car377@drutx.UUCP (RogersCA) (10/14/86)
> From ihnp4!ihlpa!animal Mon Oct 13 14:11:12 1986 > I tend to doubt that all that many motorcyclists run their high beams > in the daytime; it's more likely that they have low beams out of adjustment. > A 50 watt low beam halogen is quite blinding when it's aimed at oncoming > traffic rather than the road, and let's face it, an awful lot of the people > you pass on the road have trouble remembering to change their oil, let alone > worry about the headlight adjustment. > .... give you an owner's manual that just says, "take it to the dealer > for this adjustment" instead of telling you where it should point On my Yamaha 1100 Maxim, the hi-lo beam control is a left-handlebar-mounted rocker switch with very little "rock". When I periodically check controls for safety I often find I have accidentally turned on the high beam during some previous activation of the adjacent turn signal switch (poor control feedback through thick safety gloves). Since my headlight cannot be turned off if the bike is on, then I unintentionally have the high-beams on some of the time. At night, the high-beam indicator is more easily visible, and I don't have the problem as much. A riding friend of mine says he always runs daytime high beam in order to lengthen the lifetime of the low beam filament, since he seldom needs to use the high beam (little or no night riding). I tend to agree with those posters who feel that daytime high beams are an irritant to other drivers. I'd rather buy a new bulb than a new skin. Aiming headlights correctly is a tricky business. In Texas, (one of the few places I've lived with a sane vehicle inspection system), special equipment is used to check the aim, focus, and intensity of headlights. To see how well seat-of-the-pants methods stack up against technology, I purposely adjusted my own auto headlights using the "shine 'em on the garage door" method just prior to having the car inspected by a reputable shop. The mechanic informed me that my headlights were grossly misaligned (too high, one high and one low, and not aligned with the car's longitudinal axis). I guess I could have done it better by checking the illumination pattern and oncoming glare on a deserted stretch of flat road with a friend to help, but it was just easier to pay the guy to correctly adjust them. Here in Colorado (and in Illinois) where one can drive vehicles in just about any state of non-functionality, (and many do) state inspection stations exist only for trucks, so that is where I will take my bike for this service. I hope they can deal with a motorcycle headlight. Question #1: My friend says the 50/80W quartz-halogen bulb is the maximum intensity light allowed by law, but that many run 80/100W bulbs. Is this law applicable in all states, or just in some? Question #2: I've only been reading net.cycle for a few months. I have a feeling that head/tail light modulators were probably discussed to death in the past. I'm thinking about installing both, but they seem to have gone out of vogue in the current literature. Can someone out there send me e-mail and bring me up to date on whether they are legal/illegal, desirable/undesirable, and maybe the name of a good brand? Any help will be greatly appreciated. P.S., If your modulator information was included in the recent survey, please disregard Question #2, as I have that data already. Chuck Rogers @ ATT-ISL, Denver