Better lighting at a low cost? Possible?

[Tele130]

I work second shift (1:30PM - 10:00PM), so half of my commute is after dark.  I've run the Phillips bulb that Murph sells.......(OK, but short life).  I have a set of cheap Hella "driving lights" installed....................................




They help tremendously with the "Being Seen" aspect and they do a really nice job of opening up the lighting envelope AROUND me.  But, they don't throw very much light down range which is what I want.  I don't have the $200.00 to $500.00 for lighting upgrades ($130.00 would really push it but may be do-able.  I'd perfer NOT to drop that much if possible).  I'm looking at something like these

http://www.jcwhitney.com/apollo-series-6-inch-rnd-55-watt-lights/p2021949.jcwx

I'm also considering hanging a set of the LED Daytime Running Lights under the current Aux lights.  Hook them up to the headlight so the will be on when ever the engine is running.

(The intension of these would be for "Being Seen" during the day.)

Your inputs and suggestions are welcome!

[jworth]

I'm a big fan of the HID.  I have the vvme kit on mine and have zero complaints. 

As for the LED running lights, if the  Hellas aren't doing much to give you usable light but to be seen only, what is the point of having both?  If you're looking to save some power then switch them out. 

[Tele130]

I'm a big fan of the HID.  I have the vvme kit on mine and have zero complaints. 

As for the LED running lights, if the  Hellas aren't doing much to give you usable light but to be seen only, what is the point of having both?  If you're looking to save some power then switch them out.

Thanks jworth.  I'll check it out.  I only use the Hella's at night or very cloudy days.  Figured the LED's could aid with the day time visibility and they have virtually no power draw on the electrical system.  The Hella's will more than likely be replaced with something like a "Projection" type driving light for night time use.   Like I said, I'm looking for suggestions and ideas................Thanks

[Stasch]

Have you done the headlight bypass of the JBox?

Murphs has a kit or you can roll your own, with some wiring and a couple relays, which is what I did.

It was night and day difference on my '00 C10.  What was a yellow beam became now bright white with much better night time visibility.

When the bulb needed replacing, I went with the next step up 55/60 Phillips bulb and noticed even more improvement.

I previuosly had added a pair of 55w hella optilux driving lights because my headlight seemed so weak.  They are still nice in the more isolated back roads, but are not always required now that I have the headlight bypass.

[Pfloydgad]

I have attacked the lighting question a different way.
First: I use a higher wattage H4 headlight. A Silverstar 110/100. These are not cheap, and so far I have only found them via mail-order, but their light is amazing.
Second: I have mounted sideways some H3 circular driving lights on the flat sides of the fairing. I run my lights vertical instead of horizontal. This pushes the light up the sides of the road better, and covers as much as 30 ft. of roadside. I can adjust them inward and outward, depending on the terain, and with this set-up they travel better then 100 ft. down the road.
I have had this style on multipl bikes, and I really have excelent coverage with this combo. They are also from Autozone, for about $40 the pair. And the H3 bulb is replaceable for $9. Also a good buy.
Just my $.02 here.
Ride safe all, and ATGATT please.
Greg

[sas mayhem]

Check this out tele130, http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/bikevis-led-lights/. Come to think of it, I might have to jump on these.

Cheers
Ron

[snarf]

Tele, are your Hella lights fog or driving lights?  I run a set of Hella FF50's (driving lights)  on my 02. I am amazed at the amount of light they throw down the road. I can see signs, reflectors, and eye shine easily way over a mile and a half. I would have to say they easily out-shine line of sight.
It all depends on what type of light you have. Im not a fan of fog lights, great light off to the  sides but enough ahead of me for reaction time.

[redbarber]

... It all depends on what type of light you have. Im not a fan of fog lights, great light off to the  sides but enough ahead of me for reaction time.

Where I ride (Georgia Mountains), "off to the sides" is a higher priority than further down the road in a straight line, at least for me.  The extra side lighting helps me see more of the upcoming corner, and also helps to light up the ever-present deer lurking just off the side of the road, ready to make a kamikaze dash in front of me.  There are nearly 10,000 deer collisions each year in GA, (Thankfully, most of them are NOT bikes), so I don't dare out-run my headlights after dusk.  My closest near-misses have always been deer that were completely hidden in the underbrush until I was nearly upon them, and the side lighting I get from my fork-mounted lights was the only way I saw them at all. 
I don't recommend this, but once I mounted my little Kodak Play>Sport video camera facing roughly 45 degrees to the right, instead of head on.  Took an evening (still plenty of light) ride up through the mountains, and reviewed the video.  It was a 2 hour ride, but it took me 3-4 hours to review it all.  Honestly, I did not see a single deer when I was riding, but the video showed that I passed three of them on the roadside, and that was only the right hand shoulder!  Although eye-opening, 2 hours of video showing only the side of the road rushing by was not youtube material, and has since been erased.  I can't erase the images from my brain as easily, and now I just dread riding after dark.

[SteveJ.]

These:

http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=159

I have these. They really do light up the world at night. I have a commute issue like you, except I leave at about 5a.m. for work. I run these in tandem with some cheapy lights, using a relay tied into the headlight to switch back and forth. I used to have a 55w HID Chinacrap headlight, I took it off when it quit working, The Hella FF200 are so bright that they TOTALLY washed out the light from the HID. Folks that were up at Talladega last year for Vintage Festival at Barber, and stayed at our resort saw the experiment. It really surprised me. Come on down to Barber in three weeks and see for yourself.

Stay away from stuff that has itty bitty reflectors, they will not throw the light as well, at least any I've seen so far. Not compared to the FF200.

[Tele130]

Have you done the headlight bypass of the JBox?

Murphs has a kit or you can roll your own, with some wiring and a couple relays, which is what I did.

It was night and day difference on my '00 C10.  What was a yellow beam became now bright white with much better night time visibility.

When the bulb needed replacing, I went with the next step up 55/60 Phillips bulb and noticed even more improvement.

I previuosly had added a pair of 55w hella optilux driving lights because my headlight seemed so weak.  They are still nice in the more isolated back roads, but are not always required now that I have the headlight bypass.

Are you talking about the Headlight Wiring Harness?  This one?http://www.murphskits.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_28&products_id=102
Yup.  Got it.  Gota admitt, not as light as I was expecting

[Tele130]

Check this out tele130, http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/bikevis-led-lights/. Come to think of it, I might have to jump on these.

Cheers
Ron

I've saw these when Webbikeworld did their review.  Pretty cool    Almost forgot about them.  Thanks Ron.

[Tele130]

Tele, are your Hella lights fog or driving lights?  I run a set of Hella FF50's (driving lights)  on my 02. I am amazed at the amount of light they throw down the road. I can see signs, reflectors, and eye shine easily way over a mile and a half. I would have to say they easily out-shine line of sight.
It all depends on what type of light you have. Im not a fan of fog lights, great light off to the  sides but enough ahead of me for reaction time.

Hey Chris.  They were boxed as "Driving Lights".  However they have that Rainbow lens on them which throws kinda of a yellow light.  I'd like to keep these (critters along the side of the roads can't hide anymore) and pair them up with a spot type light.  Like a lazer beam...not a wide beam but a long distance beam.  Best of both worlds.



Who ever said I'm picky

[Tele130]

Where I ride (Georgia Mountains), "off to the sides" is a higher priority than further down the road in a straight line, at least for me.  The extra side lighting helps me see more of the upcoming corner, and also helps to light up the ever-present deer lurking just off the side of the road, ready to make a kamikaze dash in front of me.  There are nearly 10,000 deer collisions each year in GA, (Thankfully, most of them are NOT bikes), so I don't dare out-run my headlights after dusk.  My closest near-misses have always been deer that were completely hidden in the underbrush until I was nearly upon them, and the side lighting I get from my fork-mounted lights was the only way I saw them at all. 
I don't recommend this, but once I mounted my little Kodak Play>Sport video camera facing roughly 45 degrees to the right, instead of head on.  Took an evening (still plenty of light) ride up through the mountains, and reviewed the video.  It was a 2 hour ride, but it took me 3-4 hours to review it all.  Honestly, I did not see a single deer when I was riding, but the video showed that I passed three of them on the roadside, and that was only the right hand shoulder!  Although eye-opening, 2 hours of video showing only the side of the road rushing by was not youtube material, and has since been erased.  I can't erase the images from my brain as easily, and now I just dread riding after dark.

The Hellas I currently have installed do exactly what your talking about.  Critters can't hide along the road any more which is a good thing.  But my type of "Mid-Suburbia" riding, I'd really like to throw a solid beam down the road.

[Tele130]

These:

http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=159

I have these. They really do light up the world at night. I have a commute issue like you, except I leave at about 5a.m. for work. I run these in tandem with some cheapy lights, using a relay tied into the headlight to switch back and forth. I used to have a 55w HID Chinacrap headlight, I took it off when it quit working, The Hella FF200 are so bright that they TOTALLY washed out the light from the HID. Folks that were up at Talladega last year for Vintage Festival at Barber, and stayed at our resort saw the experiment. It really surprised me. Come on down to Barber in three weeks and see for yourself.

Stay away from stuff that has itty bitty reflectors, they will not throw the light as well, at least any I've seen so far. Not compared to the FF200.

Those look like the "KC's" I'm considering buying.  Plus, their backed by their 23 year warranty, and $90.00. 

[SteveJ.]

Those look like the "KC's" I'm considering buying.  Plus, their backed by their 23 year warranty, and $90.00.

A note on the FF200, they are made in Germany, with good heavy harnesses and non Chinacrap relay. It would be interesting to see them fired up side by side, but my money would be on the Hellas. Their good stuff is top shelf, and they know optics.

In a lot of things, you do get what you pay for. And I know the Hella's do work well.

[snarf]

Hey Chris.  They were boxed as "Driving Lights".  However they have that Rainbow lens on them which throws kinda of a yellow light.  I'd like to keep these (critters along the side of the roads can't hide anymore) and pair them up with a spot type light.  Like a lazer beam...not a wide beam but a long distance beam.  Best of both worlds.

A note on the FF200, they are made in Germany, with good heavy harnesses and non Chinacrap relay. It would be interesting to see them fired up side by side, but my money would be on the Hellas. Their good stuff is top shelf, and they know optics.

In a lot of things, you do get what you pay for. And I know the Hella's do work well.

Who ever said I'm picky

I have heard that the quality of light output is directly proportional to how the lights are mounted. Rumor has it you can stick a candle on a GBYII light bracket and the candle will have the same lumins as HID. This may not be true, but when it comes to personal safety can you afford to be a  doubter?
Just kidding folks. Don't listen to anything I say. Unless you WANT to believe, I cant stop ya from that.
 

[Tele130]

   They just need to know you better. 

[Two Skies]

Hey Tele!

I had some LED lights similar to the ones you have.  I used a couple of rubber insulated conduit straps for each that I wrapped around the highway peg arms.  The nice thing about having these mounted low is that the approaching cars see a 'triangle pattern' of light, which stands out more than a row of lights, hence helping in the 'being seen' department.  Plus, as mentioned above, this improved the 'side to side' visibility to the front of the bike.  When my bike went down earlier this year, it broke the left highway peg arm off, and I haven't had these on since.

However, I have since discovered that the C-10 mirrors are each held on by a single bolt at the base of the rubber boot (with a couple of studs to prevent rotation of the boot).  I'm  sure I've seen at least one Connie that has stuck a mounting bracket betwen the boot and the mounting base, and attached extra lights there.  Lights that are mounted higher will be more useful in everyday driving situations than lower ones, as pointed out in the C-10 Mods section.  Lights that are mounted lower help more in foggy situations, I'd guess because light isn't being reflected at a near right angle right into your eyes (photonics experts feel free to inject scientific explanation here).

Looking at the federal regs, I believe there is a limit of 6 operating headlight/fog/driving lights facing to the front of a vehicle for onroad use.  This covers the four headlight arrangement of older cars with separate high beams, with an extra pair of fog lights.  So mounting four more lights on a Connie should be fine,  and if you go with Murph's headlight kit at some point in the future, you'll still meet the six operating lights total at any given time.  BTW, high beam activation is supposed to shut driving lights off, and I believe Murph's upgraded headlight harness takes this into account.

Offroad use is another story, you can have as many operating lights as you want once you leave public roads...

Keep in mind your amperage overhead on your alternator.  The Connie's alternator I believe outputs around 400, which may be insufficient if you have a pair of 55W Hellas and some other accessories running.  LED's have a much lower amp overhead, hence why I find them attractive.  Several here have done the ZZR 1200 alternator upgrade to deal with this problem - good luck finding a good deal on one!

HID's are da bomb, if you can find good ones.  I've seen some comments recently about some brands being less reliable than others, so do your homework.

[Uglydog56]

Somebody on here put a set of HID's in their FF50's.  I think that would be the best way forward with what you have.  I have FF200's and I'm pretty happy with them.  I have a 55w vvme HID and while not outshined by the driving lights, I really like how they light up the ditches while the hid lights up the roads.  With the driving 200's on and the headlight on bright, I can see Neil Armstrong's footprint on the moon.

[sas mayhem]

Hey Tele!

However, I have since discovered that the C-10 mirrors are each held on by a single bolt at the base of the rubber boot (with a couple of studs to prevent rotation of the boot).  I'm  sure I've seen at least one Connie that has stuck a mounting bracket betwen the boot and the mounting base, and attached extra lights there.  Lights that are mounted higher will be more useful in everyday driving situations than lower ones, as pointed out in the C-10 Mods section.  Lights that are mounted lower help more in foggy situations, I'd guess because light isn't being reflected at a near right angle right into your eyes (photonics experts feel free to inject scientific explanation here).

That is something I've been wanting to do, mount them higher. A few week ago I saw a Beemer, heading my way, and the rider had two bright/diffused lights mounted high and two lights mounted low giving a "X" pattern. It really got my attention/ and really stood out in traffic, since the sun was on the riders back.

Cheers
Ron