[Thad E Ginathom]

Auto dimming, if it could be made clever enough, would be really great. I can admit to forgetting the main beam until I realise that I'm dazzling people. Funny: one old drunk guy, sitting on the pavement, gesticulated crossly at me --- and yes, I dipped.

One of the problems with bikes and vans (less so with cars: they usually get it right in the factory, and it more-often stays that way) is plain bad adjustment. They don't even need to be on main-beam. Do some bikers really need their headlights to point in the air?

Some vans and buses seem to have been constructed to shine their headlights straight into a car's RVM. Not much we can do about that unless the manufacturers wake up, or actual regulation starts to happen. I'm not putting money on either.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Auto dimming, if it could be made clever enough, would be really great. I can admit to forgetting the main beam until I realise that I'm dazzling people....

Do some bikers really need their headlights to point in the air?

Some vans and buses seem to have been constructed to shine their headlights straight into a car's RVM.

To add to our woes, the chennai corporation has added a pile of unmarked gigantic speedbreakers all over Madras. Every time someone climbs on to these speedbreakers, they plunge their headlights on to you.

I manage by using foglamps to see the road and the main beam to indicate that they are blinding me. Once they realize where the highbeam comes from, they seem to get some sense and avoid me. At the end of the day, size does matter on our roads.

[braindead]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Auto dimming, if it could be made clever enough, would be really great. I can admit to forgetting the main beam until I realise that I'm dazzling people. Funny: one old drunk guy, sitting on the pavement, gesticulated crossly at me --- and yes, I dipped.

One of the problems with bikes and vans (less so with cars: they usually get it right in the factory, and it more-often stays that way) is plain bad adjustment. They don't even need to be on main-beam. Do some bikers really need their headlights to point in the air?

Some vans and buses seem to have been constructed to shine their headlights straight into a car's RVM. Not much we can do about that unless the manufacturers wake up, or actual regulation starts to happen. I'm not putting money on either.

As for the second point:

One of the reasons is badly designed headlight adjustment on some two wheelers. The older Honda scooters for example will have the headlight pointing too high even at it's lowest setting. The problem is especially acute when riding with a pillion.

I had to dismantle the adjustment mechanism and add a couple of washers under the adjustment to have the beam in the perfect position. Not hard to do, but one expects the manufacturer to leave enough range of adjustment in the first place.

One of the older Pulsar 220 models had their headlight adjustment ridiculously inaccessible. ( At least I couldn't figure out how to reach it without significant disassembly. ) Some very old motorcycles used nothing but friction from rubber washer-like things to keep the headlights in position. Age makes the rubber hard and allows the headlight to move. So, its sometimes a maintenance issue as well.

[SnakemanJohny]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

Such a system already exists.
It is available for sale in India as well, on the A8 (If I remember correctly)

Great ! Then all we have to do is start a movement to make it compulsory in all automobiles, and we shall be free of THE HIGH BEAM MENACE --day or night. It is not enough to fit it ourselves -- anybody conscious enough to do it himself/herself will already be aware of the menace and must be using the dipper switch to see that others are not blinded. It is the oafs unaware of, or uncaring about, the trouble they are causing others, who need to be tamed !
We can (a) Start a mass petition through CHANGE.ORG or some thing similar, and give it to the Union transport Ministry, or (b) file a Public Interest Litigation.

Opinions, please ?

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by SnakemanJohny

Great ! Then all we have to do is start a movement to make it compulsory in all automobiles, and we shall be free of THE HIGH BEAM MENACE --day or night. It is not enough to fit it ourselves -- anybody conscious enough to do it himself/herself will already be aware of the menace and must be using the dipper switch to see that others are not blinded. It is the oafs unaware of, or uncaring about, the trouble they are causing others, who need to be tamed !
We can (a) Start a mass petition through CHANGE.ORG or some thing similar, and give it to the Union transport Ministry, or (b) file a Public Interest Litigation.

Opinions, please ?

The problem with any new and ground breaking technology is cost.

As far as i know, these matrix led headlamps used to cost Euro 2,500 a set for the A3!

Can you convince an average car buyer user to fit that in his vehicle at such an astronomical cost?

[SnakemanJohny]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Auto dimming, if it could be made clever enough, would be really great. I can admit to forgetting the main beam until I realise that I'm dazzling people. Funny: one old drunk guy, sitting on the pavement, gesticulated crossly at me --- and yes, I dipped.

One of the problems with bikes and vans (less so with cars: they usually get it right in the factory, and it more-often stays that way) is plain bad adjustment. They don't even need to be on main-beam. Do some bikers really need their headlights to point in the air?

Some vans and buses seem to have been constructed to shine their headlights straight into a car's RVM.

Funny,Ginathom Saab, Something similar happened to me too ! Coming around a blind turn on a narrow Howrah lane late at night, I had put my HL on HIGH so that nobody comes around and rams into me. A drunk, irritated by the glare, stopped me with a raised palm and asked -- "Can't you f.....g dip the lights ?" (In Bengali)
Agree with you there, most bikes have their HLs pointing at the treetops -- I attribute this more to low tyre pressure in rear and overloading (all heroes ride three to a bike) than to adjustments. That is why I am more allergic to the daytime HL-ON rule. I still feel it is not needed in city driving.
In the west, bikers are few, and with powerful and fast machines. They ride the highways at speeds possibly higher than cars, so there is need for more visibility. A puny 100cc bike crawling on town lanes --who can miss it ? Only pot-bellied bureaucrats in air conditioned offices. Something like the next silly rule -- restaurant menu must have item portion sizes mentioned ! We should have a new thread for silly rules running riot in our country, or what ?
Again, buses stay standing at traffic lights on high beam, unperturbed -- that is the system in Bengal ! So do SUVs who have proudly fitted high intensity bulbs !

Originally Posted by abhishek46

The problem with any new and ground breaking technology is cost.

As far as i know, these matrix led headlamps used to cost Euro 2,500 a set for the A3! )

I am sure the light sensing switch will be quite cheap when mass produced and made compulsory. I am not asking anyone to fit A3 LED HLs, for God's sake !

[Thad E Ginathom]

SnakemanJohny, I don't have any statistics at all, but I'd bet that more bikers or get injured in city accidents than rural/highway. Thinking of my home country, at least.

[SnakemanJohny]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

SnakemanJohny, I don't have any statistics at all, but I'd bet that more bikers or get injured in city accidents than rural/highway. Thinking of my home country, at least.

Precisely my point. Inside cities/towns visibility is not the problem, as speeds are low (I have been a biker since 1980 and rarely use one now and that too for short distances). Rash driving w/o helmet with three to a bike is the most frequent cause. I think you did not get my point -- I meant that 'headlight on' can (and does) improve visibility at high speeds but cannot stop the rider from committing suicide. At low city speeds visibility is not the problem. I am talking of INDIA only, as this rule has come into effect here recently.
For example, in the newer and longer flyovers of Calcutta, bikers perform illegal races early morning or late at night, always w/o helmets, and mostly three to a bike. They die crashing into the divider or the outside guardrail. When the flyover is totally divided, or with separate up & down arms, how does better visibility from the other side help anyone ?
That is why I suggested AHO on highways only, or auto-low beam gadgets on a compulsory basis.
Anyway, Cops and bikers are together on this, in Calcutta so far. Hardly anyone rides with HL on during the day inside cities, and the police catch people only on the high-speed roads (!) outside, or on highways !

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by SnakemanJohny

Precisely my point. Inside cities/towns visibility is not the problem, as speeds are low (I have been a biker since 1980 and rarely use one now and that too for short distances). Rash driving w/o helmet with three to a bike is the most frequent cause. I think you did not get my point -- I meant that 'headlight on' can (and does) improve visibility at high speeds but cannot stop the rider from committing suicide. At low city speeds visibility is not the problem. I am talking of INDIA only, as this rule has come into effect here recently. ... ... ...

OK, I can see what you mean now. Perhaps the kind of accidents that we see in Indian cities are not so much of the visibility kind. In these accidents, where reckless driving has taken a biker under the wheels of another vehicle, riders might start telling, "Didn't you see my headlight?." You can't stop people committing suicide at any speeds! Well, you can: but proper education and testing is not even on the horizon.)

I find the "Indian conditions" argument overused, and quite often wrong. But in this instance, I think you have a good point.

[SnakemanJohny]

Ginathom Saab To counter the high beam menace and the daytime ON menace too, I have finally done what I never wanted to ! I have fitted 100/90 watts head lamps in place of the standard 60/55 watts, with a wiring harness added on. About half the bikes here now have LED headlights which blind even more, and to be one up I had earlier fitted a pair of CREE LED foglamps (to be used only when someone blinds me) but mine are so blinding themselves that I generally do not have the heart to switch them on ! As you said earlier -- that it is our job to keep the bikers alive, and I am generally scared of a blind biker ramming headlong into me !

If the higher wattage headlamps do not solve the problem, I am ready to go to 130 watts, but I refuse to be glared down any more !!

[Nohonking]

I have been following my dad's way of driving so 100% of local driving that I do is always with dipper. Although I have adjusted the beam level to "0" a.k.a. farthest focus in both Jazz and City, but it is always a low beam.

Driving on the highways (4/6 lane NH/AH/expressways), I have again always been on dipper. On the two-way state highways and NH, if there happens to be pitch dark and my speed is plus of 50-60kmph, then only I may push the stalk forward and still be cautious enough to not to bother the heading on traffic. The moment I see someone coming head on, I immediately pull it back to dipper and sometimes even turn the light off for a second or two to assist him with a better visibility.

And, honestly I have wondered many times that the heading on vehicle reciprocates my respect and concern for them and they too show me a dipper or even seldom turn off completely for a short while. It feels so good. Its like do good and the good will come to you. During my recent road trip, as I was passing through the state of Bihar and it was already dark, I wondered that majority of vehicles there (especially Scorpios & Boleros) are obsessed with additional 4 to 6 aftermarket fog lamps, all of which are turned on, on the two lane narrow highways. Apparently I was the only one driving with low beam and some people did respect my gesture by turning off their beams or dipper them for a short while to let me pass safely. The point is, everyone understands this menace, yet they go with the high beams!

Moreover, I go with stock OEM 55w headlamps and find them good enough for me. I think I was never programmed to bother others on the road or on the Earth as a matter of fact, both of which we all share. Thanks.

[SnakemanJohny]

Nohonking I was exactly like you -- always low beam except on a dark highway with no oncoming traffic (that too if I want to check out the far rather than the near aka potholes), stock wattage lamps, horns only in emergencies or blind turnings during the day. And even HL high beam set to lowest. Though I am a cynic and do not believe that doing good is always paid back in the same coin ! But LED HLs on bikes during the day on high beam broke the proverbial camel's 62 year old back. Now I am prepared for war, though old habits die hard and I do not use 'first strike capabilities' !
And I also have three sets of horns !

[kozhissery]

I'm a kind of HIGH beam guy.
My usual travel time is during late in the evening, start by 9pm or by 3am. I prefer high beam on high ways. Yes I do dip for almost all the times even for bikers. Once inside town/city I go on low beam.
I've feel more comfortable on high beam as i can see further on the road. As per my rough calculation of stopping distance would be around 75 meters if you travel @90kmph and the distance of illumination of high beam is 100+ meters.

[Thad E Ginathom]

kozhissery, You're doing it right, and that's what they are for.

Understandable that people get fed up with high-beam-always-on drivers, we all do, but the answer is not to pretend that they don't exist on one's own car. They exist; they have a purpose; suggesting that they should never be used is plain wrong and has safety issues of its own

[SnakemanJohny]

Agree there. High beams ARE necessary on highways at highway speeds, or you may come to grief. But all national highways around Calcutta are choked with truck traffic (to & from the city in whose heart Eastern India's wholesale market is located) after dark, and one has to travel slo-mo in convoy for around a hundred kms from the city, if not stuck in a queue at a tollgate. We try to avoid near-city highways at night, so no beams, high or low, for us ! But at other, specially state highways, high beams are vital. I think nobody will say that they should never be used. Only that they be used prudently and responsibly !