the wrong direction''. ( Herman Siu)
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Agree that good DRLs (which are increasigly available these days) are not a bad idea.

I tend to ride on high beam during sunny days, because as you say, low beam in sunshine is pretty much invisible to cars.

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It is not a supposedly safety mesure : it IS a safety mesure ! It is not because it is less effective in bright sun that it is not effective in general. Quite a lot of the accidents en Europe are due to drivers in cars not seeing you. Having your light on helps a lot to be seen.
Also concerning the adage "do not drive at night "(in remote areas of course like SE Asia) almost every body understand that but many still put aditional lights to their bike and then finish by driving at night. It is not less dangerous because you have good lights and can see what's in front of you, but it is dangerous because if a car or a truck comes facing you you cannot see what's in the road anymore for a rather long moment. In Europe for instance it is ok because you can drive with this moment of blindness as there is normaly nothing in the road (although not all the time !!!) but in SE Asia for instance there are so many bufalos, kids, scooters without light, dogs etc you name it, at night on the roads that you are at great risks!
My advice would be : keep your bike light without any aditional light hehe so that you will not be tempted to drive at night (once again i am not speaking for areas like Norway !)

Into head on overtaking traffic in Kazakhstan I was more than happy that I had the LED spots to switch on!

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Mark
http://chasingdreams2014.blogspot.co.uk/