Steve, I was having a conversation with someone I work with today about LED lighting (I work in the electrical supply industry). He was telling me that some LED's can be dimmed with conventional dimmers. If I get time, I may go buy a super bright LED (might even have one already) and go down to Radio Shack and pick up a cheap DC dimmer and try it. Just food for thought right now. If it works, you would have a completely variable brightness control.
That is not likely to work. LED's can be dimmed a little bit by lowering the voltage, but they are often not happy about it. The typical way LED's are "dimmed" is to strobe them at very high frequencies. I think you would have better results by popping off the lens and obscuring it a bit with something. Maybe something as simple as a piece of paper... (been there, done that )
there is nothing wrong with having your highbeams on during the day.
there is nothing wrong with having your highbeams on during the day.
Oh yes there most certainly is. And this has been covered before. High beams can and will blind and/or dazzle oncoming traffic in the daytime which is not only annoying, but also dangerous. It makes it MUCH harder to tell where the bike is/how far it is away, or which lane it is in. This tends to throw away any possible safety gains.
If you want more front visibility, the best thing to do is to add properly adjusted, wide-angle driving/running lamps as far away from the headlights as possible. And preferably yellow for additional contrast. This provides more frontal area, a bigger apparent vehicle size, and more geometric clues for distance calculation.
But you may believe what you like.
Specifically, the second bullet point about mid-page:
Using the high beam of a motorcycle’s headlight during the day also helps to prevent violations of the motorcyclist’s right-of-way (Hurt, 1981).
Speaking of conspicuity (this page section title), here's yet another interesting tidbit about motion induced blindness (from the MSF website):
http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html
Finally, here's an interesting video from the UK, I believe, regarding visibility and focal aspects of a motorcycle approaching a 4-wheeled vehicle which isn't moving (i.e. preparing to pull out into the roadway) [...] SMIDSY: "Sorry Mate I Didn't See You"
Daytime highbeam headlight use is the visual equivalent of loud pipes save lives. There is some small portion of truth of getting attention, no evidence of actual accident reduction, while being annoying and discourteous to others. It is a position often fanatically held by those who do it, while often astounding those who don't practice it with the rudeness/inconsideration involved.
If you want to be the life of the party, shine a flashlight in the eyes of your friends and give them a blast with an air horn. Or maybe just do it walking down the sidewalk so nobody will bump into you. Yep, that's the way to build good will and better friendships. Or not.
As maxtog noted, daytime highbeam use makes distance and speed perception of the motorcycle more difficult. It is also illegal in some states. The wording is a bit vague in AZ, but it appears to be illegal w/in 500 feet of oncoming traffic and 200 feet of followed traffic.
Ooooh, very interesting! Very worth watching. I have often had that OMG- this is a situation where they are likely to not see me and I get very nervous and try to go over the options in my head. That is a WONDERFUL idea of just weaving a bit- it is amazing just how much more visible the bike is from a distance when it does that little bit of weaving!!! I am definitely going to try using that from now on. Thanks
With regards to the 81 hurt report and, high beam, I dont recall any motorcycle back then that had much more than a decent light up front. Certainly nothing out there like the c14 light system. The first bike that was not scary to ride at night...well, within reasonable speeds, anyway.